Linville Falls: Hike to Daffodil Flats

Linville Gorge: Hike to Daffodil Flats – 3/7/22 – 6 Miles

Research and navigation skills are essential when exploring Linville Gorge. This post is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to hiking to Daffodil Flats. Hike at your own risk!

Daffodil Flats, heard about it but had never been. Linville Gorge has kicked my butt enough times that I will only go with knowledgeable and trusted leaders. Fortunately, my hiking buddy Cathy volunteers with someone who knows it intimately as a trail and campsite maintainer.

The story goes that there’s an old homesite at the bottom of Linville Gorge (where the Linville River flows). Someone planted daffodils there and they have spread in joyful abundance. In early spring this patch of the Gorge is carpeted in yellow blooms.

On a promising spring morning, I rode with Cathy and her friend Julie along Kistler Memorial Highway on the western side of the Gorge. From the back seat, I can’t say how we got there, but we ended up at a connector trail to the Mountains-To-Sea Trail.

About a half-mile westbound, where the MST takes a sharp left, another trail continued straight – no signage, but experienced Linville Gorge hikers know it as the Lead Mine Trail. Well, on this day it was marked with pink flagging tape, extensively rehabbed within the last few weeks, a wondrous thing to behold.

Shortoff Mountain across the Gorge

Amazing skilled trail building

We rolled along this new Lead Mine Trail as it undulated in and out of coves on a fairly flat bench with moderate downhills – no more crazy up-and-down drainages. Its one steep section took us down to river level by an old home site, now an extensive camping area. At this point, Lead Mine Trail blends into Linville River Trail.

Although it doesn’t have the extensive steep ups and downs, Linville River Trail is not tame. The path is extremely rugged with roots and large rocks that will trip a hiker who takes her eyes off her feet. 

A mile upstream we reached the unmarked left turn to Daffodil Flats, its flashes of yellow visible through the tree trunks. The juxtaposition of simple domesticity in the rugged, raw Gorge is breathtaking.

Remains of a stacked stone fireplace, I think

I am not stepping on any daffodils in this photo

Only four other hikers were at the Flats when we arrived. We walked around quietly as if in a museum, talking softly and pointing and taking photos. Then…groups of people began streaming in so took our leave.

We walked a little further up Linville River Trail to check on some fire rings that Cathy and Julie had cleaned out and/or dismantled in the past couple of weeks.

On our return hike, those moderate downhills had turned into uphills, manageable at the right pace. Overall, our hike was just under 6 miles. A safe hike in great company and back home by 3pm.

“The earth laughs in flowers.”

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Linville Gorge: Pinchin Trail, Conley Cove Trail, Rock Jock Trail - Lessons Learned

Linville Gorge Hike – Pinchin Trail/Linville River Trail/Conley Cove Trail/Rock Jock Trail – 5/12/18 – 10 miles 

An opportunity for some challenging hiking with experienced friends, “only” ten miles, what could go wrong in Linville Gorge? A lot. My cautionary tale is long on details (and my viewpoint) in hopes that it helps someone avoid a similar situation.

The cast of characters: me/Terry/Chris/Andy/Cathy/Mike and Mike’s energetic dog Lily.  It’s been a couple of years since I’ve hiked with Terry, a super congenial guy, talkative and engaging, a strong hiker and a native Virginian like me.

A cheery drive to the Gorge, bumping along the Keistler Highway, a fine name for a gravel forest road.  It was in much better condition today than when Cathy and I hiked at the Gorge a year ago.  At the parking area for the Pinchin Trail, we stepped out of the cars and into unexpected stifling heat.  “What’s up with this?”  Temps are supposed to be significantly cooler at this elevation than back at home.  Hmmm…

  

The Pinchin Trail plunges straight down into the Gorge, extremely steep in places, rutted, red dust, scrubby trees and low vegetation, some nice spring flowers though.  

Bristly locust

Mountain Laurel

Viburnum

Catawba rhododendron

Soon I was sweating from the fierce sun exposure, thighs quaking from the steep terrain, not liking this trail even a little bit, very glad we were not hiking up (that part comes later).  1.5 miles is 1.5 miles too many. Good gravy, where IS the river? But…the view is fantastic.

Shortoff Mountain

Hawksbill Mountain and Table Rock

Linville Gorge Trail follows the river upstream, not always in sight or sound, and although there are no long stretches of elevation gain, the trail is quite rough, boulders, roots, ups and downs, still not a relaxing hike.  But the views…

Capturing Mike the photographer

The mighty Linville River - this is why you hike into the Gorge

Surprise! Pink lady slippers right by the trail

 

I cried uncle (this group is not much for stopping) and we stopped to eat at a very nice spot beside the water.  Big boulders to sit on, crashing fast water.  My new mini Sawyer water filtering system wasn’t working well because the one-liter pouch I was filtering from didn’t fit well and was leaking.  Andy brought a large pouch and a big Sawyer Squeeze.  He and Mike were kind enough to filter and fill my 3-liter Camelback as well as topping off everyone else who asked. Foreshadowing: This will be significant later.

Terry is chillin’

I need to fill ‘er up

We continued following the river to the left turn onto Conley Cove Trail.  The sign that I remembered from a year ago was there.  By now the hiking order was set:  Mike and Cathy and four-legged Lily, Andy and Chris, me and Terry.  Once or twice I told Terry that he could pass me if he wanted, but he politely said he was happy to stay in the back.  He is a “gentleman” that way.  I agreed that I was very happy to stick with him at the back, since he had the car keys. 

 

Conley Cove Trail is brutally steep, its only advantage over Pinchin being more tree cover.  Three-quarters of the way up, I was breathing so heavily and working so hard, I finally turned to Terry and said, “I am sorry, but I have got to stop to rest.”  He responded, “Good!” and immediately sat down.  After a couple of minutes, we started again.  The others were waiting for us at the intersection with Rock Jock Trail.  I hoped that Rock Jock would be a moderate trail back to the start – but it was not.  Everyone took off in the prescribed order and we did not see Mike and Cathy again.

Chris being coy amongst the azaleas

A short while on, Terry said with an embarrassed half-laugh, “Sharon, how much would you charge me for some of your water?”  I hesitated for a second, then asked, “Terry, are you out of water?”  Another half-laugh, “Yeah, it looks like it.”  “Well, Terry, we can share what I have.”  Oh, no, I couldn’t take your water.”  “Terry, if we both need it, let’s use it.” 

Terry sipped from my Camelback tube as my thoughts raced:  how far is it to the end of our loop?  I guesstimated maybe a mile-and-a-half on what I thought was a fairly level trail, so my mental calculations said that if we slowed down a little bit and shared the water, we would be hot and tired, but okay.  Terry is a big muscular guy, over 6 feet tall, 200 pounds.  If he was telling me now he was out of water, he had probably run out a while ago and didn’t want to admit it.  

Taking pictures is a good excuse to stop again and again

Table Rock

Shortoff Mountain again

The Rock Jock Trail curved around the rocky shoulder of the slope in the foreground

The trail was a lot longer than I thought and even rougher than what we had covered so far, more ups and downs than I expected.  I was feeling exhausted.  Chris and Andy had gotten out of sight, and I hollered for them.  Chris answered, and I asked her to wait for us.  They waited, we regrouped, told them that Terry was out of water, and Chris had about half a liter that she gave him.  I whispered aside to Chris that Terry was getting stressed and not feeling well.  We started up again – and Chris and Andy got out of sight once again.  After a bit I hollered again, Chris answered again, and they stopped again.  We all rested for a bit.  We stopped at a great rock outcropping and Terry even took our photo. 

 

Then Chris and Andy got out of sight once more, and this time they got out of hearing range and we didn’t see them again.  Repeatedly I’d say, “Terry, let’s sit on this rock,” and he would immediately drop down.  I was doing that for my benefit as well as his, because each step now was labored and exhausting. (My own problem-solving ability was impaired.) I had no idea how far we were getting or how far we had to go.  I just knew that we were climbing relentlessly up out of the gorge. 

Terry would stop and lean forward on his hiking poles, swaying, his eyes closed.  When I talked, he answered with slurred speech, and when he raised up from his poles he was unsteady on his feet.  Several times I would grab his hand (or vice versa) and we would both teeter precariously but regain our steadiness.  I was really frightened that he would pass out, have a heart attack or a stroke with just me there, and I felt helpless.

When we reached a height where the trees were shorter and scrubby, I pulled out my cell phone, praying to get a signal.  Chris answered but we were cut off.  I texted her that we needed someone to come and help us.  I got a reply that Cathy was on the way.  We were less than half a mile from the top.  Cathy hurried down, gave Terry more water and took his daypack, which was a big help.  She coached us the rest of the way. 

Chris was waiting at the road, sitting with Lily. Mike and Andy had gone to get the car.  I learned that Lily was quite ill, vomiting and lethargic, and that’s why they had been hurrying to get her out of the heat.  She weighs 35 pounds, too heavy to carry.

We got Terry into Andy’s car.  His speech was not coherent.  Mike suggested that we should take Terry to a hospital.  He was right – I had not thought beyond getting Terry off the trail.  In hindsight, he had every symptom of heat exhaustion. It took half an hour to drive out of the gorge to the itty bitty town of Nebo, NC.  By then Terry was recovering a little bit (cooling down in the air-conditioned car) and we told him we wanted to get him checked out.  He was reluctant, but I insisted, saying that if someone took his blood pressure and said he was okay, we would just head on home, but we couldn’t drive two hours home if he wasn’t well.  I casually asked if his wife was at home or out of town (would someone be home?) and asked if his wallet was in his backpack (we needed his ID).

We saw the Nebo volunteer fire department/EMT building on the hill. Several EMTs checked Terry out, blood pressure, pulse, temperature, etc.  By now he was feeling significantly better, coherent, able to speak for himself and even make jokes.  He refused an ambulance to the hospital and they said he could leave, no charge.  We stopped at the Dollar General to get Gatorade for Terry and water for Lily (who was still vomiting and lethargic).  Terry drank 2 huge Gatorades and 2 liters of water. 

Mike drove back to Gastonia with Terry in the front seat, Cathy and me in the back seat with Lily, a sad pup. Terry was his old self, talkative, joking.  He said he didn’t remember much about getting off the trail.  Whew!  In Gastonia, we were all very hungry but didn’t want to leave the dog in the car alone, so we got humongous bacon cheeseburgers at Hardee’s and ate in the car in the parking lot.  Delicious!  Terry took over the driving from there and seemed to be okay again. (Lily took a couple of days to get back to her old self.)

The next day I educated myself on the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.  I felt bad that I had not thought about heat exhaustion during this experience. [I was fixated on getting off the trail.] There are a couple of things we could have done, like put water on a bandana around Terry’s neck, sit and rest for a much longer period of time.  We kept resting for a couple of minutes, hiking a little further, repeat – not resting enough. 

  

Moral:  You don't have to stay on the couch, but hiking is risky business. Be prepared.  Six experienced, seasoned hikers on the first hot day of the year, steep, rough terrain, not enough water, not enough long rest breaks, good intentions but poor communication during the hike, all add up to trouble.  Never again!

“You don’t want to take on Mother Nature (unprepared),” Lewis warned. “She’ll spank you and send you back home every time.” ~Lee Lewis, a Search and Rescue volunteer in the Smokies.

Linville Gorge Loop

Linville Gorge Loop Hike – Conley Cove/Rock Jock/Linville Gorge/Babel Tower Trails - 6/2/17 – 9 miles

In a  moment of weakness I agreed to join a group hiking trip on the AT in New Hampshire and southern Maine later this summer, under the heading of “that sounds like fun while I am sitting here on the couch.” Those miles are considered the most difficult of the AT and I will suffer greatly if I don’t get off that couch! Time for some training work. I’ve been curious to explore Linville Gorge but have heard many cautions not to go alone unless very skilled at navigation (I’m not).  I’ve hiked along the eastern edge of the gorge a few times and have followed the Mountains-To-Sea Trail from the western edge down to the river and up the eastern side, but always with other hikers.

My trail buddy Cathy joined me on a loop from Danny Bernstein’s Hiking North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains guidebook.  I trust Danny’s maps and narratives, but she would say that hikers should have other maps, a compass, and brains for any hike. This is especially true in Linville Gorge, designated a wilderness area with no blazes and minimal signage.  It is rough, rugged and…well, wild.  I chose to hike the loop in reverse because the last 2.7 miles is on the gravel road, and I figured we would want to trend downhill rather than uphill for the boring part.  My logic had good and bad consequences. 

I christened my new-to-me Honda CR-V on Kistler Highway - not as much clearance as my good ole Pilot, but it’s got to do the job or else.  (It did.)  Don’t tell Jim how eroded the “highway” was in some places. 

We parked at the Conley Cove trailhead. A half-mile in, we took a right onto Rock Jock Trail, which leads to rock outcroppings with outstanding views. We investigated several small paths on the left side of the main trail before turning back.

Shortoff Mountain across the Gorge.  The MST climbs up Shortoff and then traces along about two-thirds of the eastern edge before turning east away from the Gorge and continuing into Wilson Creek Wilderness.

Table Rock

Hawksbill

Put ‘em together

There are a number of viewpoints of these two iconic points from the western rim of Linville Gorge, all worth checking out. Rock Jock is worth the bumpy ride and a two-mile round trip hike, a little work to get the flavor of the Gorge. 

We backtracked to Conley Cove Trail, turned right and took the plunge down to the Linville River.  Late spring flowers peeked out at every turn.

Mountain laurel

Beard tongue

Spiderwort

Fire pinks

Galax

At the river’s edge we found a large campsite area and a sign for Linville Gorge Trail, but no signage for Conley Cove. Score one point for hiking the loop in this direction or we might not have known that Conley Cove Trail intersected here. 

Lunch by the riverside

After our break, we began walking upstream, i.e. steadily uphill, our pace slowed down by stepping over/around big rocks and numerous blowdowns that required thinking.  The trail narrowed and dropped off sharply on the right (riverside) with vegetation crowding on the left.  I joked that I would suffer a lopsided neck strain from bending to the right to avoid getting hit in the face by branches.

What’s in there, Cathy?

Okay, where is the Spence Ridge Trail?  It should be coming in on the right, leading to the water – a brief detour for us because we wanted to see the Spence Ridge Bridge. This is a point against hiking in the opposite direction:  I am terrible at interpreting narratives in reverse.  Even with Danny’s map, the turn to the bridge looked to be very close to the Conley Cove intersection, but it seemed to take forever to get to it.  Did we miss it?  Nope, here it is – and the bridge is gone.

More trail practice with blowdowns and rough footing.  The river was loud and often we caught glimpses of whitewater through the trees, but very few clear lookouts.  Several times we took steep side trails to the water’s edge to check out waterfalls and cascades – all beautiful.  If only the trail more closely followed the edge, but judging by the car-sized and house-sized boulders, it would be hard to do.

Trail?

 Hawksbill again

Is there a view from there?

Yes!

Trail conditions slowed us down to the point where time wasn’t an accurate indicator of where we are on the trail.  Danny’s narrative is not so detailed as to mention every campsite, etc. and we (I) continued to have trouble interpreting backwards.  Which switchback does she mean? Which rock overhang?

Apparently we missed where Devil’s Hole Trail comes in from the right – but, hey, there’s Babel Tower! We are still in the Gorge.

At the base of a steep section of short switchbacks, we felt that we had located ourselves on the trail.  At the top of the section was a trail junction – no signage at all, but we interpreted this as the Babel Tower Trail crossing the Linville Gorge Trail. 

We walked a short distance to see Babel Tower’s base, but time was getting late so we turned around to continue up Babel Tower Trail toward the parking lot – yes, More.UP.  This 1.3 miles seemed especially arduous.  We were keeping a good pace, no longer slowed down by obstacles, but my energy level was depleted. A lot of self-talk that this was excellence practice for the AT in Maine next month, and that although it was difficult right this minute, once we finished and I sat down, I would feel better.

We met a couple walking down, carrying only a bottle of water, and asked how far to the parking area (after all, we still have 2.7 miles past that to walk on Kistler Highway to get back to our car).  They had no idea how far it is or how long they’ve been walking.  Next we saw a couple carrying loaded backpacks. They had been out for a couple of nights and were also heading to the parking lot.

An eternity later (15 minutes) we reached the lot and started off down the gravel road, a relief to be walking a gentle downhill with no obstacles (my brilliant plan).  About half a mile later, the backpacking couple passed by in their car (driving to Conley Cove to get their second car) and gave us a ride – saved us two miles of walking. (Better than my brilliant plan!)

I share all these details to emphasize that no hike goes exactly as planned.  Sometimes it’s easier, but don’t count on it.  More often it’s harder in some way. Research routes before you go, read guidebooks, trail journals and descriptions (there are a lot of them out there) but don’t stop there because the information may not be up to date (ex. missing bridges).  Look at the official websites for where you’re going, see what their current trail conditions and cautions are. (Wikipedia is not enough!) Take more than one type of map if possible.  Orientation, map and compass skills are important – I should practice these.  I’m glad I didn’t attempt this hike alone, as I would have gotten rattled at missing trail intersections, the lack of signage, and not being oriented in time and place.

The U.S. Forest Service website for Linville Gorge is here.  (It notes the washed out Spence Ridge bridge and the necessity of a “wet crossing.”  The water is often much too high for me to feel safe crossing there.)

"The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world." ~Zhuangzi