We chose to hike up the Piney Branch/Ridge area, cross over the Skyline Drive to the Jeremy’s Run drainage, then continue along the Appalachian Trail to the Thornton River Trail and back down a simply beautiful, narrow valley lined with hemlocks, mountain laurel, pines and hardwoods.

This venture was made even more meaningful having read Katrina Powell’s piece, Time to Leave, in the December 2010 issue of Virginia Living magazine recounting letters written to Shenandoah National Park officials by those families (over 500) forced to give up their homesteads for the Park’s creation.

The moment we made the second crossing of the Piney River we began seeing sturdy stonewalls outlining homesteads, with piles of stacked granite rocks up the mountainsides, cleared for gardens and fruit trees. One settlement wall continued for at least a quarter mile with overgrown boxwood bushes still flanking the once-gated opening.

We followed the Piney Branch Trail connecting eventually with Piney Ridge where we came upon a cemetery, left behind. (This may have been the same one mentioned in a post by an online respondent to Time to Leave.) Though the inscriptions and stones were weathered, it seemed in fair condition, cleared of fallen trees and limbs, a fitting memorial to loss.

This plus other remnants of mountain life, especially the rusted out hulk of a dandy old car in an abandoned orchard, were poignant reminders that here we were, backpackers, sauntering down the trail, freely enjoying these Virginia mountains, on land that had been essentially snatched from former homesteaders, settlers and property owners, complicated transactions to ‘benefit’ the greater populace in a time when that was possible.

From what I’ve heard from encountering a few family members of former landowners on the trail and reading accounts, the Park’s formation and administration produced a contentious relationship between federal government employees and surrounding communities, which I understand resonates to some degree today.

This refection makes me even more grateful for and appreciative of this amazing Virginia resource – Shenandoah National Park - and fiercely protective of the legacy these folks gave us, the opportunity to hike these wilderness trails in solitude.

As always, we had a great family trip, ushering in 2011 with little fanfare but good sleep and food (if I may say so): stir-fried beef, broccoli, carrots, green peppers, onions over rice the first night, Thai green curry chicken with snow peas and bamboo shoots the second and pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes the third. And we saw a rainbow at daybreak, and got to scout some excellent potential swimming holes come summertime!