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Robertson Mountain Hike

 On October 19th, hoping to catch something near peak foliage, I drove out to Shenandoah National Park to do some hiking. Looking at places to hike, I saw Robertson Mountain mentioned as a neglected gem - overshadowed by nearby popular hikes like Old Rag.

You can approach Robertson from the valley (here and here are listings for that hike) but I chose the somewhat easier (though about the same length) hike from Skyline Drive. I parked at the Limberlost parking area (about mile 43 on Skyline Drive) and started out on the Limberlost Trail, which it turns out is one of the accessible trails in the park - it's flat, smooth gravel. It was chilly when I headed out and I started out bundled up in my puffy jacket, wool hat and light gloves. After a little bit, Limberlost intersects with the Old Rag Fire Road, which, being a road, was pretty easy hiking by the standards of Shenandoah. I mean, the trail is wide and flat enough to drive a truck down - something I saw proof of when a forest ranger pickup truck passed by. I'm nervous about a lot of things when I hike, one of which is losing the trail. This is particularly true in autumn, when even the most obvious trail can get obscured by leaves. It's pretty damn impossible to lose sight of a forest road, so I was able to relax about that particular issue on this hike.

Pretty spot on the way up

The fire road intersects with other interesting trails along the way. If I had started earlier in the day or at a time of year when the days are long, I could see extending this hike via a side excursion down the White Oak trail or even bagging both Robertson and Old Rag mountains in one hike. As it was, I continued on my planned route, noticing many of the various trails that intersected the fire road but actually almost missing the Robertson Mountain Trail. There is a trail marker at the intersection of the fire road and the Robertson Mountain trail, but it's sort of off to the side - possible to miss if you're lost in thought while hiking.


The big vistas weren't quite at peak, but individual leaves were beautiful. My new iPhone 13 takes amazing close-up photos!

The trail up to the mountain is unblazed and fairly steep. According to my Strava log, you climb about 500 feet in a little less than a mile (in contrast, hiking up from the valley you climb 1,500 feet in 1.5 miles!). When I got to the top I found the expected rock outcropping at the peak. Here's another thing I worry about while hiking. I don't have a great sense of direction, and it's easy for me, while exploring the rocks at the top of such mountains, to get totally turned around and have no idea where I came in. If there are several trails leading to the peak I can get confused about which one I came in on. Because of this, I took out a red Buff I had in my bag and tied it around a tree right next to the trail I had come in on.

A marker to help me stay unlost

I explored the rock outcropping at the peak, but didn't find any vista. I felt kind of bummed - like maybe this is one of those views that's only good when the trees were bare. It was still a nice hike, but I was a little bit disappointed about climbing a mountain and not getting a view. I explored around the peak area some more; I didn't find any view, but I did find a campsite, where I sat down and had lunch. While I was eating my lunch I spotted a guy coming out of the rock outcropping at the peak. As far as I could tell, there was only one way in and out of the rocks, and I hadn't seen him arrive, nor had I seen him while I was up on the rocks - so he must have been on some part of the rocks I had missed.

After lunch I climbed back up the rocks to try and find where this other hiker had been, and lo and behold - I found an area I had missed before, with a lovely, expansive view of Old Rag and the valley below. The spot was warm and sunny, as well. I unbundled a bit and walked around taking pictures, then sat for a bit just enjoying the view.

View at the top

Bald on Night Mountain (apologies to Mussorgsky)

Shiny!

The hike back was just the reverse of the hike in - except that I stayed on the fire road all the way to the parking lot. On the way out I made a quick stop at the Skyland Lodge. I'm rarely in this section of the park and I wanted to see what the lodge was like (nothing special). I also wanted coffee, but the line was too long. I stopped at a couple of the overlooks on Skyline Drive, then headed home. I did eventually get my coffee, along with a soft pretzel, at a WaWa Market on the way home. Ted and I are big WaWa fans, and we both particularly like their pretzels. Coffee and a pretzel may seem like an odd combo - but not if it's WaWa.

Looking west from a Skyline Drive overlook

BTW, one thing I didn't worry about, but perhaps should have, was bears. When I posted photos from the hike on Facebook, a friend commented that she had been hiking that trail just a week earlier and had had a close encounter with a a bear!



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Location: Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA

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