Backpacking North Carolina: The Definitive Guide to 43 Can't-Miss Trips from Mountains to Sea

By Joe Miller

Joe Miller brings us the first-ever stand-alone guidebook to backpacking in North Carolina, a state long known as a terrific backpacking destination. Covering 43 of the best trips the state has to offer, Backpacking North Carolina provides all the information necessary for beginning and experienced backpackers alike to enjoy hiking destinations from the mountains to the coast. Each trip description offers key maps and navigation information, including water sources and camping spots, as well as trip highlights and special considerations. Miller offers tips for enriching the experience, such as filling dark nights with stargazing and other activities, and gives advice for backpacking with children. Offering his expertise in a way that emphasizes the accessibility of backpacking, Miller encourages a wide range of nature lovers to give it a try, perhaps for the first time. Several "best-of" lists are included, featuring trips with exceptional nature study opportunities, water recreation, and easy excursions for beginners. Backpacking North Carolina takes the reader deep into a state full of natural wonder and adventure.

Backpacking North Carolina has all the essentials for planning your trip, whether a quick weekend getaway or a longer adventure:

Trips for beginner and expert backpackers alike
Helpful essays to introduce each trail and its features
Gear and safety advice for year-round backpacking
Major points of interest highlighted on each trip
Family-friendly trails and easy bailouts for when hiking with children
Detailed trail maps and directions to trailheads
Elevation profiles for each hike
Estimated hike times and level of difficulty
Camping permit requirements
GPS coordinates for water sources and good camping spots
Bullet lists of best trips for fishing, bird watching, waterfalls, and more

Southern Gateways Guide is a registered trademark of the University of North Carolina Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Release date: Mar 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9780807877944

Joe Miller

Joe Miller is an outdoors and fitness writer based in Cary, N.C. He produces the outdoor recreation blog http://www.getgoingnc.com/ and is author of 100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina.

Book preview

Backpacking North Carolina

Backpacking North Carolina

The Definitive Guide to 43 Can’t-Miss Trips from Mountains to Sea

Joe Miller

The University of North Carolina Press

Chapel Hill

A SOUTHERN GATEWAYS GUIDE

© 2011 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved

Set in Arnhem and Gotham Manufactured in the United States of America.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the

Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are by the author.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miller, Joe.

Backpacking North Carolina : the definitive guide to

43 can’t-miss trips from mountains to sea / by Joe Miller.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8078-3455-8 (cloth: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8078-7183-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Backpacking—North Carolina—Guidebooks. 2. Hiking—

North Carolina—Guidebooks. 3. North Carolina—Guidebooks.

i. Title.

GV199.42.N66M54 2011

796.5109756—dc22

2010032660

cloth 15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1

paper 15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Marcy Smith, who encourages

me to do whatever crazy thing comes to mind.

Like writing a book about backpacking.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi

INTRODUCTION 1

Backpacking Then and Now 3

Backpacking in North Carolina 4

Weather 6

Hunting 7

Trip Planning 7

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK 11

BACKPACK CHECKLIST 17

BEST TRIPS BY CATEGORY 19

RESOURCES 29

LOCATOR MAP 31

The Trips

Blue Ridge Escarpment/North

BLACK MOUNTAINS 37

1 Black Mountains: Mount Mitchell/Colbert Ridge Approach 38

2 Black Mountains: Mount Mitchell Trail 42

3 Black Mountains: Woody Ridge/Crest Trail 46

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN 50

4 Grandfather Mountain: Profile Trail (west approach) 51

5 Grandfather Mountain: Daniel Boone Scout Trail (east approach) 54

LINVILLE GORGE 58

6 Linville Gorge 59

7 Linville Gorge: East Rim 63

WILSON CREEK 66

8 Wilson Creek: Hunt Fish Falls Loop 67

9 Wilson Creek: Harper Creek/North Harper Creek Loop 71

10 Wilson Creek: Schoolhouse Ridge Loop 74

OTHER TRIPS IN THE VICINITY

11 Doughton Park: Basin Cove Loop 78

12 Stone Mountain State Park 83

13 Montreat: Graybeard Mountain 87

Blue Ridge Escarpment/South

SHINING ROCK WILDERNESS 95

14 Shining Rock: Sam Knob Loop 96

15 Shining Rock: Ivestor Gap 100

16 Shining Rock: Daniel Boone Loop 104

Great Smoky Mountains

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK (SMOKIES) 109

17 Smokies: Mount Sterling 109

18 Smokies: Cataloochee Valley 113

19 Smokies: Clingman’s Dome Approach 118

20 Smokies: Deep Creek Loop 122

21 Smokies: Shuckstack/Lost Cove/Lakeshore (short loop) 127

22 Smokies: Shuckstack/AT/Eagle Creek/Lakeshore (long loop) 127

Appalachian Trail

APPALACHIAN TRAIL (AT) 133

23 AT: Carvers Gap to us 19e 133

24 AT: Max Patch (short trip) 137

25 AT: Max Patch to Hot Springs 142

26 AT: Hot Springs to Rich Mountain Loop 146

27 AT: Standing Indian Loop 150

Southern Mountains

28 Panthertown Valley 157

FIRES CREEK 161

29 Fires Creek: Rim Trail 162

30 Fires Creek: East Rim 166

31 Fires Creek: West Rim 170

Joyce Kilmer–Slickrock Wilderness

JOYCE KILMER–SLICKROCK WILDERNESS 177

32 Joyce Kilmer–Slickrock Wilderness: Naked Ground Loop 177

33 Joyce Kilmer–Slickrock Wilderness: Slickrock Creek Loop 181

Piedmont

34 South Mountains State Park 189

35 Uwharrie National Forest: Birkhead Wilderness 193

36 Uwharrie National Forest: Uwharrie Recreation Trail 196

37 Umstead State Park 200

38 Falls Lake: Mountains-to-Sea Trail 204

39 Eno River State Park: Mountains-to-Sea Trail 210

40 Raven Rock State Park 214

41 Crowders Mountain State Park 218

Coast

42 Croatan National Forest: Neusiok Trail 225

43 Hammocks Beach State Park: Bear Island 229

INDEX 233

Acknowledgments

This guide comes about thanks to the legions of helpful folks who know far more about backpacking and the state’s trails than I. Among them are Chris David, who had no qualms about sharing his favorite trips; Cindy Wooten with Cypress Group of the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club; David Cook, North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation; Chris Plummer with the Sierra Club’s North Carolina Chapter/Capitol Group; the folks at Linvillegorge.net; backcountry guide extraordinaire Burt Kornegay with Slickrock Expeditions; Kate Dixon, Jeff Brewer, Chris Underhill, and Arthur Kelley with the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea-Trail; Alan Nechemias, who managed to pick the coldest weather to go on scouting trips with me; the News & Observer, which offered to let me leave its employ, thereby giving me the time to finish this guide; Bill Graves, my scuba diving instructor (see Introduction); John R. Ray, lead author of the Chunky Gal Trail and Fires Creek Rim Trail guide, who offered suggestions for covering the Fires Creek area; the various coffee shops statewide that repeatedly revived me after bouts of camp coffee; and Mark Simpson-Vos, my editor at UNC Press, and Stephanie Wenzel, copyeditor. The only person who can truly appreciate the value of stellar editors is the writer who is constantly being saved by their keen eyes and thoughtful questions.

Backpacking North Carolina

Introduction

The best advice I ever got about backpacking came from my scuba diving instructor. It was the first day of class, and he was going over the basic requirements—about the swim test, about being able to hoist and carry the air tanks and other equipment, and about being able to swap out tanks underwater. Sensing we were becoming overwhelmed by the physical demands of diving, he stopped and smiled.

Folks, he told us, I am the laziest man alive, and I assure you that if I can do this, you will have absolutely no problem.

That’s my philosophy toward backpacking and the philosophy that drives this guide.

Forget what you may have heard about backpacking, about carrying 40 pounds on your back for 20 miles a day, about developing blisters on top of blisters, about getting caught in a downpour and staying wet for days on end, and about bad camp coffee first thing in the morning. Backpacking isn’t about enduring, it’s about enjoying. It’s about getting away from the masses to enjoy nature untrammeled. It’s about enjoying a brilliant night sky nearly devoid of light pollution. It’s about stopping and hearing only those sounds generated by nature. It’s about experiencing the land as it was before our development-minded forefathers arrived. It’s about escape, not exile.

More often than not, this can be accomplished without being your own beast of burden. The trips in this book are about packing in the least distance possible for the optimum backcountry exposure. Indulge me in a brief story.

One of the first backpack trips I took in North Carolina, back in the mid-1990s, was to the Shining Rock Wilderness. It was an ambitious trip: We left Raleigh after work on a Friday and arrived at the trailhead at 10:30 p.m. in a cold drizzle. Despite a planning meeting, we’d woefully miscalculated how long it would take to reach camp at Deep Gap, which was nearly 4 miles and 1,700 vertical feet up. Rather than pitching our tents around midnight as envisioned, we pulled in after 2:00 a.m. The next day was a 6-mile hike across the Shining Rock Ledge, whose rocky spine created some touch-and-go moments with a 40-pound pack (it was late November, so winter weight rules—and gear requirements—applied). The hike out on Sunday was a 9-mile slog down an old roadbed. Incredible scenery, I thought as I drifted off to sleep on the ride home, but man am I beat. There must be a better way to do Shining Rock.

A couple years later, I discovered there was: Hike in 4 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway on the near-flat Ivestor Gap Trail, establish base camp at Shining Rock Gap, and explore more than 30 miles of trail from there with a day pack, a 5-pound load at most. No breaking down and setting up camp anew every day, no searching for a new tree every night to hang your food from, no crossing your fingers and hoping the campsite you covet that evening isn’t taken. Best of all, minus that 40 pounds, you can cover twice as much territory. With a full pack, I feel good covering 2 miles in an hour; with a day pack, I can cover 4. Experiencing as much of nature as possible should be your goal when backpacking, not falling into an exhausted sleep on the drive home—especially if you’re driving.

So why not just take a day hike, the uninitiated may ask?

I make my case in a nutshell in the last trip in this book, no. 43, Hammocks Beach State Park: Bear Island. Since I know how annoying it is to thumb to another page, I’ll summarize. You backpack so you can wake up and listen to nature do a more graceful job of coming to life than you do. You backpack so you can have a breakfast free of distraction, without the paper telling you of the latest calamity, without morning DJs blathering on about last night’s reality TV show, and without being asked a thousand questions by the kids before you’ve had your first sip of coffee. You backpack so you can explore places deep in the wild that you can’t reach on a day hike. You backpack so you can have a lunch of cheese, hard salami, and gorp heavy on the M&Ms and know that it’s the perfect meal, not a guilty indulgence. You backpack so you can stop at midday and take a nap in a sunny clearing. You backpack so you can take time preparing and eating a meal that may be the best thing you remember eating in your entire life. You backpack so you can lose yourself in a night sky not backlit by human habitation.

You backpack so you can clear your mind, so you can think, so you can simply be and not have to worry about being something in addition to yourself.

Even if you just backpack in a mile, it can make a huge difference. Take the East Rim trip at Linville Gorge (no. 7). Hiking up the backside of Shortoff Mountain, you can’t escape the lights of the Morganton/Hickory/Lenoir triangle below. But round the bend a little over a mile in and you’re suddenly atop one of the wildest, steepest gorges west of the Rockies. You’re instantly transported.

This book aims to get you to these embarkation points as quickly as possible so you can, when possible, get the pack off your back, set up base camp, and explore. It is, I believe, an approach that even my lazy scuba diving instructor could embrace.

BACKPACKING THEN AND NOW

Backpacking gained popularity in the United States during the back-to-nature movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A sudden realization that our environment was in peril caused the public to react. One response was a demand for government action: The Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970, followed shortly by enactment of clean air standards, the Federal Pesticide Control Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Ocean Dumping Act, and the ban on DDT. Another reaction was direct citizen involvement. Earth Day, launched on April 22, 1970, became an immediate success with an estimated 20 million Americans participating.

As part of this push to reconnect with the planet, we began expressing a desire to get out and commune with nature, as we referred to it in the day. And what a compelling desire it was, considering the backpacking equipment available: canvas tents that leaked if you looked at them the wrong way, bulky and balky cookstoves, mess kits made of tin, packs that could break the back of a pack animal, and the de rigueur outdoors wear of the day, jeans and cotton T-shirts. Backpacking was fun in the 1970s—if it didn’t kill you. And if it didn’t kill you, you eventually got older and concluded that backpacking was for the young and durable.

If you were part of that boom and that’s how you remember backpacking, you probably haven’t given much thought to getting back into it. I’m not going to get into a full-blown discussion of gear—there are plenty of books (The Backpacker’s Field Manual, by Rick Curtis [Three Rivers Press]) and websites (www.backpacker.com/gear/)—that do so in detail. Just allow me a quick observation: If we still backpacked today like we did in the 1970s, someone else would have had to write this book. I don’t like being wet. I don’t like being cold. And I really don’t like being looked upon with pity by a pack mule.

Today’s gear is lighter, dries quickly, and is designed to make you forget about the potentially uncomfortable aspects of backcountry travel. That tin mess kit has been replaced by one made of titanium, at a fraction of the weight. Canvas tents have given way to ones made of ripstop nylon that repel water, dry in five minutes, and retain heat in the winter (through thick-wall construction) or vent it in summer (via lots of mesh surface area). No self-respecting backpacker would be caught dead (actually, they might) wearing jeans. Today, only quick-drying, water-repelling, sweat-wicking materials touch our skin.

And today’s cookstove has an ignito lighter (no more impotent wet matches), burns fuel from a canister (no fuel spills and minimal fumes), and can have your morning coffee ready in 3 minutes. Oh, and about that coffee: Camp coffee has kept pace with America’s increasingly sophisticated taste for caffeine. You can now get a gizmo that makes camp stove espresso.

Backpacking, in short, is no longer a sufferfest. Remember spending a sleepless, rainy night in a canvas tent, fearing the surface tension keeping you dry would break and open the floodgates? Today, the sound of rain on your nylon tent, with you snuggled into your down bag atop your plush, self-inflating air mattress, is a guarantee of a good night’s sleep.

I’ll offer one last gear mention, at the risk of committing blasphemy in the eyes of the devout. Because cooking could be such a hassle back in the early days, we were often content to toss down a handful of gorp and some jerky and call it a meal. Today, you can buy freeze-dried meals that actually resemble what they claim to be: chicken teriyaki, beef stew, chicken breasts with mashed potatoes, pasta primavera—just about anything you’d cook at home. Heat some water, pour it in the self-cooking pouch, wait 8 minutes, and you’ve got dinner. And the resealable pouch makes for a handy trash container.

BACKPACKING IN NORTH CAROLINA

Like the idea of winter camping in a spruce/fir forest? Maybe you’re into escaping all signs of civilization. Do you like unobscured panoramic views? Or perhaps as a city dweller it’s vital that you have an emergency back-country escape within an hour’s drive. And maybe you haven’t thought of this, but wouldn’t it be swell to have an entire island to yourself? You can do all of that in North Carolina (in order: Black Mountains, trips 1–3; Joyce Kilmer–Slickrock Wilderness, trips 32–33; Shining Rock Wilderness, trips 14–16; Raven Rock State Park, trip 40; Bear Island, trip 43.)

You’d be hard-pressed to find a place more geographically diverse than North Carolina, a state that begins at the Atlantic Ocean and runs to Clingman’s Dome, at 6,643 feet the third-highest point east of South Dakota’s Black Hills, ceding the no. 1 and 2 spots to fellow Tar Heel peaks Mount Mitchell (6,684 feet) and Mount Craig (6,647 feet).

Let’s start with those higher elevations. Above 5,000 feet you’ll find remnants of spruce/fir forests that arrived with the last ice age 13,000 years ago and departed from lower elevations with its retreat 10,000 years ago. These relic forests—and seven trips in this guide pass through them—are less Southern Appalachia and more southern Canada. Hiking down the very same mountain topped by a spruce/fir forest, you may pass through a dozen or more ecozones. Grandfather Mountain, for instance, has 16 distinct natural communities. You’ll find areas with a subtropical feel (the Joyce Kilmer–Slickrock Wilderness). You’ll find mountaintop balds that afford rare—for the East—panoramic views (the Appalachian Trail) as well as passages through canyons 2,000 feet deep (Linville Gorge).

At the Blue Ridge Escarpment, the mountains give way to the Piedmont. North Carolina’s Piedmont is just that, a gentle slope leading from the base of mountains to a region of flat land, according to the Oxford College Dictionary. The mountains don’t give up without a fight. Heading east, you’ll find disjunct mountain ranges as old as the Appalachians but notably smaller: the South Mountains topping out at 3,000 feet (trip 34), Kings Mountains at 1,700 feet (trip 41), and the Uwharrie Mountains (trips 35–36) around 900 feet. This decline continues through the mid-Piedmont with elevations under 700 feet (Eno River State Park, trip 39) and to Umstead State Park, where the highest spots aren’t much more than 400 feet. We say farewell to the Piedmont at Raven Rock State Park, where it’s namesake bluff rises 150 feet above the Cape Fear River, which then meanders east into the coastal plain.

With this drop in elevation as the Piedmont rolls east, nature’s allure becomes more subtle. Steep mountains are replaced by gently rolling hills, high-country creeks frothing with whitewater become meandering waterways in less of a hurry, and those northern spruce/fir forests are now maturing oak/hickory forests.

Perhaps the most unique trips in this book are at the coast. Here