Shining Rock - The week that was

“Back to New England after a great Blues Fest in Durham and a great time ? my first hike in the Smokies - in the Shining Rock area. It is, unfortunately, a far different world that I came back to. It?s hard to believe that leaving a place of such awesome beauty and solitude is considered returning to ?civilization?.

My hiking buddy was a woman I met online at the ?other? bp site. Turns out, when we finally met in person the day before we set out, that she?s a good friend of my sweetie?s best friend in Durham. Small world.

A coupla things at the outset. One ? the Smokies are lot different than the NE mountains I?m used to. Lots of balds; short hardwoods and thickets of giant mountain laurel; and wilderness views as far as the eye can see. Absolutely awesome stuff.
Two- I thought Vermont had cornered the market on trails that consisted of nothing more than rocks, roots, and running streams, but the short section of the Mountains-to-Sea trail that we were on would have made any Vermonter proud. Three ? if you are hiking this area using the Trails Illustrated map, consider it only a rough indication of where the trail might actually be. It wasn?t too far off on most of the trails, but what the map showed of the M-to-S trail and what the trail actually was bore little resemblance.

So anyway, we pulled into the parking lot off the Blue Ridge Parkway just below Sam Knob about 3 PM Monday afternoon, September 10. We started down the Laurel Creek trail around Little Sam Knob, winding through the woods until we hit the creek. The trail then paralleled the creek for a while ? an easy downhill hike with nice streamside campsites popping up every now and then. The trail was fairly wide most of the way and appeared to have been a road at one time, especially when we came to an old, wide concrete bridge spanning the creek below an awesome waterfall. Actually, there were lots of nice smaller cascades all along the creek. If you only wanted to hike a half mile a day, you could spend a number of nights at really nice spots.

We came off the trail onto the Parkway, roadwalked about a quarter mile, and turned into the M-to-S trail and started climbing through a thicket of laurel. This was where the trail started becoming rock, root, and water. We went up and up and up, around the bald, and then down, down, down.

Because the trail was a lot longer and more winding than the map indicated, it had gotten dark. Laura?s flashlight failed, so we hiked the last hour or so by the light of my Tikka. Five steps forward for me, then turn around and shine the light on the roots for her to move ahead. Needless to say, our pace was slowed considerably. At at least one point, we ran into a junction that was not shown on the map, and blazes were non-existent, so a little nighttime scouting was in order.

Did I mention that it had been drizzling most of the day?

Anyway, we pulled into Silvermine Bald well after dark and set up the tent in a nice little field. Given the hour, the cold and wet, and the gorp we?d been gobbling, we elected to go right to sleep and eat dinner in the morning. I think our hike of the day was about 7 miles or so.

Got up Tuesday morning and cooked breakfast ? last night?s cous-cous and veggies out on the bald with an awesome, if somewhat misty, view of the valley and mountains as far as we could see.

Tuesday we hiked the Art Loeb trail up over Black Balsam Knob, to Grassy Cove Top and over to Shining Rock Gap. Another day of spectacular views and decent weather. Warm and sunny with nice breezes most of the day. Lots of morning fog in the valleys and some mist on the balds, so the views weren?t as far-reaching as they could have been, but nice nonetheless.

We camped in a field at the Gap, surrounded by very fresh bear poop. Needless to say, we hung everything. Had a nice meal of some of my dehydrated chili and corn and hit the hay. Another 7 mile or so day. There hadn?t been enough sun and there wasn?t a moon, so while we saw the ?Rock?, we never actually saw it shine.

Woke up early Wednesday morning and got water from the spring just downtrail, picked blueberries uptrail, and made blueberry pancakes in a nice woodland grove. No new poop in our field, and our food was okay, so I guess we didn?t have any nocturnal visitors.

Headed off towards Flower Knob and Flower Gap. Lots of bear poop in the trail, and no wonder. For miles, we hiked through a literal ocean of wild highbush blueberries. I live in blueberry country, and I?ve never seen so many. The berries hung like grape clusters from the bushes. We just grazed as we hiked, scooping off handfuls as we passed the bushes by. I thought we were both going to grow fur and start growling!

Late in the day we met the only person we?d seen, a volunteer trail maintainer for the Pisgah. After some preliminary chitchat about trailwork and hiking, he asked how long we?d been out. We told him we?d been out since Monday, and he said he had some news for us. And that was the first we heard of what had happened. Laura and I then realized that we hadn?t seen any planes for a day and a half, but not knowing if we were in an air corridor, and being where we were, had apparently paid it no mind. And we realized that the world we were coming back into on Thursday was going to be a lot different than the one we had left.

We continued on, and after about 5 miles or so, after rounding Tennent Mountain, camped under a maple in a field at the intersection of the Art Loeb and Graveyard Ridge trails. As we were now out of the Wilderness, we built a nice little fire and had dehydrated spaghetti sauce and noodles Alfredo, with blueberry oatmeal bars for dessert, and discussed the events of the week ? what little we knew of them. The cold front had come through, the air was crisp and dry, and it was a wonderful night for sleeping.

Thursday morning we hiked out ? a steep uphill the first half mile or so - and back to the car. More awesome views on the way out; lunch on a rock outcrop overlooking the valleys and hills.

And so, back to what passes for real life. Called my son, who lives in DC and flies a lot. He?s fine but his fiancee?s favorite professor was on one of the planes. I hope all of you guys made it through this okay.

The North Carolina mountains are really spectacular. I know a lot of you have hiked the area but, for those of you who haven?t, it?s a must. I plan to spend a lot more time in the Smokies in the future, even if it is a 20 hour drive from here. So many more trails to hike down there.

If any of my photos turn out ? the light was never really great ? I?ll see if Phil?ll post ?em on his page.
Current events notwithstanding, it?s good to back on tt.”

“Welcome back, Steiny. I'm going to print your report, it's definitely one to keep for future reference. It must be weird to come back to the world, having missed the news coverage of the events as they occurred.

My husband got a photon micro light II from a friend, and it is so tiny and bright. Would be a good light for your friend Laura to carry as a main light or backup. Lights up ten feet ahead of you, if walking in the dark. Works on two watch batteries.”

“Great Report man. I live about 4 - 5 hours from Shinning Rock but still haven't been there yet. It's a wonder yall didn't see any bears though. Lots of them in that area compaired to your neck of the woods.
Glad yall had a good time and thanks for the report! Hope to see some pictures.”