Thursday Pizza

Another perfect pizza. Dough is equal parts hard red and unbleached white flour. Toppings are local (frozen) chanterelles, puttanesca sauce, a little mozzarella cheese, sauteed spinach, roasted red peppers and ground deer meat. The deer was harvested on the property late month.

January Trail Camera

The usual complement of deer, one squirrel (not shown) and finally a turkey makes an appearance. A rafter of 10 were spotted during the fall but this is the first to get caught on camera.

Jan 20 Montreat's Big Piney and Stompin Knob

The route up Big Piney, then over to Stompin Knob and back was only a 2 hour duration. We had gusty winds to about 20 mph but otherwise it was in the high 40's.

Again today, we were walking on the Montreat property and accessed several trails during the course of our hike. There were lots of rocks and some steep trail. The frozen ground and slick leaves made for some slow ascents and quick descents.

Jan 19 Montreat's Lookout Peak

Town of Black Mountain from Lookout Peak

Montreat has what seems like a rabbit warren of trails throughout the area. Our hike today is up Lookout Peak, the Boggs Bunion, through Buck Gap and back to the trail head on an old trestle trail.

Nanci with Blacks in background

The hike up Lookout is steep at times and has a section with wood steps to prevent further erosion. The best viewing area is not the highest point but this spot shown above. It is the "top" for most hikers.

3760 feet

We continue on to the real top and then follow a trail to Boggs Bunion and Buck Gap. Most of this route parallels the toll road to Mt Mitchell, the former road between Black Mountain and Mt Mitchell. The route is now overgrown but once a year is open to four wheel, high clearance vehicles.

Boggs Bunion is named for Wade Boggs of Montreat, not to be confused with Wade Boggs of Red Sox and Margo Adams fame.

Jan18 L.O.S.T. Tour

Will in entrance to Conley Cave

Our outing today is in Linville Gorge. A route known as Lower Old Scramblers' Trail still exists as a faint manway below the western gorge rim. Armed with a new Etrex 20, loaded with tracks and waypoints from linvillegorge.net's website and some guidance on the off trail portion from Gorge Rat Marshall Weatherman, Will and I were ready to tackle a tour of the northern portion of L.O.S.T.

Beginning at Conley Cove trail head in 17 degree temperature, we descended Conley Cove trail for about 10 minutes. At that point we veered off trail to the right by a large outcrop. Rounding one side of the outcrop, we could see the huge opening to Conley Cave. The photo above gives an idea of the size of this cave. 

Blue Jay Falls along Rock Jock Trail

After a brief inspection of the cave, we continue to follow the base of the wall. My Etrex 20 alerts me to the fact, we are at Petreaus Point. The GPS doesn't realize the Point is actually well above us but still at roughly the same coordinates. There appears a possible scramble route up between two rocks but we press on further until we realize we have to go up and choose a less desirable but still fairly easy scramble route up. Now we get our first look at the gorge and the iconic mountains which make up the eastern rim. As we progress further during the day, Tablerock and Hawksbill will appear differently when viewed from other angles.

Petreaus Point is named for David Petreaus, former CIA director and four star general. Previously this spot had been named Osama Point to honor Osama Bin Laden, the mujaheddin leader fighting the Soviets from 1979 into the 1980's.

Will in the Keyhole by Little Seneca

Leaving Petreaus Point on a faint trail, we make our way to the Lost Dog Loop Trail. Here we see Lost Dog Camp with its spectacular viewing spot. Continuing on the loop, we make our way to Rock Jock Trail and walk south about 4/10th of a mile to begin a series of viewing points; Fern Point, Hackers Point and Blue Jay Point. Before reaching Blue Jay Point, we pass Blue Jay Falls. Today, this weeping wall is a series of icicles and dripping water. The wet wall continues about 100 feet trailside. Just beyond here is Blue Jay Canyon. An aluminum sign tacked to a tree indicates this.

Now we are faced with some confusion as to how to drop down to One Bat Cave. We find a faint trail out to Blue Jay Point or what we think is Blue Jay Point. There is a scramble route down just to the right. We lower ourselves down and then move to the left along the wall's base until we find the recessed entrance to One Bat Cave, hidden in Rhododendron. One Bat is a narrow cave, perhaps 6 to 8 feet wide and about 80 deep. We need a flashlight to see to the back of the cave. Here we find hundreds of crickets scurrying all over the cave's ceiling.

Leaving One Bat, we again have some confusion as to where to head but figure the route out. Going down from the entrance to One Bat, we use the GPS to locate Marshall's track and follow it. The two landmarks to look for are designated as waypoints: Rock1 and Rock2. These are large outcrops. The second is the entrance to the chute which lowers up about 40-50 feet. Now it is a simple stroll over to the Balcony, complete with a set of wind chimes.

The Keyhole

Possibly, the most interesting geological feature of this route, is the Keyhole above. It offers a passage through what would otherwise be a virtually impassible spot. Once through the Keyhole, Little Seneca appears immediately on our left. It is a perch surrounded on 3 1/2 sides by sheer drops. It is too windy today to eat lunch out there. We find a place out of the wind to eat nearby.

Linville River looking South from Little Seneca

Leaving Little Seneca, the route follows the base of the wall for about 15 minutes before Zen Canyon opens up to the right. This intimating climb out, narrows as you go higher, as the photo below shows. When you reach Zen Falls on the right, look for a scramble route up between rock walls on the left. You'll be glad you find this route since the route continuing up the canyon doesn't look easy.

Looking up Zen Canyon. Zen Falls on right.

There is a very faint trail out to Zen Point. The views south are spectacular. Below, you can see Razor's Edge, the rectangular rock jutting out, our next stop.

We find a trail back to Rock Jock Trail and after some confusion, locate the trail out to Razors Edge and finally to Razor Point. Now we have completed out tour and head back to the parking area via Rock Jock Trail. Our route ended up being 5.6 miles and took about 6 hours.

Icicles on route to Razor Point

Calloway Peak on Ice

Two days of rain in warm temperatures melted all the snow on these mountains. Sunday was perfect though. Will and I drove up for a mid morning start from the Boone Fork Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our destination was Calloway Peak, at 5964', the highest peak of Grandfather Mountain. There were a few clouds in the sky as we started and temperatures were right around freezing. There was a light coating of sleet which had fallen overnight. After registering, we hiked the Tanawha Trail a short distance and then accessed the Daniel Boone Scout Trail which goes to the top. It is all uphill in this direction. About a mile up we take a breather at Flat Rock, then continue up. There is more sleet on the ground and the trail is solid ice in many spots. Another mile brings us to a large rock which requires a tricky scramble. There are a couple tiny footholds and a very well placed handhold that allowed us to tackle this ominous rock with relative ease.

Now we are in a section of trail that is solid ice. There is one more rock which requires a minor once over before scrambling down. Then the ladders begin. They are in good shape, free of ice except at the top of one. We manage the 3 ladders very well and easily pull ourselves up a steep area by using the cable in place. There are just a few more steep spots before we enter the small exposed area at the top. Before stepping out, we gear up with windbreakers and everything else we have with us. The weather forecast had said 70 mph gusts but we didn't experience anything even half that much.

Our "top time" is brief as the winds did chill us down. We decide to go on further to the next overlook but after about 100 yards we encounter a ladder atop an iced rock. It looks like we could manage it but we have a great view where we are standing so decide to stay here for a few moments and then retrace back to the top.

It was too windy to eat lunch on the top, so down we went. I kept searching for the plane wreckage which is in the area, not far off trail but the snow made it impossible to locate. About a mile down, we met our first hikers of the day, a small groups of kids with a couple adults including a guy in shorts training for a 3 week "vacation" on Denali. 

Lunch is at the Viaduct Overlook. We can see Charlotte from here. It was the clearest I have ever experienced. 

Kahtoolas helped me on the icy areas greatly. Will was able to manage the whole hike without foot traction and I didn't see anyone else with it.

We took Cragway and Nuwati Trails back. Total miles were only about 6. It took over 5 hours to go up and back. 

Jan 9 Uwharrie Trail Scouting

This afternoon, I'm attempting to find possible trail routes for the Uwharrie Trail extension between High Pine Church Road and Eagle Field Rd. The North Carolina Zoo recently acquired a piece of property, the MacArthur tract, on High Pine Church Rd, allowing the trail to access this road from a land locked Forest Service property. First, I needed to locate the back corners of the zoo property. Here it is, in photo above, right along this 10 foot high fence. I understand the fence was built by a former property owner encircling an adjacent property. The purpose was to keep deer in. Specifically, a huge buck which the owner hoped to grow on his wooded land. I don't know if this is legal but he sure spent a bundle on this fence.

The Zoo property came complete with this deer stand, a large feeder and a bunker like deer blind,

Once I had established the back corners, I drove to Forest Service land on Eagle Field Rd and headed to the Zoo property. Beginning in pines, I located an upland pool but not much else. The pines gave way to open mature hardwoods. This was beautiful land along a ridge. As the ridge gave out I headed down to a creek, identified on my GPS as Walker's Creek.

The first thing I saw was this old dam next to the creek. It was about 80 feet long, 4 feet wide and perhaps 3 feet high. You could easily make out where water had been diverted from the creek to behind the dam.

Moving up away from the creek, while trying to remain on the Forest Service property, I encountered these rocks near the top of another ridge. This ridge had an old road on it which led to one of the previously located back corners. I followed a different route on the return hoping to locate something else of interest but I ended up in a lot of thickets and was glad get back into open forest.

There still needs to be some scouting done in the area to be sure we have the best route but I think this is the route we'll end up with.

Happy New Year 2014

Chanterelle Canapies

Monday Night Pizza

Perfect Pizza!

Dec 21 Rock Castle Gorge

Nineteen PHOC hikers started out on this cool and windy day, led by Jim Pritchett. The Rock Castle Gorge hike is a favorite for many club members. An 11 mile loop with a little bit of everything - steep ascent, open meadows, a rocky ridge, the rock jumble and a pleasant creekside walk to polish off the outing. Jim informed us, as is his usual custom, the zombie alert level was code yellow today. Only the slow hikers needed to be careful. 

We hike up steeply to begin. This proved too much for a couple hikers. Jim headed back down with them for a shortened version of RCG today. When the rest of us regrouped in the old stone shelter on the ridge, there was some confusion as to what had happened. It all got sorted out and everyone enjoyed lunch in this former AT shelter. 

The ridge walk was very breezy and everyone bundled up for this exposed walk. My favorite section is the rock jumble. Jim was not along, to warn us of the deadly snakes that reside here. Just beyond the jumble is a still standing chimney near the creek. What a great place to have a home or cabin. As we passed through here, Karen stated she wished her ashes to be spread at this place. Nice choice but it struck me as an odd thing to say.