Monday, July 9, 2018

Appalachian Trail Hike: Turk Gap – McCormick Gap – Rockfish Gap – Shenandoah National Park

This ended up being an 18 mile hike to finally finish hiking all the segments of the AT in the Shenandoah National Park that I had missed. I did this in three phases:
1) I parked at McCormick Gap (poor parking) and hiked 6.5 miles round trip down to the South Kiosk and back. There were a couple interesting rock formations, a wimpy spring, and no real views along this section of trail. Once I completed this section, I drove up to Turk Gap and parked there to continue my hike.
2) 3:58 - Turk Gap to Calf Mountain Shelter and back is about 10.2 miles. There are a couple nice views and a ton of tent sites along this section of trail. There is very little water on this section and only one of the tent sites had a stream nearby. The power lines you walk under were very noisy, probably the noisiest ones I’ve ever heard. Saw some bears at 7:31 that were very close to the trail. I did not notice them until I was right on top of them. The tent sites are actually quite nice and there were a lot of through hikers using this as their stop. I was here in the winter and I moved on because things were a bit shabby and I was alone. This time was much better. That being said, the privy gets a D+. It is so over used it leaks a river of excrement juice out the bottom…kinda gross.
3) 11:07 - After hiking back to Turk the next day, I swung around to the dead Howard Johnson's parking lot at Rockfish Gap and hiked the short 0.5 miles to the Kiosk and back. 
Overall it was a good weekend!!

The intro to this video was done by:
Michael Feyrer Jr.: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE6MSh7T4B3trx3VS_uPBmA
and
Yankees Outdoor Adventures: https://www.youtube.com/user/yankeeradio

Please stop by their channels and check them out!

Shenandoah National Park: https://www.nps.gov/shen/index.htm

Zimmerbuilt water bottle holder: https://www.zimmerbuilt.com/

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