Kitsuma Peak, Pandemic Style

Kitsuma Peak – 5/9/20 – 10.1 Miles

The pandemic scare has gotten worse, so many unknowns. Working from home (and grateful for it). The most daring thing we’ve done is sit on our front lawns on Saturday nights, eating pizza, drinking beer, and shouting at our neighbors beside us and across the street. It has been a beautiful spring. The itch to get out on a trail grows stronger each day.

I asked my friend Danny Bernstein for advice. Most of Pisgah National Forest Ranger district is closed. Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway and access to trailheads is closed (other than a section near Asheville, and lots of hikers there). She suggested Kitsuma Peak in Old Fort, where she had hiked the previous weekend and saw no other hikers – but mountain bikers aplenty.

Kitsuma Peak it is. I’ve been once before, more than ten years ago. Jim joined me for this hike. We arrived at 9:30 on a Saturday morning to a totally empty parking lot at the Old Fort picnic area. I guess the mountain bikers were still enjoying their coffee.

Chilly, upper 40’s, unusual for a May morning. I read later that there was snow at Carver’s Gap and Roan Mountain. It’s all uphill from the get-go on Youngs Ridge Trail, and a brisk breeze joined us as we got closer to the top. The feeling was amazing, freeing, uplifting, nostalgic – oh, how we have missed this! 

A few large pink rosebay rhododendrons were in bloom, but smaller white Piedmont rhododendrons were bursting in profusion, lining both sides of the trail. They were everywhere, appearing again and again around every bend, arching overhead like arbors in a garden.

Worth the trip: a pink ladyslipper right beside the trail

At about 3.5 miles, just before we reached the summit, the first of many mountain bikers came barreling downhill. Jim stayed ahead and kept a good eye out, and the bikers were all reasonably alert, very friendly and laid back.  One pair whizzed by with a small dog chasing behind, inches from the back wheel, having the time of its life.

We paused for lunch on the flat grassy summit. Mountain bikers came and went, but none lingered.  Hard to believe we still had six miles to go, but it’s downhill now on Kitsuma Peak Trail. 

On the steep switchbacked descent we met a swarm of casual afternoon walkers. The trail leveled out at Interstate 40 and paralleled it for a short distance to a parking lot where more mountain bikers were pumping up tires (and where all those casual walkers started from). 

Charming I-40

We walked through the parking lot, turned right onto Royal Gorge Road, and had some head-scratching  at this point.  I had forgotten how far we had to go on this curvy paved road (turned out to be nearly a mile).  Traffic was very light, however, because the road is then barricaded to vehicles and given over to the enjoyment of foot and bicycle traffic.  

The old road winds around the mountain curves, one lane of the original concrete now paved over with asphalt. Mountain bikers were valiantly pedaling up this long stretch to get to the thrill of 4 miles down on the other side. We saw the warriors that we had encountered up on the trail – they go around the route several times.  Jim eyed each one with increasing envy and now has the spark to try mountain biking. [We’re going to need a bigger garage.]

Southern Railroad tracks run down to the narrow valley created by Swannanoa Creek (heard but not seen).  No trains today, but it excited my imagination to see the tracks coming out of tunnels carved through the mountains.  The number of folks out enjoying the day increased, but it was easy to maintain a six-foot distance on the wide roadway, with room to spare. All were smiling and enjoying the freedom!

About one mile down is Point Lookout, a grand scenic overlook of Royal Gorge. Jim and I stopped there to sit on the grass and enjoy a snack with a view before continuing on to complete our loop back at the picnic area.

What is this?

My GAIA worked well today and I think I’ve got the hang of it.  Beautiful day, just the tonic I needed, yet only a taste of what I wish I was doing more of. And a reminder that I have lost some fitness! 

Danny Bernstein’s excellent hiking guidebook Hiking North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Heritage gives a great description of this hike and background on the Southern Railroad and more.

Home again, dreaming up our next pandemic adventure!

 

"When I saw the mountains, the weight lifted
and my restless spirit calmed.
I knew this is where I belong."
~John Muir

Elmwood Cemetery Birthday Hike

Elmwood Cemetery Birthday Hike – 4/11/20 – 4 miles

And then COVID-19 arrived.

How is it spread? Breathing air, touching hands, groceries delivered to the front door? Leaving my workplace office clutching my computer – surely we’ll be back in a few weeks, right? The world halted, stumbled, and began to feel its way forward.

Is hiking safe? It’s vital to well-being but is it ethical to travel far for a hike? If I am injured in the NC mountains, does that mean I am potentially exposing EMT’s to rescue me? Heck, can I stop to use the bathroom at a gas station along the way? So many questions and we didn’t know the answers. Even as of this writing, we don’t know it all.

Jim and I were fortunate to stay employed, working remotely. His biking life was curtailed and my hiking life pivoted (aren’t we tired of that word?) to going local. It was a beautiful spring and everyone discovered our city’s parks and greenways. Too many people, too close together, and there goes Parks & Rec closing the parking lots to reduce the crowding.

I needed to get creative for my annual birthday hike (#513,497,286 on the list of priorities in the world). Where to go? Jim and I picked a local place with lots of people and no crowds: Elmwood Cemetery.

Elmwood Cemetery in uptown Charlotte is the largest cemetery in Mecklenburg County and originally reserved for whites only. Its adjacent counterpart, Pinewood Cemetery, was designated for African-Americans as was common in the segregated South.

We had no agenda other than walking outside on a sunny day. I did all my research after the fact. You can Google to your heart’s content. (And if you visit, be sure to check out Old Settlers Cemetery, the oldest in Charlotte, only a few blocks away.)

Queen City skyline

A massive China fir tree

McCarthys have a soft spot for firemen as they are well represented in the family

The McNinch family

Then we went home and ate birthday cake. Welcome, 62 and counting!

“There are two great days in a person’s life – 
the day we are born and the day we discover why.” ~William Barclay

Flat Creek Falls - Lake Toxaway, NC

Flat Creek Falls Hike with Jeff – 2/29/20 – 6.2 Miles – 2,100 feet elevation gain

Note to my hiking self: ALWAYS bring your Crocs.

Flat Creek Falls near Lake Toxaway, NC has intrigued me for a while. Kevin Adams’ North Carolina Waterfalls gives route descriptions and reasons why you shouldn’t do them: hike difficulty rating 10, off-trail, dangerous drop-offs, private property (a no-no). Yet it’s on the CMC Waterfalls 100 list for a reason - it is a challenge and it is spectacular. It requires skills I don’t have and there is one person that I feel comfortable doing it with: Jeff, a hiking buddy since 2008 whom I haven’t seen in a couple of years. (Jeff led me through the SB6K Challenge.) An off-trail winter hike fits his interest and skills levels.

I pitched the idea and within 48 hours Jeff had done all the research, downloaded maps and GPS tracks, and we made a plan for Leap Day. Fitting that it was a unique day for us to be hiking together again – I just hope it isn’t another Leap Day before the next time.

Snowflakes flew as I drove into the mountains. We met at the fire station in Lake Toxaway. Never one to show excitement, Jeff rolled down his truck window and said hi.  I followed him towards the trailhead, got as far as the snow-covered bridge on Rock Bridge Road, and left my car there. I grabbed my gear and jumped into Jeff’s truck to go the rest of the way.

The gravel forest road was covered in pristine snow, no tire tracks this morning, fun driving through wonderland about 4 miles to the road’s end. There was a campsite large enough for several trucks, a good home base for hunters. 

Flat Creek runs right beside the road-end and I realized with dread that the first order of business was crossing it.  Bad news: I didn’t have shoes for creek crossings. There were three large logs spanning the water, but they were covered in snow so I wasn’t going to even try to scoot across, much less walk. I had sneakers but didn’t consider carrying them all day (hindsight…)

I skipped barefoot to the water’s edge. Jeff went first, wearing his Crocs, and I hurried across as quickly as I could without slipping. The bone-chilling water was calf deep. How to sit down to dry my feet and put on socks and boots?  Snow everywhere. But I did it. In hiking, you draw the line at what you won't do, then you step over it and draw another one, and another one...

No trail signs or markers or blazes anywhere, and there goes Jeff. First, a very old forest road for about a mile, fairly level but with numerous blowdowns, following the contours of the mountains. Snow-covered trail through the rhodies was lovely.

Chill factor

Way led on to way, so the poem goes, as we turned onto one criss-crossing 
forest road after another. 

Jeff found a faint trail turnoff. The barely discernible path led a quarter mile down to a rocky outcrop that looked across to another slope.  Flat Creek Falls thundered down the cove. From our vantage point we could see the first drop, the second drop, and a long slide down and out of sight. Yes, this was the moderate creek we had crossed a couple of hours ago! This was a fraction of the whole series of drops and slides and cascades that total over 200 feet.

Let’s have lunch.

We backtracked up to the forest road and turned right, then continued steadily downhill to another faint side trail hopefully leading to Flat Creek, now flowing merrily along below the falls. Looking at the GPS track and topo map, it was likely we would cross several times heading toward the base (upstream now) and then several times coming back. Temps in the upper 30’s and wet, very cold boots for another 4 miles – I said no, even if I'd had my water shoes. If it had been 20 degrees warmer I would have gone for it. I felt some regret at not being better prepared, but the information was vague, and sometimes you just can’t know until you’re there.

In return for Jeff’s willingness to find the falls and then have me nix going to the base, I agreed to follow him for his favorite activity: peakbagging. He had two summit goals for the hike back, Beetree Knob and Isinglass Knob.

No trails, of course, to either summit, but Beetree Knob was short and easily accomplished. Isinglass Knob was longer, harder, and very steep, straight up the mountain. Jeff went easy on me, walked very slowly and kept up conversation. I really felt the burn in my calves, but barely broke a sweat. I was happy being a peakbagger for an hour on a cold, clear winter's day.

What are these? Random things you find in the woods

Back at the trailhead, now the snow had melted off the big logs spanning Flat Creek.  Jeff walked across, but I chickened out.  This time I waded in my boots, took them off immediately and tossed them in the back of his truck. Nice warm dry socks and sneakers.

Just kidding!

Good to see my friend again, sharing our love of the mountains.

“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is

 necessary to stand out in the cold.” ~Aristotle