Hightop Mountain

I had done hike on Hightop Mountain on 31st January 2015 . It is located in Virginia State near Shenandoah National Park on Skyline Drive.
Hike Location
Name: Hightop Mountain
Distance: 89 miles from Richmond(approx)
Total hiking distance: 5 miles(approx).
Altitude: 3200 ft.
Hike Team: Amit, Rajesh, Rajtilak, Sujay, Vaibhav and me.
Hiking Experience: After seeing good weather forecast for 31st January 2016 in Shenandoah, decided to go for hike. Chose this trek for it is located near to our place and shorter trek distance. Started from our place around 5:45 am from honey tree in two cars, filled gas in each car and went to pick Sujay. Started for the hike location around 6:10 am. The climate was so nice, we have not felt any cold in the early morning. We halted at Starbucks around 6:30 am, had little refreshment and left for the destination around 6:50 am. We reached the parking area by 7:54 am. There were few cars parked at the parking lot. Once we got down the car then we saw that all the trails in the Shenandoah are covered with one foot snow. Even though this was unexpected by any of us, we decided to continue the hike as there was warm sunshine. The entire mountain is covered with snow and it was very beautiful to watch.

We found the entrance of our trail(A.T.) after crossing the road. There were foot marks on the snow along the trail, making it easy for us to trace the trail along with white marks of the A.T. As soon as we started we could feel that we are walking in snow pond, feet went inside the snow and made it difficult to walk. For first 10 mins we somehow managed to continue the hike thinking to return when it becomes too difficult. Hands got frozen with cold due to snow even though there was bright sunlight. After hiking for sometime, started feeling warm, sweating and then hands came back to normal and able to hike much easier. The trail was steep and there was nothing on either side of the trail except for snow. We hiked further and slowly the trail became flat and soon started descending. We reached skyline drive.

We crossed it and continued the trail on other side of the road. The trail was very steep. And soon started feeling cold again and hands were getting frozen. We continued hiking further in the snow. It was great view all across the mountain with snow everywhere and bright sun in the sky. Soon the trail became flat and we moved further until where the slope tarted increasing. We decided to return around 9:30 am. Due to the down-slope of the trail and hard snow the descent was much easier and faster and slippery as well. Within 20 mins we reached the skyline drive and continued further. The trail was steep again, hiked slowly enjoying the nature along with snow and reached our parking around 10:20 pm. It was lifetime experience hiking in snow and never done that before. Even though it felt tough in the beginning slowly got used to it. It was a memorable trek. Had lunch at the parking area and left around 10:40 am. Reached home around 12:15 pm. This is one of the treks where we started and ended the hike as per the decided time. Had a very good company and started our first hike of 2016 with such a wonderful one. All is Well.