FINALLY HENSON
My
wife went to Myrtle Beach last weekend to run a half-marathon. That left me free. I headed up to Boone on Saturday for the ASU
football game. The tailgating there was
excellent (featuring a surprise guest appearance by Allen from “The Hangover”),
but the game was less than stellar. That
evening I left town in search of campsite on one of the busiest weekends of the
year. I headed towards Linville Gorge,
hopeful that I could find a site along the Kistler
Highway. Before leaving I checked my
email and found a message from Brenda.
She was off work on Sunday and was interested in hiking. I suggested that we meet at the Linville
Falls Visitor Center on Sunday morning.
I wasn’t sure what we would do, but figured we’d have a lot of options
nearby.
The
biggest problem I had finding a campsite was simply getting down Kistler. That road
is in terrible shape – I can’t remember the last time I saw it like that. Luckily I was in Christy’s Honda
Element. The Honda doesn’t have 4wd, but
at least it has higher clearance than my Corolla! Luckily I found an empty site a couple of
miles down the road, well before Wiseman’s View. I sent up camp quickly and went to bed, tired
from a long day. Fortunately the dogs
were pretty cooperative, aside from barking every time a car passed by.
I
made coffee and an egg sandwich the next morning before breaking camp. I drove over to Linville Falls and somehow
managed to arrive right on time. Brenda
was there waiting for me. I’d spent some
time that evening kicking around some ideas for our hike. This was only Brenda’s second visit to
Linville Gorge, and she was open to pretty much anything. Since Kistler was
in terrible shape, I suggested something in the northeastern part of the
gorge. I knew there were a lot of
options there, and I thought that area might be good for fall color.
We
ended up driving over to the Brushy Ridge Trailhead in Gingercake
Acres. The trailhead is on Mountain Park
Circle, but I hadn’t been there in about 15 years. Somehow I still found my way there without a
guidebook. There was one car when we
arrived, which meant that we took up most of the rest of the available parking
with our two vehicles.
We
started our hike with an easy stroll down the Brushy Ridge Trail. We found the intersection with Red Trail a
bit after I began wondering if we’d missed it.
Red was pretty easy to follow, aside from a few fallen trees. We took the short side trip up to Huckleberry
Point for our first views of the day.
Huckleberry is well named, and the blueberry bushes on the cliff top
were a brilliant red. There was more
fall color surrounding us, though it was definitely past peak at that
elevation.
We
returned to Red and descended to a junction with a mystery trail. Later we discovered that this trail (an old
road) is a nice shortcut back to the trailhead.
First though, we continued down Red to a rock hop crossing of Henson
Creek. We followed Red for a few more
minutes, roughly downstream along Henson.
Then we reached a junction, and a decision. Continue ahead to Big Hole Point and other
viewpoints, or descend Henson Creek to the river?
My
original plan had been to hit some of the overlooks, but the pull of Henson was
irresistible. Henson has been on my to-do
list for years. Aside from visiting the
lower end of it once (by way of Babel Tower and Westface),
it had eluded me. Brenda was up for it,
so we headed that way.
Initially
the hiking was easy. Of course that
didn’t last long. We eventually
descended to a campsite at the base of a cliff.
We met a climber named Phil there.
He was with a couple of friends on an extended trip focusing on
establishing new routes on Westface and the
surrounding cliffs. We spent a few
minutes talking with him before resuming our hike. He ended up being the only person we saw all
day – a sunny, warm Sunday at the peak of fall color.
A
few minutes later we reached the first waterfall. I was pleasantly surprised – I’d heard that
there were waterfalls along Henson Creek, but I figured they were probably just
big cascades. Not so – the first
waterfall is the real deal. It’s a
two-tiered, nearly vertical drop of perhaps 40’. The upper portion was in directly sunlight,
ruining any hope of a decent photo. The
lower portion was nicely shaded though.
I took some photos of it before we moved downstream. A second waterfall is only a short distance
below. This one is fairly small, but it
features a vertical pouroff. The light was good here, too, and there was
even some fall color to add to the photos.
Descending
the canyon from that point was rather challenging. There was a vertical wall on the left side
most of the way down, which confined us to the creek bed or the jungle on the
opposite side. Although the weather had
been dry recently, the rocks were still very slick (particularly the ones
coated in green slime). Our progress was
slow, partially because we had a tough time getting the dogs down some ledges
and around various obstacles. This was
particularly challenging with Boone, since he is 80+ pounds. Kona is less than half his size, but she was
still difficult to maneuver at times.
Believe it or not, one stretch of less than a mile actually took us 2
hours!
Although
difficult to traverse, the canyon is spectacular. The cliff on the south side is dramatic, and
occasionally we passed under delicate waterfalls cascading down the canyon
walls. At one point a substantial stream
joined the main creek. The source of
this water wasn’t apparent, but I’m guessing that it comes from one of the
caves hidden in the canyon.
Our
tentative plan was to follow Westface from Henson
over to Fantasy Canyon, and then ascend Fantasy back to Red. At one point we followed a path along a ledge
that I thought might lead us to Westface. It turns out we weren’t even close. We were still well above Westface. My mistake worked out well though, as it took
us out to Ledge Point. My disappointment
at the wrong turn faded quickly when I saw the view awaiting us! We were perched a couple of hundred feet
above the Linville River, directly across from the towering wall of Avatar’s
Rib on Babel Tower. While the fall
foliage had been past its prime higher up, it was at its peak down here. From our vantage, the entire gorge appeared
to be a shimmering gold.
We
had lunch there before returning to Henson Canyon. We resumed our slow descent, but the scenery
remained spectacular. Before long we
reached a third waterfall, which spills into a small, dark pool tucked under
the overhanging cliffs.
A
bit farther on we followed another ledge above the creek, once again thinking
it was bound for Westface. The ledge died out in a thick tangle of
rhododendron and small trees about 100’ above the river. While I was thrashing around I managed to
bang my knee into a tree. I actually saw
stars for a minute after that one. At
least the obligatory bleeding was out of the way.
At
this point it was already mid-afternoon.
We regrouped to discuss our options.
At our pace, I wasn’t confident that we could finish the loop before
dark. Regretfully, we decided to turn
back. I’ll definitely attempt the full
loop again, but I’ll probably leave the dogs at home. Henson Creek was rough on them, and they
slowed our pace to a crawl.
The
hike out was uneventful. Just before
Huckleberry Point we picked up the old road we’d seen earlier. It provided a fairly easy, and much shorter,
hike back to the trailhead.
I’ll
definitely be back. Henson was a great
hike, and I’m glad Brenda was able to join me.
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