Beaver Creek Wilderness

Middle Fork Trailhead
4/9/20 and
4/15 - 4/16/20 (1 night)
2020 Bag nights: 5

I have had the Beaver Creek Wilderness on my radar for quite a while, but it is a little too far for a dayhike and a little too small for multiple nights backpacking, not to mention all the horror stories about ticks.

But with only a couple of nights available and COVID all over, I decided that staying close to home and checking out something new would be good.

I drove to the Middle Creek Trailhead and headed down the trail. Once you drop off the ridge, there is this old chimney near the creek.

Creek view

About this point, I got a message on my InReach from my wife saying that my mother's husband was being transferred to the ICU. I was able to get a cell signal and call my wife and then my mother and then I decided to head home.

Not a lot of flowers, but I liked this fungus

New growth

Dogwood

A week later and I headed back for two nights.

A little further down the trail and another old chimney

Someone had recently gone through and cut new blazes. This is not a well traveled trail and in a couple places I was glad to have the blazes.

Big fan of irises ...

... I also like phlox ...

... I also like geraniums

View from the overlook, it was a gorgeous spring day.

Dogwood

Fleabane

This butterfly was taking a nap on the gravel road

Hawkweed??

About the time I was thinking of finding a place to camp, I looked to the side and saw this. Boom, home for the night.

The next morning was another beautiful day. This is from the old bridge that crosses the Middle Fork.

Fire pink

Southern Sessile Trilium

I had noticed on the LIDAR overlay that it looked like there was a possible waterfall near the trail. But I had never seen it mentioned online with all of the other off-trail waterfalls. As I got close, I could hear an obvious waterfall and then came around the corner and saw a nice campsite and this off to the side.

I headed back up to the overlook for lunch and then walked the road to find a couple off-trail waterfalls that I had seen on the waterfall map.

After a bit of a bushwack I found Upper Typhoon Falls. It took me a little bit of time to figure out how to get off the rim and down below the falls and then some more bushwacking to find this.

Upper Typhoon Falls

Some more bushwacking led to Middle Typhoon Falls ...

... and more bushwacking led to the lower falls and this cool rock wall.

It was about this point that I picked a couple of ticks off me. I had already considered heading back to the car and then I had visions of being covered with ticks while I slept :) It was still early so I headed home to dinner with the family and my own bed.

I'd like to return in the winter after a good rainfall so the falls are flowing and the ticks are less obvious.

Eagles Point w/ 2 kids

Red River Gorge
3/25 - 26 (1 night)
2020 Bag nights: 4

The weather looked good and everyone was getting a little stir crazy. On top of that, my youngest kid was getting a tooth pulled so I took the older two on a quick overnight trip to the Gorge.

We hiked along the Red River ...

... saw some spring flowers ...

... checked out a waterfall ...

... did a bit of a scramble to get to the top of the cliff (above the waterfall), where we watched the birds soar ...

... and waited for the sunset ...

... and the stars ...

... woke the next morning and we were in the clouds ...

... it started to burn off pretty quickly ...

... but not before we saw a glory ...

... we packed up and had an easy hike back to the car.

When we got to the trailhead, there were about 40 cars parked all along the road. I talked to one group who said the trail to a nearby waterfall was packed. The next day the National Forest shut the Gorge. I'm glad we got out there while we could.

Linville Gorge

Linville Gorge
Wolfpit Trailhead
3/15 - 3/18/20 (3 nights)
2020 bag nights: 3

Linville Gorge has been on my todo list for a while. I had considered a trip in December but I ended up sick. In the beginning of March, I started thinking about where to go for my spring break and decided that if the weather cooperated, I would do the trip I had planned for December. Of course the Covid thing kept getting worse, but I was going to be going solo and hopefully there would not be too many people in the woods.

The weather forecast looked iffy, but not terrible, certainly no reason to bail, so three nights somewhere new.

I got to the Wolfpit Trailhead about 3, it was obvious that I wasn't the only one with the idea of hiking. A bunch of dayhikers were just coming off the trail as I headed up. I passed a couple more groups of dayhikers on their way out, so I was hopeful that I would not feel crowded. 

I wanted to enjoy the sunset, so I planned on stopping at the first good campsite I came to (only about 1.5 miles). I found a nice spot with a great view and no one else around.

It was hotter than I expected and I was glad that I carried a couple of beers with me.

The clouds were a little "thick" for nice colors, but the sunset was still nice. 

Looking up the ditch.

For a little bit, there were some birds soaring near by that were fun to watch.

Woke up the next day and I was in the clouds. I could still hear the river far below, but could not see more than about 100 feet in front of me. Since there wasn't anything to see, I figured I would hike down to the river and camp low.

I decided it would be a B&W day for photography.

Shortoff Pond

The Chimneys area felt neat, but all of the views were covered in clouds.
I can't tell, but I'm pretty sure there is a view there somewhere.

I hiked down to the river where the bridge used to be so I could see what the crossing looked like. I considered wading to the other side, but the water was cold and pretty deep and I definitely did not feel like swimming.

I woke up to rain, but it appeared that the clouds might be lifting a bit. I took my time breaking camp, hoping that the rain would stop. I hiked back up to Table Mountain through intermittent rain. The rain had stopped by the time I got to the picnic area for lunch. And the clouds had lifted so I could see where I was.

I had one more night and thought that it looked like it might be a nice sunset so I wanted to be high with a view. So I headed back towards where I stayed the first night.

After the rain stopped, it ended up being a beautiful day for hiking. I passed back through the Chimneys and could see what I had missed the day before.

I began to run into dayhikers as I got closer to my planned campsite and closer to the trailhead.

I got back to "my campsite" and found a giant car camping tent and a roaring campfire and no one around. If I had been hiking out to the car, I would have filled up with water and put the fire out, but I wanted one more night and I was going to have to camp sort of nearby. So I filled up on water for the night/morning and went back up the trail to a different view point. On the way I passed what looked to be a group of young guys who appeared dumb enough to carry that tent for backpacking. I was glad I was a little bit away from their site and hoped that I would not be tempted to kill them at some point :)

The clouds got thicker, so it was another sunset like the first one, not a lot of color but pretty.

I heard the idiots' dog bark a couple times and for a moment heard music, but then things quieted down. I enjoyed the sunset and read a bit before bed.

I woke up and headed back to the car. The idiots were already gone, but they had left a smoldering fire even though water was about two minutes down the trail. I spent about 10 minutes and a couple trips to the spring to put the fire out.

Linville Gorge is very pretty, but way too crowded. Even on the rainy day I passed a couple backpackers and some dayhikers. The nice days had lots of dayhikers and then the idiots with the fire just to cap things off. I suspect that I will go back, but it will be in the middle of winter and hopefully that will keep most of the dayhikers away.