FINALLY HENSON

 

 

My wife went to Myrtle Beach last weekend to run a half-marathon.  That left me free.  I headed up to Boone on Saturday for the ASU football game.  The tailgating there was excellent (featuring a surprise guest appearance by Allen from “The Hangover”), but the game was less than stellar.  That evening I left town in search of campsite on one of the busiest weekends of the year.  I headed towards Linville Gorge, hopeful that I could find a site along the Kistler Highway.  Before leaving I checked my email and found a message from Brenda.  She was off work on Sunday and was interested in hiking.  I suggested that we meet at the Linville Falls Visitor Center on Sunday morning.  I wasn’t sure what we would do, but figured we’d have a lot of options nearby.

 

The biggest problem I had finding a campsite was simply getting down Kistler.  That road is in terrible shape – I can’t remember the last time I saw it like that.  Luckily I was in Christy’s Honda Element.  The Honda doesn’t have 4wd, but at least it has higher clearance than my Corolla!  Luckily I found an empty site a couple of miles down the road, well before Wiseman’s View.  I sent up camp quickly and went to bed, tired from a long day.  Fortunately the dogs were pretty cooperative, aside from barking every time a car passed by.

 

I made coffee and an egg sandwich the next morning before breaking camp.  I drove over to Linville Falls and somehow managed to arrive right on time.  Brenda was there waiting for me.  I’d spent some time that evening kicking around some ideas for our hike.  This was only Brenda’s second visit to Linville Gorge, and she was open to pretty much anything.  Since Kistler was in terrible shape, I suggested something in the northeastern part of the gorge.  I knew there were a lot of options there, and I thought that area might be good for fall color.

 

We ended up driving over to the Brushy Ridge Trailhead in Gingercake Acres.  The trailhead is on Mountain Park Circle, but I hadn’t been there in about 15 years.  Somehow I still found my way there without a guidebook.  There was one car when we arrived, which meant that we took up most of the rest of the available parking with our two vehicles.

 

We started our hike with an easy stroll down the Brushy Ridge Trail.  We found the intersection with Red Trail a bit after I began wondering if we’d missed it.  Red was pretty easy to follow, aside from a few fallen trees.  We took the short side trip up to Huckleberry Point for our first views of the day.  Huckleberry is well named, and the blueberry bushes on the cliff top were a brilliant red.  There was more fall color surrounding us, though it was definitely past peak at that elevation.

 

We returned to Red and descended to a junction with a mystery trail.  Later we discovered that this trail (an old road) is a nice shortcut back to the trailhead.  First though, we continued down Red to a rock hop crossing of Henson Creek.  We followed Red for a few more minutes, roughly downstream along Henson.  Then we reached a junction, and a decision.  Continue ahead to Big Hole Point and other viewpoints, or descend Henson Creek to the river?

 

My original plan had been to hit some of the overlooks, but the pull of Henson was irresistible.  Henson has been on my to-do list for years.  Aside from visiting the lower end of it once (by way of Babel Tower and Westface), it had eluded me.  Brenda was up for it, so we headed that way.

 

Initially the hiking was easy.  Of course that didn’t last long.  We eventually descended to a campsite at the base of a cliff.  We met a climber named Phil there.  He was with a couple of friends on an extended trip focusing on establishing new routes on Westface and the surrounding cliffs.  We spent a few minutes talking with him before resuming our hike.  He ended up being the only person we saw all day – a sunny, warm Sunday at the peak of fall color.

 

A few minutes later we reached the first waterfall.  I was pleasantly surprised – I’d heard that there were waterfalls along Henson Creek, but I figured they were probably just big cascades.  Not so – the first waterfall is the real deal.  It’s a two-tiered, nearly vertical drop of perhaps 40’.  The upper portion was in directly sunlight, ruining any hope of a decent photo.  The lower portion was nicely shaded though.  I took some photos of it before we moved downstream.  A second waterfall is only a short distance below.  This one is fairly small, but it features a vertical pouroff.  The light was good here, too, and there was even some fall color to add to the photos.

 

Descending the canyon from that point was rather challenging.  There was a vertical wall on the left side most of the way down, which confined us to the creek bed or the jungle on the opposite side.  Although the weather had been dry recently, the rocks were still very slick (particularly the ones coated in green slime).  Our progress was slow, partially because we had a tough time getting the dogs down some ledges and around various obstacles.  This was particularly challenging with Boone, since he is 80+ pounds.  Kona is less than half his size, but she was still difficult to maneuver at times.  Believe it or not, one stretch of less than a mile actually took us 2 hours!

 

Although difficult to traverse, the canyon is spectacular.  The cliff on the south side is dramatic, and occasionally we passed under delicate waterfalls cascading down the canyon walls.  At one point a substantial stream joined the main creek.  The source of this water wasn’t apparent, but I’m guessing that it comes from one of the caves hidden in the canyon.

 

Our tentative plan was to follow Westface from Henson over to Fantasy Canyon, and then ascend Fantasy back to Red.  At one point we followed a path along a ledge that I thought might lead us to Westface.  It turns out we weren’t even close.  We were still well above Westface.  My mistake worked out well though, as it took us out to Ledge Point.  My disappointment at the wrong turn faded quickly when I saw the view awaiting us!  We were perched a couple of hundred feet above the Linville River, directly across from the towering wall of Avatar’s Rib on Babel Tower.  While the fall foliage had been past its prime higher up, it was at its peak down here.  From our vantage, the entire gorge appeared to be a shimmering gold.

 

We had lunch there before returning to Henson Canyon.  We resumed our slow descent, but the scenery remained spectacular.  Before long we reached a third waterfall, which spills into a small, dark pool tucked under the overhanging cliffs. 

 

A bit farther on we followed another ledge above the creek, once again thinking it was bound for Westface.  The ledge died out in a thick tangle of rhododendron and small trees about 100’ above the river.  While I was thrashing around I managed to bang my knee into a tree.  I actually saw stars for a minute after that one.  At least the obligatory bleeding was out of the way.

 

At this point it was already mid-afternoon.  We regrouped to discuss our options.  At our pace, I wasn’t confident that we could finish the loop before dark.  Regretfully, we decided to turn back.  I’ll definitely attempt the full loop again, but I’ll probably leave the dogs at home.  Henson Creek was rough on them, and they slowed our pace to a crawl.

 

The hike out was uneventful.  Just before Huckleberry Point we picked up the old road we’d seen earlier.  It provided a fairly easy, and much shorter, hike back to the trailhead.

 

I’ll definitely be back.  Henson was a great hike, and I’m glad Brenda was able to join me.

 




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