Crystal Springs Recreation Area

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Site 46
Wytheville, Virginia

Today is my last hike from  Stony Fork.  I spent this afternoon wandering all around the trails at Crystal Springs Recreation Area.

It’s 1800 acres owned by the town of Wytheville.  The land was preserved as a watershed for the Town, and the remnants of an old reservoir remain. The recreation area is surrounded by the 7500 acre Big Survey Wildlife Management Area.

There are 13 miles of hiking trails but the majority is on the boundary trail around the entire 1800 acres.  I wasn’t interested in that.  But it also said there were 6 other shorter trails.  No mention was made of any actual spring. 

This is how the parking lot looked when I arrived in the early afternoon.  If it’s not busy now, when is it?  On the week-end perhaps??

The trails were marked but very hard to find.  Thank goodness I had their barely adequate map with me.  Several times I thought I might be lost and wandered around until I found a sign for one trail or the other.

I approached the entrance with “the trail”.  Thank goodness there was this cute kiosk?? with a map.

But as you can see in the picture above, “the trail” didn’t lead anywhere except into a huge grassy field where you could climb up the hill or not.

So I walked up to the top and still no trail markers.  This sort of looked like a trail so I followed it for a ways but it wasn’t going anywhere.  So I came back and went another direction.  Later I determined that this was probably the boundary trail.

I won’t go in to how long I wandered around before I found this first trail sign.
At least I knew where I was at this point.  This is the Salamander Meander and was on the map.  I followed it.

And it dead ended into an area with all these wooden things.

I couldn’t imagine what they were doing here.

I finally found this sign map, the only sign I found all day.  It told me I was in Terrain Park between the Waterline Trail and the Crystal Springs Loop.  Neither trail had I seen.

But I did see the Venrick Run.  Now how to get to it.

A closer look showed me what the wooden things were, several balance beams, a log crossing and challenge log (whatever that is), a teeter totter (which I did not see) and more.  Turns out these  balance beams, teeter totters, rock gardens, log crossings, and other obstacles are for mountain bikers to play on.  Might have been fun to see them but none today.

I’m not sure how I got from there to here or what this trail was called but it looked like a genuine trail so I followed it.  No signs.

It led into the woods where there was this orange something on the tree.  I later learned that orange was the High Rock Spur but there was no indication of that anywhere but on the sketchy map I’d gotten at the beginning.  So where did it go?

Somehow from there I ended up on what was marked by its white blaze as the Boundary trail.   The map below told me it was 7 miles and difficult.  It didn’t look difficult so I followed it gradually up until it started steeply climbing.  This was apparently the beginning of the difficult part.

I wasn’t into a mountain climb today so I turned around and retraced my steps.  I later read that the southern portion of the Boundary Trail I was on follows an old wagon road that crossed Lick Mountain. Stories passed through the generations tell of moonshiners using this road to move their product out of the sight of law enforcement.   I am in south west Virginia after all a hot bed of moonshine at the time especially the Cumberland Gap area where VA, KY and TN meet.  Virginia actually borders 5 states and DC.  Check your map.

Here’s a look at the only trail map I had.  At least it told me what the colors meant

I became concerned when I saw the sign on the right which said I was entering a hunting zone.  Must be that 7500 acres Wildlife Management Area.  Boy could you get lost. 

I didn’t think it was hunting season, I hadn’t heard any shots but I took the next path off of there and back in the other direction.

Always mushrooms if I’m watching.

Not sure how I ended up on this trail that crossed Venrick Run the main stream that cuts through the property.  But glad to find it.

But it took me to what is left of the reservoir built in the early 1900’s.

It was actually a sweet place with remains of  rock walls and a teen tiny “waterfall”.

Nice sandy “beach”.  If I’d brought a chair, I could sit and read.  Who knew.

I took these steps up wondering what they led to.  Whatever it was, I couldn’t figure it out so I just came back down and back in the direction I’d come from.

Ok, here’s the bridge.  Where does that trail on the left go.  This is pretty much what my afternoon had been like.  Where does this go, where does that go?

But AHA – the sign says this is the Woodpecker Run trail with an obvious blue blaze.  It is actually on my map and goes in the direction of the parking lot.

And up hill to get there.

Saw this beauty.

This little patch of partridge berry caught my eye because of the red berries and made me think of Christmas.  It’s a native ground cover which is great.

Sure enough, the blue trail led to the red trail which opened out into the field I recognized.  There was no blaze or sign at this end of the red trail.

And after just over 2 hours, the same two cars were in the parking lot.  I did 9934 steps for 4 miles of hiking.

I was starving and stopped again at Moon Dog Pizza to try their “Absolute Pizza” with a lot of toppings.  It wasn’t as good as the 5 topping “Beauty” I’d had with Mary last week.  But it provided 3 days worth of meals for someone who has tired of cooking.  Pizza is a seriously favorite food of mine.