The Lookout Mountain loop has a lot to offer. It is fun, challenging without being scary, and beautiful in every season. Riding here in the George Washington National Forest feels like an escape from society without actually having to go all that far.

This trail system went through a huge relocation in 2012, and the hard work that everyone did is apparent around every turn. What was created is the trail that we now know and love as “Lookout,” and it’s always one of the first mountain bike rides we recommend to friends, customers, and visitors. More words on all of that outstanding work later.

Our route is the classic way of riding Lookout. It is 13 miles with 2100’ of climbing.

Parking

Parking is available at The Wild Oak Trail parking lot in the National Forest. It is just down the road from the Stokesville Market and Stokesville Campground, about a 40 minute drive from Harrisonburg. If that lot is full, which can sometimes happen on a super nice weekend, there is parking up the road in several spots, as well as off of Tilghman Rd.

The Wild Oak Trail / Lookout Ridge

The Lookout Mountain route is mainly on The WIld Oak Trail, a National Recreation Trail marked by a white blaze and red/white/blue “NRT” placards. To get to the trail, you’ll head up the road from The Wild Oak Trail Parking lot, and roll along pavement for just over 5 miles. Around 3.7 miles in, you’ll have a fun pavement descent to a split in the road - make sure to stay to the left here, and watch for traffic as you make that turn.

The pavement will turn to gravel, and you’ll pass by the North River Campground. At mile 5.4, you’ll make a left turn onto the Hankey Mountain Forest Service Road. There is a small path on the left to get around the Forest Service gate. From here it is a 2 mile climb to the turn onto trail Lookout Mountain Trail, aka The Wild Oak Trail.
* A worthwhile note: At the intersection to turn left onto Lookout Mountain, you’ll see that it is marked as Trail 425A. The trail for Lookout will then turn into Trail 716. You want to take that left onto 425A and then after that, follow the signs for Trail 716 to stay on Lookout Mountain/The Wild Oak Trail. *
It may seem like a lot, all this pavement plus a 2 mile climb to get to the trail, but it is worth it!

Two miles up from the Hankey Mountain sign, you’ll see this sign and that the double track splits two different directions. You will want to take the left split to get to Lookout Mountain Trail!

There are two trails on the right that go off of trail 716: Bear Draft (535) and Shaffer Hollow (513). For this ride you’ll want to stay to the left to continue on 716 in its entirety. Both of these offshoots would take you down to the fire road that connects Stribling Springs to the Stokesville Campground. Many cyclists will know Shaffer Hollow as the final trail that stands between them and the finish line of the Shenandoah Mountain 100. It is a steep, loose descent for that event, but if you decide to climb it, Shaffer Hollow offers a shorter version of the Lookout Loop (about 9 miles). To get to it you have to go through the Stokesville Campground, so make sure you’ve done you’re due diligence and paid for a day pass to go through that private property.

Trail 716 marked by the White Blaze in a tree tunnel of awesomeness!Photo Credit: Jess Daddio — Trail 716 marked by the White Blaze in a tree tunnel of awesomeness!
*Photo Credit: Jess Daddio*

The WIld Oak Trail - Ok, you’ve finally made the turn onto Trail 716! Get ready for some super fun rollers! You’ll hit some grassy/more dirt than rock short climbs and downhills for about 2 miles from where you turned onto Lookout Mountain, and then pass the sign that would take you down Shaffer Hollow. After this point, the trail starts to get rocky and more variable. Make sure to take in the views that peak through the trees on either side of the ridge! You’ll get a view of the Shenandoah Valley on your right, and more of the George Washington National Forest on your left.

Sunrise from the ridge on LookoutPhoto Credit: Jess Daddio — Sunrise from the ridge on Lookout
*Photo Credit: Jess Daddio*

The descent & Overlook

About 9.5 miles into the ride, you’ll reach the descent down the mountain. One of my favorite things about this trail is that it has features that are on the technical side, but they aren’t scary. If a rider wants to opt out of riding a section, it’s not like a game of twister trying to maneuver your bike over/around stuff, while also trying to not fall off the side of the trail. And the way this trail has been reworked encourages riders of multiple skill levels to try something new or push themselves to ride something they maybe didn’t see themselves being able to do.

On all of these ‘Iconic Rides’ there’s always a section that feels extra magical. This section of trail, from the overlook and all the way down to the bridge over the North River, is the magical fairyland. In the Summer, the sunlight shines playfully through the leaves as you fly over rocks, down steep chutes, and around the trees. You’ll definitely want to stop and take it all in at the Overlook before finishing out the ride. It’s a great little spot to snack, take in the sounds of the wind and the river, and enjoy being outside (and maybe take pictures of cool bugs that hang out on the rocks!). :)

The Bridge

After the overlook, you’ll know you’re getting closer to the bridge over the North River by the increasing number of rocks; there’s a rock “dome” that you ride over that indicates the start of this section. I really like this part of the trail, and it is probably the most technical part of the ride. The rocks are just large enough to feel extra bumpy, and are positioned so that you have to stay on top of it with where you’re putting your bike. As you continue to descend, those smaller rocks become boulders, and there’s one small spot just before the end of the trail that is extra special. You’ll know it when you see it. It’s an odd clumping of boulders that you really just have to get over, you can’t go around - it’s easier said than done. I haven’t ever cleared this rock spot, but know that with practice, a boost in confidence, and maybe some help from friends, it’s achievable.

At the bridge, you’ll see a trail to your right and a trail to your left. The trail to your left is trail 538, North River Gorge, and the trail to your right, is a footpath to the Girl Scout Camp down the road from the Wild Oak Trail Parking Lot.

You won’t be able to ride across the bridge over the North River, it’s a little narrow, so you’ll have to walk your bike. It’s a nice forced slow down to take a look out over the river and appreciate the Public Lands we have.

After the bridge, you’ll have some rooty double track to ride that will take you back to the road you started on (stay to the left when you reach a split in the trail, just before reaching the road). There is an option of crossing over the road and adding just a little extra trail to your ride. This small section of singletrack will take you past the Grindstone Trailhead and directly to the Wild Oak Parking lot. When we went to take pictures for this write-up we were happily surprised by a world of giant ferns! Ferns are fun, and we don’t usually see them in these numbers here, we mostly see something like this over in West Virginia or central Pennsylvania. So yeah, it’s worth it to add that little bit of trail, you never know what you might see!

Trail work / Re-route / re-location

I wanted to include some words from Kyle Lawrence, Director of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, about all of the work that went into making Lookout what we know it as today. This is a project that highlights the importance of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition in what it does not just for cyclists, but for all folks looking to recreate in public areas and on public lands.

“The Coalition has administered more than $500,000 of grant funding to improve trails on the North River District of the George Washington National Forest. The Lookout project was part of our second grant and was administered in 2012 along with the Tower Trail and Tillman West re-routes on Narrowback Mountain. We are working on our fourth trail building grant with tentative plans for a trail re-route on Narrowback Mountain to connect to the Wolf parking lot. Pending Forest Service approval, construction could begin in early 2021. More info on the Narrowback project: https://svbcoalition.org/narrowback-trail-build.
Lookout’s re-location was prompted for a few reasons. The old portion of the Wild Oak trail over the top of Lookout Mountain was very steep and extremely eroded. It posed a sustainability issue from an environmental perspective but even more importantly, it provided a very poor trail visitor experience. With loose rocks and very steep grades, most people had to walk this section of trail. When looking around the National Forest for areas where we could improve our trail system, this particular section stood out as a segment that was located near a popular parking area, on the edge of the Forest and closer to the Valley and near other mountain bike hot spots such as Stokesville and Narrowback Mountain. We also have not successfully built new trail on the National Forest due to many long and complicated issues largely centered on the Forest Service massive trail inventory and complete lack of funding to maintain their trails. As a result, the Forest Service does not want to add any new trails to their system. Our workaround had been to identify very steep and unsustainable segments of trail and then relocate them onto sustainable grades. In turn, we close or decommission the original alignment in order to allow nature to restore the trail to a more sustainable state.
Trail Dynamics (a professional trail building company from Brevard NC) spent nearly six weeks on the Lookout project with several workers running equipment for five days a week. The Lookout project was completed with mini-excavators and walk-behind earthmovers. The rock work was largely placed with a mini-excavator outfitted with a thumb on the bucket. Hand crews then cleaned up behind the machines. The cost of the project was more than $65,000 and funded with a Recreational Trails Program grant through the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. The Coalition secured the grant, put the contract out to bid, and then managed the contract and the entire project. In addition, the Coalition covered 20% of the total project cost through a mix of fundraising and volunteer work hours that counted as in-kind match.
The bulk of the Lookout project was largely completed by professionals. The rocky technical nature of this build would have taken our volunteer crews many years to complete. This is particularly true given the long hike required to reach the construction site. Some volunteer work was accomplished, the Coalition spent a full Saturday during the 2012 Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival working on the lowest reroute with volunteers and accumulated 250 volunteer hours on that section. Other work on Lookout over the past decade from small maintenance fixes and more add up to an additional 600 volunteer hours when accounting for the administrative work involved with managing the grant and contract for the professional build. The Lookout Project took six weeks and was completed at the same time as the Tower trail and the Tillman West Trail on Narrowback Mountain.
As an organization, we believe deeply in the importance of volunteer work on our trails to help people connect to their local trails while developing ownership. That said, we are careful with where and how we ask for volunteer help. In the case of Lookout, volunteers would need to drive upwards of an hour to reach the Wild Oak parking lot then hike in over an hour before moving any rocks or dirt. Once the work begins, volunteer work sessions are typically limited in scope and time. For these reasons, we work hard to secure grant funds and raise money to hire professional contractors for National Forest projects. This allows us to make substantial improvements to our trails in a comparatively short period of time. If the 15 people who showed up for trail work in the National Forest instead spent the same number of hours on writing a grant and fundraising the amount of work that could be accomplished might be 25x what they would have achieved during that trail work session. We will always hold volunteer trail work but often try to focus our efforts on trails that are more accessible like Hillandale Park or the Massanutten Western Slope. The National Forest is the perfect location for professional trail builders to make a big impact given the remote nature of the work.”

This picture highlights just one of the many spots of awesome rock work completed during the SVBC re-location of Lookout. Photo Credit: Jess Daddio — This picture highlights just one of the many spots of awesome rock work completed during the SVBC re-location of Lookout.
*Photo Credit: Jess Daddio*

Extras

Strava Route

Ride With GPS Route

MTB Project Link

Food - Don’t forget to stop by the Stokesville Market for snacks! They also sell passes to access the Stokesville Campground’s swimming hole (a perfect spot to hit up after riding Lookout!

The Photographer: Shout out to Jess Daddio for the amazing pictures of our Iconic Rides! Check out her website or Instagram (@jessdaddio)! She is an awesome woman and an inspiration!

Lookout Mountain

Parking

The Wild Oak Trail / Lookout Ridge

The descent & Overlook

The Bridge

Trail work / Re-route / re-location

Extras

LOCATION

Contact Us

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