The Children’s Forest Long Loop Trail near Covington, Virginia, is an easy, history-laden 2.9-mile walk through a piece of George Washington / Jefferson National Forest.
Leonard and Laurie Adkins
I am always conscious of the indispensable role volunteers play in enabling you and me to continue taking our recreational walks. (Think Appalachian Trail and the trails of the Blue Ridge Parkway, along with state and regional parks.) I became even more conscious of that on a recent outing in the George Washington/Jefferson National Forest near Covington, Virginia:
Leonard and Laurie Adkins
The trail’s pondering spots and signage are just two of its many charms.
In April, 1971, a fire burned 1,176 acres on Potts Mountain. One year later, on April 28 (the 100th Anniversary of the first Arbor Day), more than 1,000 children and their families from the eastern U.S. arrived on the site. Participating through a program between the US Forest Service and Hunt-Wesson Foods, which paid for the trees, these volunteers planted thousands of seedlings on 177 acres of charred landscape.
A monument was built (with a time capsule containing the participating children’s names), trails in the area became popular destinations, and two schools began to bring students for social, nature and history lessons.
Joe Cook
Spotted wintergreen can be found along the trail.
Sadly, according to the forest service’s Elizabeth Higgins, “The trails were scheduled to be decommissioned sometime around 2014. The issue was vandalism—and one year we had a meth dump at the parking lot. However, when news of the possible closure became known, local residents volunteered to keep the trails open.”
Cynthia Baroody is one of those volunteers.
“Members of the Virginia Master Naturalists Alleghany Chapter took on the project, clearing trash and doing simple trail maintenance,” she says. “Other organizations joined, improving conditions so that students could again visit the forest while working on their SOLs in science. We even have two volunteers who participated in the original tree planting. Several volunteers are chain saw-certified, and 4-H Cooperative Extension students help as part of their training. Grant monies have enhanced the parking lot and forest roads.”
Joe Cook and Monica Sheppard
Partridgeberry is also native to the trail’s region.
She says that field trips resumed in 2018, “with hundreds of third-grade students learning from forest rangers and walking the interpretive trail.”
After our walk of the .3-mile interpretive pathway, Laurie and I set off on the Children’s Forest Long Loop Trail, first passing through a woodlands of spotted wintergreen, sassafras and pines. The 60-foot pines—mere two-inch seedlings five decades ago—can live 200 years or more, so correlating the trees’ lives to human lifespans, they are just now leaving their teenage years. With the trail rising at a steady rate, partridgeberry and galax became a part of the understory where maple, oak and gum trees replaced the pines.
The trail leveled out on a woods road a mile into the outing, only to soon turn onto a descending footpath. At two miles, an ascent out of a small valley, where there were no sounds of civilization, returned us to a couple of benches near the beginning of the trail. Looking into the blue sky through the pine boughs high above me, I couldn’t help but express a word of thanks to all outdoors volunteers—past, present and future.
When You Go
The Walk: A moderate outing of 2.9 miles on a lightly used trail with a nice feeling of isolation and sense of history, with an optional .3-mile interpretive trail.
Getting there: Take I-64 Exit 16A at Covington, turn onto US 60 W, go 1.1 miles and turn left onto VA 18. Continue another 12 miles, make a left onto VA 613, go 3.1 more miles, turn left onto Children’s Forest Road/Forest Service 351 and come to the parking area on the left in an additional .8 mile.
More information: Maps and short descriptions of the trails may be found on fs.usda.gov/recarea/gwj/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=77720&actid=50.
Summer Hikes Should Be Rewarded With Cold Beverages
The micro-brewed IPAs and Stouts at Jack Mason’s Tavern (jackmasonstavern.com) in Clifton Forge was just compensation for summer’s sweat-inducing temperatures. The fish and chips and smoked sausage and sauerkraut fit in well with the festive pub atmosphere.
Find out more about Leonard’s walking and hiking adventures at habitualhiker.com.
The story above appears in our July/August 2020 issue. For more subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!