Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2015 - 10

The hike

Torry Ridge-Mills
Creek Circuit
This 15.5-mile overnighter is
near Waynesboro, Virginia and
not far from the popular
Sherando Lake area.
Text and photos by Leonard Adkins
Two of the most popular destinations i n t h e G e o r g e
Washington National Forest are located just a short distance south of Waynesboro, Virginia. At one, hike to the
falls in St. Mary's Wilderness on a warm summer afternoon and you will probably share the water with a host
of bathers. (Continue a little further into the nearly
10,000-acre wilderness and you may come across only
one or two other people.)
A n d t h e o t h e r, d e v e l o p e d b y t h e C i v i l i a n
Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, is
Sherando Lake Recreation Area, a family-friendly facility with trails, two lakes, fishing, swimming, a sand
beach and a developed campground.
I've enjoyed outings in both places, but it wasn't until
I was looking over a map of the national forest that I realized that a ridgeline and valley that separates the two has
several trails that could be combined to make what looked
like a good overnight loop hike.
It was a sunny, warm, late spring Saturday morning
when we arrived at the recreation area, so Laurie and I
weren't surprised that the parking lot was already more
than half full. The aromas from several charcoal grills
wafted through the air, a large family gathering was
tossing a Frisbee and a smaller group had set up a badminton net.
Others were enjoying the water as we began the hike
on the pathway along the western side of the lake. Two
10-year-olds were wading around the inlet stream with
dip nets in search of small aquatic life; two smaller boys
had cast fishing lines into the lake, another child was
paddling around in a kayak, and a lovey-dovey young
couple was embracing on the handicapped-accessible
pier built a few feet above the water.
We could see the wind making small white caps on
the lake after we turned left to ascend steeply (at almost
a 20 percent grade) for one mile and close to 1,000 feet
in elevation along the rough and rocky Blue Loop Trail.
We made a right turn onto the Torry Ridge Trail, which
10 BlueRidgeCountry.com

The handiwork of the Civilian Conservation Corps is a highlight.

gradually descends close to 10 miles from the Blue Ridge
Parkway to the Shenadoah Valley. The route has become
popular with mountain bikers, three of whom we met
within a few yards of turning onto the trail. They and
four members of the Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail
Club were the only people we met after leaving the lake.
Of course, nothing is ever downhill the entire way
and there was another short climb to the summit of
2,781-foot Torry Mountain before the route resumed
a descent. Along the way a couple of large quartzite
rock fields provided views into the valley and back
onto the lake.
We turned onto the Mills Creek Trail at four miles
into the journey, descended into a narrow valley, and
crossed the creek to begin paralleling it upstream. Like
the land in the Saint Mary's Wilderness, the topography
around Mills Creek was mined during the first half of
the 20th century, but the scars and reminders of those
days are not as evident here and it takes a bit of exploring
off-trail to find them.
What is easily seen are the thousands of ferns growing
in the valley. Some of the first plants on earth to develop
a vascular system, ferns do not reproduce by seed, but
by spore. Shake the dust out of a fern and each spore,
although too small to make out individually, has the
potential to produce more ferns. Inside a hard outer

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Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2015

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