Spent the day (mostly driving) way up North to Backbone Mountain and
Hoye-Crest, the tallest point in Maryland! This 2.6 mile round trip,
600’ascent, is pretty easy, although very muddy at the bottom. Parking
is easy and labeled on the side of the road and the trail is marked well
too. The woods on the North side of the trail near the bottom have been
harvested, so it looks a bit of a mess right now. Near the top is an
interesting boundary marker between MD and WV. I would not like to have
been the one to carry that thing up there! The peak is nice, with a
bench, sign-in log, and a nice view. There are a couple geocaches up
there too. Both are pretty easy to find if you use the hints. I’ll
tell you, on the one at the summit, work it from the WV side!! On the
way home, we stopped at "Our Lady Of The Pines" Catholic church. This
church has the honor of being the smallest tiny church in the lower 48.
Right next to it is the "World's Smallest Mailing Office," the tiny post
office serving the community of Silver Lake. What was very welcome was
the not so tiny outhouse out back, which I assure you, is functioning
well….and a geocache right behind too! https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/G... https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/G... https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/G... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_...
Continued my SOBO journey today (10 Feb 2017) and decided to try and visit the north end of Shenandoah National Park and park at Compton Gap. Trouble was, today that section of Blue Ridge Parkway was closed due to ice. Instead, I parked at the tiny parking area at VA601. VA601 is a little one lane gravel road that has a trail head called Harmony Hollow. There is a short uphill blue blaze to the Appalachian Trail. Once on the AT, it was a short hike to the Tom Floyd Wayside Shelter. There is a spring nearby and several tent sites. The shelter itself is a little small, sleeping maybe 6. Ginger Spring is a drippy puddle with a sandy bottom. I’ve seen worse, but this one is reported to be unreliable. It was flowing today. After visiting the shelter I continued on to the Shenandoah National Park boundary kiosk. There were plenty of Backcountry Camping permits in the metal bin.
Missed this on my last overnight. I approached the shelter from the
north in frigid cold and dwindling light with light snow. Previous
footprints led me to the shelter a bit early on a "shortcut trail". 100'
more and there is good signage and the spring!
