Pisgah 400: Sam Knob Summit & Flat Laurel Creek Trail/Little Sam Knob Trail/MST
Loop Hike – 7/11/23 – 9 Miles
One of the advantages of living in central North Carolina is if the temperatures aren't cooperating at home, there is always perfect camping weather within half a day’s drive to the east or west. Too cold in the winter? The Carolina coast beckons with warm (not hot) temperatures and no crowds. Too hot in the summer? The NC mountains offer cool respite in the high elevations.
Where do I go when it’s 98 degrees in the “Charlotte sauna” in July? Mount Pisgah Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
My hiking buddy Carol and I booked a campsite for a mid-week hiking jaunt in the Shining Rock Wilderness area of Pisgah National Forest. This was a new area for Carol to experience and I’m working on the Carolina Mountain Club Pisgah 400 Challenge (hiking all the trails in the Pisgah Ranger District).
[Pause for a public service announcement for the National Park Service Senior Lifetime Pass. If you are age 62 or older and a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, this is the best $80 you will ever spend. Yes, it covers entry fees for our National Parks and 2,000 other recreation sites, but it also provides discounts for hundreds of campgrounds and facility amenities on federally managed lands. With my pass, the fees for Mt. Pisgah Campground were $10 per night. Read here for all the details.]
Perfect weather window for our adventures, clear skies, daytime temps in the 70s and nighttime temps in the 50s. It’s a long drive (3.5 hours from my house to the trailhead) and we were ready to stretch our legs. Today’s hike was a classic loop route in Shining Rock Wilderness highlighting Sam Knob and Little Sam Knob.
Starting at the Flat Laurel Creek trailhead on NC 215, a short gravel trail passed a primitive campsite (folks set up, looked like they’d been there a while). The trail grade was level, walking in rhododendron tunnels – ahh, breathe that mountain air! We passed Split Falls and Wildcat Falls, neither very photogenic in the dappled sunshine (that’s okay).
looks like someone has been trimming the rhododendrons
We easily rock hopped several small creeks draining down the slopes to join Flat Laurel Creek, passing campsites as the trail winds around the lower contours on the west side of Little Sam Knob. In one stretch along Flat Laurel Creek there was a string of spaces with campfire rings tucked in the rhododendrons, enough to accommodate a Boy Scout troop.
At the intersection of Flat Laurel Creek Trail and Sam Knob Trail, we turned left and paused before crossing Flat Laurel Creek.
A frame-worthy Carol selfie
We were so captivated by the bubbling creek that we decided to sit down for “first lunch”
The eastern end of Sam Knob Trail begins at the Black Balsam trailhead parking area. It crosses Sam Knob Meadow, where a left turn goes on to Flat Laurel Creek and a right turn follows Sam Knob Summit Trail. Coming from the west, we kept straight onto the summit trail. (Yes, a map and a GPS app are very useful tools to keep all this straight. But you knew that already, right?)
Even though I’ve climbed Sam Knob several times, today I was lulled by our gentle three-mile ramble to this point and rudely yanked back to reality. Hiking is hard work! The summit trail is short but challenging even with a couple of switchbacks.
Little Sam Knob in the center of the photo, its right side covered in coniferous trees,
left side covered in hardwoods
Hmmm… looks like we wouldn’t have time to explore Sam Knob’s south peak. We’d enjoyed a slow pace ambling along the trail and now we had to hustle to compete our loop and get to campsite check-in and our reward for the day (read on!)
We descended Sam Knob and retraced our steps to Flat Laurel Creek, where we turned left to rejoin our route. A half mile from there, we turned right onto Little Sam Knob Trail that follows the base around its eastern side.
There is no official trail to the summit of Little Sam (5,850 feet elevation) but no doubt many folks tackle it. Today we saw a man off trail that looked a little sneaky…maybe taking a pee break, maybe he was trying to scramble to the top?
This section of trail is relatively flat and easy, and before we could say “Little Sam Knob” three times, we reached the junction with my dear old friend, the Mountains-To-Sea Trail. Turning right (westbound), we followed the MST for the remaining 2 miles of our loop. Here’s what we saw along the way:
but on closer inspection it was made of white quartz rocks
To be honest, the last mile of the MST was not pleasant, an eroded, washed out, steep descent. After 9 miles and 5.5 hours on the trail, Carol and I were glad to see our car. We made our way to Mount Pisgah Campground to check in and hastily set up our tents…
…because we had a dinner reservation at the Pisgah Inn. Clean clothes on sweaty bodies, but we relished in our window seats overlooking Pisgah National Forest and our cider toast to another great day outside. Sláinte!
“Hiking side effects include sweating, euphoria
and general awesomeness.”
~Anonymous
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