The quest for October solitude continued last weekend. Christy, Bob, Laura, Myron, Dorcas, and Merle, along with the dogs, Saucony and Izaak, joined me for a trip to the Harper Creek Wilderness Study Area. We were all looking forward to the trip, but would 7 people and 2 dogs really be able to find solitude?
We reached one trailhead, dropped a car, and shuttled down to the starting point. It was late morning, but there weren’t any other cars to be found. We hiked the first easy mile down to the creek, where we encountered our first challenge. We had to negotiate the first of many (Merle, was it 26?) stream crossings. The water was low, which made things easier, but the rocks were still slippery. Most of us made it across, but Laura was our first casualty. She slipped on a wet rock and went for an impromptu swim. After we recovered, we hiked up to an outstanding overlook for lunch. We had an amazing view of South Harper Falls, and Grandfather Mountain in the distance. The view was enhanced by the remaining fall color, although most of the leaves were on the ground.
After lunch, we backtracked a short distance and then worked our way down a steep hill next to the falls. The trail was covered with leaves, making the hiking treacherous. Along the way, we encountered a small group from "carolinahikers.com". One poor fellow had forgotten his boots, and was trying to make it down safely in tennis shoes. Oddly, he was taking the "direct route", avoiding the well-designed switchbacks. They were dayhiking, but they only had one small fanny pack between the three of them. I suppose they were traveling light. We certainly weren’t – Christy and I had enough food for a 3 day trip.
We let the Carolina hikers go ahead, and we didn’t see anybody else for hours. Once we were below the falls, we began a section of nearly continuous creek crossings. It was during this part of the hike that Merle went in. She was doing fine, when she was startled by a water snake. She lost her balance, and had no chance to recover. Meanwhile, Laura was already wet, and chose to walk right through each of the crossings. 2 hikers down, 5 to go.
It was along this stretch that we picked up a straggler. A small puppy appeared behind us, and began to follow. We didn’t know where he came from, but each stream crossing scared him. He had to cross to stay with us, so he learned how to swim. By the end of the day, I was really beginning to admire his determination.
We continued hiking downstream, crossed the creek, and then began hiking upstream along North Harper Creek. The confluence of the streams wasn’t visible, which confused several people in the group. At least 2 people were convinced that we were going back upstream the way we came. Eventually I was able to reassure them that we were following a different stream.
A few crossings later, we lost our first dog. Saucony tried to walk on leaves again (see the Shining Rock trip report for that story) and once again fell in the deepest part of the creek. To add to the entertainment, Bob imitated her by doing the same thing. Luckily for him though, he managed to only get one boot wet.
We then began to hike up through a gorge. We passed a lovely open campsite along the creek. I debated stopping, but I wanted to get a little farther that afternoon. We continued on, passing countless falls, cascades and pools. Finally we reached the last crossing before our intended campsite. We made it across, and immediately saw tents. We hadn’t seen anyone for hours, but it appeared that we would be sharing camp. I was kicking myself for not stopping at the first site. Luckily though, our neighbors were actually camped a couple hundred yards from our destination. We set up in one of my favorite spots, and eventually everyone found a place to put the tents. Our new puppy friend was tired of following us, so he took up with our neighbors. They knew someone that was looking for a puppy, and planned to take him out.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We didn’t have a fire, because of the dry conditions. Christy and I did enjoy an elaborate meal of stir fried steak and vegetables with rice. We enjoyed a pleasant evening, as the sky cleared and the stars came out.
We went to bed early, and were awakened only a couple of times by the dogs barking. That morning though, they got hyper and began to play. Nothing was going to calm them down, so we got up early. Christy and I enjoyed a pancake breakfast before we broke camp. We did, however, discover that a mouse had chewed a hole in our food bag. If a mouse has a choice between cheese and a bagel, which one will he go for? Cheese right? Wrong. This mouse skipped the cheese, but chewed a hole in the bagel we were saving for lunch.
Sunday’s hike began much like Saturday’s. We hiked upstream, crossing the creek frequently. After a mile or so, we climbed steeply, up through another gorge. We stopped for a short break at the top of one waterfall, and continued on to the base of North Harper Falls. We all took some pictures, before climbing again to the top of the falls. From the open rock face, we had a fantastic view of the falls and the valley below. If we had been a week earlier, the fall color would have been spectacular, as well.
From the falls, we hiked out on the North Harper Falls Access Trail. We passed a couple of dayhikers, and eventually reached the forest road. The hike continued though, as we climbed up the Little Lost Cove Cliffs Trail. We reached the old apple orchard, but were disappointed to find all of the apples gone. Last year, we had lucky timing, but this year we were too late.
We climbed on up to the cliffs for a late lunch. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and we had outstanding views of Grandfather Mountain, Lost Cove, Wilson Creek, and Blowing Rock. Off in the distance to the west, we could see smoke. Later, we discovered that the smoke was from the forest fire in Linville Gorge.
We enjoyed a long lunch and a nap in the sun. Eventually we had to drag ourselves away to get ready for work on Monday. We hiked down from the cliffs, and walked a short distance up the road to the car. We ran another shuttle, and soon were on our way home. On the way out though, we had our only wildlife sighting. Christy spotted 4 young raccoons along the side of the road. They were very cute, and one posed for us on the side of a tree. Of course, by the time Christy had retrieved the camera, it had disappeared.
This was another good hike in one of my favorite places. We covered about 6 miles each day, without any real difficulty except some wet boots. We saw only a few groups of hikers, so our quest for solitude was a success. We’re all looking forward to the next trip to Harper Creek.
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