Buck Hollow

I had done hike on Buck Hollow on 16th May 2015 . It is located in Virginia State near Shenandoah National Park.
Hike Location
Name: Buck Hollow
Distance: 105 miles from Richmond(approx)
Total hiking distance: 9.0 miles(approx).
Altitude: 3400 ft.
Hike Team: Ravi, Sujay and me.
Hiking Experience: Started around 6:10 am from our place and picked up Sujay from his place around 6:34 am and left for our destination (Buck Hollow Parking). We took a halt at 7-Eleven around 7:30 am and had coffee. Reached the parking area by 8:40 am. There were few other cars already parked at the parking area. Had home made breakfast and started the hike around 8:54 am. It was not so bright and there was ool breeze as we started the hike. The trail is narrow and there were small small stones on the path. It was a blue blazed trail. The trail was surrounded by huge trees and it lead us straight into the middle of the jungle. We crossed couple of streams. The slope was normal for initial few minutes of hike and gradually steep increased as we hiked further. Due to the tall dense trees surrounding us we didn't feel the fun heat and there was cool breeze throughout. The steep was very high but with cool breeze and not much heat we were able to hike without much difficulty. There were so many earth worms on the path and it looks as thought it had rained yesterday. There were beautiful flowers on the side of the trail. The trail path is covered with rocks for some part, then grass and leaves and then with some big rocks. Soon we reached Skyline Dr around 10:15 am.

We then crossed the road and continued hike along the blue blazed trail.There were other hikers along the trail. This trail was very steep from the start itself and path is full of small rocks and fallen trees. And now the jungle is not much dense we could see little sunshine along the path. We slowly hiked further and gradually steep increased and there was no cool breeze. We soon reached an intersection with Appalachian Trail(A.T.) We followed the path of A.T.(white blazed trail). This trail was narrow and not much steep. We saw a huge fireplace structure made of bricks as we hiked on the A.T. We reached a huge patch of rocks from which the view was wonderful and cool breeze started flowing. We could see entire valley of Shenandoah National Park. We continued our hike and reached an intersection with blue blazed trail(Buck Hollow Trail). We followed the blue trail. This was a short but steep trail. we reached the top of the hill and there were huge rock patches. The view was spectacular from the top. Could see different colours of leaves of trees in the valley. We sat there and took snaps trying to capture nature's wonderful views. we then returned to our car parking area. We followed the same trail through which we came up until Skyline Drive. Since it was descent without much effort we could reach the Skyline Drive. While ascent we have not felt the steepness of the trail but while descent we could see that the trail was indeed very steep. We reached the road around 11:47 am. At this point we covered 6 miles of trek.

We decided the complete the hike and then have lunch. We then crossed the road continued our path on an yellow blazed trail(another route to reach our parking). The trail was narrow covered by huge trees and not much steep for initial few minutes. Soon we reached an intersection with blue blazed trail. We followed the blue trail and continue further. There were small beautiful flowers on the side of the trail. After sometime there were steps(having wood log at the end of each step) leading us down the hill. It was a direct descent and steps are very steep and there were small stones on the steps. We were having pain on toes due to the steep descent. As we approached the bottom the hill the steps are done and it was a gradual slope and path is covered with thick roots of the tall trees surrounding the path. We reached the parking around 12:59 pm thus completing the hike. We hiked 9:00 miles in 3 hours. We had lunch in the car and left for home around 1:22 pm. Reached home by 3:30 pm. Overall it was one of the very good hikes of the season with great weather and awesome views from the top. All is Well.