Last Thursday's forecast for last weekend: slight chance of rain Saturday.
Friday morning's forecast for the weekend: chance of rain Saturday morning, then clearing.
Friday evening's forecast for the weekend: 100% chance of rain Saturday, with fog and drizzle Saturday night, and more rain Sunday.
What happened? After the last phone call, everyone had cancelled. Only Christy, the dog, and I were left. Should we stay or should we go? We decided to wait to make a decision until Saturday morning.
Saturday morning, we woke to a downpour with thunder and lightning. But then, we already had everything packed, and the dog really wanted to go. She knew we had packed, and would've been highly pissed off if we had changed our minds.
By the time we had driven to Shelby, the rain had reached biblical proportions. We discussed heading back to Charlotte. Or maybe the Shelby mall. But then, we threw rational thought out the window. By the time we reached Hendersonville, it was down to a drizzle. Then, as we neared the trailhead, the rain stopped altogether. A miracle! It's good to have faith. At the trailhead, we encountered a large group of "troubled teens". They had just finished another miserable week in the woods, having hiked out that morning in the downpour.
We started the hike on an old roadbed, hiking through a surprising amount of old snow. We reached the river, and crossed it on a swinging bridge. On the far side, an old railroad bed went left and right. Neither route was marked. Which way to go? We consulted DeHart's hiking guide. "Cross the bridge, reach a roadbed, and turn left". We headed that way, but the trail quickly disappeared in a tangle of deadfalls. Wait a minute, we did this hike last weekend. Could this be right? After a couple hundred yards of crawling over fallen trees, I consulted the map. It looked like the trail should be up above the river. We didn't want to return by the same route, so we decided to bushwhack up the hillside. After a few difficult minutes, we found ourselves on the trail.
The first couple of miles followed an ugly, muddy road. However, the trail soon dropped down into a lovely hemlock grove by the riverside. We had lunch there, and debated staying for a few hours. However, we had a long way to go, so we pressed on quickly. Soon, we were hiking next to the river. We enjoyed walking next to the rapids and pools. To our right was a sheer rock wall decorated with icicles.
The next swinging bridge provided the real entertainment for the day. Saucony went across first, but panicked when the bridge began to swing. She slunk so low, she practically crawled the rest of the way. A couple more miles of hiking brought us to a lovely grassy meadow surrounded by forest. Soon after, we arrived at the site of the old Cantrell Creek Lodge. Nothing remains except for the chimney, but it provided a nice resting spot.
We started to hike back the same way. However, we picked up a side trail that we climbed to the top of the ridge. From there, we returned on the Turkeypen Gap trail. The ridge was totally wooded, but provided some variety from the riverside hiking that morning.
We ended up hiking almost 9 miles, which was pretty good for a day that we could've slept through. All that and no rain.
We had planned to spend Saturday night at Davidson River Campground. However, it seemed silly to spend $15 for a bathroom and running water. We decided to explore our options. We drove up Avery Creek road, and found a nice roadside campsite. It required a short walk to the car, but provided a great spot right next to the creek. We set up a tent and tarp, and enjoyed a spaghetti dinner by the fire. The rain held off, though it did drizzle some that night.
Sunday morning was even more overcast than Saturday. We attempted to drive up Avery Creek road to the trailhead, but found the road closed. We ended up driving around to the other end of the road, and started the hike near the Cradle of Forestry. We hiked up an old roadbed, reaching the Black Mountain trail at Club Gap. We hiked the ridge from there, passing through heavy fog. The forest was like something out of "The Lord of the Rings", as twisted trees appeared out of the mist. We reached the Buckhorn Gap shelter in time for lunch. We had just settled in when the rain began to fall. How about that timing!
The rain was short lived, and it was only misting a little when we resumed the hike. We hiked down the Buckhorn Gap trail, through an area that was recently hit by a wildfire. It was fascinating - the undergrowth and small trees burned, but the more mature trees hadn't been affected. Eventually we reached Twin Falls, where two separate streams go over waterfalls next to each other. It was a neat place, even in the fog.
We enjoyed the hike along the lower end of the trail. It passed through a nice open forest, crossing the creek on slippery log bridges. We passed several nice campsites, before heading up Avery Creek. Avery was more jungle like, but was still a good walk. We passed an unnamed falls along the way, before the trail got steep.
After some tough climbing, we reached an ugly logged area. Then, the rain finally began to fall. We had dodged it for most of the weekend, but it finally caught up to us. Fortunately, we were almost back to the car. We got in another 9 miles on Sunday. The weather wasn't beautiful, but it could've been much worse. In hindsight, we were both glad we had braved it.
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