Trip report: Shenandoah Rocky Mount Trail

Details

August 27/28, 2021 Shenandoah National Park: Rocky Mount Trail

9.74 miles, 2556 elevation gain

Temp: 90/68

The Gear List

-Titanium Camping Stove

-Aeropress

-North Face "The One" Sleeping bag

-Big Agnes Tent

-Tudor Black Bay Harrods

-Some steaks, cilantro chimichuri, pre-made rice-Pre-made Manhattans

-2 Modelo Especial's

The Trip

This trip began with my brother finding an article in Backpacker magazine about killer little camping spots in National Parks for one night with stunning views titled "5 National Park Campsites for an Epic Night Out". The hike in question was listed as "Off the beaten path, Rocky Mountain", and made notable as an "insiders club" type hike. It's listed 10-mile path is short enough to be completed in a single day and with a camping spot anchored towards the first (or last ) third of your hike, it's not likely to be camped on.

The picture at dusk of a solitary camper with an illuminated tent on a rock outcropping was enough to pique our interest for the previous months. This little kernel of a hike periodically came up in our conversations. Even my wife mentioned it separately after reading the same article on a plane travelling for work. With my location in central North Carolina and my brothers recent move to the D.C. area it was a perfect quick weekend trip for us to meet in the middle.

Backup to late June I finally convinced my brother to get on the bike train. After 15 years of running, he was finally interested in upping his cross training. Somehow we diverged to different paths in relation to our cardiological endeavors. His longer legs and a career of almost daily PT in the Army made running the obvious choice, my shorter legs being adverse to running but highly keen on cycling and the faster XXXX high speed "running" through rolling farm lands and country roads. Oddly enough, during this time I was training to run my first half marathon...

In talking over what he wanted out of a bike we settled on a Gravel/All-road style bike so he could do lighter off-road riding, on-road riding and the occasional bike packing trip. I had just come off the C&O trail the weeks prior and was riding that high.

As he settled on a bike (a sweet little Cannondale), we needed to get together for a weekend to break it in further than the riding he was doing around Alexandria, Va. The Shenandoah Valley offers hundreds of miles of dirt and gravel roads, quick access to Shenandoah, plus a variety of cool college towns offering eclectic food choices and dive bars to whet our post excursion whistle. We settled on Harrisonburg, VA.

Our trip plan was to meet in Harrisonburg for lunch, park a car, take the other car out to Shenandoah, backpack Rocky Mount, return in the morning and do a gravel crusher, shower at an AirBnb, hit the town and leave the following morning. It was a lot to pack in, including hour plus drives to and from the park but that's just how we roll. Better to have options and modify as we go. Semper Gumbi "always flexible".

Backpackers notes on where the trail was were pretty slim on the details and some sleuthing was needed to build out our guide on parking, distances, etc. Which provided slightly more info but this clearly wasn't a heavily trafficked trail with the limited info the internet the gave up. It's almost as the author wanted you to work for it and keep the folks who just wanted a lust worthy Instagram pic off the trail. I'm sure some of the details mentioned here could potentially increase the traffic.

We both converged on downtown Harrisonburg Friday just before lunch. A quick stop to eat and plans to park the car in town overnight at our lodging were had over a serious good Cuban sandwich and beers. Shoutout to Cuban Burger in Harrisonburg.

The drive into Shenandoah was relatively quick and was as picturesque as you could imagine the climb from the valley up to Skyline drive could be. Increasingly hilly rolling farm land gives way to mountainous (for east coast anyway) ridgelines and winding roads ebbing and flowing between shady canopies of hardwoods and bright open overlooks back out to the valley below. All of this is framed by thousands of tons of rock archways, overlook rails, bridges and markers iconic to the park and blue ridge parkway.

Strangely enough, landscape architects at the time of the construction wanted a varied view of this archetypical structure. They argued that overuse of stone in the park would create monotony and harmony was desired by use of alternating material types and aesthetic design. Railings such as those built by logs offered a design and material that would be both pleasing to the eye and cheaper to build in the far reaches of the park due to readily available material that was lighter, free and could be built with less skilled labor.

We parked the car at the Two Mile Run Overlook, at approximately milepost 76.0. Just north of the overlook is the trailhead for Rocky Mount Overlook. A quick repack of our gear, plus some transferring of foodstuffs and adult beverages from coolers to our bags and we were on our way, torn backpacker article in hand.

The trail is slightly overgrown but not so much to feel as if you were Indiana Jones on the hunt for lost treasure. The usual suspects of branches, vines and spider webs were all present. A pair of long twigs in hand ensured dozens of spiders had a job moonlighting as a homebuilder yet again...

After a few miles is where we started to believe the author at backpacker either was misleading information about the trail or the more likely scenario, regurgitating someone else's trail notes. The article mentions "dipping down to a junction. A left turn will lead you to the 800ft to the summit". This was no 800 feet to the summit. Maybe it might have been 800 feet of elevation gain but even that is likely half of the true number. I would guess the true number is more along the lines of 2/3 of a mile, all uphill, much of it with exposure to the sun. Ohh yeah, lots of loose rock.

Because of the limited direction given as we neared the top we started to look around for anything that resembled our articles idyllic photography. A few hundred feet from the peak both sides of the trail were covered in rock with a lush canopy that faded as quickly as it popped up. Definitely no place to pitch a tent. We finally emerged to the side of a rocky ridge that was absolutely the place. After bouldering a few spots we found the only flat spot to place a tent. Right on the edge, just as the picture shows. We were here.

The exposed rocky outcropping at the top was a delight. while we still had the afternoon sun on our faces, its direct heat was waning and the breeze coming up through the valley combined with a killer view was refreshing. Our packs were quickly dropped onto the rock shelf. While they were light and compact there is no one in the history of humans putting weight on their shoulders who has not felt better dropping their gear.

The journey made for a toasty climb. The kind made better with a beer somewhere between cold and warming, fresh and drinkable but not a light beer, something say...Mexican. Nothing beats a little imbibing when camping and knowing we'd be having a killer view in the warm summertime afternoon sun some options were in order. This hike transcends 2556 feet in elevation as you climb up Rocky Mount. Summer humidity, Blistering southern August sun plus the pervious mentioned elevation burn meant one thing...beers.

With plenty of daylight left and one beer down we proceeded to do the one thing many of us strive for...to do nothing. Just sitting there, relaxing, an amazing view in front of us, nature, small light conversation, another beer...nothing and it was wonderful. We must have sat there for almost 2 hours just doing nothing but taking it all in. No phones ringing, no zoom calls, no laundry to fold, no bills to pay, nothing...

Post beer, a small snack and a little hydration we put our packs aside and used the last the last hour or so of sunlight to situate our dinner plans and a rough idea of getting the tent up. We used the same ledge for everything which meant the tent was the last thing to go up. There wasn't enough room for cooking and sleeping so we temporarily pitched the tent and moved it until we were ready for bed. This prep work did highlight one slight issue, you only have about 6-12" on either side of a 2-person tent to move around. Ours was a very slim, very lightweight backpacking tent from Big Agnes. The kind where two grown men sleep a slightly overlapping shoulder to shoulder. Paired with a ledge that exacerbates a late night urination into a heart beating, adrenaline pumping adventure before teetering into the darkness of broken granite shale 30' below.

For dinner we got to test our my new titanium camping stove. Super lightweight, flat packing and fueled by sticks and twigs, if of course the skies in the preceding days hadn't opened up and soaked all the normally available fuel source. Luckily everything was dry and quick to ignite.

The night before I bought 2 small New York strips which fortunately did not ignite as fast as the kindling we fed into the fire. I also packed a small jar of Cilantro Chimichurri which always goes great with beef, specifically rare to medium rare steaks of the highest obtainable quality. My brother Greg packed a bag of premade rice pilaf and some asparagus tossed in olive oil.

Cilantro Chimichurri

1 bunch of Cilantro

Garlic

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Lime Juice

Salt and Pepper

One of the best things about a 24 hour backpack is with the right preparation and some planning can equal some stunning backcountry meals. Steaks on the side of a mountain, fresh Mahi on a coastal Georgia beach, Ahi Tuna Poke overlooking the Nā Pali Coast in Kauai...all fresh, easily doable and worthy of a Michelin star.

Dinner was as you can imagine, phenomenal. A great meal is always made better with a fine beverage and this was no exception. In the weeks prior to our bike packing trip I scored a Nalgene Flask for $2. For that trip I filled it with some fine Cuban rum, for this trip I filled it with a batch of Manhattan's. With our little stove pulling double duty first cooking our meal and second providing a warm glow to our campsite, it provided a bit of warmth while we warmed our insides with a very slightly chilled Manhattan. It was still delicious.

Manhattan Recipe - Camping style

1 oz. Wild Turkey 101 Rye

1/2 oz. Punt e Mes Vermouth

2 dashes of bitters

Maraschino Cherry

-Put all the above ingredients into a mason jar and stir. Seal, toss in your pack and enjoy.

-Scale to fit your container

-Always use quality or better yet, handmade cherries. Those el cheapo nuclear red maraschino cherries are trash and they don't belong in or on anything.

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Cocktails finished, fire distinguished and tent set back up we hit the sack or sack meaning sleeping bag. In our case that meant North Face's The One sleeping bag. We decided to be cute and both have matching bags...what time is band practice? We settled on this bag after my previous "cold weather" bag didn't keep me warm on a December trip in North Georgia. I fell in love with the idea (Greg did too) of a single bag with multiple layers capable of mixing and matching the right combination depending on your conditions. The Army utilizes something similar but it's bulky, designed to last forever, weighs and ton and has zero use in a pack unless you're 19, deployed and buzzed on Ripped Fuel and Copenhagen. While not as compact as I would have liked, it's medium price point sold me as my only bag. For this warm night, I slept on top of it.

The forecast called for a warm clear night with no rain, so that meant the rain fly stayed in the car, plus it meant more room for booze. Some heat lightening off in the distance was a little bit of a worry but the air was still and the sky above filled with a gazorpazorp (100 to the X power) amount of stars. What I didn't expect to be a problem was the full moon that popped over the ridgeline at 3am. This was no ordinary full moon. This was like deer in the headlights, nuclear testing in New Mexico, wake up 3 hours late to work bright. That little note above about peeing into the darkness? At least the moon illuminated everything.

We woke up, quickly broke down camp and boiled a little water for coffee. Within the hour we were cruising off Rocky Mountain and back to knocking down the evenings pop-up menagerie of spider webs. Rather than treat this as an out and back, doing the 3 miles back to the car felt lazy and unadventurous. We opted for the 6.5 mile trek back on the Gap Run trail. This meant a fast downhill into the river valley and back up to Skyline drive. This stands out from most Shenandoah backcountry sites where you start at the bottom and slowly grind upwards to Skyline drive before plummeting back down into a valley to set up camp again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The trek back to the car put us parallel to a stream which filled the valley with moisture. It was still somewhat cool and the tree canopy kept the rising temps slightly at bay. Valleys like this are usually teaming with life. This one happened to be covered with fungi. I kept a keen eye on the ground hoping to spot something edible but I wasn't familiar enough with anything we found to be comfortable eating it. Next time, pack my mushroom guide.

The grind up and out of the valley was exactly that, a grinder. We made quick work of it, passing the only other backpacker/hiker we saw all trip. We were home in time for cornflakes, or in our case an hour long ride back into Harrisonburg to crush some Korean food as an early lunch before working in our bike ride. This hike made me really contemplate my ideas for backpacking moving forward. We've always looked at backpacking as a means to crush out a big trip. A way to get out somewhere we couldn't go without multiple nights in the bush. Those trips are usually accompanied by mountains and turn into long painful slogs made worse by only getting in a few trips per year. 50 lbs on your back is tough work, doing it 2 times per year, even tougher. Trips like these break off the rust for the longer trips and it became obviously we need to get out more. Lighter weight, less planning, fresh meals equal less pain and more enjoyment. The sub-24 hour pack is my new best friend.