Halfmoon Lookout, Big Schloss, and Tibbet Knob, three golden gems in the George Washington National Forest, all in a single-night backpack outing. All accounts that I could find on the web suggested this as a two night backpack, and while I think I'd have preferred doing it as a long day hike, my friend Steve (who's considering an AT thru-hike) and I set out on this 27 mile Great North Mountain trek this past weekend.
The northern GW is easy access from the DC area. Leaving from Beltsville at 5:30am, we were on the trail at 8am, heading north on the Long Mountain trail from SR-691. We looked like we had just transported in from the early 90's- both of us were using our Kelty external frame packs. Most of my gear was 14+ years old. Our packs weighed in at close to 40 pounds (I need new gear). We were on a time schedule, intending to rendezvous with a friend at Sandstone Spring on Mill Mountain at 5pm- 9 hours and 17 miles away, with about 2600' of uphill and unknown trail conditions ahead of us. This was our first backpacking since 2000, but we'd both trained locally prior to this trip.
The Long Mountain trail was in good condition, following a woods road for much of the way. The one rough patch was the 400 yard block field, which after having just done the AT in eastern PA, was a piece of cake (though Steve did tumble there). We restocked our water at the recently bridged crossing of Trout Run at the 8.5 mile point (Trout Run was quite low). We were halfway through the distance, but only one fifth the way through the elevation gain. Onto Bucktail trail a short distance, then up and down along the Bucktail Cutoff trail (around a bend in a somewhat confusing area, but the pink-blazed trail was easy to find) to the Halfmoon trail, where the real climbing began. A little ahead of schedule, we opted to visit Halfmoon Lookout. An excellent viewpoint, where one can see Long Mountain, Trout Run Valley, Big Schloss, and Tibbet Knob. Well worth the side trip; a "must do". After the break, we continued our climb up Halfmoon trail, rocky (as in PA AT rocky) Tuscarora/Pond Run trail, and Mill Mountain trail until we reached Sandstone Spring and met our friend Jae (and black Lab Lulu) right at 5pm. Jae had backpacked in from Wolf Gap.
Sandstone Spring was flowing, not a lot, but enough to scoop and filter (Jae) or SteriPEN (Steve and I). I set up my 16 year old North Face Tadpole tent (I think this was its last stand) and Steve set up his new Big Agnes Seedhouse SL 1 tent. We thought about having a campfire, but we were too worn out, and the area had been picked clean of firewood. There was one other group nearby. We turned in when it got dark, a little after 8pm. Unfortunately, the nearby group stayed up much later. If we'd looked around, we could have set up further away.
We broke camp around 10am next morning, continuing south on Mill Mountain trail, headed for the prime feature- Big Schloss. Last time at Big Schloss was on a rainy day many years back, but this day was very nice, and the views were great. It was quite prominent on the approach from the north. Big Schloss was fairly busy, with some overnight campers, rock climbers, and day hikers. A wonderful place.
On to Wolf Gap, where we said farewell to Jae and Lulu, but not before unloading half our gear on him, which he dropped off at our car on SR-691. Tibbet Knob was a fairly steep climb, but the advertised rock scrambles were easy, and the views from the rock ledges at the summit were superb. As with Halfmoon Lookout and Big Schloss, one can see the entire circuit from here. Very rewarding. After dropping to SR-691, it was a easy road walk back to the car.
The Bucktail Cutoff trail was described as having "terrible" footing in the 2001 "Great North Mountain Trails" booklet, but it was quality trail- much better than what we were expecting. This was true for all the trails (well, maybe with the exception of the Tuscarora trail, but I see the book refers to as a "continuous block field", which it was). The PATC crews have done a terrific job maintaining these trails.
Route from long mountain trailhead (sr-691):
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Long mtn:
bucktail:
bucktail cutoff:
halfmoon:
halfmoon lookout:
tuscarora/pond run:
mill mtn:
big schloss:
tibbet knob:
sr-691:
