Virginia Triple Crown

[Twistytee]

My brother, nephew and I decided to tackle the VA Triple Crown loop last month before the heat of summer kicks-in. Our trip featured sun, rain, hail and snow over the weekend... and strong winds, so we got to experience our fair share of hiking and hammocking conditions. I took my Superfly over the Trail Lair and my brother and nephew were sporting new Wanderlust Kits from HG - an upgrade from my nephew's Eno and my brother's tent kit. We started from the parking lot for Dragon's Tooth and did the loop clockwise going over the North Mountain Trail to the new Catawba Valley Trail where we camped the first night, and then across the open pasture to the Andy Layne Trail and then connecting up to the AT near Lambert's Meadow. We took the high route southwest to Tinker Cliffs, over to the Campbell Shelter for lunch and then checked out McAfee Knob before descending to the Catawba Shelter for Night #2. It snowed and hailed while we were at both Tinker Cliffs and McAfee so the trip featured a lot of stops for removing layers and adding layers depending on what Mother Nature decided to throw our way. The last day had us traveling across the dry ridge line south on the AT in 25-30+ mph winds before we descending down into the Catawba Creek crossing and over to Dragon's tooth. Final count on my Garmin for the full loop was 36 miles before getting back to the cars.

All said I'm glad we did it and the Virginia Blue Ridge views are pretty grand, although perhaps not as majestic as some of the Smokies routes in NC/TN. We picked a non-crowded weekend in early April which helped, as I hear the AT section gets very crowded in season. There were a number of day hike trails up to McAfee and Dragon's Tooth which see a lot of foot traffic.

Onto a few photos from the trip. Hope you enjoy:

DSC02643 by Twistytee, on Flickr

DSC02648 by Twistytee, on Flickr

Lower pasture/Catawba Creek crossing on the way to the Andy Lane and the AT

DSC02689 by Twistytee, on Flickr

Shot of the three of us in the fog atop McAfee Knob

DSC02665 by Twistytee, on Flickr

My nephew checking his gear on top of Tinker Cliffs

DSC02677 by Twistytee, on Flickr

I have a thing for photographing old USGS survey markers while on trail and here's one at Tinker Cliff's dating to 1934.

Dragon's Tooth spur trail by Twistytee, on Flickr

DSC02702 by Twistytee, on Flickr

Vertical rock wall to scale along the Dragon's Tooth Trail

Campbell Shelter by Twistytee, on Flickr

Campbell Shelter where we stopped for lunch on Day 2

DSC02644 by Twistytee, on Flickr

Hammocks in action before the rain hit on Night #1

[Dvankirk]

I like that loop, but the 13 mile dry stretch of North Mountain is relentless. I usually do it clockwise starting at the Dragon Tooth lot, but maybe I should get North Mountain out of the way first. Glad you got it in when the bubble wasn't around.

[Layne]

Nice report, thanks for sharing. I haven’t done the VA Triple Crown yet myself it’s on the to-do list

[Twistytee]

Thanks guys. We had fun and enjoyed the trip with the exception of the weather swings. I agree with Dvankirk regarding the North Mountain Trail. It was pretty monotonous but did have some good views of the valley. If we ever do it again we will likely skip the loop and drop a car further south on the AT to do a point-to-point while still tying in the three crown points.