HAT TRICK
A couple of years ago the club completed a legendary hike that still gets talked about. We hiked from the west rim of Linville Gorge, down to the river, and up to Shortoff Mountain on the east rim. After lunch, we returned the same way. The "Linville Gorge double traverse" was a great hike, but it resulted in the permanent loss of several club members. This weekend, we nearly surpassed our achievement from a few years ago.
Christy, Saucony, Bob, Laura, and I traveled to Linville Gorge to check out the damage from last year's wildfire. We found that the reports of widespread destruction were greatly exaggerated. For the most part, it appeared to have been a ground fire. It cleared out a lot of leaves and undergrowth, but most of the mature trees survived. There were a few heavily damaged areas, but they were small and infrequent. There was a lot of black, sooty soil, which found its way onto our boots, clothes, and gear. Afterwards, it looked as though we had spent the day cleaning chimneys.
We started the hike with a gravity defying descent on the Cabin Trail. I had never been down this one, but I knew it was going to be steep. I just wasn't sure if it would be "hanging on for dear life steep", or "sliding on your butt the whole way" steep. As it turned out it wasn't that bad, though there were a few ledges to ease over. We reached the Linville Gorge trail after 30 minutes, though we were somewhere south of where the map suggested we should be. This caused some initial confusion, but before long we were on our way.
We reached a junction, with a prominent trail heading up, and slightly more primitive route switchbacking down. I figured that the main route went ahead, but thought we might get down to the river on the side path. We followed it down, and came to an impressive cliff with a stream cutting underneath it. From there, we reached another junction, with an axe mark in a tree indicating the trail up and to the right. Feeling stubborn, we continued down and reached the river without much difficulty. It was an awesome spot, with a huge rock outcrop overlooking a 10' waterfall. From there, the river spilled into an outstanding swimming hole, and then squeezed between sheer rock walls. We had the rock to ourselves, and decided to have lunch there while the sun was still shining.
It was beginning to cloud up after lunch. We returned to the last junction, and followed the trail up steeply towards Babel Tower. When we reached the Babel Tower Trail, I realized that we were in fact still on the right trail. We hiked out to the tower, scrambling up the last 100' or so. From the top we had an outstanding view. The river curved around the tower on 3 sides 500' below us. To the south, Hawksbill and Table Rock towered over us. We stayed here for quite awhile until the wind chased us off the summit.
We had plenty of time, so we decided to play a little. We descended from the tower, and then followed a steep, primitive path back down towards the river. I wasn't sure where we were going, but that didn't stop us. I kept expecting to come to an impassable cliff, but that didn't happen. We reached the river for the second time, at one of the most remote, wild spots I've experienced. The cliffs of Babel Tower soared above us, while the river cut between the rock walls of the gorge.
The climb back up was a struggle, and we were filthy from grabbing onto sooty trees. We were relieved to have a fairly easy hike out on the Babel Tower Trail. It was along this route that we saw the most extensive fire damage. However, it was still limited to a few small areas. Towards the upper end of the trail, we found ourselves walking in snow. The white snow was an interesting contrast to the black soil.
We reached the road, and walked back to our car. At this point, we (or at least I) decided we hadn't really done enough that day. We'd only hiked 4 or 5 miles, so we decided to visit Linville Falls on the way out. On the way there, we passed a flood of dayhikers, families, and tourists. We took one wrong turn and wound up at the top of the falls. How do you like that - bushwhacking in Linville Gorge all day without any problems, but lost at Linville Falls. We figured it out though, and found the trail down to the base of the falls. When we reached the bottom, it occurred to me that it was the first time I'd hiked down to the river 3 times in one day. We rock hopped and scrambled our way to a good view at the base of the falls. The river was low, but it didn't diminish the power of the falls at all. While we were down there, we saw only 2 people. It was quite a contrast to the hordes at the main overlooks.
We were able to hike back out, completing our hat trick for the day. If you want to get a feel for this hike, throw on a 20 pound pack and jog up and down a stairway for 4 hours. When you're done, roll around inside your fireplace for 30 minutes (note. This works better if there isn't an actual fire in there at the time). This will leave you feeling and looking much as we did as we stumbled into the Mexican restaurant in Morganton that night.
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!