BEER RUN
Christy, Saucony, and I made a hasty exit from Charlotte Friday afternoon in an attempt to get to camp before dark. Luckily, traffic wasn't too bad, and our directions were good. We arrived at the trailhead with almost 2 hours of daylight left.
As we hiked down the old road, we arrived on a cliff overlooking the valley. The granite domes of little and big Green Mountain, Cold Mountain, and Blackrock Knob were visible standing over the broad valley. With this inspiring view, we hurried down the trail. In our haste, we walked right past a key turn. I realized my mistake quickly though, and a few minutes of backtracking had us back on the right path. My error concerned me though, since several other friends were joining us Saturday. If I couldn't follow my own directions, could they?
The trail took us through a meadow and into a thick, dark stand of white pine. The trees grew so close together, you could only see a few feet in any direction. Despite this, we could see a single tent in a small clearing off the trail. We were envious of the spectacular spot this backpacker had.
Soon we crossed the wide, slow moving waters of Panthertown Creek on a wooden bridge. After crossing, we left the well traveled main trail for a narrow footpath. It wound it's way upstream, passing through a forest of rhododendron. Along the way we passed a long cascade called Granny Burrell Falls. We stopped briefly to enjoy the first of many waterfalls during the weekend.
We eventually emerged from the rhododendron onto a wider trail. We followed this path to a lovely campsite under the pines below the rock face of Big Green Mountain. Numerous wildflowers, including trillium and violets, were growing throughout the area.
We enjoyed a rare luxury meal that evening. We had taken advantage of the short hike, and brought in fresh chicken, steak, and vegetables. We combined this with rice and seasonings for a wonderful stir fry dinner. It was definitely one of the best backpacking meals I'd had. That evening we slept to the calls of owls. Later, however, we were awakened by a whip-or-will. It started late that night, and continued until early in the morning, when it was replaced by the hammering of a woodpecker. It was a bit noisy, but we didn't really mind.
Christy, Saucony, and I left our basecamp fairly early Saturday for a dayhike. We had an ambitious plan, and wanted to allow plenty of time to hike and get back to meet our friends. We started at 9:30, hiking up the flat valley. Eventually, we left the valley behind, climbing steeply up a ravine toward Big Green Mountain. We reached the ridgetop, but bypassed the summit, heading instead toward Little Green Mountain. We hiked several connecting trails, passing beds of wildflowers along the way. Eventually we climbed steeply up to the top of Little Green Mountain. From here, we had excellent views of the valley and the west rim where we started on Friday.
It was here that I discovered that my watch was missing. I had lost a watch only 2 weeks before on a hike, and now I had done it again. In fact, I had only had the new one a few days. Just long enough to set the time, but not long enough to figure out how to work the alarm. I decided to backtrack, figuring that it fell out of my pocket during a map check. This extra adventure got me 2 extra miles on my hike, as well as a case of eye strain. It didn't get me my watch though. I was convinced that I probably had walked right past it (twice!), but luck wasn't with me.
Christy and the dog had enjoyed a lengthy break during the search, but soon we were off again. We hiked across the cliff-face of Little Green, enjoying the views as well as Dwarf Iris growing in the sun. After a brief wooded section, we reached a second stretch of open granite. From here the views were north and east, toward Cold Mountain and the Tuckaseegee River Gorge.
Soon we hiked down a steep trail on switchbacks to reach Greenland Creek. We stopped for lunch at the base of Schoolhouse Falls, which spills over a ledge 25' into a deep pool.
After a quick lunch, we headed downstream into the Tuckaseegee River Gorge. I was eagerly anticipating this new territory, but the trail stayed well above the river on the mountain side. Eventually we reached the Devil's Elbow, which is a bluff jutting out into the gorge. The river runs around 3 sides of the elbow. It was a neat spot, but the thick woods prevented us from getting a good view.
We left the gorge on a hot, dry climb toward Shelton Pisgah Mountain. The trail was steep and faint, but pink Laurel trees were blooming everywhere. This beauty helped us reach the summit, where we had more good views from a rock outcrop. From here we could see our ultimate goal - Cold Mountain. However, the dog wasn't doing so well because of the heat and lack of water. When we reached the next gap, we decided to save Cold Mountain for another day. We hiked down along Little Green Creek, giving Saucony some much needed relief.
The trail down was easy going at first. Then, it simply disappeared. There was no choice but to head down the creek. We rock hopped back and forth, trying to stay dry. Eventually we reached the bank, and climbed underneath a spectacular rock overhang. On the far side, the trail magically reappeared.
On the way down, we were overtaken by a solo hiker coming down from Cold Mountain. We talked briefly, and upon parting, he exclaimed that he was ready to go get a beer. That was where the day's real trouble started.
On our return, we descended down to the river to see another waterfall. It's not named on any of my maps, but it turned out to be the most impressive cascade of the weekend.
It was getting late in the afternoon, so we left the river and headed back to camp. We were exhausted when we arrived. It had been 9 hours of almost constant hiking. Yet, the other hiker's words of getting a beer rang in our heads. It must of been the power of suggestion that caused me to hike out to the car to grab a couple of beers. Either that, or I had just been out in the sun too long.
By the time I returned, I'd hiked about 14 miles. Our friends, Myron, Dorcas, and Dave had arrived. Myron and Dorcas had found camp without any problem (using my directions). However, Dave had missed the same turn as we had. As I was getting dinner ready, I heard Dave ask, "Did anyone lose a watch?" I couldn't believe it. Dave had gone for a short hike after setting up camp, and found my watch. It turns out my luck with watches isn't so bad after all.
We enjoyed a pleasant evening around the campfire. Some rowdy campers across the trail from us were loud, but I was so tired I didn't have any trouble sleeping.
We took a much more leisurely approach to Sunday's hike. All five of us, plus the 2 dogs, hiked up to Blackrock Mountain. Along the way, we hiked back through the thick pine forest. Dave named it the Enchanted Forest, and everyone agreed it was a highlight of the hike.
Our trail climbed steeply out of the valley. Eventually we left the main path, heading towards the wall of Blackrock Mountain. This path ended abruptly at the cliff face though. After some futile attempts to climb farther, we backtracked to the main path. A hundred yards later, we found the real trail up to the top. We climbed up across a seemingly endless expanse of granite. The views from here were the best we'd seen all weekend. We enjoyed a long break here, before heading back down into the gorge.
We hiked down an old trail, before leaving it on a rough, steep, muddy path to the river. We reached the river just below Warden's Falls. Here we had a relaxing lunch on the rocks. Myron tried fishing, but without any luck. He had pulled a small brook trout out of Panthertown Creek on Saturday, but nothing was happening today.
After lunch, we decided to try to get downstream to another falls. While I was attempting to negotiate the rough path, I poked my eye on a rhododendron leaf. I definitely don't recommend this. After 10 minutes of watering eyes, I was ready to walk again. My vision was blurry, so we decided to save the second falls for another day.
On our return, we stopped at a fantastic swimming hole called sandbar pool. Saucony had a swim, though the water was still too cold for the rest of us. After this diversion, we decided to take a different route back to camp. We crossed Panthertown Creek, and hiked a delightful trail through a pine forest below Little Green Mountain. This trail was the surprise of the trip. It was a new trail to me, and had not been hiked by many others. It passed through a peaceful forest unlike any I've seen. Along the forest floor were wildflowers, moss, and several types of running cedar.
Along the way, we decided to explore a rare mountain bog. We wandered for some time through the bog. However, we decided that we needed more time to explore it further. Ah, another future trip.
We finally returned to camp, and set a personal speed record for packing up. We then hiked the direct route out (forever to be known as the "beer run").
We all really enjoyed Panthertown Valley. The scenery was outstanding, and the streams were nice. Overall though, its best feature was its variety. Wildflowers, streams, cliffs, waterfalls, bogs, enchanted forests - this valley has it all. I'm already planning our next trip there.
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