TOP OF THE WORLD
Recently
I returned to the Black Mountain Crest for the first time in 10 years. Brenda joined me for an ambitious dayhike
combining the Woody Ridge Trail, Black Mountain Crest Trail, and Colbert Ridge
Trail. The route would require climbing
nearly 4,000’ over about 9-10 miles.
Woody Ridge is probably the steepest trail in NC, climbing over 3,000’
in just 2.2 miles. If that wasn’t enough
challenge, my recollection was that the trails we’d be following were little
better than bushwhacking. We were both
fully expecting the hike to take all day.
I
met Brenda at the Colbert Ridge Trailhead at 9am. We were getting ready to shuttle over to the
starting point at the Woody Ridge Trailhead when a car pulled in. The guy was lost. He was looking for the starting point of the
Buncombe Horse Trail. I pulled out my
map, showed him our current location, and the location of the trail he was
looking for. He thanked me, jumped back
in his car, and promptly headed down the road in the wrong direction. We figured he would be back quickly, since
the road ends at highway 80 in about a ¼ mile, but we never saw him again. I wonder if he ever found his trail?
I
drove us over to the Woody Ridge Trailhead.
I’ve seen a lot of weird things at this trailhead over the years. Many years ago, there was a truck parked
there that looked like a mobile meth lab.
For a while, there parking area was posted with no parking signs for no apparent reason.
On my most recent visit (10 years earlier) there were a couple of hippy
girls there, apparently starting up some sort of commune. Apparently the commune turned into http://mountaingardensherbs.com/. When we reached the trailhead, we found
several houses and other buildings, along with a handful of cars. Several of the cars were leaving as we were
arriving – I’m guessing it was a large group running a shuttle of their
own. Another car dropped off a woman
that was apparently a trail runner. She
headed up the Woody Ridge Trail ahead of us.
Walking the Woody Ridge Trail is an achievement – I can’t imagine
running it.
We
started up the trail, an old logging road, at 9:30. The trail passes through a maze of logging
roads, but it has recently been blazed.
I was thrilled to see it. In
fact, all of these trails are now being maintained by http://nchighpeaks.org/. This group is doing a great job! Without their efforts, we never would have
finished our hike before dark.
The
first part of the hike isn’t very exciting, but we did pass a lot of
wildflowers and some interesting rock outcrops.
At one is a muddy spring – the last water source on this trail. Early on, the wildflowers consisted of dwarf
iris, large flowered trillium, and a single jill in
the pulpit (the female version of jack in the pulpit). We also passed an old road heading down into
the next valley to the north. I suspect
that road leads to Roaring Spout Falls, which is located on private property.
The
trail was exceptionally steep beyond the spring. There are only a few switchbacks on the
entire ascent – for the most part the trail runs straight up the ridge. The climb was slow, but there were hundreds
of painted trillium to entertain us during our frequent breaks. Later the painted trillium gave way to wakerobin trillium, which dominated the highest elevations.
I
had hoped to reach the meadows on the Black Mountain Crest below Horse Rock in
time for lunch. However, it was 12:30
when we reached the first of two rocky overlooks near the top of Woody
Ridge. The view from here would be the
highlight of a normal hike. Although
there was better scenery ahead, it was a compelling place for a break. From there, a short climb led to the second
viewpoint, which is even better. It
encompasses a 180 degree arc of mountain scenery including Roan Mountain,
Grandfather Mountain, and Hawksbill and Table Rock in Linville Gorge.
From
there, we continued up the ridge, passing under the second of three impressive
cliffs on this hike. From there, one
final climb brought us to Horse Rock Meadows.
The grassy meadows between Horse Rock and Gibbs Mountain must be one of
the most idyllic spots on Earth. It
reminds me of the Roan Highlands, but without the crowds.
We
were running low on water. Going into
the hike, I knew we would need an incredible amount of water, particularly
since I brought both dogs. Carrying a
couple of gallons up Woody Ridge wasn’t appealing, so I brought my filter
instead. Brenda took a break in the
meadow while I followed the crest north towards Celo
Knob. This stretch of trail is
fantastic, as the view opens up as you contour around below the summit of Celo. In fact, I
think the view from the meadow directly below Celo is
the best in NC. From there, I continued
down the trail (now an old road) to a spring at about 5,900’. The spring isn’t much, just a trickle really,
but it worked. I filled up my water bag
and climbed back up to the meadow to filter it.
On
the way I saw a trail runner heading down towards Bowlens
Creek. I’m not sure where he came from,
but Brenda didn’t see him on the crest, so I’m guessing he came up Woody
Ridge. He was the only other person I
saw all day.
Getting
water took longer than I expected. Once
I was finished filtering I hurried to catch up with Brenda. It was a bit of shame hiking so fast through
such great scenery, and there were a couple of spots where I couldn’t resist
stopping to take photos. I eventually
caught up with Brenda, as she had stopped to wait a bit north of Gibbs
Mountain. In fact, she had just started
back to check on me.
From
there, we continued following the crest across rock outcrops and through
rhododendron thickets. We passed across
the top of a couple of sheer cliffs before beginning a descent into a minor
gap. We hiked below a towering cliff,
before regaining the crest in deep forest.
From there, we began the climb up Winterstar
Mountain. My recollection was that this
was the toughest part of the trail, featuring a scramble up a cliff that is a
bit treacherous. It turns out that the
trail has been rerouted, and the new route is a huge improvement. The climb is fairly easy now, and I was
startled when we reached the campsite on the summit. We took in the view to the northwest from Winterstar before beginning the descent to Deep Gap.
THE COLBERT REPORT
We
passed a couple of nice views from small grassy meadows before reaching the
gap. Deep Gap is a popular camping area,
but we didn’t hang around. Instead, we
continued down the Colbert Ridge Trail.
This stretch of trail used to be littered with huge fallen trees, but
the NC High Peaks Trail Association has done a great job clearing it! We passed a tiny spring but continued on to a
better water source a ½ mile farther down.
We filtered again there, for the final 3 miles of hiking.
The
Colbert Ridge Trail provided a fairly easy descent, as it is far less steep
than Woody Ridge. The trilliums were
impressive along here, and we even stumbled upon a nice patch of pink ladyslippers near the end of the hike. We were treated to one final view, too, from
a rock outcrop about 2/3 of the way down.
At
one point Brenda checked her GPS for our elevation, to see how much farther we
had to go. She reported that we were at
3,215’, and then said, “that means we’re closer to
3,100’ than 3,300’!
Hmmm.
https://vine.co/v/OBWBJBuOK1z
To
be fair, we were both really tired!
We
returned to the car at 7:45, over 10 hours after we started. It was a great hike, and one that I’m eager
to repeat. Now that the trails are in
better condition, I want to go spend 2 or 3 days up there backpacking. Hopefully it won’t take me 10 more years to
return!
Here
is Brenda’s GPS map of our route: http://brendajwiley.com/gps/black_mtn_crest.html
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