Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2013 - 15

when you go

The Hike: A moderately strenuous circuit hike
of 5 miles to a grandstand view of the
Shenandoah Valley via the Humpback Rocks
and Appalachian trails. (Add another .7 mile
if including the Mountain Farm Trail.)
Directions: The trailhead is located in the
Humpback Gap parking area at Blue Ridge
Parkway Milepoint 6, a few miles east of
Waynesboro, Va.
Trail Information: Recently released, 'Hiking
and Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway: The
Only Guide You Will Ever Need, Including GPS,
Detailed Maps, and More” provides information on every one of the trails along the full
length of the parkway and is available through
habitualhiker.com.

The quarter-mile Mountain Farm Trail is a side trek to view an 1800s farmstead.

The rocks we were standing upon
are close to 600 million years old,
having once been lava flows that covered large areas of what would
become the Mid-Atlantic states.
Thrust onto the mountains millions of
years later by the movement of continental plates, this rock, known as
greenstone, can be found on many of
the Blue Ridge summits from northern Virginia into Maryland.
Most people take the same route
back to their cars, but wanting to see
some different terrain, we followed a
short blue-blazed connector trail from
the rocks to an intersection with the
white-blazed Appalachian Trail. To the
right, the AT followed the ridgeline to
Humpback Mountain and beyond, on
its way to Georgia. We made a left to
descend along the northbound AT.
The lack of foot traffic along this
route was illustrated by a long hognose snake lazily stretched across the
trail about 20 minutes after we had

left the rocks. Although it didn’t put
on a display for us, the hognose’s
defense mechanisms can almost be
comical at times. When first threatened, it may shake its tail in the
leaves, mimicking the sound of a rattlesnake. Upon further provocation, it
will puff up (its other common name
is puff adder), hiss and flatten its neck
like a cobra. If all else fails, the hognose will simply roll over and play
dead. However, it will give this charade away because, if turned onto its
stomach, it promptly flips over onto
its back again.
Three miles of gradually descending switchbacks brought the AT to a
left turn onto the still-evident roadbed of the Old Howardsville Turnpike.
Built in the mid-1800s, it was an
important road across the mountains,
enabling wagons to deliver the
bounty of the Shenandoah Valley to
eastern Virginia. On the return trip,
needed supplies, such as guns,

ammunition, salt, textiles and nails
were carried back to the valley’s residents. As Laurie and I walked along,
we couldn’t help but notice how well
constructed the rock cribbing is that
shores up the roadbed, a testament to
the skills of those who built this road
by hand more than a 150 years ago.
After a half-mile on the old road,
the AT bears off to the right to continue on its way to Maine. We stayed
to the left on the bed of the turnpike,
which, in .2 miles returned us to the
Humpback Rocks parking area. Even
though it was now late in the afternoon, automobiles were still in every
available space and along the shoulders of the parkway.
Walking back to our car at the visitor center, we uttered a word of
thanks to the volunteers of the Old
Dominion Appalachian Trail Club.
They had obviously put in many hours
of hard labor to keep all of these
routes in such good shape in the face
of so many people using them. We
also decided our next visit to
Humpback Rocks would be in the
middle of the week. 
September/October 2013 | 15
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2013

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