Mark Dominesey, Christiansburg, VA USA |
|
|
Laurel Fork, July 14-15, 2001
Matt and Edmond have been waiting for this report, so here it is:
This is the start of the hike, don't mind Edmond, on the table, he was wiped out.
The Laurel Fork Special Management area is located in Highland County Virginia.
Here a map to it:
The area is located west of Staunton off of Route 250. Virginia and West Virginia are cozy neighbours in this area. It is located between the Virginia towns of Bluegrass, and Hightown and the West Virginia town of Thornwood. Route 250 West, right onto West Virginia Route 28, right onto Allegheny Road, then follow the signs to the Locust Spring Picnic Area. Day 1. Actually, night 1: We arrived Friday the 13, Yikes! in the dark, just before midnight. we set up our tents and fell asleep. Day 2: July 14, 2001. We started late in the morning, which is customary for us when we are backpacking. We started hiking the Locust Springs trail. We took the Locust Springs Spur back to Allegheny Road. We had to road walk for ~3 miles. We started down the Bearwallow trail and this is where we ate lunch
under some fir trees. It made a good place to stop and relax.
We started back hiking and finished up the Bearwallow trail in good time.
This was the bottom of the Bearwallow trail and where we would start hiking the Laurel Fork trail. The Laurel Fork trail followed along it's namesake and was a very pleasant, surprisingly easy trail. We passed by many camps along the way such as this:
We could have stopped, actually, should have stopped for reasons explained later. We settled on this camp:
This was a cozy campsite. It was well placed and very comfortable. The only problem with it: It was 11 miles into a 14 mile hike. Matt (A.K.A. Heywood) did not like any of the sites I suggested, so we ended up hiking most of the hike on Saturday. It was not bad, the weather was nice and the hike was easy and pretty.
On Sunday we got up late, real late, try 10:00 am. We did not leave camp until 11:30, heck, we only had 3 miles to hike, right? This hike went up the Buck Run trail into some very pretty beaver meadows (sorry, no pics). We ended up at the Locust Springs Picnic area after two days and 14 miles of hiking. It was a beautiful hike. Edmond was glad to be done:
We were off:
We ate (we always eat) at the El Puerto in Staunton. It was an excellent meal.
This is a highly recommended hike, even for rote novices. Any season would be suitable as Highland County does not get very hot, even in the heat of August. If you need any further information, or directions, please write to the email below. Mark Dominesey
|
