CAVES OF ICE
A
recent cold snap created an opportunity to see icicles and frozen
waterfalls. Last Saturday, Brenda and I
took advantage of the opportunity by hiking the Rockjock
Trail in Linville Gorge. My goal was to
see Blue Jay Falls frozen. Blue Jay
Falls is on a small tributary stream, and it features a number of seeps and
rivulets tumbling over a long cliff. My
hope was that the whole thing would be a 50 yard long wall of ice.
Brenda
and I met at Lake James, and she followed me up the mountain. Kistler was a bit
rougher than normal, with some washboard on the initial climb and a couple of
washed out spots between the Pinch In and Conley Cove Trailheads. It wasn’t anything that my wife’s 2wd Honda
Element couldn’t handle, but I was glad that I hadn’t driven the Prius. We left my car at the Pinch In Trailhead, and Brenda shuttled us up to the Conley Cove
Trailhead. Along the way I noticed a
couple of decent parking spots a little closer to the Rockjock
Trailhead. I suppose I could’ve even
parked right at the trailhead, but there is no actual parking area there. Parking there would’ve meant pulling off on
the edge of the road, which is fairly narrow to begin with.
The
Conley Cove Trailhead was pretty busy.
There were several cars there, and one group of hikers had just left one
there to shuttle up to the Babel Tower Trailhead.
We
started our hike with a brief descent on the Conley Cove Trail. For our first diversion of the day, we took a
side trip out to Buzzards Point. The
trail to it leaves the Conley Cove Trail just a bit uphill from the Rockjock Trail junction.
The trail is fairly obvious and pretty easy to follow, though there are
some fallen trees to hurdle. We worked
our way out to the point, where we were treated to the first great views of the
day. The best vista was up the gorge,
including the cliffs of Wiseman’s View on the west side and Table Rock and
Hawksbill on the east. There is a pretty
good view to the south here, too, but that vista required looking right into
the sun.
Before
we left, I explored a continuation of the trail, which contours around a minor
canyon and continues north. Apparently
it continues out to Window Rock. Once
upon a time Rockjock went all the way to Wiseman’s
View. I’d like to try to hike that whole
stretch some day.
We
returned to the Conley Cove Trail and descended a short distance to the Rockjock Trail. We
headed south, focused on getting to Blue Jay Falls before the day warmed. The forecast called for a high around 30, but
with the sun rising and a cloudless sky, I was afraid we might lose the ice we’d
come for.
That
doesn’t mean that we didn’t do any exploring.
First we took a side trip out to Lost Dog Pond, which was completely
frozen. Then we bushwhacked out to a
point on the north end of Fern Canyon.
This was a pretty neat spot, but the view was to the south, into the
sun. We worked our way around Fern
Canyon and took another short side trip out to Fern Point. Fern Point offers a great view up the gorge,
and gave us a good look at some nice ice in Fern Canyon.
From
there we crossed Hackers Point and worked our way down to Blue Jay Falls. It was looking good, with lots of ice –
though not as much as I’d hoped for.
There was still quite a bit of running water between the columns of ice
and delicate icicles. Still, all of that
hanging ice was an awesome sight. We
ended up spending a full hour here, taking photos, eating lunch, and
appreciating the moment. It was time
well spent, as I ended up taking one of my all-time favorite photos:
We
were there around noon, and the sun was just high enough to shine on some of
the ice. We discovered that this was a
major hazard when a huge chunk broke off and crashed down onto the trail a few
yards away from us. A couple of minutes
later another piece broke loose, and came down right on Brenda’s backpack. Yikes!
After that, we learned not to stand around under any ice that was in the
sun.
We
eventually pulled ourselves away from Blue Jay Falls and hiked through Split
Rock. Just beyond, I began to watch
carefully for the route that begins LOST (Lower Original Scrambler’s
Route). I haven’t hiked LOST, and I wasn’t
planning to do it on such an icy day.
However, I did want to check out the beginning of the route, and maybe
hike down to One Bat Cave.
We
spotted the route very close to where the trail makes the turn south upon
exiting Blue Jay Canyon. The actual
trail was virtually hidden by the vegetation, but it opened up quickly once we
pushed through the initial thickets. From
that point, getting out to Blue Jay Point was easy. From there we had another nice view up the
canyon. We also had a good look at Blue
Jay Falls. The ice above the trail had
been impressive, but there was even more below!
While we were there, Brenda noticed what appeared to be a cave below the
trail a short distance northeast of Blue Jay Falls. I guess that’s something else to check out
next time!
From
Blue Jay Point we followed the route to a steep descent. Brenda decided to wait there, as she was
recovering from an illness. I had a head
cold myself, but this was the best I’d felt in days. There’s a lot to be said for clean mountain
air! The descent wasn’t too bad, but the
ground was frozen, making it a bit more awkward. I went down most of the way on my butt,
hanging on to trees and shrubs to keep from gaining speed. At the bottom of the steep descent, I spotted
some impressive icicles off to my right.
I bushwhacked over there, and found a wall of icicles on the far side of
an icy cliff. I crawled across the cliff
to get a photo of the icicles with the NC Wall and the Amphitheater in the
background.
I
returned to the LOST route and followed it below the cliffs I had just been
on. I passed under an impressive
overhang, turned a corner, and saw the entrance to the cave above me. One Bat Cave is a narrow tunnel-like fissure
that runs back into the mountainside for 50’ or so. It’s a pretty cool spot at any time, but my
timing couldn’t have been better. There
were icicles hanging from the ceiling!
They actually looked like stalactites, soda straws, and other cave
formations. I took quite a few photos
there as well, before making the grueling climb back up to rejoin Brenda at
Blue Jay Point.
Incredibly,
we’d spent 2 ½ hours in the area between Blue Jay Falls
and Blue Jay Point / One Bat Cave. That
must be some sort of record, as we probably hiked less than ½ mile in that
time. It was now 2:30. We briefly debated returning to the Conley
Cove Trailhead rather than finishing the hike.
However, we both wanted to complete the trail. I suggested that we continue the hike, but
abstain from any additional side trips or spontaneous explorations. Brenda agreed, and we resumed the hike south.
Passing
by the trails leading to Razor’s Edge and Sunshine Point was painful, but
necessary. Normally I consider visiting
one of those points mandatory on a hike of the Rockjock
Trail. It was the correct decision though. Brenda began having some problems with spasms
in her leg in the last mile. That slowed
us down a bit, and we ended up finishing the hike just after 5pm.
I
definitely want to hike LOST some day, and a hike north from Buzzards Point to
Window Rock, Humminbird Falls, and Wiseman’s View is
still on the to-do list, too.
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