SPONTANEITY
Prior
to last weekend Christy and I had discussed hiking on Saturday, or driving up
to Boone for an Appalachian State basketball game. Or possibly doing nothing. Then my flight home from Dallas was delayed
due to snow, and I didn’t get in until 10:30.
Later that night, Christy stated that she wasn’t interested in doing
anything that would require getting up early.
Since we live in Charlotte, I figured that meant that we would be doing
nothing.
We
got up at 9, and after an animated discussion with the dogs, Christy suggested
hiking. Why not? It would be a late start, but better late
than never. The mountains still had a
fair bit of snow from a storm the previous week, which made the hiking idea all
the more appealing.
We
threw our gear together and hit the road.
I made Christy drive, since we had no idea where we were going. While she was driving, I was looking through
maps and brainstorming ideas. We had no
plan. Our destination would be
determined when we arrived.
For
no particular reason, I steered us in the direction of Brevard. We eventually found ourselves in DuPont State
Forest. We headed over to the Fawn Lake
Trailhead to avoid the crowds, since we wanted to let the dogs run. There were only 3 other cars at the
trailhead, so it was a good choice.
We
started our hike around 12:30. It was
partly cloudy, with temperatures in the upper 30’s. Areas that were out in the open were mostly
snow-free (but muddy), while the wooded areas still had several inches of snow.
We
hiked up Fawn Lake Road to Fawn Lake. We
stopped at the gazebo there for lunch.
The dogs played in the snow while we enjoyed hot soup from our thermos. Then it was on to the Airstrip Trail, which
follows an old airstrip used by DuPont back when they still owned the
property. The airstrip provided nice
views of Mount Pisgah and the Balsam Mountains covered in snow. We then followed the Airstrip down a long,
gradual descent on switchbacks. The snow
was fairly deep here, but that hadn’t stopped a couple of mountain bikers from
riding the trail. We also included
segments of the Corn Mill Shoals and Bridal Veil Falls Overlook Trails in our
hike, along with short sections of a couple of other trails. Most of those trails hadn’t been visited by
anyone since the storm a few days earlier.
Walking through virgin snow was one of the highlights of the day.
We
eventually reached the end of the Bridal Veil Falls Overlook Trail high on a
bluff above the Little River.
Unfortunately the overlook provides only a very limited view of one
short section of the waterfall. We
backtracked a bit and followed the power lines to another old road. That took us to the brink of Bridal Veil
Falls. We had a great view there, down the run of slides and cascades that comprises
Bridal Veil Falls. The entire right side
of the waterfall was still blanketed in snow, which added to the beauty of the
scene.
We
descended an unofficial path to the base of the first drop. There, I took some time to explore back in
the cavern behind the falls. I took lots
of photos from behind the falls, including the icy rocks in the cavern itself.
From
there, I’d planned to backtrack to return to the trailhead. However, we encountered several other hikers
as we were preparing to leave. They had
climbed up along the south side of the falls from the base. I’ve done that several times, but never in
the snow! I hadn’t planned to do that,
figuring it would be too dangerous due to ice.
Ironically, there was no ice at all.
Instead, there was a nice soft snowpack all the way down the side of the
falls. The descent was as safe as it
could ever be. We hiked down it without
any trouble, and picked up the official trail (old road) that ends at the
base. We followed it out to Reasonover Road, which we followed back towards the
trailhead. However, we took one more
diversion, adding an extra side trip to check out Lake Julia. The lake was lovely, thanks to the snowy
shore and striking clouds.
From
there we returned to the car and headed into Brevard. We stopped at the Brevard Brewery for a beer,
before walking across the street to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was a great way to end an enjoyable day.
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