THE MIDDLE THIRD
The
area around Graveyard Fields and Big Sam Mountain is one of my favorite places
to go for fall foliage. It’s a
high-elevation area, and it’s consistently one of the first places in North
Carolina for the leaves to change. I
headed up there last Saturday for an ambitious hike through places that are
usually quite colorful in early October.
I
drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway that morning.
En route, I passed the Pisgah Inn, which was recently the site of some
controversy. Due to typically petty
political squabbling, the federal government had shut down earlier in the
week. The Pisgah Inn is operated by a
private concessionaire, but the lodge is on federal government property. The Inn was ordered to close, but initially
refused. Unfortunately their act of
civil disobedience didn’t gain them much.
When I drove by, there was a small herd of park rangers there blocking
the entrances to the Inn. Apparently
those rangers are still getting paid.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/04/blue-ridge-parkway-pisgah-inn/2923169/
I
met Brenda at Graveyard Fields a little after 9am. There were a couple of empty parking spots
when we arrived, but we only needed one of them. Our plan was to do a hike from highway 215 to
Graveyard Fields. We left my car there,
and the dogs and I piled into Brenda’s car for the drive to the trailhead.
The
fall color was coming along nicely at Graveyard Fields, but it was still at
least a few days short of peak. Before
driving to the trailhead, we took a quick detour back down the Parkway and
pulled off at a viewpoint of Second Falls.
There was a bright red maple tree here, which made an excellent
foreground for photos of the falls. We
took a few shots before heading back up the Parkway past Devil’s
Courthouse. Then we drove down highway
215 north a few miles until we reached a bridge over the West Fork of the
Pigeon River. We parked on the far side
of the bridge, at the beginning of an old trail that follows Flat Laurel Creek
upstream.
This
trail has been on my to-do list for years, but for some reason I’d never hiked
the whole thing. I’d hiked the upper
part of it, which provides access to some nice cascades below Big Sam
Knob. Brenda and I were feeling a little
cautious about including it in our hike though.
Brenda had taken a fall during a hike a couple of weeks earlier and hurt
her shoulder. It was still very sore,
and she didn’t want to do anything that would involve serious scrambling or
bushwhacking. I knew the upper part of
the route was good, and we figured if the lower part was ugly it would be easy
to bail out. But what if the trail went
to hell in the middle third? At that
point it would be harder to turn back.
We
followed an old roadbed upstream along the West Fork of the Pigeon River to a
fork. Here, the lower trail continued to
a campsite at the confluence of the West Fork and Flat Laurel Creek. We took the upper fork, which turned to
follow Flat Laurel Creek upstream. This
was where we went wrong.
The
trail was rugged and primitive, but passable.
We climbed, steeply at times, before dropping down to the creek at the
base of a beautiful cascade. The creek
was still nicely shaded, but the sun was illuminating the golden treetops above
us. It was a compelling spot, so we
stopped for photos before continuing on.
We
continued upstream on the north side of the creek. I was anticipating crossing the creek, as the
map showed the trail on the south side of the stream. A few minutes later we reached a likely place
to cross at another cascade. This was a
fantastic spot, as it gave us a great view of the surrounding hillsides, which
were ablaze with color. The view
extended to Big Sam Knob high above. We
took another break here for more photos.
Afterwards I crossed the creek to scout the route ahead. However, that side of the stream was nothing
but a tangle of rhododendron. There was
no sign of a trail, so we doubled-back to the north side. We found a faint path continuing up that
side, so we followed it.
The
trail took us up past more slides and cascades.
However, it eventually petered out at the base of a cliff. Clearly the true trail had to be on the other
side of the creek. We stopped at another
wonderful cascade for lunch before I scouted again. I ended up back in the same rhododendron
thicket I’d thrashed around in earlier.
This time I pushed on, and the woods opened up as I climbed above the
creek. I was on something of a faint
path, though it would be a stretch to call it a trail. At that point I doubled-back to report what
I’d found.
There
had been a mishap while I was exploring.
Brenda had slipped while crossing the creek and had briefly dunked her
camera. Initially it was working fine,
but then it started acting funny. She
turned it off and removed the battery before packing it away.
We
decided to continue ahead. We were
having a fantastic time exploring the creek, and didn’t want to turn back. The fall color was at its peak along the
stream, and there simply wasn’t any other place we’d rather be. We crossed the creek, fought through the
rhododendrons, and climbed a steep hill.
We zig-zagged around a bit
on the ascent to ease the grade.
I was also hoping that we’d stumble upon an actual trail sooner or
later. Believe it or not, that actually
worked. We found the trail a good distance
south of the stream. Apparently it had
crossed the creek way back at the beginning of the hike. It had followed the south side of the stream
the whole way, but it stayed a fair distance away from the creek. The route we had followed had been less
efficient, but it took us to a lot of great scenery. The fantastic cascades and beautiful fall
foliage had been more than worth the extra time and effort.
We
climbed steadily until we reached a side trail heading back down to the
creek. We followed it down to the base
of another nice cascade. Once again we were
surrounded by spectacular fall color. At
this point we were a couple of hundred feet upstream from the last place we had
encountered the creek. I wonder what we
missed in between?
No doubt more slides and cascades.
Could there be a more substantial waterfall in there, too? It’s certainly possible.
We
retreated to the main path, which was looking more and more like a legitimate
trail. We continued uphill to another
spur path descending to the creek. We
followed this one, too. It brought us
out at the bottom of the nicest cascade of the day. It’s a pretty good drop, and almost steep enough to be considered a legitimate waterfall. In fact, it’s probably as much or more of a
waterfall as some other named falls in the area. It spills into a deep pool that features a
huge boulder at its downstream end. I
scrambled up the boulder for photos.
That vantage gave me a great view of the falls and the surrounding fall
foliage. It was easily the best fall
color of the day.
We
climbed back up to the main path once again.
We passed a couple of additional spur trails heading down, but decided
to skip them. We’d been hiking for over
3 hours, and had only covered a mile or so.
That meant we still had 9 miles to hike before dark.
We
finally reached the Flat Laurel Creek Trail a few minutes later. At that point we took a short side trip out
to a viewpoint of Mount Hardy. That
overlook often features nice fall foliage, and it didn’t disappoint. After that little diversion we doubled-back
to Flat Laurel Creek. We passed a couple
of additional spur paths heading down to more cascades on the stream. It wasn’t easy passing them by, but we had to
get moving towards Graveyard Fields.
We
passed several occupied campsites along Flat Laurel Creek. It was startling seeing so many people after
having Flat Laurel Creek all to ourselves all morning. We left that area behind quickly though, and
followed the Little Sam Knob Trail south towards Devil’s Courthouse. Along here we passed another colorful view of
Mount Hardy. This is one of my favorite
spots for fall color, but we were probably a few days early. The beeches and
birches were turning gold, but the colors seemed muted. That may have been because it had clouded up,
after a bright, sunny morning.
We
continued on to meet the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Devil’s Courthouse was nearby, but we decided
to skip it. We were still pressed for
time, and we figured it would be overrun with tourists. We followed the MST east around Chestnut
Knob. On the far side we reached a cliff
with a spectacular view to the south.
The vista encompassed Pilot Mountain, Looking Glass Rock, and the
Davidson River area. There was a group
of hikers there when we arrived, and they had a dog with them. Fortunately all three dogs were exhausted,
and everybody got along nicely.
We
resumed the hike on the MST, passing two additional viewpoints to the
south. We joined the Art Loeb Trail,
which we followed over Silvermine Bald. We passed through a meadow featuring Mountain
Ash trees laden with berries. We then
disappeared into a deep, dark forest of spruce and fir. That led to Black Balsam Road, which had cars
parked along both shoulders as far as we could see in each direction. Clearly the area was swarming with people,
but we had managed to miss most of them.
We
crossed the road and left the Art Loeb Trail, staying on the MST. A bit of confusion here cost us a few
minutes. We eventually realized that the
trail doubled-back along the road, before descending on switchbacks. A long traverse on the south side of Black
Balsam Knob followed. Much of this trail
was on boardwalks, as the hillside is extremely wet. A short but stout climb followed, which
brought us to another great viewpoint.
However, fog had begun to roll in, which but a bit of damper on the
scenery.
We
resumed the hike, and descended a long series of switchbacks to a 4-way
junction. At that point we turned right
onto the Graveyard Ridge Trail, for the most direct route back to Graveyard
Fields. The final mile and half featured
more fine views and fall color. We
descended to the Yellowstone Prong of the Big East Fork of the Pigeon
River. Unfortunately, we didn’t have
time to make the side trip up to Upper Falls.
Instead we hiked downstream, eventually reaching the footbridge over the
river. From there, we managed one final
climb on a paved trail to the parking area.
We arrived there just in time to catch sunset illuminating the clouds
and fog over Black Balsam Knob.
We
finished our hike just after 7pm, over 9 hours after we started. Such are the hazards of planning an ambitious
hike and taking a lot of time to play, too.
That left me with a long drive home after dark, but it had been worth
it!
Brenda’s
map and the GPS track of our route is here:
http://www.brendajwiley.com/gps/flat_laurel_creek_to_graveyard_fields.html
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