UP ALL NIGHT

 

 

“And the best thing about New Years is the Christmas lights
Hidin' in the day, exposed at night
Sunrise is my sunset, the Georgia sky
I've been up all night”

 

From “Up All Night”, by Widespread Panic

http://youtu.be/teQApVsXrJ4

 

 

 

I was able to squeeze in one final hike in 2011.  On the day after Christmas my hiking buddy Joel emailed me to see if I was up for a dayhike on Friday.  Initially I told him no, since I’d just gotten back from a rigorous one-day backpacking trip in the Smokies.  Then I got an email from another hiking buddy, Dave, who’d gotten new boots for Christmas.  He was eager to try them out.  I hadn’t seen Dave recently, so I reconsidered. 

 

I planned a last minute hike on the Mountains to Sea Trail near Linville Gorge.  My plan was to hike to Dobson Knob and Bald Knob from the Kistler Highway, which runs along the west rim of Linville Gorge.  I’d hiked to Bald Knob once before, but from the other direction.  I wanted to revisit the mountain and cover a section of the MST that was new to me.  The round trip would be 12 miles, which is a bit aggressive for Joel, but half of the mileage would be on a dirt forest road.  That would be easy walking, and I was pretty sure he could handle it.

 

What I hadn’t figured on was that it would be too much for Dave and his new boots.  Dave bailed at the last minute, so we were back to our original group of two.  I met Joel Friday morning at the Wal-Mart in Morganton.  From there we took his 20+ year old Toyota truck (with 288K miles) to the trailhead. 

 

On the way up Kistler we passed dozens of hunters pulled off the side of the road.  This made me a little nervous, as I’d forgotten that hunting season was still going on.  I had an orange vest with me, but I’d neglected to bring Boone’s bright red pack.  Boone tends to run like a deer through the woods, which worried me.  The good news is that there weren’t any hunters at the actual Mountains to Sea Trailhead.  We were hopeful that the trail itself would be safe.

 

We started our hike around 9:30 on a cool but sunny day.  We followed the wet, muddy trail down a rocky tread to a tributary and then on to the Yellow Fork of Paddy Creek.  I’ve heard rumors of a waterfall on this creek just upstream from its confluence with the Black Fork, which is downstream from the ford.  I haven’t made much effort to find it though, as it would require a serious bushwhack.  Mainly I had doubts as to whether it would be worth the trouble.  On the map, the Yellow Fork looks like a small stream.  However, on this morning it had a good bit of volume.  Heavy rain a few days earlier certainly contributed to that, but it seems like it might be worth checking out, particularly in the right conditions.  After our hike I scouted out a trail that may lead to the falls.  It starts on the Kistler highway 0.4 miles down the mountain from the MST trailhead and ends on Dobson Knob Road just east of the microwave tower.

 

We rock hopped the Yellow Fork and climbed away from the creek.  At some point we crossed a boundary separating Game Lands from National Forest.  Easy climbing brought us out to FR106, Dobson Knob Road.  After an hour of quiet walking in the woods, the road was a shock to the system.  There were hunters everywhere.  At first they seemed to be simply hanging out, but then somebody must’ve sounded an alarm.  The next thing we knew, there were pickup trucks flying down the one-lane dirt road at absurd speeds.  At one point we saw a truck nearly run a car off the road after coming around a curve at probably 50 mph.  The truck swerved by the car and through a drainage ditch before rocketing back up onto the road.  That wasn’t the only one, either.  There was a whole parade of them, and most of them were driving way too fast for that road.  I turned to Joel and asked, “Where’s the fire?”

 

This wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind when I’d gotten out of my warm bed at 6am to go hiking.  Worse, we had to walk 3 miles of that lousy road, since the MST follows it.  In my last-minute planning, I’d overlooked the fact that the road, which is usually gated, would be open because of hunting season.  At that point, walking it would’ve constituted the most dangerous hike of my life.  It was out of the question.

 

To that point we’d hiked a mile and a half.  I still wanted to visit Bald Knob, but I wasn’t willing to risk my life for it.  Joel agreed.  We sat and watched the race for a bit and discussed our options.  Finally I suggested that if we couldn’t beat them, we’d join them.  We could hike back to the truck, and then drive to the end of the road.  We could hike the trail from there to Bald Knob and back, and skip the road walk.  Of course this meant driving an incredibly dangerous road, but we were hopeful that the traffic would clear out by the time we got back to the truck.

 

We headed back and passed a single hunter a short distance from the road.  He told us that his group was after a bear that had been spotted on Dobson Knob.  The bear was on the run, heading towards Linville Gorge.  The hunters had been in a big rush to cut him off before he got across the Kistler Highway, because once he reached the rugged terrain of the gorge they’d never be able to catch him.  It turns out they’d lost the race, and the hunter seemed pretty disappointed.  I didn’t share the sentiment.  By my reckoning, there were 20-30 armed men with trucks, two-way radios, and other high-tech devices, along with dozens of dogs, chasing a single bear.  If that bear could find refuge in Linville Gorge, then more power to him.  I myself have been known to seek refuge in Linville Gorge from people, loud vehicles, and technology – usually with success. 

 

The rest of the hike back to the truck was peaceful.  From the trailhead we drove up Kistler and then up Dobson Knob Road.  We didn’t see any hunters, though we did have to stop because some moron cutting firewood had parked his truck in the middle of the road.  There was a nice wide pull off there, but for some reason he’d chosen not to use it.  If he’d gotten there a little earlier he would’ve gotten run over by speeding hunters.

 

We drove past the microwave tower and on to another gate.  This one was open, too, but the road really deteriorates beyond it.  Joel’s truck is high clearance 4wd, but we decided to walk it from there.  We improvised a parking spot and resumed the hike.  The muddy road wasn’t very appealing, but it least the walking was fast and easy.  After 30 minutes or so we reached a wildlife clearing (clearcut turned into a grassy field) beside the road.  The clearing featured a limited view of the Black Mountains and a lot of sunshine.  We had lunch there before resuming the hike.  The road continued to deteriorate, though we certainly could’ve driven Joel’s truck at least as far as our lunch spot.  Eventually the road ended, and the signed and blazed trail continued ahead on the remains of a primitive road. 

 

We passed another wildlife clearing and began ascending Dobson Knob.  A steep stretch led to a campsite and a junction with an unknown trail.  From there we climbed to the wooded summit of Dobson Knob.  Beyond Dobson, the rocky trail dropped steeply to a gap before climbing again.  We finally reached Bald Knob a bit later.  I crossed the summit and descended briefly to rock outcroppings that provided great views of the North Fork of the Catawba River Valley, the community of Woodlawn, and the mighty Black Mountains beyond.  Joel caught up to me there a few minutes later. 

 

While he rested I searched ahead for another view in the opposite direction that I remembered from my previous visit.  I wasn’t able to find it, and when I returned Joel had already started the hike back.  I followed, and quickly stumbled on a spur trail out to a series of overlooks on Bald Knob’s eastern end.  I’d missed the side trail on the way down, as it is hard to see coming from that direction.  I felt bad that Joel had missed it, as those overlooks offered the best views of the hike.  The vista included Lake James, Grandfather Mountain, and Shortoff, Table Rock, and Hawksbill in Linville Gorge.  Closer at hand I noticed an interesting ridge featuring quartz outcroppings descending east from Dobson Knob.  That ridge begs to be explored, but that will be for another day.

 

I headed back to Dobson Knob, where I found an intriguing spur trail heading west from the summit.  I was confident I’d catch up to Joel before he reached the truck, so I decided to explore.  It was a good move, as the trail led out to a cliff with another great view of the Black Mountains and Little Switzerland.  When I arrived I noticed that a wall of dark clouds was approaching from the west.  The Black Mountain Crest was now lost in the muck.  Rain was expected that night, and it looked like it might be moving in early.  I headed back quickly from there, hopeful of returning to the truck before the rain arrived.

 

I caught up to Joel at our lunch spot.  We enjoyed a quiet hike out, passing only one truck and one person on a motorcycle.  Overall it WAS a quiet hike, as we only saw the one hunter on the actual trail.  Of course, Dobson Knob Road was another story.

 

We returned to the car before 4pm and headed home.  The drive was smooth, and getting home early allowed me to start getting ready for the New Year’s weekend.

 

Christy and I usually take it easy for New Year’s.  More worldly partiers refer to New Year’s as “amateur night”, and rightly so.  Typically we’d just as soon skip it.  This year though, we had actual plans.  One of our favorite bands, Widespread Panic, was playing a concert at Time Warner Cable Arena (The Cable Box) in Charlotte.  New Year’s shows are special – typically featuring 3 full sets and running until 2am or so.  Aside from that, Widespread Panic usually plays in Atlanta for New Years.  We felt honored that they were coming to Charlotte this year.  Also, this was to be their last show before beginning an extended vacation.  There was no telling when we’d see them again, if ever.  There was no way we were missing this show.

 

I’d purchased tickets months earlier, and had snagged a free room at the Holiday Inn downtown, which is conveniently located 2 blocks from the arena.  For the week leading up to the show we began a rigorous training program that involved staying up late and sleeping in.  We were determined to properly condition ourselves so that we could stay awake for the entire show.

 

We got to the hotel around 6pm on Saturday, which gave us 3 hours for pre-concert festivities.  After parking and checking in we walked across the street to Cosmos Café for dinner.  I was happy that there was no cover charge before 9pm, as I wasn’t real keen on having to pay for the privilege of eating there.  Our timing was good, as the restaurant was actually pretty quiet at that hour.  The menu was very limited, as they were pushing a 4-course New Years Eve dinner package that was $40 per person.  That didn’t interest me at all, so we had sushi followed by a red sauce pasta dish, along with beer and chocolate cake.  We had that interesting combination of food rolling around in our stomachs when we headed for the arena. 

 

We arrived at the arena around 8:40 with the apparently unrealistic expectation that we’d walk right in.  Unfortunately everybody else did, too.  For some reason security felt the need to pat everyone down, which made the line absurd.  This seemed silly to me.  If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that I would’ve been much safer in that arena than on the streets of downtown Charlotte, even without any security.  After 30 minutes the crowd began to get a little restless and security gave up.  We made it in just before the first song, though I was in line for the toilet when they started.

 

The show was a good one.  Highlights of the first set included “Chilly Water”, “Bust it Big”, and a cover of The Band’s “Chest Fever”.  The second set was performed acoustic, and the third set started right at midnight.  They saved the best for last, including one of my favorite songs, “Up All Night”.  I’d never heard that one before, and it (along with many other songs) was enhanced by a complete horn section.  The encore was fantastic, but by the end of the show we were ready to crash.  We walked the two blocks back to the hotel and eventually made it up to our room on the 12th floor.  The concert was a great way to ring in the New Year!




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