DISTANCE: 8.5 miles
TRAILHEAD:
From the cabins, drive down to the main road, turn right, then left into the Lakeside Campground parking lot. (I opted to drive this short distance since I needed my car to swing by the park office afterwards but it can easily be walked from the cabins.)
DIRECTIONS:
It had rained overnight and in the morning the skies alternated between looking quite dark and ominous, then breaking up with areas of blue sky and sunshine, then back to dark clouds. Went ahead with the hike and got spritzed on briefly a few times, but nothing that required donning rain gear. The views were obstructed by fog but that in itself was quite pretty. It was horribly humid but we made it up the mountain anyway.
From the parking lot, walk on the road towards the campground.
At the campground, keep to the right, turning right on the orange-blazed Salt Stump trail.
You will be coming up on several intersections and although there are plenty of signs, I found it to be a little too much information making it somewhat confusing, so I'll try to clarify for this hike.
At .9 miles keep left on the orange-blazed Salt Stump trail at the intersection.
At 1 mile keep left on the orange-blazed Salt Stump trail at the next intersection.
At 1.1 miles keep right on the orange-blazed Salt Stump trail at the intersection.
At 1.3 miles, keep left on the orange-blazed Salt Stump trail at the intersection with the blue/yellow blazed Brown Hollow trail which goes to the right.
At 1.9 miles keep right on the orange-blazed Salt Stump trail where the yellow-blazed Pine Tree trail goes to the left.
At higher elevations on the Salt Stump trail there will be views but these were not clear on this particular day due to the fog.
At 3.2 miles you will finally reach the top of Middle Mountain where you turn left on the light blue-blazed Middle Mountain trail. This runs along the ridge, I believe actually inside George Washington National Forest, with the Douthat State Park boundary to the left.
The elevation along this section of the Middle Mountain trail reaches 3,125 feet.
At 4.5 miles turn left on the blue-blazed Blue Suck Falls trail. I did not see a sign here so you need to watch for the turn. It is a sharp turn to the left that starts to go downhill.
Keep left on the blue-blazed Blue Suck Falls trail passing the yellow-blazed Tuscarora trail on the right.
At 6.4 miles turn left on the yellow-blazed Pine Tree trail.
At 7 miles, turn right on the orange-blazed Middle Hollow trail.
At 7.5 miles keep straight on the orange-blazed Middle Hollow trail where the white-blazed Laurel View trail crosses, heading towards Douthat Lake.
At 8 miles reach Douthat Lake and turn left on the blue-blazed Heron Run trail.
Continue through the campground and along the road reaching the parking lot at 8.5 miles.
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