The Case of the Missing Rock
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” John Keats
Keats had a couple things wrong here. Darien was a place in the 1500s that today includes part of Panama and Columbia. Balboa had been to Darien and first sighted the Pacific Ocean in 1513. Cortez had never been to Darien. He saw the Pacific after 1521 (according to the web) and probably from what is now Mexico.
A little over 500 years later, a person known as “Q” (he shall remain anonymous in this narrative) stood silently upon a peak overlooking the Shenandoah Valley. He was not the first one there as he was on the Massanutten Mountain Orange Trail. So impressed with the view that he and others somehow came up with a plan to mark the place with a special rock. Special in the sense because it was engraved “Q’s View” with the letter “N” and an arrow.
2016. And thus it came to pass that on July 29, 2016, several people hauled up this special rock in a wheelbarrow along the Orange Trail and set it in place. For perpetuity! Or so they thought. As it turned out, one day the rock disappeared. Apparently, some malevolent (= evil) actors had taken upon themselves to dispose of the rock to parts unknown never to be found. Or so they thought.
The first photo below shows the rock prior to being set in place. The second photo shows the rock after having been set in place.
2025.For some time, several people had been considering mounting an expedition in an attempt to discover the missing rock and return it to its rightful and natural place. The masterminds behind this effort were Gary and Dave. Usually, “mastermind” refers to a criminal venture as “he was the mastermind of the robbery.” “Mastermind” might have been appropriate for placing a rock in a national forest in the first place (not sure that effort was legal). But “mastermind” in the criminal sense is certainly not appropriate for the completely legal effort of merely returning the rock to its rightful and natural place.
On April 29, 2025, three individuals (Gary, Dave, and John) of the VHTRC met at 9:20 a.m. in broad daylight at the trailhead on Crisman Hollow Road. Believe it or not, we found the rock! Actually, Dave found the rock. About 11:30. He had made a couple passes below the top before he found it. It was a suspicious rock because it was upside down, and part of it seemed to be missing. Curious, he turned it over and saw the engraving. As he did so, it rolled over the ledge, and it was now below two crossed logs on a ledge five feet below. Way to go, Dave.
The rock was missing the letter “N” and the arrow. But Dave quickly found the missing piece.
There were several phases in recovering the main portion of the rock: (1) sawing the two crossed logs that were now over the rock; (2) raising the rock to its original ledge by a rope and pulley system; (3) clearing a path with loppers to the top; (4) flipping and lifting the rock by hand up the cleared incline; and (5) the final lift by hand to the top. Finally, we dug out some dirt and rocks to put both sections of the rock in place.
We will all admit that it was a group effort. And two of us will admit that Dave did most of the work. He discovered the rock, he used the rope and pulley system to raise the rock initially, he was the main muscle behind flipping the rock up the incline, and he made the final lift to the top.
Gary was the main cheerleader from the top, repeatedly saying, “Dave, you found it! You found it!” I helped Dave flip the rock until on one flip, the rock landed on my knee. I immediately felt faint and limped to the top to get something to drink. I ate two sugar-coated, jellied orange slices and had a couple sips of Mt. Dew I had brought.
Gary took my place to help Dave move the rock along the incline. When I felt better, I came down to help them with the final lift. That was when Gary said he felt faint and went up top to rest. As I said before, Dave made the final lift by himself. When the rock was on top, we went to where Gary was sitting on a rock along the trail. I gave him two sugar-coated, jellied orange slices and some Mt. Dew, and he was fine. Since I’m writing this narrative, I would like to mention that Dave later admitted that I had some excellent ideas for moving the rock—ideas that we did carry out.
Below are a couple of the photos that we took that day; scroll down to the Photo Gallery to see them all.
To Gary’s cabin. We finally left the trailhead 6.5 hours after we had arrived. We were mighty hungry. Dave had showed us that morning what he had brought to eat: shrimp, croissants, roast beef, cheese, olives. What could stand in our way of getting back? Actually, a large tree that had fallen across the road.
Not to worry. The Three Chainsaw-teers quickly went to work and moved most of it off the road.
Sitting at the picnic table under the shade of the pine trees at Gary’s cabin in the Fort Valley, I was ravenous. I ate more than my fair share of shrimp. Then I made a roast beef and cheese sandwich with the croissant. Still hungry, I asked Dave, “What did you bring for dessert?” It seems that he forgot to get dessert. Well, almost a perfect day on the trail.
Conclusion. At the end, we asked ourselves, “Was it worth it?” We all agreed that it was. We also all agreed that if the rock went missing again, we would not be part of the search and recovery effort. Once was enough!
HAPPY TRAILS!
Photos
