BIGGUNS
Recently
I joined my hiking buddy Bob S. for an off-trail adventure in search of some of
the largest trees in the southeast.
Groves of old-growth forest in places like the Smokies
and Joyce Kilmer are justifiably famous.
What is less known is that there are some impressive trees in the Mackey
Mountain and Curtis Creek areas of the Pisgah National Forest. In fact, that area was part of the Nation’s
first National Forest. That probably has
a lot to do with why those trees are still standing today.
For
years I’d heard rumors of old-growth forest around Mackey Mountain and Curtis
Creek. I’d even seen some of it, on
hikes along Hickory Branch east of the Curtis Creek Campground. A couple of years ago though, Bob read a
report describing multiple groves of old-growth Tuliptrees
on the west side of Curtis Creek, along the drainages on the east side of
Laurel Knob and Snooks Nose Ridge. Unfortunately, the only trail in that area
follows the crest of the ridge, high above those hidden groves. Finding them would require some serious
bushwhacking.
It’s
a big area, too, and I hesitated to just start thrashing around along random
drainages. A few weeks ago, Bob
contacted someone at ENTS (Eastern Native Tree Society) who had explored the
area. He was nice enough to provide us
with fairly detailed directions to several of the groves.
Bob
and I met in Charlotte on Sunday morning and drove up to Marion, NC and on to
Curtis Creek. I like this area, because
it’s a bit closer to home than most and easy to get to from I-40. It also tends to be rather quiet. There were some folks camped along Curtis
Creek Road, both above and below the official campground. One thing I noticed is that the primitive
sites along the road downstream from the campground now have a fee. The ones adjacent to the creek are $10, while
those on the opposite side of the road are $5.
For now, the sites upstream from the campground are free, though that
could change at any time.
We
drove about a mile past the campground and parked at the remains of an old
campsite that is now littered with deadfall.
This spot was just beyond a bridge over Curtis Creek. From there we headed downstream, follow a
faint path along the bank of Curtis Creek.
This wasn’t much of a trail, but it was by far the easiest walking of
the day.
After
a few minutes we began angling uphill away from the main stream. Before long we began approaching a modest,
unnamed tributary. This tributary starts
on Laurel Knob and drops steeply all the way to Curtis Creek. This stream was the route that we hoped would
lead us to a grove of old growth forest.
Early
on we passed the remains of a settlement.
There wasn’t much left there except the base of a chimney. Beyond that point the miniature gorge we were
following narrowed dramatically. Before
long, the north side of the valley was an imposing wall of massive boulders and
overhanging cliffs. The other side
wasn’t much better, as it was covered in tangles of Rhododendron. Our only other option was to walk up the
creek. This stream was larger than I
expected based on the topo map, but it was more or
less passable. The walking was slow and
tedious though. Rhododendron tangles and
fallen trees slowed our pace to a crawl.
Meanwhile, a profusion of Stinging Nettle tormented us. It turns out that we were wading through more
than just Stinging Nettle though. There
was Poison Ivy there too, though I didn’t become aware of that until a couple
of days later.
The
thing about this type of hiking is that you really have to be in the mood for
it. There are times when getting
bruised, battered, and bloody on a sunny afternoon just isn’t that appealing. A few days before our hike I’d been in the mood for this type of an
adventure. Unfortunately, by
Sunday morning I really wasn’t. I was
starting to feel discouraged and was wondering if this could possibly be worth
it when we reached the base of the waterfall.
The
directions we had received had mentioned the waterfall, but I hadn’t been
expecting much. The usual sources (Kevin
Adams, Waterfall Rich) don’t mention any waterfalls in this drainage, and it’s
just a minor, unnamed tributary. Still,
there was a lot more water flowing through there than I’d expected, and the
falls are fairly significant. The creek
drops over 100’ in a series of slides and steep cascades. It’s not a terribly photogenic waterfall
(particularly on a sunny day), but it certainly added a lot to our hike. Anytime I stumble upon an undocumented
waterfall I’m inclined to declare victory.
Bob
suggested we call it Stinging Nettle Falls, in honor of the profusion of that
lovely plant there. The only problem
with that is that it overlooks all of the poison ivy that was mixed in with it. Maybe we should go with Itch and Burn Falls?
We
took a break there and made some hopeless attempts at photography. Later, on our way back, conditions had
improved and those results were a little better. First though, we still had our big trees to
find. Our source had told us that the
first of several groves was upstream from the falls. Encouraged, we pressed on, eagerly
anticipating what was ahead.
Unfortunately
this was the hardest part of the hike, as we had to climb a steep bank near the
falls. This was arduous and a little
treacherous, but we managed to slowly work our way above the top of the
falls. We also passed some nice
wildflowers along here, including some Fire Pink and a few other varieties I
couldn’t identify. The one thing we
didn’t see was blooming shrubs. I’d
anticipated Mountain Laurel, Rhododendron, or Azaleas in bloom, but apparently
we were a bit early.
Not
far above the brink of the falls we reached our first large Tuliptree. It was impressive, and we paused there for a
quick lunch. Bob was too excited to eat,
so while I relaxed he hiked farther up the slope in search of more. He returned a bit later with reports of more
large trees higher up on the ridge. We
resumed the hike, but continued upstream, sidehilling
high above the creek. This led us to
more impressive trees. In fact, the farther
we went, the bigger the trees seemed to get.
Several were quite remarkable, and we spent the next couple of hours
wandering from one to the next and taking photos.
The
only drawback to this grove is that it is on a surprisingly steep slope. In fact, it was rather astonishing that trees
could grow that large in those conditions.
The secret there is deep, rich soil, which is apparently adequate to
support them.
That
grove eventually petered out. We reached
a minor tributary joining the main drainage on the right. This finally enabled me to pinpoint exactly
where we were on the map. That was
rather discouraging. We’d spent several
hours hiking up the drainage, but had only covered perhaps a mile. Originally I’d flirted with the idea of
climbing through the entire drainage and then picking up the Snooks Nose Ridge Trail, which would return us to the
Curtis Creek Campground. However, we
were probably only 1/3 of the way up the drainage, and it was already early
afternoon. There was no telling how much
longer that hike would take. Our source
had mentioned additional old growth – and more waterfalls – farther
upstream. Those will have to wait for
another day though.
We
returned by more or less the same route.
I wasn’t looking forward to the long bushwhack back, but at least going
back down was a little easier. We
returned to the car around 4pm and headed out.
Back at the highway we made the obligatory stop at Dairy Queen, which
was more than justified after a hot day of off-trail hiking. I even bought Boone a cup of vanilla ice
cream, which he enjoyed thoroughly.
I
ended up enjoying our hike, despite its challenges. I’m sure we’ll return, as there are
apparently several other groves of old growth forest in the area. Next time, we may hike the Snooks Nose Ridge Trail to Laurel Knob, and then work our
way down to the upper drainages. That
may not be any easier, but hopefully it will get us to other groves of
old-growth forest. Oh, and I think I’ll
save future explorations of that area for winter, when the vegetation is less
traumatic.
Back to North Carolina's Black Mountains
Back to North Carolina
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!