Duncan Knob

Normally I have beautiful photos of valleys and vistas, however, this time I failed in the photo taking department. The backpacking gang decided to take a jaunt on Saturday at Duncan Knob nestled securely in the middle of the Massanuttens, the weather was perfect to start. We started at the lower parking lot south of the Massanutten Visitor's Center off of 211 using the Massanutten Connector trail to intersect with the Massanutten Trail. When the 6, of us, Terri, Lisa, Keith, Ted, Ron and myself got to the intersection our party split evenly with 3 going west and 3 heading north. I was with Terri and Ron northward, when we got to the intersection at Scothorn Gap Terri and I decided to head east and Ron continued north. We all planned to rendezvous at Peach Orchard Gap. However, our plan went violent awry when we learned that 26 boyscouts plus leaders were planning a campout at the very same spot.

We altered the plan to take control of the peak at Duncan Knob. When Ron, the first hiker to arrive, got to the summit he found a group of Chileans there. We had no choice but to create a new campsite to the east on Duncan Knob Trail. The sun was setting and one member of our party went up Duncan Knob to have a look around. We started to set camp and realized this person was nowhere to be found. Panic ensued. We sent a search party up the mountain who found our lost lamb and brought them back to safety. We built a nice fire, told stories and went to sleep.

Then is started to rain and the temperature dropped. Here is a picture of our campsite in the dark at 7:30AM Sunday.


Here is a picture of some unhappy campers.

In the rain we quickly quickly hiked back to the cars. Despite the inclement weather on Sunday we all had a pretty good time.