Bartram Trail: Wine Spring Gap to Appletree Campground

Bartram Trail: Wine Spring Gap to Appletree Campground – 11/4/23 – 12.5 Miles

Wind blew through the treetops all night. Falling leaves and acorns sounded like rain pitter-pattering on my tent. Around 2:00 am I heard a truck drive past our hideaway site (late night visitors to the fire tower?)

I heard Jeff stirring in his tent before 6:30 am and thought, well, we may as well get up. Daylight was a long way off but we could set up our shuttle, place my car at Appletree Campground, then eat breakfast and prepare for the hike there rather than up on this dark and windy mountainside.

Who cares about these details? A weird subset of folks in the hiking universe who like logistics. 

Appletree Campground closes for the season on October 31, but there is parking outside the gate. Once we got organized, we drove Jeff’s truck back up to our campsite/parking spot to start the day’s hike near the Bartram/AT intersection. 

Déjà vu except today we're turning left/west/northbound towards Sawmill Gap

Looks like it’s going to be another gorgeous day

Always wear orange so you'll show up in the photos (and the hunters will see you!)

For the first couple of miles the terrain was easy, moderate ups and downs. We passed through three open fields that until recently had been covered in tall grass and thickets of blackberry brambles. We appreciated the recent mowing, not taking for granted that volunteers and forest service staff maintain these public lands for us.

Prepared with a new peak bagging list for today, Jeff stepped off trail to summit McDonald Ridge. I took this opportunity to eat a snack and then kept going at a leisurely pace. He quickly caught up to me.

Hornets’ nest

Sawmill Gap – can you see the moon?

At Sawmill Gap we crossed Wine Springs Whiteoak Road and a large parking area where horse trailers unload. (This is a trailhead for the Wine Spring Loop Trail which also passes the Wine Spring horse campsites.) We hiked up towards Jarrett Bald, and Jeff went off-trail to the summit while I wandered ahead, lulled into a false sense of security by the moderate terrain, everything deafened by the ever-present sound of rustling leaves.

And then…the descent to Nantahala Lake. Two steep miles of slippery leaves, with a short stint of narrow ridge littered with boulders hidden by the slippery leaves, followed by even more downhill (is that possible?) on slippery leaves. I slid a hundred times, most often catching myself with my hiking poles. Jeff’s strategy was sliding his feet along the ground in order to stay on dirt, but that meant his boots catching every rock and root. Like the day before, I vowed I would never hike at this time of year again.

At Nantahala Lake we had a short walk on Wayah Road, around a sharp bend with guard rails and very little shoulder. We had to hustle while listening and watching for vehicles. 

At the small inlet at the curve, we sat for our lunch break. Judging from the shoreline, it appeared that this spot was normally underwater but the current water level was pretty low.

Break time is over: get back up, stretch those sore muscles, and get back on Wayah Road for about half a mile to where the trail turned left up an old paved road (seldom used, from the looks of the undisturbed leaf cover and the old truck). 

The trail undulated off and on old forest roads. Jeff headed off for his final peak of the day (unnamed?) and I had an hour to continue around the base of the mountain. Mercifully, the trail was well graded again, pleasant walking. At one point there were no trail signs at all at an obvious turn, so I plopped down, spread out my rain jacket and laid down to wait for Jeff. Just 20 minutes later, he showed up.

But...the last quarter mile of descent in this section was super steep (again!) and I fell hard, bouncing from my back to my front, trying to avoid hyperextending my knee. No serious injuries, but I was very sore for a few days afterwards.

We crossed the concrete ford where the Nantahala River flows out of the lake. The ford is not passable in high water but was very low today. (Note: as you’re planning to hike this section, research the current stage of the river in case you should take an alternative route.)

Two final boring miles on an unpaved road to the intersection of Junaluska Road and Old River Road, where Appletree Campground is located. 

Stats: 12.5 miles, 1.280 feet elevation gain, 3,652 feet elevation loss

Sore knees and a long drive home, but two days of fine weather walking in the woods with an adventurous friend – this is the life!

“The acoustics of this season are different
and all sounds, no matter how hushed,
 are as crisp as autumn air.”
 ~Eric Sloane

Bartram Trail: Wine Spring Bald to Wallace Branch

Bartram Trail: Wine Spring Bald to Wallace Branch – 11/3/23 – 14.5 Miles

A hiking adventure with my friend Jeff, long overdue! Finding something that’s new for both of us took some thinking, until we found that we have the Bartram Trail in common. Jeff has hiked the Georgia section and I’ve hiked some miles on the North Carolina end.

We settled on the 23-mile section in Nantahala National Forest between Wallace Branch and Appletree Campground in NC. Considering Jeff’s penchant for peak bagging, this stretch was especially enticing to him.

My plan: This could be a straightforward backpacking section, but since we will have two cars, I concocted a complicated scheme of shuttling, dayhiking and car camping. This involved more time moving vehicles, but it meant we could start from the high point both days (Wayah Bald) and hike downhill to the end points with light packs rather than killing ourselves (i.e. me) hauling a loaded backpack uphill.

Jeff’s extra plans: he wanted to summit six off-trail peaks on the first day’s hike. Also, starting from the Wayah Bald parking lot was too simple – let’s start from a more obscure point where the AT crosses Wayah Road and climbs northbound to intersect the Bartram Trail.

Camping is off limits at Wayah Bald Fire Tower, so Jeff studied maps and satellite images to find a suitable (free) site close by.

We met at the Nantahala Ranger Station on Friday morning and dropped my car at the nearby Wallace Branch parking area. (There are campsites there, but too close to civilization for us).

From there we drove up the forest road towards Wayah Bald, checking out Jeff’s camping options along the way. We chose one at a bend in the forest road, a pull-off wide enough for two vehicles. We could place our vehicles to block view of our tents from the road (hoping no one would be on the road after dark anyway). The site was a short walk to our starting point in the morning.

Done. It was 10:30 am, time to get moving. We walked a short distance back down Wayah Road and turned northbound onto the AT. I stumbled going up the steps, landed flat, which I’m sure gave Jeff pause as to whether I would be a liability on this adventure.

So happy to be outside on a crisp late autumn day, talking with my old buddy, blissfully naïve to what awaited me! The short climb up Middle Ridge got our blood pumping. We hit the AT/BT intersection sooner than expected, made note of the designated campsite and water source there.

The AT and the Bartram Trail run concurrently for a few miles, white and yellow blazes

We took the spur trail to Wine Spring Bald, Jeff’s first peak of the day and home of unattractive communication towers. Here we sat down in the sunshine to eat an early lunch.

Comms towers on Wine Spring Bald

The view from Wine Spring Bald

Moving on from bald, we hiked about two miles to Wayah Bald, encountering a few backpackers and dayhikers. From the fire tower, the wide open view of layers of blue mountains blending into blue sky was sublime. We didn’t linger long, miles to go.

Wayah Bald Fire Tower

The rest of the afternoon was a descent (let’s just call it a slide) of epic proportions, mostly focused on my balance, or lack of it.

What looked like a simple downward trend on the elevation profile map in reality is stretched over such a long distance that there is not much relatable detail – meaning the little bumps and dips aren’t little at all. In fact, they were roller coaster steep with no switchbacks. In addition, last week’s colorful leaves in the trees were now brown dry leaves on the ground, deceptively deep on the trail and slippery as all get out. 

A rare handrail in the backcountry - there must be steps under here somewhere

Ankle deep in leaves

Jeff walked ahead of me and, although we tried to talk, it was pretty hard to hear conversation over the clamorous rustling we stirred up. Not for the last time, I questioned this “lifelong hobby” of mine.

By the time we reached Harrison Gap, I realized that we were moving slower, had more miles to go than expected, and would be finishing this hike after dark. Jeff did not disagree with me. Fortunately, the peaks he was interested in along this stretch (Wildcat Knob, Wilkes Knob, etc) were short off-trail walks. He disappeared and reappeared while I trudged along the BT.

The temperature and darkness were also descending. The last mile down to the Wallace Branch trailhead was a challenge in the fading light, but we triumphantly walked off the trail without headlamps at 7:00 pm.

My GAIA track recorded 14.5 miles, 2,038 feet elevation gain, 4,907 feet elevation loss. WHAT???

We drove my car back up the forest road to our campsite. It was cold, pitch dark, and the first thing Jeff did was build a small fire in the existing fire ring. We rarely take time for campfires, but tonight it felt good to get some heat and light going to pitch our tents and prepare food. (We kept the fire low and had gallons of water for extinguishing the flames.) 

With hot tea and a hot meal, we caught up on life’s changes. Since we last hiked together, I became a grandmother and Jeff became a dad! The two of us hold different views on some issues (guess who’s the liberal one) but our common love of hiking and the peace of the outdoors make us hopeful for the world that our little guys will grow up in.

By 9:30 pm the fire was out and so was I, curled up tight in my sleeping bag, listening to a breeze high in the trees.

“Is it too late to turn back? Asking for a friend.”

~Anonymous

Hanging Rock State Park: Three Sisters Off-Trail Hike

Hanging Rock State Park: Three Sisters Off-Trail Hike - 12/12/20 – 6.9 Miles

At the end of Sheep Rock Road on the outskirts of Danbury, NC (yes, outskirts) there’s a gate. This unassuming gate is a back door into Hanging Rock State Park – legal entry, rarely used, and a prime location for a solitary winter’s day hike – yes, yes, yes!

I didn’t find this gem on my own. I joined a hike led by Joe Miller on a cool COVID-19 morning in December 2020. I was thrilled at the opportunity to follow the footsteps of an experienced and trusted outdoor adventurer. [Check out GetGoingNC to be amazed at Joe’s passion and all he does to get people outside. The website includes a guide to this hike so my description here is only general, with photos that make you want to go!]

At the gate, I set my GAIA to make a track as we headed out on the gravel road past an old tobacco barn. Following Joe, trending uphill, we switched from one roadbed to another until we left gravel altogether and climbed up through the sparse undergrowth to the ridgeline (one of many reasons to hike off-trail in the wintertime).

At around two miles we summited the Second Sister, then half a mile later topped the Third Sister. We walked along a saddle up to a fourth peak (unnamed) and over to a rock outcrop with stunning views of Hanging Rock to the west.

From that turnaround point, we loosely retraced our steps, exploring more rock outcrops with views to the southwest. On the return we also made the short side trip to tag the First Sister (no view). Didn’t see any peeps the whole day.

Joe Miller

Joe shared tips on off-trail sight navigation, and comparing my GAIA track with the GPS of other hikers was a valuable learning exercise for me. I don’t profess to be prepared for solo tripping off-trail everywhere, but I think I could repeat this hike in similar (winter) conditions using the track I made.

New area, new skills, winter views and solitude – it doesn’t get any better than that. I drove home with a big ol’ smile on my face.

I repeat: Do yourself a favor and check out GetGoingNC, especially the blog posts and archives. Joe is based in the North Carolina Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) but he offers guided hikes in a broader area, and his guided backpacking trips (for beginners as well as experienced folks) are the best you can get for skill building and exposure to some great areas in the NC mountains and beyond. 

“I have discovered in life that there are ways
 of getting almost anywhere you want to go,
if you really want to go.”
~Langston Hughes

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