More Hiking Near Pineola

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this area of North Carolina has abundant hiking opportunities. But it’s not just the quantity of trails but also the quality of trails and the variety of types of trails. Our next goal is to hike the Boone Fork Trail which starts near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Julian Price Memorial Park. This trail was one our ranger at Cone Park had recommended. There are several starting points to access this 5.2 mile loop trail. The easiest trailhead is at the Price Park Picnic Area. There is plenty of parking as long as you get there prior to the possible crowds wanting to just use the picnic tables. We headed clockwise around the loop which takes us thru the campground first. We had gotten an early enough start that we could actually smell breakfast being made at one of the sites. After the first mile, we are past the campground and the trail feels a bit more remote. A field of wildflowers was attracting a lot of butterflies.

Butterfly Feeding

Most of the hike is a woods walk which keep us out of the hot sun. There are also some massive rocks along the trail that adds to the enjoyment of the hike. It’s a well marked trail with only a few intersecting trails. There are plenty of small creek crossings but most of them have some sort bridge to get us over the water. One style of bridge seemed to be used several times. They appear to be some sort of modular design that can be built on site to the required length. Other crossings just used a simple log. There are plenty of mini falls along the trail and I stop often to get some pictures.

Tree Grows on Side of Rock

Chris Dwarfed by Boulder

Follow the Signs

Modular Bridge?

Rustic Log Bridge

Tranquil Falls

There are some stairs and even a ladder to navigate some of the steeped rock ledges. Even Chris was able to negotiate them without problems. It hadn’t been a very busy trail for the first 3.7 miles but then we got to the side trail to Hebron Falls. We weren’t positive how far the falls were but we could hear a multitude of voices so we assumed it was nearby. The side trail was a bit more challenging to navigate but we made it to Boone Fork Creek and found close to 50 people wandering around. It was a very nice Saturday so maybe the large crowd made sense.

Textured Mushroom

Log Staircase

Caterpillar with Metallic Look

Another Small Falls on Creek

Log Ladder

Take the Detour to Hebron Falls

Hebron Falls is more like a series of small drops as the creek flows thru a large boulder field. So there isn’t some tall drop to admire or put a number on. But on the plus side, having the water drop a bit here and a bit there over the length of several hundred feet, tends to spread the large number of people over a large area. It seemed like the majority of the kids were playing further upstream from our spot. Doing so required a fair amount of rock and boulder hopping and our legs weren’t up for that. We found a relatively quiet spot and sat down for a snack and to just relax.

One of Many Small Drops at Hebron Falls

I suspect that 95% of the people enjoying Hebron Falls came from the picnic area in the opposite direction because that section of the loop is only 1.5 miles long and has practically no elevation change. At the 4 mile point, the Mountain to Sea Trail splits off across the creek on a much larger bridge. If you’re not paying attention, I suspect it could be quite easy to want to go over the bridge and continue on your way. We stopped to check out the bridge but followed the signs back to the picnic area. It was approaching 2 PM and the picnic area was packed with people and parking spots were hard to find. Glad we arrived early. Below is the Caltopo map from our Boone Fork Hike.

Bridge for MST

Our Boone Fork Trail

We headed back to camp on the BRP and cross over the spillway at Price Lake just a half mile from the picnic area. The lake was completely empty except for a small stream of water. We had noticed this on the way to our hike but didn’t want to waste time investigating. The day after Tropical Storm Fred come thru the area, we had gone to Cone Park for a hike and had noticed that Price Lake was down a few feet. We thought that was a bit strange given the area had gotten over 8 inches of rain but didn’t give it a lot of thought. It was now 10 days later and the lake was gone. I took some pictures and checked out the spillway. The concrete portion of the spillway didn’t look damaged but the 2 foot drain at the bottom was letting the water thru.

Price Lake Empty

Similar Shot from 17 Days Earlier

Price Lake Spillway

Drain Plug Open

After we got back I did a little searching and discovered that a couple days prior to TS Fred arriving, the park crew opened the drain to allow some water out of the lake making room for the upcoming storm waters. But when they went to close the drain, they couldn’t. Something in the mechanism broke and the drain remained open. They needed to let the lake completely drain in order to check out the spillway and determine what parts were needed. As of my writing this post a month after the hike, the lake is only partially filled and the drain is still letting water out. It’s not clear if there is a problem or is they want some water to flow down the creek beyond the spillway and are allowing some water out so the creek doesn’t dry up. Glad we did our hike around the lake when it was still there, but any hopes of going for a canoe ride dried up.

The next four days didn’t allow us to get out for any exploring. I needed to take the Jeep in to repair a problem, our toilet in the motorhome started to act up (more on this in a future post) and Hurricane Ida was working its way past us. Fortunately the path of the storm didn’t cause any real flooding by us so we didn’t need to evacuate the campground. And by now we have had enough rain to determine my temporary fix to the shower skylight dome is working.

After the rains were over, we headed over towards Roan Mountain Tennessee to hike to Grassy Ridge Bald. Most of the hike will be along a portion of the Appalachian Trail. Our starting point is at Carvers Gap which is about 12 miles south of the town of Roan Mountain. We make a quick stop at Roan Mountain State Park to pick up some information about the place. It looks like there might be some good hikes here as well - we’ll add them to the growing list. There is a small parking lot for about 10 cars as well as a gravel shoulder for maybe another 10 vehicles. We are right at the Tennessee/North Carolina border. I think we parked in NC but a suspect a few parking spots are in Tennessee.

Foggy Start at Carvers Gap

After crossing the road, a very short connector trail gets us on the AT. We had started early and were on the trail before 9 AM. The morning fog was dense in spots but would burn off fairly quickly. As we entered a heavily wooded section, the morning sun coming through the trees made very surreal patterns in the fog.

Enter the Woods

The hike to Grassy Ridge Bald would be about 2.5 miles one way. We would actually need to ascend both Round Bald and Jane Bald before getting to the end. The full hike will have nearly 1100 feet of elevation gain so it isn’t a trivial walk. The wooded section near the beginning only lasted about half a mile then we were out in the open. We had picked a glorious day weather wise. It was mostly sunny with just a few clouds hanging in the valleys below us. The views from atop Round Bald were spectacular.

Panoramic View at Round Bald

As we drop down off the first bald, we can see the other two in the distance. There is a shimmering line going up the side of Grassy Bald which we will discover is the trail with water running down it. It is about another 3/4 mile to the top of Jane Bald. Again the views here are outstanding. We can look back and see Round Bald and make out a few other hikers heading our way. While this is considered a “heavily trafficked” trail, we probably only ran into a dozen or so other hikers so it felt like we had the place almost to ourselves.

Looking Towards Jane Bald and Grassy Bald

Jane Bald is Identified

At about the 1.8 mile mark is where we will leave the AT and start up a steep side trail to Grassy Bald. It would be easy to miss this turn. The spur trail is very minor compared to the AT. In fact we have to go several hundred feet just to convince ourselves we are on the proper trail when we look at our GPSr or phone app. The next 1/10 mile portion of the hike was our least favorite part. Had it only been steep and rocky it would have been acceptable but we had entered a thick section of rhododendrons that needed to be cut back and there was a stream of water running down the trail. But once we emerged into the open, it was all worth the effort. Being a bit higher than the other two balds  meant the views were a bit better. There is a large plaque on a boulder near the top honoring a nature lover from the area.

Looking Back at Jane & Round Balds

Large Plaque

There happens to be a geocache hidden nearby so we went into the small cluster of evergreens to find it and then just sat on a large rock to enjoy the views. At one point there was a huge bank of clouds moving towards us. As we watched them approach, we were wondering if they would overtake us and make for a very cloudy return trip with no views. The clouds were lower than we were and it seemed like as they hit the side of the bald, they just dissipated. By the time we started our return trip, it was if they had never even been there.

Clouds Rolling In

We made it back to Jane Bald and decided to have the sandwiches we had brought along. PB&J can seem like a delicacy when you have the views from up here. The rest of the hike went fairly well and when we got back to Carvers Gap the place was loaded with cars. I hope that the people heading up with just flip-flops don’t plan on doing much of the hike!

Lunch Stop View

This was a wonderful hike but it had taken its toll on us. We would have liked to do a hike in Roan Mountain State Park, but didn’t have the energy. But by getting on the trail as early as we did, we still had plenty of daylight left. So we drove up the long and winding road to the Miller Farmstead. We had read something that made us believe there would be a person to tour us through the home but that wasn’t the case. The home was built in 1908 and sits about 70 feet lower than the parking lot.  Not exactly what the legs wanted.

Looking Down on Miller Farmstead

Butterfly on Thistle

We did still wander the grounds to check out the home and various outbuildings. In general the place seems well maintained. The old root cellar did have a very interesting door opening. I suspect the door is missing for good reason. There was a horse in the small fenced area behind the barn. No amount of coaxing could get him to come over to say hi. The small garden definitely needed some TLC but the chickens seemed to like their home. Maybe it wasn’t the best historic home experience but still worth the quick stop after a great hike.

Miller Farm House

The Barn

Root Cellar with Bowed Door Frame

Cluck-Cluck

Another Butterfly Shot

With a seemingly endless supply of hikes, we head out the next day for another waterfall hike. This time we will head south on the BRP to Crabtree Falls. It about a 25 mile drive on a road we are becoming quite familiar with. The loop is 2.6 miles with almost 600 feet of elevation gain. The park service map we had picked up earlier showed a trailhead parking are inside of the campground. The attendant at the entrance told us that is no longer the case so we had to go back to a larger parking area of some closed restaurant that used to operate on the BRP. We wanted to hike the loop in a clockwise direction which required us to walk through the campground. With a little bit of searching we finally spotted the sign for the trail coming off one of the loops in the campground.

Going this direction makes for a gradual downhill almost all the way down to the Crabtree Falls. Much of it is along Big Crabtree Creek so there are a few crossings and a couple of neat smaller cascades along the way. There is even an opening in the tree cover giving a great view of the surrounding forest.

Bridge Over Creek

Small Cascade Along the Way

Overlook

Our plan of gradual downhill worked for the first 1.3 miles but then we hit a series of steep switchbacks to get down to the base of the falls. Several people were heading up and told us the falls were wonderful so we kept working our way downhill until we got to the water level just below the falls. Crabtree Falls is rather impressive with about a 70 foot drop over dozens of rocks. So it isn’t just a plain vertical drop but has plenty of obstacles so the water cascades in a haphazard fashion.

Crabtree Falls

When we arrived there were only 4 other people. One couple had set up a hammock on a bit of an overlook so they weren’t in the way of taking pictures and the other couple left shortly after we arrived. I setup the camera, tripod and ND filters from a few different vantage points to see which view worked best. It was too tough to pick so I’ll show a bunch of angles. There is a bridge across the creek so it is simple to get across for the return trip.

Our timing was perfect, just as I was finishing up several groups of people were arriving. As we started up the series of switchbacks on the far side of the creek, even more people were heading down. I lost count at a dozen and at least 5 dogs. We could hear the dogs barking and kids screaming so we got to enjoy the falls in relative peace and quiet. When we got back up to the campground we stopped to talk with a host. She told us they actually do have some sites that would be large enough for our rig and some of them are first come, first serve. We will need to keep that in mind for future trips to the area.

Heading Back Up