North Boundary to Jenkins Gap

Date: Jan 28, 2012

Start: Compton Gap

End: Jenkins Gap

Total miles: 6.5

Total AT miles: 4.1

Time: 5hrs 15mins

We've officially started our hike! The weather held and it was a beautiful Saturday for hiking. We met at 8:40am at the Compton Gap parking lot (I was running about 10mins late). We dropped the Escape down at Jenkins Gap and then came back to Compton to start the hike. Our itinerary was to hike out 2 miles to tag the park boundary, then backtrack 2 miles to Compton Gap where we started, then continue on to Jenkins Gap for 2.1 more miles. I know that doesn't add up to 6.5, but there was a little blue-blazing I'll get into shortly. 


We started out at just a few minutes after 9am. The temp was 35º with a wind chill of 27º. The forecast was for 50+º day and no rain. Since I didn't have Rosie, I used both trekking poles. Boy, did they really help! Oh, and all of that gear I had on my "winter hiking list"?  Pssssshh!! I left it all behind except a knit hat, down jacket, light gloves, headlamp, handwarmers, swiss army knife, first aid kit, dry socks, a nalgene of water, and lunch.


The hike out to the boundary was great! It felt good to be hiking with my sister again. There were lots and lots of tracks on the trail, and I kept trying to find a bear track, but no success. Just boots, dogs and deer. We found the SNP backcountry self-registration station, so we knew the park boundary was very close. We continued on and found another sign facing south-bound hikers stating you were "..leaving Shenandoah National Park and entering private land...".  Well, that was confusing? We couldn't understand why south-bound would be "leaving" the park??? So we went the few extra yards north to Possum's Overlook and took some pictures, then I went scampering for another boundary sign while Jen went to seek fellowship with nature. ☺ The AT started to switchback steeply downhill, so I decided to bag it and we'd call it close enough. As we were hiking back south and taking more pictures, we were still wondering why the "leaving" sign was facing the south-bound hikers? Then Jen said, "It would make sense if it were facing the other way, towards north-bound hikers". Then the light-bulb went on! I took hold of the sign, and slowly turned it around 180º. Fixed!

We then hiked the 2 miles back to Compton Gap and Jen's car. We stopped and ate lunch, then I re-stocked for dinner since we planned on jumping in the Escape and driving south on Skyline Drive to look for wildlife. Since there is nothing open in SNP this time of year, we had to stock for lunch and dinner. We started off around noon for Compton Peak. It was around .8 miles up to the summit, then 1.3 on to Jenkins Gap. Once at the summit, there are two blue-blazed side trails. One takes you .2 miles to an overlook, and the other takes you .2 miles down to a rock. Now most people would prefer the overlook (and I think Jen would have preferred the overlook), but I chose the rock. See, it's not just any rock. It is the only basalt column rock in Virginia, and possibly in the entire east coast. The trail got real tricky towards the end, hand over hand climbing on wet slick rocks. Jen had to bow out since her knees were complaining big-time. So I scampered on down by myself. There were three geology students there when I arrived. They were real friendly, and surprised that I knew about "the rock". I got some pics and then scrambled back to Jen. We hiked back up to the AT and continued south. 

We passed through a section that had been burnt recently. All of the laurel was scorched, but new shoots were already pushing up from the base of each plant. It was pretty awesome. Once we descended Compton Peak, the trail flattened out again. At one point, Jen reminded me were were right behind where I had spotted a mama bear and three cubs a few months back. Even though I'm not terrified of meeting a bear on the AT, it does make me a little leery. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), we didn't run into any bears.

We finally finished up a bit after 2pm. For the record, the swiss army knife did come in handy to tighten up the clamps on Jen's trekking poles. ☺


My feet and Jen's knees were both complaining rather loudly. I took a couple of Aleve, and it really did help that evening. I woke up Sunday morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  Ugh. Once I started moving around though I felt better. Good enough to take Rosie for a hike. We did around 3+ miles up at Seneca. She deserved it though. 


We're already planning the next section. From Jenkins Gap to Little Hogback for 6.8 miles. It may be too ambitious depending on the elevation profiles. If so, we'll stop at Gravel Springs instead.