Sep 9 Waterrock Knob

 

My 1000th post.

Waterrock Knob at 6273' is the highest of the Plott Balsams and a great stop along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The hike from the parking area/visitor center is uphill, all the way. Today, the vegetation was at its seasonal fullest. White Snakeroot was the dominate flowering plant along the route up. 

A spring near the summit is responsible for the name "waterrock".

Many folks continue hiking from the top, down and up again to Browning Knob where there is a well worn path to a plane wreck. Many a social media selfie has been taken there. Facebook is littered with them. 

From the parking area, we could see the top but once up there, clouds had moved in and that was all we saw in the way of a view. Otherwise the flowering vegetation was pretty stunning. 

Later in the month, September 24, I attended National Public Lands Day celebration, in the grass beside the visitors center. We faced a wonderful view overlooking the Qualla Boundary, marred only by Harrah's Casino. Many of the Blue Ridge Parkway's land acquisition partners attended, including the Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Piedmont Land Trust, Blue Ridge Conservancy, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and the Eastern Bank of Cherokee. Mike Leonard of the Conservation Fund led the program and introduced and recognized all the contributors to BRP land acquisitions over the past decade. Tracy Swartout, BRP superintendent thanked all the contributors. Tommy Cabe gave a very interesting perspective of Waterrock Knob's importance to the Cherokee people. Mike Leonard pointed out that the Cherokee purchase of over 50,000 acres in the mid 1800s, now comprising the Qualla Boundary, was the first land conservation purchase in the US. Fred and Alice Stanback were singled out as outstanding contributors for their support, particularly for Fishers Peak, the largest of the land acquisitions. 

White Snakeroot

 A hidden waterfall nearby

Sep 8 Asbury Trail

 

The Smoky Mountain National Park has over 900 miles of hiking trails. At least that is how many are officially on park maps. there are many more, some are social trails, some are long forgotten and not maintained trails. Asbury Trail is the latter. The trail skirts the border of the park in the Cataloochee Valley area. Supposedly, it is named for Francis Asbury, the traveling Methodist Bishop who often visited the area. I am told this is the old Cattalucha Indian track and would have been the route into the valley. 

The weathered sign beckoned me to step into the wood here. I followed the trail about two and a half miles before turning around.  

Indian Cucumber Root in its Autumn outfit

Old property boundary

There is a very nice story about 13 acres of land here. A Floridian, Jason Preston often vacationed in the area and his family owned land nearby. When his grandmother died, he inherited 13 acres alongside the park. Rather than accept the developers' offers, he chose to sell the property at a bargain price to the Southern Appalachian Highland Conservancy. That is a mouthful. Suffice to say, it's SAHC most of the time. This took place earlier this year, 2022. 

For the first mile or more, I was on single track trail before it transitioned an old road, lending some credibility to this possibly being the old Cattalucha Indian track.

There was a spot at which a undeveloped graded roadbed came right up to the trail but did not continue out of the park. I walked a short distance on this very wide roadbed, speculating as to what it might be. When I finished hiking, I met a park employee preparing to do some weed whacking on the Cataloochee Divide trail. Asking him what the road bed might be, he didn't have an answer but seemed intrigued. Then he said there were plans to build a road from the Valley out to I-40, a more direct and better road than the existing one. Perhaps that was what I saw.

Sep 7 Max Patch

 

My visit to Max Patch was on this cloudy morning with rain in the forecast. There was some very light rain toward the end of the short circuit through the area. It was quite a sight to see the mountain looking so good. During the past dozen years, the area became a mecca for campers and partygoers. It became an eyesore and then the pandemic hit. Its popularity soared as a place to socially distance. The narrow dirt road and small parking area became one big traffic nightmare. People camped everywhere. Trash and human waste took its toll on this beautiful place. 

Even though drone use was not permitted, Mike Wurman took drone footage of the overuse. Above is an image from the footage, showing the widespread overuse of the area. Local hike groups, trail organizations and local newspapers brought the situation enough publicity to spur the US Forest Service to close the area and begin to heal the damage in July 2021. It is stunning to me to see this place in the condition I saw it. Although there were many signs keeping you on the trails and off the social trails, it looked like a beautiful place again. 

No tents in sight very near the top

Max Patch has been a US Forest Service property since 1982. Prior to that, it was timbered and used to graze sheep. Over the year, there has been a hotel, a hostel, an airstrip and almost a ski resort. That was when the Forest Service bought it. Two years later, in 1984, the Appalachian Trail was relocated to cross over the top of Max Patch.