The Mischa Mokwa Adventure Trail is not a specific trail but, rather, a route which involves three different trails in the Cumberland Gap National Park. The beginning trailhead is located at the edge of the Wilderness Road Campground. Hikers walk approximately 6 miles up the mountain via the Gibson Gap Trail then turn eastward onto the Ridge Trail which runs along the crest of the mountain range. Along the way, hikers pass near Hensley Settlement, Sand Cave, and the White Rocks overlook. All of these sites are less than a half-mile detour from the main trail and are well worth the extra steps to visit them. Past White Rocks, hikers move onto the Ewing Trail for a 100% downhill descent from the mountain top. The trail ends at Civic Park in Ewing, Virginia. Though only about 22 miles in length, the Mischa Mokwa Adventure Trail is no easy walk in the woods. The views are spectacular, but the climb up the mountain is a real challenge, especially for casual hikers. (Miles 3-6 are the killer stretch!) For this reason, most Scout groups choose to make it a backpacking trip (as we did). We'd strongly recommend that groups enforce a strict weight limit on packs. (About 15 pounds would be reasonable.) We allowed our guys to carry too much weight and the trail was a real struggle for many of them. Fortunately, all the guys on this trip were experienced hikers and all were in good physical condition, so we struggled through --- but it was a challenge! This was one trip which the hikers will be talking about for a long, long time! (And, yes, seeing Sand Cave made the whole trip worthwhile!).

The Ridge trail runs 19 miles from the Pinnacle at the southern end of the park to a Civic Park just past White Rocks at the northern end. We took Ridge trail south to a branch trail that lead to the Martin's Fork campground and cabin. This campground is by far the best backcountry site in the park. It has several sites for tents, concrete fire rings, picnic tables, a horse pen and a primitive cabin. The cabin has a fireplace, six bunks, and on this trip - one very daring mouse. According to information posted in the cabin this was once the home of Thomas Jefferson Cupp, mountain man and moonshiner. Apparently old Tom Jeff used to "run a little likker" until the time he "departed the hills and valleys of this life". The cabin is available by reservation only through the Park Service.

Sand Cave is unusual for this region in that it was eroded by wind and rain, rather than by running water. Getting to the back of Sand Cave requires some climbing; the floor slants at a pretty severe angle and is covered by the results of the erosion. And what do you get when sandstone erodes? That's right: sand! Knee-deep sand, sand that spills over the tops of your boots and encrusts your socks, sand that cakes to your pants, sand that is - nevertheless - a load of fun to tromp around in. The erosion at Sand Cave is continuing; at one end there's a drip of water that becomes a small waterfall when the weather is wet. Photos really don't do this site justice because the things that make it impressive are mostly nonvisual. The entrance is wider than any cave I've ever seen, at least fifty yards across and five stories high in places. There's the sheer size of the 150-yard mouth of the rockshelter (that requires a wide-angle lens to capture at all), but photos still don't convey the extent to which you feel dwarfed before this marvel of geology. Nor do pictures capture the sound of the dripping water echoing against the back wall or the cool stillness of the air. The walls of the cave are made of a sort of conglomerate sandstone. Small white and yellow quartz pebbles peek out like thousands of glistening cats-eye marbles. I ran my hands along the stone. It was coarse and bumpy and absolutely beautiful. Toward the lower end of the cave's entrance, a waterfall plummeted freely to a clear icy pool and frozen water droplets splashed out to frost deep-green galax. Thousands of drips formed long pointed icicles all along the cave's opening.

From the intersection with the Ridge Trail, it's only 0.1 mile or so to White Rocks, but this is the most technically difficult 0.1 mile of this entire hike. The map is deceptive. The trail does not gradually ascend to the top of White Rocks via switchbacks on the back side, but rather plunges straight up through a notch in the rock face. The last 200 feet touches the boundary between hiking and rock climbing; it is on the hiking side of the line, but not by much. The views from White Rocks are by far the best I've seen in the Cumberland Gap National Park. You can see for miles into Virginia and get a much more unobstructed view of Powell Valley than is available from the Pinnacles, even with the little hump that separates Powell Valley from Poor Valley. The view into Kentucky is far more limited, but there's a nice glimpse of Pine Mountain in the distance.