My original plan was for us to hike the Hawksbill Loop after completing the Stony Man-Little Stony Man Loop. Two short hikes in one day seemed like a reasonable plan; it is something we have done many times before. However, as we hiked the last segment of the first hike, the ascent back to the parking lot on the Furnace Springs Trail, Erwin started waffling. He and I slept terribly last night, due to a large party checking into the rooms on both side of us around midnight and being *extremely* loud for several hours afterwards. Luckily Frankie slept through the entire thing. I didn't care about being tired; how often am I in Shenandoah National Park!? I was determined to enjoy it. Erwin was very clear he didn't want to prevent me from squeezing in one more hike -- he would simply drop me off and read while I hiked. That worked for me!
Our only point of contention centered around Frankie. Erwin didn't remotely care about missing out on Hawksbill, and thought Frankie was also tired and should stay back and read with him. Frankie, on the other hand, cared very much about Hawksbill, and insisted he was not tired. He was devastated at the thought of missing out, to the point where I'd almost decided not to go because it seemed like a better choice than me choosing to exclude him. But I really wanted to go, too! It just didn't seem right that we should have to miss out because Erwin was tired. The kid slept all night and Hawksbill is not a terribly difficult hike. So I offered a compromise: I would carry a water bottle for Frankie so he didn't need to carry a pack, and we would hike via a shorter route than the loop I had originally planned. These concessions appeased Erwin's worries, and Frankie was over the moon that he got to go on the hike. Phew! Tragedy narrowly averted...
Our new plan had Erwin dropping us off at the Upper Hawksbill parking lot, where we would ascend via the Upper Hawksbill Trail. According to the National Park Service mapping, this is the easiest approach to Hawksbill Summit, gaining just 520 feet over the mile to the top. The trail is wide and has a smooth, gravel-covered surface; it is actually an old "fire road" (exactly why I had avoided this route in my original planning). For variety, we would descend via the shorter and steeper Lower Hawksbill Trail, and Erwin would pick us up at the Hawksbill Gap parking lot.
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| Upper Hawksbill Trail |
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| running ahead, eager to see the signpost (clearly NOT exhausted) |
The trail ascends at modest grades and never feel challenging. Before we knew it the terrain leveled out and we could see the Byrd's Nest No. 2 Shelter -- what an amazing spot! This shelter is currently for day use only, but it must have been an incredible spot to spend the night when that was allowed. Spectacular views right out the front. Even though we were essentially at the summit at this point, Frankie decided he wanted to take a short break in the shelter, just for the fun of it. Couldn't say no to that. Then we took the short stroll along the ridge to the summit.
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| view from right in front of the shelter |
We went over to the viewing platform first, but it got a bit crowded (for COVID anyway) so we moved over to some rocks. Frankie was chewing gum, which means I got a lot of pictures of him making incredibly goofy faces. Eventually he spit that out and focused on eating candy, so then I got a lot of pictures of him hunched over unwrapping stale Easter candy.
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| photo by Frankie |
Eventually the crowds dissipated and we wandered back over to the viewing platform. Frankie really wanted to check out the compass-peak finder. In the picture below, he has it pointed at Miller's Head, which we hiked the night we arrived. Then we went back onto the rocks so he could eat more candy. Frankie also repeatedly asked to use my phone take photos of me, which is unusual for him, and ended up taking quite some time. There were a surprisingly high number of pictures with his finger in them that he insisted on re-shooting. It's kind of funny because he has a camera of his own that he almost never uses, but I guess being separated from it made him want to take pictures (it was in his backpack in the car).
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| photo by Frankie |
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| photo by Frankie |
And then we headed down. It was a very quick descent -- we went from the summit to Erwin's car in less than 15 minutes. MapMyRide mapped our traverse at 2.1 miles with 400 feet elevation gain. With an elevation of 4,051 feet, Hawksbill Summit is the highest peak in Shenandoah National Park. I'm so glad Frankie and I persevered in doing this hike! The trail itself wasn't anything particularly special (the loop would have included a section of the Appalachian Trail as well as the charmingly-named Salamander Trail) but the Hawksbill Summit is stupendous, and we hung out at the top for 45 minutes soaking in the views. Frankie was very pleased that we climbed the highest two peaks in Shenandoah on the same day.
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