Shenandoah National Park - Jeremys Run / Knob Mountain Loop - October 2002

Six of us with the Wilmington Trail Club did this as a 2 day, ~14 mile trip on a cool (40 - 50's) and mostly cloudy weekend in October. The weekend we went is again historically the height of the fall colors. But due to a severe lack of rain there was almost no color to speak of. There was a little bit here and there but not nearly as much as the previous year. We parked our cars at the Thornton River Trail parking lot between mile marker 25 and 26. We went south down the AT and then down the Neighbor Mountain Trail to hook up with Jeremys Run. We camped at a fairly large site about a half a mile up Jerermys Run right by a "waterfall". The next day we back tracked along Jeremys Run and picked up the Knob Mountain trail. For the record there are 16 actual switchbacks before you get to the top of the knob which is marked by a concrete marker at 2,865 feet. This is a long uphill climb rewarded with absolutely no view whatsoever. Even if there was a view we wouldn't have seen it as we were engulfed by the clouds. We then continued along the Knob Mountain Trail to the Knob Mountain Cut-Off Trail where we re-hooked up with Jeremys Run. This in turn links back up to the AT. I felt like the topo led us a little astray as it seemed like the AT had more elevation gain than Jeremys Run did. A little ways south down the AT led back to our cars. Points of interest on this trip were: Our leader Paul looked like Frankenstein from behind; the Whisperlite stove managed to not billow black smoke nor blow up; the deer really like the campsite we were in; and I didn't get rained on for the first time this year (although technically I got a few drops while we were in the clouds).

Pictures to follow later....

Sunrise in Shenandoah	Sunrise in Shenandoah
Group shot a short time after we started	George and Glen at a rest stop
Hey nice butt	Mark pumping water
Mark, Glen, George, Paul, Gin	Mark cooking dinner
Glen firing up his brand new Whisperlite stove	Oh my god its a Whisperlite, hide the flammables it's liable to blow!
John relaxing after a hot meal	George 'cooking' his dinner
Heading down the trail	Group shot after a stream crossing. Some in thr group were wimps and wore sandles.
Shenandoah scenery	Shenandoah scenery
Shenandoah scenery

Jeremys Run / Knob Mountain Loop Trail Map

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