Black Friday TR: Lewis Mountain

A Black Friday hike has become a tradition for me. This year, only one other person was able to go, but we managed to get an epic hike in. We started at the Pocosin Hollow trailhead in Shenandoah National Park. We hiked up that trail, which crosses private land near the boundary of the park, until we were firmly on NPS land and then we turned uphill to bushwhack up an over Lewis Mountain. Topographic maps show an old trail that follows the ridgeline of Lewis Mountain and our plan was to try to find it then follow it to Lewis Mountain Campground. From there, we would hike the Appalachian Trial north to the Slaughter Trail, which we'd take back down to the road and the car. Not too long after we started climbing away from Pocosin Hollow, we started hitting patches of snow. By the time we reached the top of the ridge, we were hiking in three or four inches of snow. We saw lots of bear, bobcat, deer, and rodent tracks. The bushwhacking was pretty smooth, with one exception. The woods are pretty open on Lewis Mountain. The one exception was a nasty mountain laurel thicket. We had managed skirt around most of the mountain laurel, but on the saddle between two of the peaks of Lewis Mountain, there was a thicket that we couldn't avoid. We wound up following day-old bear tracks through it, but that did mean crawling in the snow a few times. One advantage of a hooded softshell jacket: The hood kept snow from falling on my neck when I knocked it off of branches. It took us about thirty minutes to get through that and then we had a steep climb up the last peak of Lewis Mountain. When I popped out on top, I landed on the blue-blazed Lewis Mountain Trail, a half-mile spur from the campground and the end of the old trail we were looking for. From there, we hiked west to the Appalachian Trail. The snow was about six inches deep up there. We made good time on that and on the mile north to the Slaughter Trail. At the bottom of the Slaughter Trail, you have to ford the Conway River, which was running about knee deep. Given that we only had a mile road walk to the car at that point, we rolled up our pant legs and just walked through it. We made it to the car just as it got completely dark. 

We never did find the old trail we were looking for. It would probably be easier to find from the top (west) and if there hadn't been snow on the ground. We also didn't see anyone else on our hike.


A waterfall in Pocosin Hollow.


A leaf of Aplectrum hyemale (Puttyroot Orhcid). 


Snowy Trees near the top of Lewis Mountain.


The trail through the snow.

There are a few more photos on my blog.