Pisgah 400: Sam Knob Summit & Flat Laurel Creek Trail/Little Sam Knob Trail/Mountains-To-Sea Trail Loop

Pisgah 400: Sam Knob Summit & Flat Laurel Creek Trail/Little Sam Knob Trail/MST
Loop Hike – 7/11/23 – 9 Miles

Shining Rock Wilderness – View from Sam’s Knob

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.

Here we go! *Most of the photos in this blog post (all of the good ones) are Carol's*

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).

Split Falls

Wildcat Falls

Fresh cuttings hiding the roots and rocks on the trail -
looks like someone has been trimming the rhododendrons 

We caught up with the trail maintainers – thank you!

Heart Rock, a sweet landmark on Flat Laurel Creek Trail

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”

Rugged stairs beckoned us across the creek, time to resume our hike

The western end of Sam Knob Trail connecting to Flat Laurel Creek Trail

Peekaboo Sam Knob

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. 

Rugged climb

Halfway up

Million dollar view: Mount Hardy on the far left, Devil’s Courthouse peeking over the horizon,
Little Sam Knob in the center of the photo, its right side covered in coniferous trees,
left side covered in hardwoods

Looking north towards Grassy Cove Top and Tennent Mountain

Sam Knob has two distinct peaks with trails going to both. We took the right-hand trail to the northern peak, the true summit at 6,045 feet elevation.

Looking southeast towards…dark clouds gathering

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:

Artifacts from logging days

St John’s wort lining the trail

Rock tripe, ugly but edible (research before you try it!)

A campfire ring that appeared to have trash and plastic bags strewn around,
but on closer inspection it was made of white quartz rocks

Rough bridge on the MST

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

A Van Gogh Experience

June 27-28, 2009 – Overnight Backpack in Pisgah National Forest – 21.3 Miles

In late July I am heading to the Grand Tetons for a week of dayhiking and backpacking. My cohorts will be my friend Jeff, hiking guru, my friend Mike, who shepherded me through my first overnight backpack in the Smokies last fall, and a woman named Laurie, a Bergs member whom I have not hiked with before. This trip is really Jeff’s idea and we are just benefitting from all of his research and planning. The four of us have met once for dinner to discuss generalities and flights. We thought a shakedown hike would be a good idea, and finally settled on a date that 3 out of 4 of us could make it (Mike is always busy with some trip or another – I think he was on a biking trip this particular weekend.) Jeff proposed a loop in Pisgah that worked its way through Middle Prong Wilderness and Shining Rock Wilderness that he described as…well, here is his entire description:  

“Rating: strenuous. It's a 21.3 mile loop with 5,400' elevation gain in Pisgah NF. The first 3.5 miles contains 3,000' of that elevation gain and there will be spots within that 3.5 miles that are extremely steep. Other than that, the rest of the route is somewhat flat. We will start at Sunburst Campground and hike start on the Green Mountain Trail and either camp off that trail at mile 5.5 or continue on the MST and camp at mile 8.0. The 2nd day we will continue on the MST to Black Balsam Rd and then pick up the Ivestor Gap trail. From there we'll head back to Sunburst via the Fork Mountain Trail. Water should be available close by the campsites and at several other locations along the route.”

In hindsight, warning signs were everywhere…

Jeff posted the overnight trip on the Bergs website and an unsuspecting new fellow named Ken signed up. Jeff quizzed him for his experience and, upon learning that Ken was a former Marine, said he could pretty much handle it. Another sign…you need to be a Marine to do handle this hike…

Bright and early Saturday morning I headed to the mountains, picked up Jeff along the way, met Ken at a prearranged spot, and then met up with Laurie at the trail parking area, a very popular summer spot for locals along the West Fork of the Pigeon River. We stepped off the road and onto the most vertical trail I have ever encountered in my admittedly short hiking life – the Green Mountain Trail. The first quarter-mile gained around 400 feet in elevation. (Pause for gasps from the audience.) We started off cracking jokes but soon switched to spitting curses. My hiking poles were useless as I grabbed for trees and roots and rocks. Laurie was a less experienced hiker and stopped often to adjust her pack, get food, or just plain rest – and I was grateful every time. Normally I would have pushed on and been miserable, but our slow pace and frequent breaks ultimately are what saved us all. As advertised, the first 3.5 miles were very steep and the trail makers missed switchback class. Also, the trail was faint (what, it’s not trampled by dozens of hikers every day?) and whenever I was leading I often had to ask, “Am I still on the trail?” This was the third time Jeff had hiked this route in about 3 months (yes, he is certifiably insane) so he knew it intimately and told us in great detail what was coming up around the next bend, over the next rise, around the next boulder. It was not always welcome news.

BUT there are some awesome viewpoints along Green Mountain Trail. The trail eventually leveled out and we rediscovered normal breathing as we crossed over Green Knob. From one vantage point Jeff named the mountains we were looking at, including my favorite, Sam Knob with its double peak (see photo). Our entire route circled these mountains and we saw them from every side. Most of the time I could pick out Sam Knob. We had agreed before starting that we would push to the campsite at Mile 8 rather than stay at Mile 5.5, but we checked that one out anyway. It was part of another fantastic bald area. Here are Ken and Laurie frolicking in the field. As tempting as it was to park here, we knew we could not handle a 16-mile hike the next day – actually, 13 miles was sounding pretty overwhelming. Onward! We completed our beloved Green Mountain Trail and turned left onto the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, skirting Mount Hardy (hey, that’s an SB6K, but there ain’t no way I’m climbing ‘er today.)

Over smaller mountains, inside rhodo tunnels, across open fields, the need for water was getting critical. With the heat of the day and the extreme uphill, my buddies ran out of water before we reached the first decent source – and they had carried a lot of water. I was getting close to empty as well. We tanked up and resumed marching. I don’t remember many details of this part, just waiting for Jeff to say, “This is it!”

And finally we walked into a big open field and set up camp. We were actually within a half-mile of Route 215. It had taken us 7 hours to walk 8 miles. Now it was approaching 8:00 p.m. and we had to work fast to cook, eat, clean up and hang food bags. Since I was treating water with my AquaMira drops and pouring it into my CamelBack, I wanted to get another bottle of water, so Jeff took me to another water source…just a drizzle coming out of the steep bank beside the trail, but it was water. It was so slow that I nearly nodded off waiting for the bottle to fill! Note: If you ever go on this route, fill up at the stream, don’t wait until you get to this campsite.

We cooked and ate supper close to the tree we had designated to hang our food, and as we ate we noticed that the dew was forming rapidly. A chill descended and I was glad I had packed that long sleeved shirt at the last moment. Jeff, ever the minimalist, had brought only the clothes on his back, which by now were getting damp. After housekeeping, we all crawled into tents to enjoy our night in the wilderness. And what a night it was! Not a single sound, no crickets, no owls, just total silence. Around 3:00 a.m. I ventured out for the inevitable potty break and was stunned by the stars. The moon had passed on and the stars were gleaming thickly in the ink-black sky. I don’t believe I have ever seen stars as clearly. There was no light source for many miles, no tree branches to peer through, no clouds. I bent my head waaaay back and said a prayer of thanks. Hiking up that ridiculous Green Mountain Trail was absolutely worth it to experience that night sky.

[Click here for Blue Ridge Outdoors' recent article on "The Wildest Hikes You Never Heard of" and read the description for North Carolina's choice.]

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Martin Luther