Trip Report: A Recipe for Disaster (Tuscarora Trail Sections 18-20, Elizabeth Furnace to Waites Run Rd) (August 25-27th, 2023) (40 miles)

There are many reasons why people consider August the worst time to go hiking in the Mid-Atlantic: the weather is often 90 degrees plus with humidity, reliable water sources can be bone-dry, and bugs are everywhere. So when I proposed a 32 mile hike on the Tuscarora Trail on a summer weekend, it was already overambitious. However, loss of landowner permission on the doll ridge section required a drastic reroute that added 7 miles of road-walking. I spent a few days trying to think of a way around it, but I couldn’t come up with anything that sounded good. Frustrated, I had a tough decision to make. Do I cancel the trip? Do I re-route it more than I already had to? Do I drastically shorten it?

I chose none of those options.

I wasn’t going to let some stupid detour get in my way. And the summer heat could take a hike.

I would recklessly charge forward, and accept my fate…alone or not.

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So with my decision made, the new splits would be roughly 5/26/10. It was forecasted to be roughly 85-90 degrees on Saturday, and with humidity it would feel worse. And with a 12 mile road walk, there wasn’t going to much reprieve from the sun. In my defense, I did try and warn everyone. My insightful words pre-trip were:

“I won’t lie, it is probably going to be hot and difficult”

“If you aren’t prepared to suffer you probably shouldn’t come.”

“I can’t guarantee you a perfect trip, but I can say it will be an adventure.”

To my surprise 3 brave (and unfortunate) souls decided to join me on my summer odyssey: Austin, James, and Vince. We met up at Vienna at 6pm on Friday Night, dropped 1 car off at Waites Run Road and took the other to our starting point at Elizabeth Furnace. Quick confession though: we stopped at a 7-11 for dinner and not a Sheetz (forgive me for I have sinned). Everything started off great and we were hiking by 9pm. The night hike was hot and dry, but otherwise okay. However, I was quickly reminded of another reason why people dislike hiking in the summer: spiders. Late summer is apparently peak-spider season. I would walk through hundreds of spider-webs over the following days. I joked that we were walking through Shelobs lair. We took a small break at the Meneka Peak/Tuscarora Trail intersection. Vince was absolutely drenched in sweat from head to toe, and it reminded me of how tired I was. I had originally planned for us to camp at Mudhole Gap, but I decided we would camp at Strasburg Reservoir instead. Hiking a few more miles felt like an eternity and I didn’t want to deal with it. We pitched our tents on the dam and went to sleep. And you already know there was a whip-poor-will singing all night.

Feeling refreshed, we began our long day. Hiking first thing in the morning is my favorite time to hike, and it was nice catching up with everyone. James was rocking his Durston X-Mid Pro 1 Tent, which if you haven’t heard about it is a very popular tent…and for good reason. He had also recently hiked the entire C&O Canal Towpath which is a 184.5 mile trail from Cumberland MD to Washington D.C. The C&O Canal Towpath is also a major section of the lesser known Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, which is one of the 11 National Scenic Trails in the USA. Very cool! Austin talked about his nature photography skills and his use of iNaturalist. And Vince does attorney work and doesn’t have to dress up. I thought all attorney/lawyer types always had to dress up nice. Law and Order lied to me. We hiked along Strasburg Reservoir Rd and the Massanutten Trail before connecting with Woodstock Tower Road. Thus began our 12 mile road march.

We took a lunch break at the Dollar General in Woodstock. By this point it was around noon and the temperature was around 90 degrees. We took a few roads through town, took a scenic countryside walk down Swartz Road for many miles before finally reconnecting with the Tuscarora Trail. The road-walking wasn’t so bad I thought. It was hot, and my feet were sore, but it was pretty. And it was nice being able to see where we had come from and where we were going.

We made it to Toms Brook which marked the end of our long-road march. We were all hot and tired, and our feet sore. After a break, Vince decided that he had had enough. I don’t blame him. It had been a long day, and we still had our biggest climb ahead of us. Vince didn’t look the best, but I was confident he could take care of himself. There were houses around and with a water source nearby, I wasn’t worried. And besides, we still had to get his car on Waites Run Road. So with the promise of returning to save him the following morning, we said farewell. It was 4:30pm and we still had about 7 miles to go. Me, Austin, and James soldiered on. As it turns out, Vince would be the lucky one that night.

The climb out of Fetzer Gap was brutal. The trail was incredibly steep and not well maintained, and of course I was eating spider webs again left and right now that we were back on trail. As the frontrunner, I was selflessly doing some serious silkblazing! Austin sensed my pain and did offer to lead though which was very nice. The trail looked like nobody had used it in weeks. Tired and thirsty, we began fantasizing about getting to camp close to a nice flowing Creek. Austin wanted to get his feet wet. I wanted to pour 10 bottles of cold water on my head. It all sounded so good. We pushed through our remaining miles looking forward to some rest and relaxation.

And that’s when disaster struck.

Just as the last light was fading, Austin and I arrived at our campsite…well, where it was supposed to be anyways. There was no campsite. And even worse, there was no water…Cedar Creek was bone-dry. All of our dreams and aspirations of cooling off after a long day faded at that moment. I double checked Caltopo, and indeed we were exactly where I had planned to be. Had I really screwed up this badly? It was a bad situation, and as the organizer of the trip I felt pretty terrible. It’s possible that I simply missed the campsites, but to me the area just looked terribly overgrown and nothing flat presented itself. And it was already dark. But even worse than the lack of campsites was the lack of water. I was dehydrated, and James and Austin probably were too.

We talked over our situation. We could bail at a trailhead roughly 5 miles away, but it was unlikely we would get a ride. And besides, we still had to get Vince’s car on Waites Run Road, so I wasn’t a fan of that option. However, we were still 10 miles away from the car, so hiking the rest of way without water didn’t seem like a good option either. I was fairly certain there was a stream roughly 2-3 miles away. But what if that was dry also? I proposed that we stay where we were, despite the crappiness of the situation. We would wake early and make a dash for the stream in the morning and pray that it wasn’t dry, and then reassess our options. James and Austin agreed. In the meantime, we needed to try and get some rest. We pitched our tents right in the middle of the trail on very uneven terrain. Tired, dehydrated, and covered in muck, it was hard to relax. The humidity and noisy bugs didn’t help much either.

We woke up early and made a dash for the stream. It was almost dry, but it was good enough. Somewhat replenished, we pushed onward. The hike up to White Rock Cliffs was tough. However, with the weather finally cooperating, the remaining miles back down to Waites Run Road were the most pleasant of the whole trip. We finished up and took a bath in a creek. But we still had to go back and pick up Vince.

And that is when disaster struck…again.

We got back to the area where we had left Vince the night before. I wasn’t exactly sure where he was since we were having some communication issues. It didn’t sound like he was feeling very well so I wanted to try and find him as quickly as possible. I started driving up a single lane farm road which led to a trailhead where I thought he would be. I quickly realized that this road was way more rough than I remembered. Ideally we really needed a jeep or a truck, and we were in a small sedan. Not wanting to risk bottoming out, and not seeing a way to turn around ahead, I stopped the car. I would just reverse the car and get us out of here. No big deal I thought.

I was so concerned with not wanting to bottom out the car that I didn’t sense the peril of our situation. I backed up maybe 30 feet when I heard Austin let out a small grunt…and at the same time the rear right tire slid on the gravel and into a ditch…and we were stuck. Yes, not only had I managed to nearly kill us all the night prior, but I got a car stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. Great job, David. Great job. It was truly a comically bad situation and all I could do was shake my head and laugh at myself. We were in luck, however. After some failed attempts at rescuing ourselves, some very nice (and probably annoyed) neighbors saw our plight and helped us out. They really had no choice, as they couldn’t get home before getting us out of the way first. They really were very sweet though and offered us words of comfort and some bottled water. Nothing like some nice southern hospitality.

And so we were finally rescued and our very dramatic and disastrous trip came to a close. We had survived a 40 mile adventure in the heat of summer with 7000ft of elevation gain. We had a 26 mile day and got to a campsite that didn’t exist and had no water. We had survived dehydration. And walked through tons of spider webs. And got a car stuck in a ditch. I gotta say though, as bad and as hard as this trip was, I’m still really glad I went. I think we all learned some very valuable lessons, too.

Like not letting David drive next time.

Thanks for coming out guys! James, Vince, and Austin, you’re all animals!

-David U (Baseball)

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Photo Credit to Vince, Austin, and James.