Dobie Mountain-6.8 miles-Moderate (by Humpback Rocks) w optional strenuous hike
Details
A nice hike in the woods on a fall day! Highlights include Glass Hollow Overlook with great views of the Rockfish Valley, a very AT shelter, a plane wreckage from a 1964 crash and a moderate bit of up and down.
Moderate pace. 4 hour hike.
PLEASE post a comment if you are interested in carpooling from Great Outdoor Provisions in Charlottesville.
For those who wish to continue when we return to the parking lot, we will climb the steep path up toHumpback Rocks, sit a spell on the rocks then climb back down. This adds 2 miles and 90 minutes. This part is moderately strenuous and fast paced.
*******WE WILL DO THIS HIKE IN THE REVERSE OF THIS DESCRIPTION. *******The blue-blazed trail begins to the right of the picnic table and directly in front of the first parking spot (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08061.jpg), do not take the well signed Albright Loop Trail to the left of the picnic table or you will miss the Glass Hollow Overlook. There is no sign for this trail, it is the Old Howardsville Turnpike and will take you to the A.T. intersection in 0.3 miles. At the intersection take a sharp left onto the white blazed A.T. heading north. Continue 0.8 miles to reach the spur trail to the Glass Hollow Overlook. Take a right on the blue-blazed spur trail reaching the overlook in 0.2 miles for some great views of Rockfish Valley (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08023.jpg).
Return to the A.T. and take a right heading north. In 0.3 miles you will pass the first intersection of the Albright Loop trail, go another 0.1 miles to reach the second intersection of the Albright Loop Trail. If you want to do the short 4.0 mile hike, take a left at this intersection. If going to the shelter, bear right staying on the A.T. going north.
The next 1.4 miles down to the shelter is a fairly gentle series of switchbacks, dropping 700 ft. At the 0.5 mile mark there is an overlook (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08049.jpg) with views of Scott Mountain and Bear Den Mountain in Shenandoah National Park to the north. I-64 will also be visible. Just before the shelter you will cross over Mill Creek (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08035.jpg) and to the right you will see a beautiful granite bench that is a Memorial to John Donovan (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08036.jpg), a long time Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club (ODATC) member who died in California while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. The ODATC maintained shelter (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08037.jpg) is one of the nicest (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08039.jpg) on the A.T. in VA. After lunch, head back south on the A.T. and at the first intersection you arrive at take a right onto the blue-blazed Albright Loop Trail.
Go about 0.7 miles and after the second switchback look uphill to the South for plane wreckage that is visible from the trail. Mr. Henri Weems provided information that it is a Beechcraft that crashed in 1964 (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DobieMountain/images/111110/DSC08055.jpg) and was found a year later by ginseng hunters, no flight plan had been filed. Please respect this site and adhere to the Leave No Trace principle "Leave what you find".
Continue on the Albright Loop trail, passing the intersection of the east portion of the Albright Loop trail, arriving at the Humpback Rocks Parking area in 1.3 miles.