Loft Mountain Loop via Appalachian Trail and Frazier Discovery Trail: 3 miles
The Loft Mountain Loop (plus one mile getting turned around) took us three miles around a beautiful saddle and ridge circuit that started and ended at the wayside at Loft Mountain (MM 79). We initially wanted to extend the loop by walking the water station service road to the AT but couldn't find the connector so turned around and walked back to start the loop at Skyline Drive. No matter, it was a great day on the trails in the Southern District.
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Root scramble
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| Overhang shelter |
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| Quartzite fracturing |
We climbed the west slope of Loft Mountain, past a closed PATC shelter and rushing spring pipe, and on up to an intersection with the AT. Turning left on the AT we climbed even further, steady upwards on the famous trail and along came four thru-hikers, tags dangling from their packs, heading northbound. We stopped to listen to Overnbirds, Towhees, and Woodpeckers. "How many lives have been changed by these white blazes?" I wondered aloud. My sister added "And how many souls healed?"
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| Quartzite daggers |
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| First lookout with Turk Mountain rising up from the valley |
At the first overlook we looked southwest across the valleys and ridges of the Southern District. Smoke and water vapor blurred any view beyond ten miles but the prominent cone of Turk Mountain rose up out of the haze. At the second lookout we could see the stern-end of Massanutten, the famous canoe-shaped double ridged mountain, stood in dark contrast to the brightening skies. The haze gave every mountain a dark shadowy look while valleys were filled with smoke. A slight scent of burning balsam was in the air.
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| Granite summit of Loft Mountain |
At the summit we were just at 3,000 feet while the plant life around us took on a very northern look including great swathes of sphagnum moss, a tough old Table Mountain Pine, and a scattered stand of Spruce. Beneath the cover of the pine, a juvenile Black Racer whipped across the trail with its lunch of Black-Cheeked Salamander half gobbled down. We were really happy with that! It stayed in place long enough for us to observe its forward-facing, large eyes - its head blunter than a Black Rat Snake.
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| Broad-Winged Hawk feather |
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| Table Mountain Pine and its "mouse-tailed" cones |
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| American Chestnut |
We searched for and found an occasional American Chestnut surviving high on the bluffs in shallow soil with cold exposures. Some of these survivors were producing decent numbers of burrs. Mountain Ash was flush with red berries. Huckleberry and Low Bush Blueberry were heavy with green-blue berries with another week to ripen. Ravens quorked above us. We admired a Broad-Winged Hawk feather and I wondered if they are nesting nearby, surely with fledglings ready to launch. Dog Hobble or Mountain Maple did its best to trip us up on the decent.
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| I will always love the diversity of crags and bluffs. |
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| Columbine in abundance! |
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| Black Racer easting a Grey-Cheeked Salamander |
With the trail loop almost complete, a fine mist moved upslope and we walked into pockets of leaf-drip and showers. Sounds of motors drifted up from the Skyline Drive with the faint sounds of people talking and laughing at the wayside. Someone slams on breaks - a deer crossing no doubt. A band of motorcycle riders lean into the big curve around Rocky Top just north of us and their collective growl grows louder as they approach Loft Mountain.
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| Gilled mushroom and friends |
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| Scratch-and-bite post for Black Bears |
With our approach to the road, we see utility poles that carry lines into the valley where the pump station sits on the headwaters of Ivy Creek. One stands out from all the rest, skinny waisted at five feet from all the back-scratching bears who've bitten and clawed the wood to raise splinters and jagged prongs for the perfect deep massage. A bear trail runs right up to the pole and crosses the service road to the creek. The pole and the trail no doubt have served generations of bears who have marked, bitten, and scratched their way out of hibernation into an Appalachian summer for years.
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| Fanous cement posts of Shenandoah trails |
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| Up from the piped spring |
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| AllTrails map (minus our foray down and back a service road) |
Notes:
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