W-1/W-2, VMO: “25 (or 6) to 4:00” (High Knob to Elliott’s Knob) (~60 miles)
Details
IMPORTANT UPDATE: This trip is now a W-1 or W-2 deep Winter trip. A cold front will drop the temps down well below freezing after a day-long rain. Overnight it may feel like 0 degrees F. Here is the forecast: https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Elliott-Knob/forecasts/1360
This Veteran’s Day Weekend let’s “DO A CHICAGO!” Many of you know my affinity for bagging “10 by 10s”—ten miles before 10:00. As a new meaningless gesture I’d like to hike 25 miles (or 26 miles) before 4:00 pm—or as the band Chicago sings in their hit song about backpacking: “25 or 6 to 4.” The iconic baseline is already motivating me for our upcoming climbs!
The route goes southbound along the spine of Shenandoah Mountain on the western side of the Shenandoah Valley. We’ll connect High Knob west of Harrisonburg to Elliott Knob west of Staunton. The 60 mile, 13,570 elevation gain will have daily mileage splits of 1-25(or26)-22-12. Elliott Knob is the highest point in Augusta County. From the fire tower at the peak it has one of the best views of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding mountains. If it is a clear night, the stars will be shockingly brilliant.
We will meet Thursday night at 7 PM at the Vienna Metro and carpool to set up the shuttle. We’ll camp at the best spot we can find near where we park on Thursday. Friday we’ll hike up to High Knob and go south to camp at Hiner Spring. Saturday we’ll continue south to Elliott Knob and camp on the peak. Sunday, we’ll finish (with a 10 before 10?), reverse the shuttle, and go to Shenandoah Pizza in Staunton for the victory lunch.
DCULers have maps!
- GPX: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AEZyhaVrE7RmRCudvXEiK1Pbi4cf3nIi/view?usp=drivesdk
- Paper: https://www.natgeomaps.com/amp/ti-791-staunton-shenandoah-mountain-george-washington-and-jefferson-national-forests
-----------------THE IMPORTANT WARNINGS-------------------
This trip is VMO (Veteran Members Only). For more details on trip rankings, please refer to this:
https://dculbackpacking.com/about/membership/
As per our carpool policy, riders should plan to pay drivers $0.10/mile.
Oh, and I’m just a co-participant on this trip, not a guide or an expert. I’ve been hiking with DCUL since 2017 but have no special training, such as organizational, medical, or navigational. I’ve never hiked this complete trail, so we are learning this together. If you sign up and can’t come, please let me know—don’t ghost. You are officially on the trip if you both RSVP on Meetup and meet me at the Metro. Otherwise, you are doing your own trip until you make physical contact with me and I recognize you as a co-participant. I’m open to questions.
By RSVPing to this trip or any other DC UL trip, you agree to these guidelines and to DC UL's waiver liability terms (https://www.meetup.com/DC-UL-Backpacking/pages/Liability_Waiver/)
COVID-19 policy: https://dculbackpacking.com/about/covid-19-guidelines/
Dues: Members and above, don't forget to pay your annual dues. You can check if you need to pay dues by seeing if the current year is listed next to your name in your DC UL profile. Applicants do not need to pay dues for their first trip. To pay your dues via PayPal, use this link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/DCULKaran/15 ($10 annual dues plus a $5 suggested donation to City Kids Wilderness Project.)
Carpool: As per our carpool policy, riders should pay drivers $0.10/mile.