Читать книгу Top Trails: Shenandoah National Park - Johnny Molloy - Страница 10

Shenandoah National Park is a scenic mountain haven of the Eastern Seaboard, a glittering jewel in the Appalachian range. What makes Shenandoah so special? First, consider panoramic views from overlooks scattered along lofty Skyline Drive, which runs the length of this 300-square-mile sanctuary. Beyond Skyline Drive lies another Shenandoah, where bears furtively roam the hollows and brook trout ply the tumbling streams. Quartz, granite, and greenstone outcrops jut above the diverse forest, allowing far-flung views of the Blue Ridge and surrounding Shenandoah Valley.

You must reach this other Shenandoah, beyond Skyline Drive, by foot. The rewards increase with every footfall beneath the stately oaks of the ridgetops and in the deep canyons where waterfalls roar among old-growth trees spared by the logger’s axe. In some places your footsteps lead past what once were pioneer farms. These homesites reveal another era of Shenandoah. This rich cultural history found settlers squeezed into the narrow valleys and apple orchards lining grassy fields atop the ridges, where lives were made in the craggy Appalachian highlands.

This meld of natural and cultural history is fitting in Virginia, where so much of this country’s story has been played out, from the battles of the American Revolution and Civil War to battles in Congress regarding the very establishment of this park. Since its inception, Shenandoah National Park has also seen the cutting down and reforestation of the park, the building of Skyline Drive, the return of the deer and bears, and the invasion of exotic pests that threaten the mountain trees. It has seen park facilities built, fall to disrepair, and become new again. And through it all, Shenandoah has shone.

Shenandoah National Park continues to undergo changes. And in nature, changes come quickly—as in the Rocky Mount Fire of 2016, the prescribed burns to preserve Big Meadows, or the thousand-year flood of 1995. But changes also come slowly, such as the recovery from the gypsy moth infestation of the 1990s and the demise of the hemlock at the hands of the hemlock woolly adelgid in the early 2000s. In any case, Shenandoah continues to display its mountain beauty and come back better than ever. Air quality continues to improve since a low point in the 1970s, allowing for more extensive views year-round.

Choosing Shenandoah as a place to spend your free time is a wise decision. And yet the park can be intimidating, especially for the first-time visitor. Not only are there hundreds of miles of trails running like veins down and along a narrow mountain spine, but with millions of guests annually, Shenandoah National Park is a heavily visited destination—quite intimidating indeed. This book was conceived to make the backcountry majesty of Shenandoah more accessible to visitors.

With this national park’s many trails and people, discovering its beauty and solitude can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Where are the spectacular vistas? Where are the waterfalls and the old settlers’ homesites? Where can I find solitude? Leaving it all to chance doesn’t offer good odds for an all-too-brief vacation from the rat race. Weeks spent daydreaming of a fleeting slice of freedom could culminate in a 3-hour driving marathon or a noisy walk up a crowded trail. Fortunately, with this book and a little bit of planning and forethought, you can make the most of your national park experience.

May this book be as beneficial to your Shenandoah experience as it has been to mine. I’ve been hiking Shenandoah since the 1980s and have had a Shenandoah guide in print since 1998, with multiple updated and improved editions, including the one in your hand. Penning and then updating this guide for Wilderness Press gave me the chance to rehike all the trails and write another guide to what I think is one of the most beautiful places in the United States. You’ll find this very accessible book a marked improvement over my previous Shenandoah guides, and further improved for this latest edition.

This guide presents 50 hikes with plenty of variety. The majority steer you toward the most scenic areas, giving you the opportunity to enjoy your time on the trail instead of behind someone else’s car. Most hikes seek solitude to maximize your Shenandoah experience, but as the subtitle suggests, there are some must-do popular hikes. Consequently, a few hikes traverse popular and potentially crowded areas. Each hike lists a Best Time that will help you manage the trails to your advantage.

Classic hikes, such as Old Rag and the falls of Whiteoak Canyon, along with seldom-visited gems, such as Piney River Falls and Furnace Mountain, are represented. Though the latter are not as well known, they offer more solitude than and equally scenic sights as the more popular hikes so that you can discover Shenandoah on your own terms.

Often, park sightseers pick a hike randomly without knowing where it will lead, or they follow the crowds wherever they go. Many times, I’ve been stopped with the question, “What’s down this trail?” Choosing a hike at random in Shenandoah, where many trails drop steeply off the Blue Ridge, may result in a disappointing trip followed by a rigorous return to the car with little reward to show for your effort. This guide provides easy means to find hikes to suit your desires.

This book features two types of hikes: out-and-back and loop. Out-and-back hikes lead to a particularly rewarding destination and return you to the start on the same trail. The return trip allows you to see everything from the opposite vantage point. You may notice more minute trailside features the second go-round. Returning at a different time of day may give the same trail a surprisingly different character. For some hikers, though, returning on the same trail simply isn’t enjoyable when 500 additional miles of Shenandoah trails await them. For these hikers, the loops provide a great alternative.

Day hiking is the best and most popular way to break into the Shenandoah wilderness—Shenandoah, in fact, is one of the finest day-hiking parks in our country. But those with the inclination to see the mountain cycle from day to night and back again can enjoy many of these hikes, too. Some of the latest hike additions are longer loops ideal for backpacking, but if you plan to hike overnight, you should be aware of the park’s backcountry-camping regulations (see page 6) and practice Leave No Trace wilderness use (see “Trail Etiquette,”).

When you tour Shenandoah, you may find it tempting to remain in your car and enjoy the sights along Skyline Drive. While auto touring allows an overview of the park, vehicles create a barrier between you and the wilderness beyond. “Windshield tourists” hoping to observe wildlife often end up observing only the cars around them. While overlooks avail easy views, the hassle of driving, the drone of the car engine, and the lack of effort in reaching the views can make them less than inspirational.

Shenandoah is great for hiking. The wilderness experience can unleash your mind and body, allowing you to relax and find peace and quiet. It also enables you to grasp beauty and splendor: a white-quartz outcrop with a window overlooking the patchwork valley below, a bobcat disappearing into a laurel thicket, or a snow-covered clearing marking an old homestead. On these protected lands, you can let your mind roam where it pleases, something you simply can’t do in a climate-controlled automobile. Hiking is the best way to enjoy this special preserve, so get out and enjoy Shenandoah!