When do you leave southern Virginia and enter Northern VA? Where would you say the break point is?
Halfway
Southern VA or Northern VA?
system
#2
Since Shenandoah is full of tourists from DC and New Jersey, I feel like Rockfish Gap is the boundary between the south and the north. Some might argue that Roanoke (Troutville) is the boundary.
Bankrobber
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#3
If you read the ATC Guidebooks,
Southwestern VA is Damascus to Pearisburg,
Central VA is Pearisburg to Rockfish Gap
Shenandoah National Park is Rockfish Gap to Front Royal
Northern VA is Front Royal to Harpers Ferry.
Peaks
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#4
If you want to take what the guidebooks say as the definitive truth, than go ahead. I don’t think that many from Virginia will say that the Roanoke area (Catawba, Troutville, etc…) is central Virginia. As a born and bred Virginian, it is my belief that the trail has a Southern feel until it enters Shenandoah National Park.
Bankrobber
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#5
I’ve heard there’s a point in So. VA where you leave the high mountain country and enter a long stretch of lowlands, where you’re rarely over 2,000 feet and never over 3,000 again until you hit New England. Maybe that’s a natural (as opposed to cultural) boundry between the two Virginias.
Rocalousas
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#6
And that place is Rockfish Gap. After the Three Ridges (3960), the trail goes for another twenty miles going over Humpback Mountain and descending into Rockfish Gap, which is right around 2000 feet. It does not come near 4000 feet until Killington, and does not hit it until Moosilauke.
Bankrobber
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#7
Aw, Bankrobber, Finley has been reading the guide books carefully. There are two mountains in Shenandoah over 4000’. Hawksbill and Stony Man. The trail at the Stony Man summit trail does hit 3800’. Finley Dolphin is looking forward to bagging these two peaks this year.
Harry Dolphin
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#8
Harry,
The trail bypasses both Hawksbill and Stony Man. The climbs near both are slow and steady, unlike the huge climbs in central Virginia and Northern New England.
Bankrobber
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#9
Gen. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia but he was as much a Southerner as anyone else. So I wouldn’t write Shenandoah out of the South yet.
steve hiker