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Author Archives: Zac & Ashley
AT: Compton Gap to Tom Floyd Wayside (North)
Difficulty: 2 of 5. Mostly flat, only one place with a mildly steep decline.
Distance: Approximately 5.8 miles (2.9 miles each way)
Time Walking: 1 hr each way
Views/Scenery: 1.5 of 5. No views to speak of unless you take the spurs to Fort Wyndham Rocks and Indian Run Spring.
Solitude: 3 of 5. Average traffic, passed a few groups at the beginning but no one after we were out of SNP. Any trail off Skyline Drive you can expect to run into a few people or groups along the way.
After 3 weekends of rain, we were finally able to hit the trails again on the last day of April. We hiked this one with a small group that call themselves the “Shenandoah Trailblazers.” Not a lot to see on this hike, but it was a fun one getting to see an AT shelter, and it was pretty well marked as long as you knew to follow the right sign (you want to follow the AT North and toward the Park Boundary and Tom Floyd Wayside).
What I liked about this one was it was my first experience of the famous Appalachian Trail (AT) that stretches from Georgia to Maine — the longest continuously marked foot path in the world (somebody correct me if I’m wrong about that). I’ve long read about it, dreamed about it, and admired this beast of a path. My goal is to hike the entire length of it — all 2,181 miles of it — sometime in my life.
The AT crosses Skyline Drive several times in Shenandoah National Park (SNP). The Northern most of those crossings is here at mile 10.4 at a place called Compton Gap. From Compton Gap you can go either North or South on the AT. To the South most people do the “Compton Peak” hike (4.8 miles round trip) – you go south from the gap for 1 mile at which point you can choose both a left or right spur (both 1 mile) for some gorgeous views from Compton Peak. The AT continues south from there, but most turn back at this point.
We went North on the AT from Compton Gap. Most people call this the “Indian Run Spring / Fort Wyndham Rocks” trail — these are two landmarks about 1 mile north of the Gap along two spurs of the AT. Take the spur to the east about .8 miles to Indian Run Spring. Take the western spur to Fort Wyndham Rocks – some famous “columnar” rocks said to be 600-800 million years old.
But, alas, we didn’t do either of these (but plan to do them soon). We chose just to keep on the AT about 2.8 miles until we got to the Toms Floyd Wayside Shelter. This is a hike that isn’t really published in any of the books, mostly because it’s just a hike along the AT from Compton Gap to the next shelter, so it’s not a real tourist draw.
Foundations, History, and Background of this Trail
The AT winds through all 100 miles of the SNP and in fact the trail and the park have a bit of an embroiled past. The AT existed prior to the foundation of the area as a national park, so as the park was being built, the AT was moved, altered, and changed to create SNP and Skyline Drive. Some of the die-hard AT people at the time (all around the 1920s and 1930s) were strongly against these modifications. But they lost and the CCC re-located the trail through the new national park from 1933-1942 in order to make way for Skyline Drive.
This hike takes you down and across a few “maintenance” roads. I say this with a tinge of sarcasm because the forestry service originally built many of these roads not for maintenance and not because men like doing noisy things in the woods with big equipment. These roads were built to sell previously inaccessible wood to the timber industry. It’s a little known fact that by the late 1980s the US Forestry Service was one of the biggest players in the American timber industry and (I cringe in saying this) the only one that was cutting down trees faster than they were replacing them.
The Forestry Service is a government agency mired in scandal and financial inefficiency. The Government Accountability Office said in 2003, “Historically, the Forest Service has not been able to provide Congress or the public with a clear understanding of what the Forest Service’s 30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion the agency receives each year.”
To be fair, the timber-producing side of the Forest Service has dwindled down to its lowest levels in decades, and for good reason — they lost billions of dollars in the process (somehow). They’ve found a new cash cow — forest fires. After a rash of fires in the last 10 years, they’ve been given huge increases in funding to help fight them. So next time you cross one of these roads you can think of the decades of clear-cutting done to scalp the mountains of timber.
Getting to the Trail
The easiest way is from the entrance of SNP from US-340 in Front Royal. From there go south on Skyline Drive to mile 10.4 which is marked by a sign that reads “Compton Gap.” Go slow and watch out for cyclists along the road. There is a decent sized area to park your car. In the parking area is a large sign with a map showing the trail going both north and south from the Gap.
Walking the Trail
This walking guide is specifically for getting to Tom’s Floyd Wayside Shelter on the AT and not to see the Spring or the Wyndham Rocks.
From the parking area head north (it’s the side with the big sign/map) and cross the barrier onto the AT. At this location, the AT also serves as a maintenance road so it’s rather wide for trucks.
Almost 1 mile in you’ll come to your first intersection. It’s marked with a cement post that tells you what trail leads where. Go left to see Fort Wyndham Rocks, Go right to see Indian Run Spring. Otherwise, just keep going down the middle going north along the AT toward the park boundary.
In another 1.6 miles you’ll come to another intersection marked by a cement post. If you keep going straight you’ll stay on the maintenance road and go all the way to Chester Gap and State Route 610. But for this you’ll want to go left where the cement post reads “Park Boundary .2 miles, Tom Floyd Wayside .7 miles.”
As the sign said, in .2 miles you’ll be at the boundary of SNP and now you’re treading on private property. But don’t worry, you’ve got a right to be there as long as you stay close to the trail. You’ll see a nice sign letting you know you’re at the boundary. From here it gets sort of rocky and you’ll step down a descent of rock stairs for a few hundred yards. Nothing too tricky here, but some of the stones are loose, so you just want to be extra careful.
Once you’re down the rock stairs, you’ll go for just a few more tenths of a mile and you’ll cross another service road. You’ll know it because it has ruts for a truck. I think this is State Route 601, but it’s really just a service/maintenance road. Cross this and go about .5 miles and around a turn you’ll see Tom Floyd Wayside Shelter. Here you’ll find a log book, some tools like a shovel and broom, a bathroom or “privy,” some tent sites, and a bear pole for campers to hang their food high out of reach of bears. There is a small spring nearby I hear, but sometimes it’s dry and you definitely want to filter or boil it before drinking. Beware of mice in the shelter as well — you don’t want to get bit by one and I hear they will bite.
At this point, enjoy yourself! You made it to the first AT shelter north of SNP! Make conversation with any AT thru hikers you come across there, write in the log book that you were there, and take it all in.
Some Notes Along the Way
- Plant Life: Some of the note-able plants are all the purple and yellow violets, and small white daisies especially along the beginning of the hike (at least in the spring). There were also an abundance of May Apple plants. These are neat, but don’t try to eat the fruit or face the consequences — they’re quite toxic so I hear.
- Animal Life: We didn’t see any animals except for birds, but it’s known that black bear roam this area, especially as you leave SNP and get closer to the shelter. Be careful.
- The Shelter and Log Book: This is a nice shelter as AT shelters go. It even has a small bathroom. If you want, leave a message in the log book in the shelter. You can share anything you want here about your experience on the AT and when they are full they become part of the AT historical archives which is pretty cool.
- The Park Boundary — You do leave SNP and enter private property on this hike, so be mindful that while you have a right to be there, you can’t wander too far off the trail. I believe the rule is 50 yards.
Woodstock Tower Hike
Difficulty: 1 (Tower Trail only), 2 (Wagon Rd Nature Trail)
Distance: 800 feet (Tower Trail only), 1 mile (Wagon Rd Nature Trail)
Time Walking: 3 min. (Tower Trail), 20-25 min (Wagon Rd Nature Trail) each way
Views: 5 stars!
Solitude: 2 – usually a flow of people come up to the tower in nice weather. We saw 5 other people on the tower when we were there.
Our first hike of 2011! We took advantage of some nice weather and spurned warnings of “30% chance of rain” and took our first trip to the Woodstock Tower, where it claims to hold the best view available of the famous 7 bends of the Shenandoah river, I suppose, unless you charter a helicopter or enjoy hang gliding.
I really enjoyed this hike. There are two trails to the Tower. Tower Trail takes about 3 minutes, Wagon Road Nature Trail from Little Fort Rec Area takes about 20-25 minutes to the top and 20 minutes back. The hike itself is not scenic, but the view from the tower makes it all worth it. There is also some cool history here going back to the 1930s when the Tower and some of the first roads into and out of this area were built as part of Roosevelt’s pumping money into these projects to raise the morale of people after the Depression.
Foundations & History
On April 17, 1933 eight buses and three moving vans of enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) left Fort Washington, MD to head deep into the Massanutten Mountain Range in the George Washington National Forest (GWNF). This all under a grant from President Roosevelt to begin developing the forest in Shenandoah for travel and recreation. The CCC is responsible for many camps in the GWNF, including Camp Roosevelt (or Camp F-1), the first of several built by the CCC, as well as the building of Fort Valley Road and the Edinburg to Luray road (Edinburg Gap). The CCC is almost solely to credit for the first developments of most all of the trails and recreation areas in GWNF and the history and work of those crews is an interesting tale. James Wilkins, a leader of the CCC in GWNF said, “The government got more for their money on the CCC program than on any program they ever had before or since.” For more details about the development of GWNF between Fort Valley and Woodstock by the CCC in the 1930s, see the NPS.gov article here.
The Woodstock Tower was built in a joint effort from the people of Woodstock and the CCC, partly for fire-spotting, but mostly for recreation on top of Powell Mountain in the 1930s. Part of the mission of the CCC then was to help educate the people who lived in the mountains about fire prevention (and fight fires themselves). “Movie trucks” were often driven into the forest to show films on the topic to local residents, many of whom had never seen a movie. It’s likely the tower was used by the CCC until the early 1940s when Camp Roosevelt was closed.
Of course the best part of the tower view is the famous Seven Bends of the Shenandoah River. The bends are so defined and orderly they almost look man-made. In fact it’s so winding that the river flows 51 miles between Woodstock and Strasburg even though the two towns are only 12 miles apart. I searched for any historical significance of the seven bends and couldn’t find anything (if anyone has any insight here, I’d love to know), so it seems the most famous part of the seven bends is that they are beautiful to see, and they are.
Getting to the Trails
I say “trails” because there are really two ways to get to the tower. We’ll call it the short way (Tower Trail) and the long way (Wagon-Nature Trail to Peters Mill Run Trail to Tower Trail).
From Rte 11 in Woodstock take SR 665 east (it only goes east) at the Woodstock Shopping Center. There is a new sign for the tower at that intersection, in front of the Health & Human Services Building at the Shopping Center with a map to help you. 665 becomes Mill Rd, then Woodstock Tower Rd (SR 758), but there are few, if any signs telling you that. Once your cross the Shenandoah River on the Bernshire Bridge (which you’ll be able to see from the Tower), you’ll veer right and start heading up the mountain.
The road up the mountain (758) is closed in the winter with a gate. After driving up there in good weather, I can see why. The road can be narrow, sometimes one lane with no rails and steep drop-offs and lots of switchbacks, so go slowly with your lights on. It can be courteous to give a short honk of the horn around bends to warn any cars coming your way on the other side of a bend.
Once you get to the top of the mountain and notice yourself leveling out a bit, there is a pull-off on the right side with a sign that says “Woodstock Tower” and pink blazings on the trees. If you’re coming from Woodstock, you can’t see the writing on the sign until you pass it, but you’ll see the small pull off area. For those interested only in the short, .05 mile walk on Tower Trail, park here and head up.
For those interested in the 1 mile hike, keep driving. You’ll start descending and after a switchback, you’ll see the “Peter’s Mill Run ATV/OHV Parking.” This is closed through the winter, but in summer you can park up there, but really I recommend going just another 1/2 mile to the Little Fort Recreation Area which you’ll see on your right.
Little Fort is simply a small camping/rec area with about 10 spots for campers. You can park just about anywhere that seems safe on the side of the small drive, but don’t block a numbered camping area. On your right side, you’ll see a big sign with information on Peters Mill Run and the Wagon Rd/Nature Trail with a gate. This is where your hike will begin.
Walking the Trails
The short, Tower Trail starts at the “Woodstock Tower” sign at the top of the mountain. You’ll walk in along stone steps placed there by the CCC in the early 1930s about 1,500 feet to the tower. The Tower trail is blazed with pink on the trees. There is an intersection with the Wagon Road Nature Trail, but just stay straight to the Tower.
The longer hike (1 mile in, re-traced back out) starts at the Little Fort Recreation Area. You begin by getting on the Wagon Road Nature Trail which is through the gate (or around, if it’s closed) at the sign. You’ll notice yellow V-Blazes at first. That’s because this part of the trail is open to ATVs. Be careful to stay out of their way! But this is only the first few hundred feet. At that point you’ll reach an intersection with Peters Mill Run. When you get here, just look across the trail to the right and you’ll see the Wagon Road Nature Trail next to a little yellow sign warning ATVs not to go on it (but you are more than welcome).
The Wagon Road Nature Trail is blazed white all the way up and there’s also these short angle-cut brown posts along the way so it’s really easy to follow. Once you get to the top you’ll reach Tower Trail which is pink blazed. Turn left onto Tower Trail and the Tower will be straight ahead!
On the Tower
To the east are the seven bends, to the west, you’ll be looking down into Fort Valley. Fort Valley is a 23-mile narrow north-south area called “the valley within valley” because it is literally between two arms of the Massanutten Mountain range. Fort Valley was almost completely isolated and near impossible to get to before the 1930s, and that’s one reason why George Washington ordered Daniel Morgan (of Winchester, VA) to build a single northern road into it (now SR 678) next to Passage Creek as a possible “last stand” naturally fortified area to protect his troops from the British in the American Revolution, should they begin to lose the war. Thankfully for all of us, they won a decisive battle at Yorktown, and that’s why we’re all here today.
In the 1930s, the CCC built SR 758 from Fort Valley to Woodstock to the West and Fort Valley Road (SR 675) to Edinburg and Luray.
Some Other Random Hints
Just 20 feet before you get to the tower, there is a remnant of a trail to the right that descends to another trail. If you go down the remnant trail (be careful, there’s lot of rocks to slip on and holes for feet to get stuck in) and then turn left on the more defined trail below, you’ll come a very nice clearing that gives you another stunning view of the seven bends of the Shenandoah.
Do not go up to this area in the winter or during or just after heavy rains. Normally, the gate up from Woodstock will close this road, but if it’s open and there’s inclement weather, I would recommend turning around. The road is generally safe, but not when there’s ice, snow, or very heavy rains.
A lot of sites show this as an “Easy” or “1 Difficulty Level.” The problem is that there are two separate trails. The Tower Trail only is definitely easy — barely even a hike. But the Wagon Road Nature Trail I would classify as a 2 of 5 difficulty as it ascends almost the entire way with few flat areas, but no dangerous areas or climbing.
All our pictures from the hike: