Car camping in NC

7/8 - 7/13/18 (5 nights)
2018 bag nights: 18
Van Hook Glade Campground near Highlands NC

We met friends for our annual family camping trip at one of our favorite campgrounds in NC. We spent a lot of time splashing in the creek.

We hiked up to Ranger Falls

Ranger Falls, the kids really liked climbing on the rocks

One day we drove over to Panthertown Valley for a day hike. We started at Salt Rock Gap and did a short loop to Wilderness Falls and Frolictown Falls. This area had been on my list for a couple of years, so I was glad to check out a small part of it.

Frolictown Falls

Some people refer to the area as the "Yosemite of the East" because of the granite domes. I'm not sure I would go that far, but the area is very pretty.

A great way to catch up with old friends and to just relax a bit.

Douglas Trail

4/20/18 Dayhike in Red River Gorge
7/1 - 7/2/18 Overnight with my 5 year old (2018 bag nights: 13)
8/22/18 Dayhike
Osbourne Bend Trailhead

4/20/18
I started at the Osbourne Bend Trailhead without any solid idea of where I was heading. I was thinking about the Osbourne Bend Trail since I had never hiked it, but there were a lot of cars in the small parking lot and I heard idiots yelling at each other up on the ridge. So, I headed out the Douglas Trail with the idea of checking out the Wall of Denial and Eagles Point and then maybe taking the old fire road to connect with the Osbourne Bend Trail. In the end, that is basically what I did, but I skipped the Wall of Denial.

The wildflowers are appearing which was nice since I was disappointed a couple weeks earlier by the lack of flowers.

I took my time poking around and was surprised when I got near Clifty Creek to run across a solo camper who had a fire going at 11am. I asked if he had been out the night before and he said no, but he had friends meeting him the next day. Seems kind of boring to sit around a campfire by yourself all day, but whatever makes him happy.

In my poking around, I stumbled across this trickle of a waterfall off the trail. I'm going to try to check it out after we get a lot of rain.

I then headed towards Eagles Point. It had been a couple of years since I had climbed to the top to enjoy the view. I passed a group of people up on the ridge who were leaving the overlook and I had it all to myself for about 1/2 hour before I headed to the top of the ridge and the old fire road and then down the Osbourne Bend Trail to my car.

So happy that spring has finally arrived.

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7/1 - 7/2/18
A couple months later the Gorge looks very different. I dropped my oldest off at camp and took my youngest (just turned 5) on her first backpacking trip. I had always thought that the intersection of Clifty Creek and the Red River would make a good kids campsite.

The Red River was very silty, so she was not interested in swimming ...

... but, she had fun playing in the sand and stacking rocks.

Right near the fire ring was an interesting looking log. My kids are obsessed with Greek mythology, so she declared that this was Pegasus. She is holding the head and she said the wings were swept back behind :)

It rained a little bit in the evening, but I had a small tarp, so we were dry for dinner. We read a story and she went to bed while I enjoyed the view.

Evidently there had been a bit of rain further upstream because the river rose quite a bit overnight. She was very disappointed to see her stack of rocks was under water.

We had breakfast and packed up to head back to the car. Along the way we both enjoyed the Rhododendron blooms.

We both had a great time in the woods.

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8/22/18
And another dayhike in the Gorge. This time is has been a couple months since I have hiked here and I decided that this would be a good day to creek hike up Clifty Creek to see what I find. So, back to the Douglas Trail. I ended up going up the creek a little bit, but it was turning into a bit of a bushwack and I had visions of slipping and soaking my camera/lens, so I decided to postpone that for another day.

Starting out, the sky looks a little ugly, but it is not too hot, so hopefully a good hiking day.

I always like this trail because of the views and sounds of the river so close to the trail.

There were lots of flowers

I think my favorites today were the fungi.

This one was sort of a glowing white and slimy looking, kind of ugly but intriguing

Another view of the Red River

and more fungi

Next time a machete

Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock Wilderness (NC)
6/25 - 6/27/18 (2 nights)
2018 bag nights: 12
Cheoah Dam Trailhead
mix of cell phone and real camera photos

I had a couple nights to myself to recover from Sweden and I realized that I had not been back to the Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock Wilderness in a while. I decided to start at the bottom and climb the Slickrock Trail to Naked Ground and then over to the Bob Bald and then maybe check out the Foderstacks to complete the circle. As usual with this wilderness area, things did not go according to plans.

I got to the trailhead and it was looking to be hot and humid, no real surprise for the end of June. I knew that the Slickrock Trail had lots of creek fords, so I hoped the humidity would not be too bad. It was bad :) By the time I had hiked about a mile, I was soaked with sweat. I got to the creek and stripped down and jumped in. The water was on the cold side, but felt good.

I slowly made my way up the creek/trail and got more soaked when the sky opened up, but eventually I got to a good campsite near the intersection with the Stiffknee Trail. It wasn't as far as I had expected to go, but it was a good stopping point and I was a little frustrated with how overgrown parts of the trail were. Basically, I was ready for a break and a little bourbon pick-me-up :)

Along the way, I passed a couple nice trickles ...

... and drops in Slickrock Creek that made me get out the tripod.

Someone must have really liked Jere Lee to put the effort into this sign :)

I quickly setup camp since it looked like the rain might come back ...

... and then enjoyed the view and sounds of Slickrock Creek ...

... and the Rhododendron flowers.

The next day I got moving up the trail still with the idea that I would take the direct route to Naked Ground via the "Nutbuster".

I took my time and stopped for an early lunch at Wildcat Falls.

And then a little later I ran into 3 guys camping who mentioned that Tipi Walter had mentioned the trail being covered with blowdowns and a couple rattlesnakes. Given that info and my frustration with the trail the day before, I decided to take the long way to the bald and go through Big Fat Gap.

Along the way I ran into a trail crew doing trail work and Tipi Walter. He showed me photos of the snakes which made me glad to avoid the Nutbuster.

I got lucky and caught the end of the Flame Azaleas blooming ...

... saw some great views ...

... and made my way to the Bald. I was a little hopeful for some stars mixed with clouds given what the sky looked like when I first was setting up camp ...

... but the weather changed very quickly. I was in a pretty exposed area and the wind really picked up, so I actually broke camp in the pouring rain and moved to a more sheltered area. 

The next morning, things looked a little better, or at least a little drier. I was still pretty damp from sweat and humidity and rain, but was hopeful that things would dry out a little bit...

... and then I got back on the trail and was promptly soaked by all the wet leaves. At this point, I checked the weather on my InReach and thought a little bit about bushwacking in the rain and decided that I would rather head for the car and sleep in a dry bed.

As I hiked, the sky made me think that I had made a reasonable decision.

So I retraced my steps back to Big Fat Gap and then took the Windy Gap Trail to Nichols Cove Trail to Yellowhammer Gap Trail to Ike Branch Trail and back to my car. In those roughly 5 miles I got to do more bushwacking and got completely soaked by a couple inches of rain.

At one of the trail intersections is this little grave site. The inscription basically reads "Two sisters born Dec 14 1914, died Dec 20 1914" yet another reminder of how hard life was in these parts a hundred years ago.

I stopped at the pullover on the Tail of the Dragon for a photo op, this is looking down on Calderwood Dam on the Little Tennessee River.

So the title of this post, after all of what felt like bushwacking I decided that some of the trails needed to be brushed back quite a bit. The trail crew was working on the Benton Mackaye Trail, but were not going to hit the side trails that also needed a lot of work. So I went on Amazon and found a sort of light weight machete and I plan on going back in the fall and seeing what I can do to help maintain some of the trails.