BLOOMERS
Last
weekend Brenda and I headed up to Craggy Gardens to check out the Rhododendron
bloom. I brought Kona along on this
hike, but Boone had to miss it, as he is still recovering from minor
surgery.
I
planned a hike on the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST) from Craggy Gardens Picnic
Area to Balsam Gap (Walker Knob overlook).
That section of trail is about 8 miles.
At Balsam Gap, a spur trail continues along the ridge to Point Misery,
Little Butt, and Big Butt. Little Butt
has a great view, and if we made good time I thought about extending the hike
out to it. That would add another 4-6
miles to the hike (depending on your source of information). The sign at the trailhead says that Little
Butt is 3 miles away, but my guess is that it is closer to 2.
I
actually arrived at Balsam Gap a few minutes before Brenda, who is always
early. I was even earlier because I’d
spontaneously taken a different, faster route that morning. It turns out it is about 10 minutes faster
and 18 miles shorter driving from Charlotte to Balsam Gap through Marion.
I
was shocked at how cold it was at 9:30 that morning. My car said it was 53 degrees, and I believed
it. I was startled when I got out of the
car, and Brenda reacted the same way when she arrived a few minutes later. We left her car there, and she rode with me
over to the picnic area to start our hike.
There
were only a couple of cars in the picnic area’s vast parking lot when we
arrived. The cool temperatures and damp
fog may have had something to do with that.
We hit the trail around 10am, and quickly warmed up on the climb up to
Craggy Gardens.
I
expected the Rhododendron bloom to be near peak, but it was a little
disappointing. At first I thought we
were late, as some of the blooms looked rather wilted. However, there were very few blossoms on the
ground, and many of the plants looked like they hadn’t bloomed at all. It may be one of those years where there is
no true peak bloom. On the upside, maybe
that means that it will last longer than normal.
We
wandered around the gardens for a bit taking photos even though the fog limited
the long-range vistas. As expected, the
gardens were pretty busy with hikers and tourists. However, after we left the gardens, the only
people we saw were at the two Parkway overlooks that the trail passes. We didn’t see any people on the actual trail
all afternoon.
We
followed the MST on a long, wet, rocky contour below Craggy Pinnacle. Our pace was slow along here due to the difficult
footing. Surprisingly, we saw quite a
few Spring Beauties in bloom. Spring
Beauties usually bloom in April, or early May at the higher elevations. It was bizarre seeing them blooming in late
June.
When
we reached the junction with the trail to Douglas Falls we stopped for
lunch. It wasn’t a particularly scenic
lunch spot, but it was quiet and comfortable.
After lunch we continued on the MST up to the Parkway, which we crossed
to reach the Graybeard Mountain Overlook.
In
my opinion, the most scenic stretch of the MST starts here, extending all the
way to the road leading up to Mount Mitchell.
This stretch of trail features several spectacular overlooks, and we
would be taking advantage of a couple of them on our hike. Although the trail stays fairly close to the
Parkway, for most of its length the road is out of sight and hearing
range. However, there are a couple of
exceptions. The stretch from just south
of the Glassmine Falls Overlook to Walker Knob is
very close the road, and actually follows the shoulder for a short
distance. At Balsam Gap, the trail
crosses the Parkway again before climbing up Blackstack
Knob.
We
enjoyed the view of Clingmans Peak, Pinnacle Mountain, Rocky Knobs, Graybeard,
and the Seven Sisters Ridge beyond the Asheville Watershed. Then we left the crowds behind and began a
pleasant climb through grassy forest up Bullhead Mountain. The wooded summit of Bullhead featured a
dense stand of spruce trees, but the best was still to come. We descended into the gap between Bullhead
and Locust Knob, where we found small meadows ringed by blooming Catawba
Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel, and Flame Azalea. The blooms here were actually more impressive
than at Craggy Gardens. Views stretched
off to the north, to Big Butt, Little Butt, Point Misery, and the Big Ivy
area. We even stumbled upon some Purple
Fringed Orchid, which I’d never seen before.
A
bit farther on we scrambled up onto a boulder that offered a 360 degree
view. We took a break there, before
continuing on through more colorful meadows on Locust Knob. We then arrived at the best viewpoint of the
day – a cliff overlooking the Asheville Watershed. Burnette Reservoir
was far below, and the peaks of Seven Sisters Ridge towered beyond. Luckily, the fog had cleared, revealing
partly cloudy skies that allowed us to enjoy the long range vistas.
We
continued across Locust Knob, which featured more views from open meadows
dominated by blueberry bushes.
Eventually we descended from Locust Knob, leaving the best of the
scenery behind. A stretch along the
Parkway followed, before we arrived at the Glassmine
Falls overlook. The overlook provides a
distant view of a high, narrow waterfall.
This sign here states that the waterfall is over 800’ high, which is
apparently based on the fact that the creek drops about that far before joining
another stream down in the valley. The
actual waterfall is perhaps 200’ high, and it is on a small stream that
frequently dries up in the summer. It
looked pretty impressive today though, thanks to the recent wet weather.
From
there we climbed to a second overlook.
Some rolling terrain followed, before one more climb up Walker Knob. The grade and the suddenly warm afternoon had
us both sweating. Walker Knob has no
views, but it’s lovely just the same. It
features another beautiful high-elevation forest, with thick grasses and ferns
in the understory. A final descent
brought us to Balsam Gap, and Brenda’s waiting car. It was already 5:30, as the rocky, wet trail
and spectacular scenery slowed our pace.
Given the late hour, extending the hike out to Little Butt was out of
the question. That was ok though, as the
hike had offered more than enough challenge and beauty for one day.
On
the way back to Craggy Gardens we stopped at two locations to look for old
trails shown on my ancient topo map. The first is shown on the west side of Walker
Knob, heading down from the Parkway into Big Ivy. The second descends the ridge from Locust
Knob, also heading west down into Big Ivy.
Unfortunately we didn’t see any sign of either trail. In all likelihood, those trails have been
reclaimed by nature. However, it’s
possible that there could be faint routes remaining that we didn’t see. Maybe I’ll try looking for those trails from
the lower end one day.
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