HIKING VIRGINIA

Hikers are the latest folks to enjoy Holliday Creek in a line stretching back 8,000 years: Native Americans, gold miners, homesteaders, Confederate soldiers, scientists, foresters, and anglers—each found this beautiful stream suited their needs. Today, one of its greatest attributes—the scenery—enjoys protection within the largest of Virginia’s state forests, the Appomattox-Buckingham. This prime Piedmont spot has mountain laurel bloom in spring, and the hills and a gorge near Holliday Lake dam defy anyone who equates Piedmont with pastoral. Throw in three unaided stream crossings and you’ve got an adventure that rivals any found in Virginia’s mountains.

THE RUNDOWN

Start: Woolridge Wayside off VA 640

Distance: 7.4 miles point to point, with an option for an 11.5-mile loop

Hiking time: About 4 hours

Difficulty: Moderate due to 3 difficult stream crossings and occasional bushwhacks

Trail surface: Dirt forest roads and woodland paths lead hikers along grassy stream banks, a pristine river, and steep slopes, as well as through marshes and a gorge.

Land status: State forest and state park

Nearest town: Appomattox, VA

Other trail users: Anglers; open to foot traffic only

Accessibility: Trout Trail is not accessible; however, there are accessible facilities at Holliday Lake State Park.

Canine compatibility: Dogs permitted

Trail contacts: Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest, Dillwyn, (434) 983-2175, www.dof.virginia.gov/stateforest/list; Holliday Lake State Park, Appomattox, (434) 248-6308, www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/hol.shtml

Schedule: Park and forest open daily year-round, dawn to dusk. Hunting is permitted in the state forest (mid-Nov through the first weekend of Jan is the busiest season). Holliday Creek is stocked in the fall, winter, and early spring. Catch-and-release rules are in effect Oct through May (artificial lures only). Open harvest extends from June 1 to Sept 30.

Fees/permits: No state forest entrance fee (a $15 State Forest Use Permit is required for fishing). State park parking fee and camping fee. You’ll need a statewide fishing license and a trout stamp if you plan on fishing. For fees and to purchase online, visit www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing.

Facilities/features: The state park has camping, picnicking, swimming, and boating on a 150-acre lake.

NatGeo TOPO! map: Holliday Lake.

Other maps: A Trail Guide/Map is available at the park and downloadable on its website. A free map of the state forest and Trout Trail is available at the state forest headquarters located 1.1 miles north of the Woolridge Wayside on VA 636.

From Appomattox Court House, drive 8.5 miles east on VA 24 from the intersection of US 460 and VA 24. Turn right onto VA 626 and in 3.4 miles turn left on VA 640 (Woolridge Road). In 0.3 mile after this intersection, pass the state park entrance road on the right. Continue straight another 1 mile on VA 640 to the Woolridge Wayside on the left side of the road. GPS: N37 25.585′ / W78 39.447′. DeLorme: Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer: Page 45, A7.

Shuttle Point: From Woolridge Wayside, turn right and drive south on VA 640 for 1 mile. Turn left on VA 692/State Park Road and continue straight at an intersection with VA 614. In 3.8 miles, reach the ranger contact and fee station. Once inside the park, follow signs for the beach and picnic areas. The southern trailhead for the Lakeshore Trail is adjacent to picnic area #1. GPS: N37 23.712′ / W78 38.336′. DeLorme: Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer: Page 45, A7.

Virginia’s Piedmont isn’t exactly a hot spot for rocky gorges and deep stream valleys. Yet here you stand on the stream bank of Holliday Creek in Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest, watching water froth, twist, and turn through a narrow cleft between two steep hills. Stream boulders stir up rapids. Off one hillside, a small stream feeds the frenzy with spring runoff.

Watching the water tumble over a small cascade, you might consider how a prospector would view this scenery. The base of a waterfall, it turns out, is a great place to find gold.

Virginia settlers were first in the nation to mine gold. A lode deposit in Spotsylvania County triggered a rush that faltered only when California gold lured miners west in 1848–50. Around Buckingham County, gold ushered in some high times. Twenty or so mines operated, a few even into the 1900s. One near Dillwyn in Buckingham produced nuggets 3 pounds in weight, the largest found anywhere in the state. Up the road from Dillwyn, the name of the town Gold Hill speaks for itself—the precious metal was prospected here for a number of years.

Early miners focused on streams such as Holliday Creek, using a technique called placer (plas-ser) mining, whereby they panned up sandy streams for gold dust until the trail ran cold. Then they scouted surrounding hillsides, looking for the vein that produced the stream residue. If they found one, they sunk a shaft. Mine sizes varied. The Buckingham Mine in Dillwyn dug 183 feet. The Burnett Mine, also near Dillwyn, needed only 58 feet before hitting gold. After striking a vein, the difficult work of extracting gold began. Workers at the Buckingham Mine crushed 20 tons of ore a day to produce 130 hundredweight (or 208,000 ounces) of gold per year.

Gold is just one mineral among many Virginia’s Piedmont has yielded over the course of European settlement. Upstream from the confluence of the Appomattox River and Holliday Creek, the lake dam marks one end of a long, low ridge. Contained in the bedrock is another rock worth mining—Buckingham slate, considered in the slate industry to be among the highest quality produced in the United States today. Much of the activity centers around Arvonia, a village settled by immigrants of a Welsh town of the same name. Slate carving in Arvonia, Virginia, is an art. Eaves of some homes are trimmed in decorative slate. Tombstones in the cemetery, carved out of slate, are in the shape of household furniture, like beds, couches, and baby cribs.

Also in the vicinity of Holliday Lake stands the privately owned Willis Mountain, which is mined for kyanite, a mineral used in heat-absorbing products—like the white ceramic on a motor spark plug. Some people believe wearing a piece of this bluish-white mineral on a necklace or holding it in your hands induces a calm feeling during times of distress and aids meditation. (Kyanite also flakes and crumbles into tiny, sharp points and shards that may cause splinters. This, in turn, will produce a sensation quite opposite that of calm. So be careful if you handle it.)

If crystals aren’t your thing, the clear waters of Holliday Lake produce a calming sensation as well. Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers dammed Holliday Creek and formed the 150-acre lake in 1938. Similar public works projects at Bear Creek Lake State Park in Cumberland County and Twin Lakes State Park in Prince Edward County served as a source of work for unemployed men during the Great Depression and a means of reclaiming overfarmed, barren land for recreational uses. Conspiracy buffs will enjoy the rumor circulating in Buckingham County about the size and location of Holliday Lake. Some will have you believe this long lake was built as a practice landing strip for amphibious aircraft pilots-in-training. This is undocumented, but still interesting. What’s certain is that pike, pickerel, largemouth bass, and bluegill thrive in its water, and anglers are welcome to cast their lines here.

An archaeological dig at the mouth of Holliday Creek has unearthed Native American arrowheads and pottery shards dating from 8,000 years ago. Signs of permanent settlement—domestication of plants and animals—date back 500 years. Anthropologists believe that prior to European colonization, the state was split between the Powhatans of eastern Virginia and the Monacans, who laid claim to land west of the James River headwaters. The region we call central Virginia lay between them and acted as a kind of buffer zone between these sometimes-warring empires. Native Americans traveled regularly through the area, but did not settle the land. Instead, they treated it as a prehistoric preserve (or, in modern terms, a demilitarized zone) available to both for hunting and fishing. After 8,000 years and so many different uses, Holliday Creek has come full circle, enjoying status today as a preserve of the state.

MILES AND DIRECTIONS

0.0Start at the Woolridge Wayside on VA 640. Exit the wayside by turning right (south) on VA 640 and walking downhill.

0.3Cross Holliday Creek on VA 640 and immediately turn left (east) onto the Trout Trail, which is a faint road trace overgrown with grass. A wood gate blocks vehicle traffic. Follow this road trace downstream. Trout Trail is not blazed, but follows old roadbeds for all but a short stretch. Note: Late spring through summer, the trail is overgrown with thorny greenbrier and tall grass.

0.5The trail ends at Holliday Creek. A steep-sided hill on the right forces a stream crossing. Passage during periods of low water is aided by a sandbar that divides the stream into two shallow channels.

0.8A road enters the trail from the left. Continue straight on the Trout Trail.

1.2The trail reverts to a narrow path as the hillside on your left steepens.

1.4Cross a small tributary of Holliday Creek. There is a great swimming hole amid the shallow pools formed by the rocks and stream. Note: This is a rugged section of trail. Use caution.

1.7Look closely at exposed rock on your left. It’s shot through with small dikes of a white, crystal-like rock. The gray mass is felsic volcanic rock that oozed through crevices in the Piedmont landscape 800 million years ago. During ensuing periods of metamorphism, the white rock, called pegmatite, shot through the volcanic rock under incredible heat and pressure. Geologists consider this outcrop one of the finer examples of this region’s underlying rock strata.

1.9Climb up a short hill to a junction with the Carter Taylor Multi-Use Trail. Turn right (east) and walk a few feet to paved VA 614/Walker Road. Turn right (south) again, walk down the road and cross the stream on the road bridge, then turn left down a gravel road. Near the stream bottom, avoid a short right-arching spur trail, which leads to a metal shed and a USGS water-quality testing facility.

2.0The gravel road dead-ends at Holliday Creek, forcing another stream crossing. The water is deeper here and there are no sandbars to aid hikers. After crossing, walk up the stream bank and turn right on the combined Trout Trail/Carter Taylor Multi-Use Trail.

2.1At a fork in the trail, veer right (south) and downhill toward the stream’s edge. Note: The Carter Taylor Multi-Use Trail veers left at this junction.

2.4Cross Holliday Creek and continue hiking the Trout Trail downstream.

2.9Turn right (north) at a T-junction with the Carter Taylor Multi-Use Trail, following red blazes. Note: To the left at this junction is a stream crossing for horseback riders.

3.0Veer left (west) on a footpath at a Y-junction. Note: The red-blazed Carter Taylor Multi-Use Trail veers right and uphill.

3.1The Trout Trail ends at the Lakeshore Trail at a clearing with a picnic table. Turn left (east) onto Lakeshore Trail and cross Holliday Creek on a wooden footbridge, then turn right. Note: This junction requires some alert hiking, given that the Carter Taylor Multi-Use Trail passes close by. There are also trails to a fording spot for horses.

3.5Pass by a nature observation deck on Holliday Lake.

4.1Bear left and uphill at a wooden sign for an overlook. It is a 0.1-mile climb to the view. The overlook trail descends the opposite side of the hill and rejoins the Lakeshore Trail.

4.8Come around the steep side of a hill and drop to the lake dam on a set of very, very steep stairs. Note: Look closely on exposed rock for fish-scale patterns. The dam is built on a fault where Holliday Creek, over millions of years, cut a path through Arvonian slate. This mica rock is softer than the volcanic rock known to exist in the hillsides around it. The effect is something like bookends. When the soft middle shifts, it creates the scale patterns.

5.3Reach the southern tip of Holliday Lake. A fence marks the junction with a private trail leading to a 4-H Camp. Turn left and continue on the Lakeshore Trail and climb alongside Cemetery Creek into upland woods.

6.0Reach VA 723 near the 4-H Camp gate. Walk straight across the road and reenter the woods. The trail parallels VA 723, which is on your left.

6.2Turn right (north) onto a wide dirt and grass road.

6.6Turn left (north) off the dirt and grass road at a blazed junction. Enter the woods on Lakeshore Trail, which is a narrow dirt woodland path.

7.1Cross Sanders Creek on a footbridge and turn left (downstream). There are picnic areas on the hillside slope on the left side of the trail.

7.3Enter the beach area of Holliday Lake State Park. Cut across the grass parking area to reach picnic area #1.

7.4Hike ends at picnic area #1 and the trailhead for Northridge Trail. Option: To extend this hike to 11.5 miles and make it a loop, continue north on the Northridge Trail to its junction with Lakeshore Trail, and continue thereon to Trout Trail and the trailhead at the Woolridge Wayside on VA 640.

Appomattox Visitor Information Center, 214 Main St., Appomattox; (434) 352-8999; www.historicappomattox.com. Located in a historic train depot.

Historic Appomattox Railroad Festival, second weekend in Oct, Appomattox, (434) 363-8003, http://www.appomattoxrrfest.org. Food, music, crafts, a parade, and fireworks commemorate the donation of the Appomattox train depot to the town by Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Appomattox, (434) 352-8987, www.nps.gov/apco. Park preserves the site where Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union general Ulysses S. Grant, an act that formally ended the Civil War. Walking tours, interpreters, and special events commemorate this small village’s big role in the war.

Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries, Farmville, (804) 367-1000, www.dgif.state.va.us. Information on fishing Holliday Creek and places to buy fishing stamps and licenses.

12. TROUT TRAIL