Taking advantage of some milder several weeks back, Becca and I met up with her parents in Madison, VA to hike the Bear Church Rock Trail. We were celebrating Becca’s father’s birthday – he’s a very active guy and he wanted to spend the day covering some miles on 2 feet!
Bear Church Rock trail was new to all of us. Our sleuthing on Hiking Upward had us pretty excited with a 4/5 rating for views, an overall distance of over 9 miles, and 2,200 feet of elevation gain. The drive out to the trailhead took us about an hour and 45 minutes from Fairfax; pretty much just a straight shot down Interstate 29 south towards Charlottesville, VA and about 10 miles to the west of the main highway.
The hike itself starts off easy, following the scenice Rapidan River gradually up the mountain with gradual elevation gain for the first ~3 miles. The Rapidan River is popular year-round with fly fisherman, and we could see why – in some of the larger pools we could see native Brookies that were easily 6-8+ inches long.
After the initial easy ascent, things got steep, but not too technical for the final push. By the top, we were soaked in sweat and huffing and puffing a little, but rewarded by some fantastic views of untouched mountains – no power lines or man-made structures in sight!
On the way down we took an off-shoot of the trail to check out Jones Mountain Cabin, which is a primitive (no electricity/water) cabin tucked away on the side of the mountain.
By the time we made it back down to the parking area, the 9+ miles on the trail were catching up with us! Overall a great day and a hike I’d recommend to anyone looking for something close-ish to DC and not overcrowded – we only passed a handful of other people on the trail.
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