DAFFY NO PADDY
Originally
Jack and I had planned our annual pilgrimage to Daffodil Flats for March 21st. Unfortunately I had to attend a wedding that
weekend and I wasn’t able to make it. As
luck would have it, Spring is coming late this
year. With Daffodils in full bloom all
over the Carolinas last week, Jack and I figured they’d still be looking good a
week later than we had expected. We
rescheduled our hike for the 27th with high hopes of seeing Daffodil
Flats in bloom.
I
met Jack at the Mountains To Sea Trailhead on the Kistler Highway near The Pinnacle at 9am. From there, we took a few minutes to run Jack’s
truck up to the Pinch In Trailhead, which was our
planned exit point. The drive between
the trailheads was rough, as the Kistler Highway is
badly rutted in a couple of places.
Fortunately I was able to get through in my Corolla without much
difficulty. The highlight of the drive
was spotting a single turkey along the edge of the road. We then returned to the MST trailhead, where
we started our hike under overcast skies.
This
was my third consecutive year hiking to Daffodil Flats. For this trip, I was eager to try a different
route. Our plan was to hike the MST down
into the gorge. The MST descends all the
way to the river. Unfortunately, there
is a section of private land between the MST and the main part of the gorge
upstream. As a result, it’s not possible
to (legally) hike upstream from that point.
Also, going that route would require wading the
river twice. We would need to find
another way to get from the MST to Daffodil Flats.
For
several years now I’ve been aware of the Leadmine
Trail – an unofficial route that connects the Linville Gorge Trail and the MST
while bypassing the private land by traversing steep hillsides above the
river. I’d never attempted the route,
but I’ve been eager to give it a try.
This weekend offered the perfect opportunity.
We
made the short hike up to the Pinnacle, which offers fine views of the southern
part of Linville Gorge, Shortoff Mountain, and Lake
James. Unfortunately the heavy dark
clouds didn’t do much for our efforts at photography. It was cold and windy up there, too, and we
didn’t linger long before starting the steep descent towards the river.
After
a mile or so, our knees got a break at a minor saddle. Here, the MST turns right to continue its
descent towards the river. The Leadmine route, which is marked with a sign, turns
left. First though, we continued ahead
on another trail. We followed it up a
brief climb to a wooded knoll with a view of Shortoff
Mountain ahead. One map we have
indicates that there is a campsite here.
Although you could probably squeeze a tent or two between the trees
here, there wasn’t any sign that the area had been used for camping. The trail continues beyond the knoll and
descends, but it enters private property.
Although the property boundary isn’t posted here, we decided to turn
back to check out Leadmine.
After
only a short distance down Leadmine we reached a
junction marked with a sign. The sign
indicated a “dry weather” route ahead and an “all weather” route to the left. I believe the route ahead crosses the Sharp
Cliffs just above the river before joining the Linville Gorge Trail. This route is considered to be hazardous when
the rocks are wet. It had rained the
previous two days, so we turned left and resumed the hike.
Early
on, Leadmine is as good as any trail in Linville
Gorge. Obviously someone has put in
quite a bit of effort to improve this route.
That didn’t last long though. Before
long we reached the top of the first of four gullies we’d have to cross. Someone has attempted to carve steps into the
hillsides leading in and out of the gullies, but the footing is still
tricky. Descending into each gully
required caution, and on a couple of occasions, muddy pants. Climbing out was a bit of a struggle,
too. We were delighted when we found a
well-designed switchback on the way out of the fourth gully. Regrettably, it was the only switchback on
the entire route.
That
final climb brought us to the narrow spine of Sharp Ridge. The trail continues ahead here to descend
steeply to the river. I’d read that this
trail is prone to erosion. So, we
decided to investigate another possible route through The Steppe and the
Dellinger Creek valley. We turned left,
making a steep climb up Sharp Ridge.
This was rough going, but before long I found a ribbon and a faint trail
heading north. This appeared to be the
correct route, and we headed that way.
Unfortunately, we didn’t make it far before the path disappeared on a
steep hillside littered with deadfall.
It might be possible to continue on to the Dellinger Creek valley by
bushwhacking, but it would certainly be a rough hike. We weren’t sure what we’d be getting
ourselves into going that way, so we doubled-back down Sharp Ridge to the main
route.
We
descended gently into the next valley until we reached another sign. This one indicated a well-traveled shortcut
to the right. There appeared to be a
faint path to the left, but it seemed to fade away after only a short
distance. We went right and descended a
steep, narrow ridge above a small waterfall.
This descent wasn’t too bad except for the final stretch, which was
extremely steep. At the bottom we
reached the Linville Gorge Trail and met a group of backpackers heading the
other way. They reported that the
daffodils were looking great. We were
eager to see them for ourselves, but took a few minutes to hike the Linville
Gorge Trail to the south. After only a
short distance we reached the river ford at the base of the Sharp Cliffs. The Linville Gorge Trail continues downstream
on the far side of the river, before reaching the private property boundary.
We
doubled-back and headed upstream. We
enjoyed some easy walking along an old roadbed.
We were treated to some fine views of the river and Shortoff
Mountain high above us. We spotted the
remains of an old chimney at Dellinger Creek, and passed a beach and a great
place to swim at the Blue Hole, but the daffodils beckoned. We continued on, reaching Daffodil Flats just
before noon.
There
must be thousands of daffodils at Daffodil Flats, and most of them were in
bloom. We may have arrived
a couple of days after their peak, but overall our timing was pretty good. The blooms were definitely more impressive
than they’d been on our visit a year earlier.
We had a long lunch there, spending an hour or so relaxing and taking
photos. Meanwhile, Boone spent most our
time there running in circles through the flowers. Eventually he wore himself out and settled
down for a nap among the blooms.
Surprisingly
we didn’t see anyone else while we were there.
Daffodil Flats was a hard place to leave behind, but we knew we still
had a tough hike out ahead of us. We followed
the Linville Gorge Trail upstream along another fine stretch of the river. We passed some nice campsites before reaching
the signed junction with the Pinch In Trail. Finally our work was about to begin.
The
Pinch In Trail is a grunt, climbing 1700’ in a little
over a mile. Because of two severe
wildfires in recent years, there’s very little shade along the route. As luck would have it, the clouds had
disappeared and the sun was out in full force just in time for our climb. Luckily it was still a cool day, and a
pleasant breeze made the climb bearable.
Numerous fine views gave us plenty of excuses to stop and take
photos. Near the top, we ran into
another group of backpackers. They
included Ken, Lewis, and John, who Jack and I know from the Linville Gorge
yahoo group site and linvillegorge.net.
They had taken the same route we had, but had spread the hike out over
two days. We chatted with them as we
hiked the last few minutes to the trailhead.
There we gave John a lift down to the MST trailhead so he could pick up
one of their cars. That saved them from
having to walk 2.5 miles down the Kistler Highway at
the end of their hike.
Our
hike had been easier and less time consuming than we’d expected, and it was
only 3pm when we returned to my car. I
suggested another short hike. While
researching something online, I had stumbled upon a vague description of a
waterfall near the headwaters of Paddy Creek.
Paddy Creek flows through the valley immediately west of the Kistler Highway.
Since we were so close, I thought I might give it a try. I was afraid it wouldn’t be worth the effort,
but you’ll never discover something new without being willing to take that sort
of risk. Jack decided to pass though, as
he was looking forward to getting home early from a hike for a change.
I
drove back down the Kistler Highway to the south in
search of a trail heading down towards Paddy Creek. The Mountains To Sea
Trail actually follows this road for a short distance. Once it turned off to the west, I knew I was
getting close to the right place. Before
long, I spotted on old woods road heading uphill in the correct direction. This looked like the spot, as my map
indicated a minor knoll between this part of the Kistler
Highway and the Paddy Creek valley. I pulled
off the road and set out to explore.
I
followed the old logging road uphill into the woods. The description I’d found
online suggested that an old trail led all the way from Kistler
down to Paddy Creek and then up towards Dobson Knob. After only a short distance though, the road
turned to the left and headed down, back towards the Kistler
Highway. This was the wrong direction,
but I decided to follow it anyway.
Before long the old road became crowded with young pine trees. At this point, I was nearly back at the main
road, and I was clearly heading the wrong way.
I doubled back to the turn, and headed west, into the woods, following a
faint game path. This trail took me to
the top of the hill through surprisingly open forest. Once on top of the hill though, I found
myself in a true maze of animal paths.
None of them looked particularly promising, and I wasn’t about to embark
on a solo bushwhack down into the Paddy Creek valley. Discouraged, I headed back to the car. On the drive down the mountain, I kept my eye
out for other trails heading west, but I didn’t see anything promising. My guess is that if there had been a trail
heading down there, it has probably been reclaimed by
nature. Maybe I’ll make another attempt at
this mystery waterfall another time.
I’m
sure Jack and I will return to Daffodil Flats again next year. Next time, we may try the same route but in
the opposite direction. If the weather
is dry, we might just try traversing the Sharp Ridge Cliffs just to see what
that route is like.
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