HIKING VIRGINIA

Pine Mountain Trail traces a razor’s edge along the Virginia-Kentucky border. You’re walking a geological fault line known as an overthrust plate—a chunk of the earth’s crust that buckled, broke, and ramped up over another chunk hundreds of millions of years ago. The resulting terrain slopes gently east to Virginia, while to the west, sheer drops of 500 feet or more fall away into Kentucky. The stunning views, combined with the rugged terrain, make this one of Virginia’s most dramatic and scenic trails. The length of the trail and its remoteness make it one of the most challenging as well.

THE RUNDOWN

Start: Highlands Section trailhead on US 23 in Pound Gap

Distance: 15.7 miles point to point

Hiking time: 8-10 hours

Difficulty: Strenuous due to length and rugged terrain

Trail surface: Dirt footpaths and dirt roads lead to high escarpments, upland forest, and spectacular vistas off exposed rock faces.

Land status: National forest

Nearest towns: Pound, VA; Whitesburg, KY

Other trail users: Hunters (in season)

Accessibility: None

Canine compatibility: Dogs permitted

Trail contacts: Pine Mountain Trail Conference, www.pinemountaintrail.com; Clinch Ranger District, Norton, (276) 679-8370, www.fs.usda.gov/gwj.

Schedule: Open year-round. Hunting is allowed on national forest property. Deer-hunting season in Wise and Dickenson Counties runs Oct through Jan. The national forest limits hiking groups to 10 people.

Fees/permits: None

Facilities/features: None

NatGeo TOPO! map: Jenkins West, Jenkins East, Clintwood, Hellier, Elkhorn City

NatGeo Trails Illustrated map: Clinch Ranger District

Other maps: Pine Mountain Trail Conference has excellent downloadable trail guides and maps at www.pinemountaintrail.com/maps.

From Pound, drive north on US 23 for 3 miles. In Pound Gap, just before passing into Kentucky, turn left into the Stateline Food Mart. Parking for hikers is provided on the side and in the back of this convenience store and gas station. GPS: N37 09.213′ / W82 37.937′. DeLorme: Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer: Page 36, C2.

Shuttle point: Shuttle service is available at www.pinemountaintrail.com/shuttles. From Pound Gap, drive north on US 23 for 1.3 miles to a junction with US 119 in Kentucky. Turn left onto US 119 and drive 10.8 miles to Whitesburg, Kentucky. At a junction with KY 15 in Whitesburg, turn left and continue on US 119 as it climbs Pine Mountain. In 4.9 miles, turn right into a trailhead parking area for the Pine Mountain Trail’s Little Shepherd Trail section. There is parking for more than twenty cars and an interpretive sign. GPS: N37 04.581′ / W82 48.644′. DeLorme: Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer: Page 37, B5.

At its core, Pine Mountain is a geologic phenomenon called the Cumberland Overthrust Block. The mountain range formed when a piece of the earth’s crust buckled and broke. The southeast chunk of rock (the Virginia piece) moved between 6 and 11 miles west and slid up and over the northwest rock (the Kentucky piece) at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees. The highest bits of rock on Pine Mountain are sandstone normally found 2,000 feet underground. And here’s a kicker: It’s thought that the Pine Mountain we see today is half its original size.

There is another story about Pine Mountain, one of settlers and generations that followed them. The first settlers moved to southwest Virginia seeking isolation—from people, politics, and/or culture. Most settlers worked hard in the logging and mining industry. They were fiercely independent, to the point of suspecting any kind of authority. Some turned outlaw; others ran moonshine. Doc Taylor, aka “Red Fox” a notorious local outlaw, hid amid the caves and hollows of Pine Mountain. He was later hanged in Big Stone Gap for murder. In the gaps of Pine Mountain, settlers eked out a living—barely. Their cows grazed on rocky slopes. Cornfields cheapened already thin soil. Crop rotation simply meant clearing a few more acres and planting anew. Wherever they set roots, settlers guarded their holdings closely, often to protect their stills. For a time, moonshine was the cash crop of the region.

Knowing a bit of this history made meeting Henry Mullins special. Dusk had settled on our second day of hiking when Mullins stepped from the shadow of Birch Knob and introduced himself. He and his girlfriend had driven up to Birch Knob to catch the sunset. Together, the four of us climbed the final rocky upthrust. Sitting atop the second-highest bump in the long Pine Mountain ridge, Henry pulled out a beverage and lit a cigarette. I figured this was as good a time as any to ask if he knew the Henry Mullins killed on Pine Mountain.

The Henry Mullins I had read about lived at Dutton Bottom Farm. As the story goes, deputized Virginians came upon Mullins’s cabin while hunting for stills in the mountains. They had, earlier that day, found a still and partook in some of the spoils. Drunk and ornery, they found a bottle of moonshine on Mullins’s front porch—which was located on the Virginia side of the Virginia-Kentucky border—and confronted him. Mullins protested his innocence. A scuffle broke out and a deputy shot and killed Mullins. Local authorities decided jurisdiction lay with Kentucky, and the deputies were tried and convicted, although they served minimal time.

As the sun slipped behind the Kentucky mountains, modern-day Henry Mullins confessed never having heard the story. In the lingering twilight, we climbed down off the peak and parted ways as darkness settled in, Mary and I to our tent, Henry and his girl to civilization in a Ford Bronco.

The latest chapter in Pine Mountain’s rich history is being written as you read this. Dedicated and enthusiastic organizers and hikers in Virginia and Kentucky, working under the guidance of the Pine Mountain Trail Conference, have rebuilt and re-blazed 42 miles of trail from Breaks Interstate Park to Cumberland Gap Historical Park. When we first hiked the northern section of Pine Mountain Trail in the 1990s, Shad Baker—now the trail conference president—assisted with route planning, water sources, and local contacts. Nearly 20 years later, as we prepared to hike a new section of the trail, there again was Shad with a smile and lending hand.

The strong commitment to building this trail and maintaining it—while still preserving and interpreting the rich history of the region’s people—places Pine Mountain in the ranks of other great long trails, like the Bartram in North Carolina, Allegheny in West Virginia, and Tuscarora in Virginia, in offering some of the best long-distance trekking in the East.

Pine Mountain’s past rests easy with homesteaders, coal miners, and outlaws. Its future looks to be in good hands, too. Without fail, when a fellow hiker asks which hike in Virginia we find most beautiful yet most challenging—the answer is always “Pine Mountain.” End of story.

MILES AND DIRECTIONS

0.0Start at a set of stone steps leading up a grass embankment next to the Stateline Food Mart. Climb the steps and bear left (south) on a mowed path through a grass field.

0.1Pass through a fence stile that keeps out horseback riders and motorized vehicles and continue downhill on the Pine Mountain Trail, which is blazed with fluorescent green markers.

0.7Veer left onto an old forest road, a junction marked by a double blue blaze, and hike around a small knob in the Pine Mountain ridgeline. This pattern—the trail swerving south to work around the south side of small knobs—repeats itself numerous times in the first 5 miles along this hike.

0.8Veer right and uphill at a double blaze as Pine Mountain Trail splits off the old forest road and climbs to a saddle as a singletrack woods path.

1.5Reach the Jack Sautter Campsite and a turnoff for the Old Meade homesite. There is a fire ring and four established tent sites here. Note: There is a water source at the Old Meade homesite, a 0.2-mile hike off the trail via an old mountain road.

2.4Pass through a stone cleft in the mountain ridge at Twin Cliffs. Side trip: Turn left and scale open rock to reach a perch atop one of the Twin Cliffs in less than 0.1 mile. Views from this high point stretch south and east into Virginia.

2.8Stay alert as a double blaze marks a hard left turn and then skirts another knob.

2.9Pass through Cold Spring Gap.

3.0Stay alert for a hard left turn as the trail skirts another knob.

3.5Turn left as Pine Mountain Trail merges with a forest road. Follow the wide two-track road downhill.

3.6Stay straight on Pine Mountain Trail as the forest road forks. The trail climbs the ridge as a wide two-track dirt road.

3.8Turn left off the dirt road and follow the Pine Mountain Trail as it passes through rock outcrops. Where the trail briefly rejoins the dirt road, stay alert: Within a few feet, turn left again and follow the trail downhill to slip around another knob that rises uphill on the right. Note: This work-around is meant to avoid private property.

3.9A double blaze and a wood sign with an arrow mark a sharp right turn in the trail. Turn right and climb up to Poplar Hollow Gap. In the gap, the trail reverts to an ATV trail.

4.7In Indian Grave Gap, veer left off the ATV track and follow the trail as a footpath as it skirts another knob on Pine Mountain’s ridgeline.

5.4Reach Indian Grave campsite. (This is a primitive campsite with a seasonal water supply—no water flow in fall and winter months.) After the campsite, the trail rises to the ridgeline, finally offering views north into Kentucky.

5.9Follow the trail as it drops left off the ridgeline to skirt Bob Simmons Cave, a small cavity in a large rock outcrop uphill on the right. After working around the exposed rock, regain the ridge and enjoy nice views off to the right (north) down into Kentucky.

6.4After a steep descent through a tunnel of rhododendron, pass through Bear Track Gap (2,910 feet).

6.6Finish the climb out of Bear Track Gap by turning right and uphill on a forest road. For the next mile, the trail follows a narrow two-track path.

7.5Double blazes mark a right turn off the narrow two-track path onto a woods path as you begin a descent to Adena Spring shelter.

7.7Reach Adena Spring shelter. Follow the trail as it swings right and downhill. In 0.1 mile, pass a natural spring. Note: Adena is an AT-style covered shelter with room to sleep six to eight people. There is a fire ring, a privy, and a bear pole to hang food.

8.5Pass through State Line Knob (3,206 feet). From this point south, Pine Mountain Trail runs entirely within the state of Kentucky.

9.2At a USGS benchmark, turn left and head downhill on an old forest road. After a short descent, the trail climbs steeply to another benchmark that marks the highpoint of Mayking Knob (3,273 feet), the highest point on Pine Mountain.

9.3Just past a power substation, descend a tall ledge on a set of iron rungs drilled into the rock. The next 2 miles showcase Pine Mountain’s famous cliff-lines and views west into Kentucky at places like Slip and Slide Rock, Box Rock, Mar’s Rock, and High Rock.

9.9Reach the Swindell campsite, a primitive camp with no water sources. Continue south on Pine Mountain Trail.

10.0Follow the trail as it turns left off the ridgeline and descends.

10.5Cross over The Cliff, an exposed rock face with steep dropoffs off the trail to the right.

10.9Continue on the green-blazed Pine Mountain Trail at a junction with the High Rock Loop Trail on the left. Option: High Rock Loop Trail descends into a hemlock grove around the headwaters of Bad Branch and rejoins Pine Mountain Trail at mile 12.0 below. The trail and land is protected as the Bad Branch State Nature Preserve.

11.1Cross Mar’s Rock, another exposed rock face with ample views off the right side of the trail into Kentucky. Continue south on Pine Mountain Trail and begin a descent into Ran Polly Gap.

11.5A house-size boulder marks Ran Polly Gap. Hikers can find shelter or shade in a rock overhang. In 0.1 mile beyond Ran Polly Gap, Pine Mountain Trail reverts to a wide graded forest road as it follows Bad Branch.

11.9Turn right at a double green blaze, where the trail leaves the graded road and enters the woods as a footpath. Orange blazes are visible on the trail for 0.1 mile as Pine Mountain Trail shares the footpath with High Rock Loop Trail.

12.0Continue straight on Pine Mountain Trail as High Rock Loop Trail splits left and downhill. Note: It is 1.9 miles on the High Rock Loop Trail to a parking area. En route, the trail passes by a 60-foot waterfall on Bad Branch.

13.0“Squeeze” through the Lemon Squeezer, a narrow passage between tall rock outcrops.

14.7Descend a set of stairs and pass a trail sign-in box.

15.1Enter a clearing for the Flamingo Shelter. Pass straight through and continue on the Pine Mountain Trail.

15.3Enter a wide clearing where two forest roads intersect. Bear left to follow a dirt road, avoiding the hard left turn as well as any road that branches right or south.

15.5Veer right off the dirt road and follow a set of stairs downhill. At the foot of the stairs, cross US 119 and climb the roadside embankment via another staircase.

15.7Hike ends at the Little Shepherd Trail trailhead of Pine Mountain Trail State Park.

Virginia Highlands Festival, July/Aug, Abingdon, www.vahighlandsfestival.org Carter Family Memorial Music Center, weekly live music shows, 3449 A. P. Carter

34. PINE MOUNTAIN TRAIL