HIKING VIRGINIA

Geology lesson: Virginia did not have glaciers, hence there are really no natural lakes in the state. The largest lakes are actually man-made reservoirs. Virginia’s only true mountain lake is quite small and was formed by a fluke incident. It sits just outside this, the largest of all Virginia wilderness areas. And most of your climbing is done in the car getting here. Which is just fine, really, because this saves your breath for exploring upland bogs on Lone Pine Peak, slabs of Tuscarora sandstone on Salt Pond Mountain, and a red spruce glade on Potts Mountain. Trails through Mountain Lake Wilderness are well marked and maintained (the Appalachian Trail is the most-traveled route).

THE RUNDOWN

Start: Parking lot for the War Spur Loop on the right side of VA 613

Distance: 10.2-mile loop

Hiking time: About 6 hours

Difficulty: Moderate due to distance, steep climbs, and poor trail markings on Potts Mountain

Trail surface: Narrow dirt woodland paths lead through fern glades, mountaintop swamps, and steep rock outcrops.

Land status: National forest wilderness

Nearest town: Blacksburg, VA

Other trail users: Hikers only

Accessibility: None

Canine compatibility: Dogs permitted

Trail contact: Eastern Divide Ranger District, Blacksburg; (540) 552-4641, www.fs.usda.gov/gwj

Schedule: Open year-round. Hunting is permitted on national forest property, with Nov through Jan the busiest season.

Fees/permits: None

Facilities/features: None

NatGeo TOPO! map: Waiteville, Interior

NatGeo Trails Illustrated map: Blacksburg, New River Valley; Covington, Alleghany Highlands; Appalachian Trail, Bailey Gap to Calf Mountain; New River Blueway

From Blacksburg, drive north on US 460 for 10 miles and turn right onto VA 700. In 6.8 miles, pass through Mountain Lake Lodge. Here, VA 700 changes to VA 613 and wraps around the west side of Mountain Lake. The road turns to gravel 0.7 mile past the hotel. After another 0.9 mile the road forks; bear left. The parking area for the War Spur-Chestnut Loop is 3.5 miles past the resort. Option: If using a shuttle, drive a second car 2.1 miles up VA 613 to a parking area for Wind Rock and the Appalachian Trail (AT). GPS: N37 23.445′ / W80 30.481′. DeLorme: Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer: Page 41, A5.

Admit it. Hiking is an obsession. The gear, the trail, the miles—all of it has consumed your life. The new grill in the backyard stands idle while you sprint from work on Friday to meet that mountaintop on Saturday. The lawn needs mowing, but you’ve got no time for such frivolity. On the trail, your mantra is Farther, Faster.

Suddenly, after a long, sweaty day in pursuit of the almighty loop, you encounter the unusual. Maybe it’s a great view. Maybe it’s a morning mist rising off a wildlife pond, or a stream’s song as it cuts through crowded woodland. Whatever form it takes, these are as unexpected and pleasant as a breeze on a hot day. They stir something deep within. The mellow you, the one who tugs at your conscience, says, Hey, hold up. Stay here a while.

Because the experience is both unusual and infrequent, coming across an upland bog ranks as that type of special moment. The observant hiker finds upland bogs in small depressions on a flat mountaintop or in broad gaps. They often form the headwaters of streams—even when the stream doesn’t appear to be in the immediate area. Steeped in water year-round, an upland bog hosts plants that wouldn’t survive 10 feet away in dry, gray-brown soil of the deciduous forest. Animals converge on it as if it were a desert oasis, both to eat and sometimes to be eaten.

Salt Pond Mountain in Mountain Lake Wilderness holds the right ingredients for an upland bog. The highest point is a flat pan of forest stretching a half-mile in a northwest direction. The forest is mostly skinny hardwoods—oak, beech, poplar. As War Spur Connector Trail approaches a downhill stretch that will end at the Appalachian Trail (AT), trees on the left give way to a grassy patch. It looks at first glance like a nice campsite. One step into the clearing, the ground turns soft and wet. Perhaps, you think as you pull a foot from the mire, this is why there are no fire rings. Walking the perimeter of the bog, you see Indian pipe stem and Virginia chain fern. Unseen to the eye, the fern spreads long, thin rhizomes beneath the soil. New ferns grow off this rhizome while roots sink deep into the bog, with its layered leaf rot. Bogs hold water like a sponge, ensuring lush conditions even in drought.

After you’ve climbed to the summit of Lone Pine Peak, you’ll notice another upland opening on the right side of the AT on Lone Pine Peak. Here, the ground is drier. Laurel and winterberry add a shrubby, dense appearance to the forest understory encircling the bog. Camouflaged and positioned carefully, you might see a deer pick its way through mountain maple and scrub oak, nibbling on the grass or ferns covering the wet, spongy earth. In August or September, the red or gray fox might approach a mountain winterberry for a mouthful of red fruit. Long-stalked holly, similar in appearance to the winterberry, grows exclusively in the moist conditions of upland bogs. The chief difference between these two deciduous shrubs is the flowers: Long-stalked holly’s flowers are a yellow-green color; the flower of a mountain winterberry has white petals.

Sit next to either bog for a spell and the sound of busy birds calling and singing fills your ears. If it’s early spring, it’s a male songbird who has arrived early from southern environs to prepare a nest. You might hear black and white wrens, a solitary vireo, and robins. You might see a tufted titmouse flit from thin branch to ground for a quick forage among the leaf litter. But whether you can tell the song of an eastern wood-pewee (pee-ah-wee) from a white-breasted nuthatch’s call (a rapid wer-wer-wer) isn’t really the point. Purse your lips and make up your own song, then see what kind of bird comes to investigate.

The best of Mountain Lake Wilderness’s bogs comes last. In the Southern Appalachians, where you find red spruce, you’ll find Fraser fir (like a married couple, they’re always together, thus giving rise to the nicknames: he-balsam for spruce and she-balsam for fir). Not so on Potts Mountain, which lost its oak, chestnut, and red spruce in the first decade of the 20th century—all, that is, except for small patches now protected by federal wilderness. A red spruce bog grows in the headwaters of Stony Creek on Potts Mountain’s south-facing slope; there are strong ecological ties between this spot and the highland wilderness of Mount Rogers. Despite a difference in elevation of about 1,000 feet, both Little Wilson Creek Wilderness at Mount Rogers National Recreation Area (NRA) and Mountain Lake Wilderness Areas protect old-growth red spruce. It’s worth pondering, as you sit next to this rarest of upland bogs, why the red spruce, the most common of the native spruce trees in the East and a mainstay of northern forests, is relegated to isolated spots here in Virginia. No matter what answer you arrive at, their rarity makes listening to that inner voice—the one that tells you Stay here a while—a lot easier.

MILES AND DIRECTIONS

0.0Start at the parking area on VA 613. Enter the woods and immediately turn right onto the War Spur Loop Trail.

1.0Bear right on a short 0.2 mile detour to a rock outcrop with jaw-dropping views down into the War Spur stream valley and the formidable Potts Mountain ridgeline. After returning from the overlook rejoin War Spur Loop Trail, bear right, and descend to War Spur Branch.

1.8Reach War Spur Branch. In this dark stream valley, turn left and follow the trail as it leads upstream beneath old-growth hemlocks. Side trip: Experienced hikers can bushwhack War Spur Branch downstream for 1.6 miles to the AT. Where War Spur Branch intersects with the AT, turn left onto the AT. In 75 yards, pass the War Spur Shelter on the right. The AT climbs steeply and, in 1 mile from the War Spur Shelter, intersects War Spur Connector Trail on the left. The first part of this side trip is a difficult bushwhack with many stream crossings. War Spur Branch is overgrown with mountain laurel and rhododendron, which hinders passage.

2.2Reach a T junction of War Spur Loop Trail and War Spur Connector Trail. Turn right onto the War Spur Connector Trail. Option: A left turn leads 0.2 mile to the parking area on VA 613.

2.5Scrub oak, Allegheny chinquapin, and witch hazel open onto a grassy, fern-ringed upland bog on the left side of the trail. A few feet past this on the right, a boulder field is visible through the trees. Large slabs of Tuscarora sandstone lay scattered over 3 or 4 acres. There are no tall cliffs or rock ledges—just disrupted, disjointed chunks of rock.

2.9Turn left onto the AT and begin a short, steep ascent of Lone Pine Peak. You’ll climb 335 feet in less than 0.5 mile to reach the wooded 4,054-foot summit.

3.7Another upland bog opens up on the right side of the AT.

4.0Double white blazes mark a hard left turn onto the AT. Instead of following the AT left, continue straight into the woods on a faint, unblazed path. In 0.1 mile, emerge from the woods onto Potts Mountain Trail, a wide, grassy forest road. A tall oak tree in the middle of the road marks this spot. Turn right onto Potts Mountain Trail and walk along the gently sloping ridgeline. Note: There are several campsites within the next mile.

5.2Reach White Rocks, an exposed rock formation on Potts Mountain with overlooks onto Little Mountain and beyond to Stony Run. To the east you will see Johns Creek Mountain and the War Spur drainage. Turn and retrace your steps along Potts Mountain Trail.

6.3Pass the tall oak that marks the spur trail to the AT; continue straight on Potts Mountain Trail. You may see faint white blazes on trees, leftovers from days when the AT followed Potts Mountain Trail.

7.1Enter a large, sloping field overgrown with tall grass. The trail climbs from the bottom of the field to a clearing in the grass in the middle of the field. The trail then arcs gently right and reenters woods at the top of the field. Stay alert: There are no blazes or trail markers through this field. Several roads branch off from the clearing in the middle of the field.

7.3Potts Mountain Trail passes through another clearing. Concrete pilings off the left side of the trail are all that remain of the Stony Creek lookout tower.

7.7Potts Mountain Trail junctions with the AT, which enters from the left side. Off the right side of Potts Mountain Trail is Wind Rock, another overlook across to Fork Mountain and the West Virginia state line.

8.1The AT ends at a gravel parking lot on VA 613. If you’re shuttling, the hike ends here. If not, turn left and hike 2.1 miles on gravel VA 613 to the hike starting point.

10.2Arrive back at the gravel parking area for the War Spur Loop.

Mountain Lake Lodge, Pembroke, (540) 626-7121, www.mountainlakelodge.com. The iconic hotel where Dirty Dancing was filmed.

32. MOUNTAIN LAKE WILDERNESS