Appalachian Trail, Skyline Drive 20.1

Appalachian Trail, Skyline Drive 20.1

Page Type Page Type: Route
Location Lat/Lon: 38.76210°N / 78.2739°W
Additional Information Route Type: Hike
Additional Information Time Required: Less than two hours
Additional Information Difficulty: Walk up
Sign the Climber's Log

Approach

Hogback Mountain is accessible from milepost 20.1 off of Skyline Drive, at the Little Hogback Overlook (3,035'). The overlook has a map of the entire Appalachian trail from Georgia to Maine. The trail runs behind and below the brick wall behind the overlook. You go to the trail to the right of the overlook, and follow it downhill.

Route Description

2.5 miles round trip
475' of elevation gain

The Appalachian Trail drops down 50 feet or so, and then goes back up in a hurry. The hike is steep, short, and fun. About a mile in you reach the Hogback summit. The summit is just a house, a radio tower, and some high voltage warnings. A dirt road parallels the Southbound Appalachian Trail. You can go back the way you came, without any real views, or you can hike down 100 feet, either via the AT, or the dirt road, a distance of about 1/4 from the summit and you will end up at an overlook at milepost 21 on Skyline Drive. The elevation there is 3385'. We walked the brick wall on the side of Skyline Drive for about a mile back to my car parked at Little Hogback Overlook. That amounted to a two and half mile loop hike, with a lot better views than were at the summit.

Hogback Mountain  photo_id=87643
The entirety of the route from the parking area



Essential Gear

Hiking shoes are reccommended because you can sprain an ankle on the AT.

Miscellaneous Info

If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.


Parents 

Parents

Parents refers to a larger category under which an object falls. For example, theAconcagua mountain page has the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits' asparents and is a parent itself to many routes, photos, and Trip Reports.