These boys I have with me this week, city-slickers all, have proven to be natural horsemen. We live on a small farm just off the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP)and just adjacent to Rock Castle Gorge (BRP milepost 178, or thereabouts) and though yesterday was the first time two of them had ever sat a horse, we rode to the bottom and back without incident. We entered and departed on the southern portion of an eleven mile hiking loop described here, on-line, in a 1996 copyrighted article by Frank Logue:
“Sheltered within the deep, narrow confines of Rock Castle Gorge is a surprising variety of plant life. There are 200 species of wild flowers, 45 species of trees and 28 species of ferns alone along the 10.8-mile loop trail. The Gorge also has a stunning wildflower display boasting nearly 200 species from April through early May, all within day hiking distance of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The loop encompasses high, open meadows with an impressive panoramic view as well as the narrow confines of the Gorge itself, making for a strenuous, but rewarding day hike.
“A .8-mile section of the Rock Castle Gorge Trail shares the footpath with the Hardwood Cove Nature Trail. Self-guiding booklets can be picked up from a leaflet box on the trail. The booklet identifies 26 trees and two vines along the trail.
“As you hike down the sometimes steep trail, you might be tempted to think of this botanical haven as a slice of wilderness left untouched by man, but that idea quickly vanishes as you begin to see old home sites along the trail. The banks of Rock Castle Creek were once home to the more than 70 families who farmed the land and harnessed the stream to power their mills.
“This steep trail is less strenuous if hiked from the Blue Ridge Parkway’s Rocky Knob Campground downhill to the creek. The trail drops more than 1,000 feet in its first three miles. The predominately oak-hickory forest also features maples, tuliptrees, bigtooth aspens, basswoods and mountain laurel.
“At mile 3.2 of the hike, you will reach the sight of a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp, now a designated backcountry campsite. The only remains of the CCC camp are the foundations of old buildings. The required camping permit for this site is available at no charge from either the Rocky Knob Campground or Visitor Center.
I have done this loop on foot any number of times. The official guides list it as “strenuous” and “difficult,” but it is not that big of a deal. Stunning, yes, but not “difficult.” In the matter of horses in the gorge, I have hereofore practiced a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” A sign at one end prohibits them–and firearms, and alcohol,and several other of life’s pleasures, including live bait–but the sign at the other end does not. And, yes, I have been caught red-handed with all of these–except live bait, the lowest of trout-inspired accoutrements–and have managed to pass each time with little more than an exchange of pleasantries.
The BRP stretches 469 miles between the Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and grew out of Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act of June 18, 1933, after Virginia’s Harry Byrd brought Roosevelt down on a tour through the Shenandoah Mountains. One common misconception is that the parkway somehow “preserved” the area as it was in the 1930s. Nothing could be further from the truth. By then, these mountains had been clear-cut repeatedly, the farms were worn out, the streams were gullied, etc., etc. This massive land-grab project is basically the creation of a slew of government-paid landscape architects. It is beautiful, though, no doubt about it. Enough of this. Read about it elsewhere, if you’re interested.
We spent the afternoon swimming and loafing at Fairystone State Park (another guv’ment project), and ended the day like we began, on horseback, a dusk rideabout along the dirt roads of my neighborhood. Today, it is the Virginia Museum of Natural History, in Martinsville. What’s the Virginia Museum of Natural History doing in Martinsville? Can you say, “A. L. Philpott?” Get the chalkboard and I’ll draw you a picture.
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