SNP South Trip Report (May 18-19, 2024)

In Ireland, there is a saying “If you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes”. The same applies to Virginia spring weather forecasts. You can never believe what the forecast says until you find out for yourself. This was my first trip as an organizer and the forecast called for rain … all weekend, all day long! The feeling of impending doom settled upon me: this is going to be a miserable weekend of wet hiking and soggy camping. Despite the forecasted washout, three brave souls: Sophie, Taylor and I, decided to press on. Sophie and I set out from Vienna metro early Saturday morning. Taylor was meeting us at the trailhead. As we drove on I-81, the rain was relentless. But as we got closer to Harrisonburg, the sky turned to a lighter shade of gray and the rain slowed to a drizzle. After a quick pit stop at the Harrisonburg Sheetz, we drove to the Madison Run Trailhead at the Shenandoah National Park boundary. And, just like someone waved a magic wand, THE RAIN STOPPED! Spoiler alert: we did not get a single drop of rain on this trip!

We walked up a ridge among blooming mountain laurels (they were in peak bloom at lower elevations), stopped at the Furnace Mountain overlook and came up the spur trail to Blackrock. There wasn’t much of a view, with the fog and low clouds covering the valley below, but the rocks were awesome.

After crossing Skyline Drive and a short distance on the AT, we turned on Jones Run trail and descended a somewhat wet, but well-maintained path to Jones Run Falls. With all the rain the night before, the waterfalls were absolutely incredible!

We walked past at least five big waterfalls, with many smaller cascades along the way on Jones Run and Doyle’s River trails. The biggest waterfalls on this route are Jones Run Falls and Doyle’s River Falls. It’s a popular trail, but we hardly encountered anyone until we got close to Skyline drive. After a quick stop for lunch near the elusive Doyle’s River PATC cabin (I am yet to see it, even though I walked near it many times and I know it exists), we crossed Skyline Drive again at the Big Run overlook and started downhill on the Big Run Loop trail. Once we met the Big Run, our water crossing fun started. Big Run Portal trail crosses the stream about a dozen times and the water was a little higher and wider than usual after Friday downpours.

In my opinion, SNP’s best backcountry camping is along the Big Run Portal trail. There are many nice, level campsites right next to the stream. All of those campsites were unoccupied, in fact the only person we saw on this trail was a guy returning from fishing for brook trout (fishing in Big Run is allowed with a valid VA fishing license). We continued to the end of the trail to settle at one of the group campsites next to the Brown Mountain trail and Big Run Portal. We enjoyed a good meal despite Sophie finding out that her ramen expired … yes, it happens! After sharing the tales of our past adventures and a bit of rum, we turned in for the night. Everyone slept well next to the bubbling stream.

Next morning, we got up and leisurely got ready for the day of hiking. We left camp a little past 7 am and hiked up the Rockytop Trail. This trail has many awesome rockslides and great views of the valley. We turned on Austin Mountain trail, crossed several more rockslides and descended steeply to the Madison Run fire road. As a note, Taylor has never seen a bear in the wild and I was determined to find a bear on this trip. It was unsuccessful, even though we were looking through the woods for signs of bears. As we were walking along the fire road, just a few hundred feet from our cars, Sophie yelled “BEAR!”. And there he was, a large black bear running across the fire road and into the hills above. He looked like a young male who didn’t want to linger. Shockingly, none of the people that were standing on the trail taking pictures of flowers, noticed the bear. Sadly, neither did Taylor, the bear ran off too quickly. It still counted as a bear encounter though.

We stopped at the Wood Grill Buffet in Harrisonburg. It was hopping, with local families coming for Sunday lunch, but we got a table pretty quickly. After gorging ourselves on delicious buffet food, we said goodbye to Taylor and headed back. Overall, it was an awesome trip and great company!