Top Linville Gorge instigator, Marshall, formulated the plan today. It was to be a route not done by anyone in our small group of 4. Beginning at Table Rock heading south on the MST, we travel a short way to the view above and then to the view of the Camel below. It is about here the fun begins. The is a gully just to the north of the Camel and Apricot Wall. That is our route down.
Once at the base of the wall, we follow a faint climbers route along the base to a point between Apricot Wall and the Camel. Briefly we consider circumnavigating the camel or climbing it. Those don't look like good or fun options. We continue to travel along the base of the Apricot, exploring some caves we see about 15 to 20 feet up the wall but still accessible.
The going gets thorny here, greenbrier thrives in the area. Lunch is on a ledge along the base of Apricot. We encounter some climbers on the wall near here. We see them most of the rest of the afternoon making their way up the south facing wall of the Apricot.
Matt spots a 5 petal white flower blooming in several spots. It turns out to be a variation of Mountain Sandwort - Greenland Sandwort. Later in the week, some gals with the NC DNR tell us there is one patch of this stuff in Burke County last spotted in 1982.
The afternoon is filled with navigation through dead-fall and greenbrier. After a nasty bout this tandem, we reach a rock formation and climb it to catch our breath. Marshall says we have only another 100 feet or so (I've learned "or so" is a vague and nebulous expression with a meaning somewhere between "no clue and rough hypothesis"). From our perch we can see a tangle of briers below. Ben heads straight up the wall in what the rest of us are convinced is a foolhardy but entertaining attempt to shorten our route. He disappears in the rhododendron and occasionally yells back at us. To our surprise he has successfully navigated around to the upper end of the separation crack, thus bypassing the Mossy Monster. This is good news and the rest of us scramble up this route and are forced to feed Ben's ego the rest of the day. The picture above is the upper end of the separation crack. Technically this is not a crack, it is a very narrow space between a wall and a spire.
Matt is all smiles not realizing there is a lot of air under him.
We trudge up the side of the gorge to the MST. At this point on the MST there are some short trails eastward to lookouts. Most of these afford nice views of a rock formation, The Castle.
Marshall has planned a return route over the Chimneys. This turns out to be an exciting adventure with some spooky scrambling and outstanding views. We manage to traverse the entire area but don't feel comfortable descending the rocks of the northeast end. Some climbers direct to a gully they use to access the top. This is an easy route down.
A great view of Shortoff and south
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