SHINE
Last
weekend brought yet another winter storm to the NC mountains. Snow, sleet, freezing rain, and more snow
fell from Thursday night through Saturday.
Jack, Bob, and I wanted to hike on Sunday, but we faced an increasingly
common dilemma: what trailheads would be
accessible on Sunday morning? I had
another concern as well. My attempt to
hike the Tanawha Trail last week ended in frustration
due to fallen trees. Where could we go
that wouldn’t require crawling through most of the hike?
While
I was contemplating our options, it occurred to me that I’d never seen Linville
Gorge in the snow. This was startling,
as I’ve been hiking there in all seasons for nearly 20 years. The problem is that the gorge is difficult to
get to without driving dirt roads, which were bound to be in poor condition.
I
was overlooking the obvious. The
southern end of the gorge is easily accessible from highway 126 out of
Morganton. Initially I thought we might
hike the MST Connector to the Mountains to Sea Trail, which we’d follow to Shortoff. That’s a
fairly long hike though. If the trail
was littered with fallen trees, we’d never make it. After discussing our options with Jack and
Bob, we decided to try to reach the trailhead at the end of Wolfpit
Road. That would require driving 3 miles
of dirt road, but we thought it might be doable with 4WD. If not, we’d try the MST Connector as a
backup plan.
Bob
and I picked up Jack in Morganton. From
there, we drove through intermittent sunshine and fog. Near Lake James we caught our first glimpse
of Shortoff.
The lower slopes were coated in rime ice, while the summit was lost in
the clouds. Hopefully we’d get up there
after the fog cleared, but before the ice melted.
Wolfpit Road was in decent shape. It was snow-covered, and there were some icy
spots. However, it had seen enough
traffic that there were tracks in the snow.
The biggest problem, particularly on our return, was mud. The road was messy, but we didn’t have any
trouble in Bob’s truck.
The
parking area was nearly deserted when we arrived at 9:30. The lone exception was a large chocolate lab
that had followed us from one of the houses farther down the road. Boone was delighted to have a hiking
companion of his own for the day.
We
hit the trail under suddenly blue skies.
The path was covered with a couple of inches of crusty snow. It seems like the lower elevations got a
couple of inches of snow initially, followed by a considerable amount of
freezing rain. We crunched our way up the
trail, taking care to avoid the icy spots.
Fortunately the sun was making progress with those places. If anything though, the rapid melting caused
more problems than it solved. Before
long we found ourselves in a badly eroded gully. We were walking up a substantial stream of
snowmelt, and before long our boots were soaked. At a couple of spots along the way I did some
spontaneous trail maintenance. I dug out
a couple of runoff channels that were clogged with debris. This at least served to channel some of the
runoff away from the trail. I was hoping
that my efforts would mean that we didn’t have to swim back to the truck that
afternoon.
Eventually
we reached the switchbacks. From here,
the trail was a little less eroded. We
hiked up through burned over forest, as this area caught the brunt of the 2007
fires. Views of Lake James began to open
up, although fog persisted over the water.
Somewhere along here I realized that I had fallen well behind Jack, Bob,
and the dogs. No doubt they were
hurrying to reach the summit before the rime ice melted. Hurrying wasn’t much of an option for
me. My legs were dead,
thanks to a demanding bike workout I’d done the previous evening. I splashed along in their wake, figuring I’d
catch up to them at the first spectacular overlook.
Before
long I reached the first icy trees. Rime
ice was clinging to every surface, glittering in the sun. At times it felt like I was walking through a
forest of crystals. Most unusual though
was the extreme contrast between the blue sky, the white snow, the silver ice,
and the blackened trees scattered along the mountainside.
I
joined the Mountains to Sea Trail at a junction, and continued to climb through
the sparkling forest. The upper part of
the mountain was still completely snow-covered, which made for more pleasant
walking than the mud and water we had slogged through initially.
I
stopped to take some photos, and another dayhiker
with a dog passed by, heading up the mountain.
We saw him heading back down less than an hour later. Surprisingly, he was the only other person we
saw all day.
As
expected, I caught up with Jack and Bob at a dramatic overlook. I met them on an icy cliff guarded by a lone
dead tree encased in ice. From here we
had a fantastic view of the lower end of the gorge as well as Lake James and
the South Mountains in the distance. I
put on my Yaktrax ice cleats before venturing out
onto the cliff, as a slip here would certainly be fatal.
From
there, we followed the Mountains to Sea Trail along the cliffs of Shortoff. This area
is exceptionally scenic at any time, but it was particularly breathtaking
because of the snow and ice. Fresh
powder dusted the cliff faces, and ice covered every tree and shrub.
We
crested a small rise and more views opened up.
The sheer cliffs ahead were staggering, and I actually started laughing
at our fantastic luck. We couldn’t have
picked a better day to hike up here. At
this point, I told Jack and Bob that the best part was still to come. I don’t think they believed me.
We
passed some more fine views before hiking deeper into the forest. This stretch of trail might normally be
considered the “boring” part of Shortoff, but not
today. The rime ice we’d seen earlier had been
impressive, but here it was truly mind-blowing.
Hiking through that forest was an auditory experience as well. Every few seconds, a chunk of ice would fall
from a tree with a tinkling crash. The
falling ice was musical, but it was also hazardous. At one point, a fist-sized chunk hit me in
the head. By the time I got home, I had
several bruises on my arms from the frozen missiles.
We
reached the pond on Shortoff a few minutes
later. The pond has always been one of
my favorite features there. The last
time I had visited, I’d been disappointed to find it littered with fallen
trees. Today though it
was mostly clear. It was partially
frozen, but that didn’t stop Boone from wading around in it and having a drink. At one point he lifted his head to display
long strands of green algae dangling from his snout. I’m really sorry I didn’t have my camera
ready for that photo opportunity.
We
left the pond, and tried to find the Watertree Spring. I’m pretty sure we started out on the right
trail, but we quickly lost it among the snow and fallen trees.
We
followed the MST north and reached the side trail to my favorite spot on Shortoff a couple of minutes later. We followed this path out to an overlook with
a fantastic view to the north. This is
probably my favorite view of the wilderness, as the entire gorge was spread out
before us. The frosty cliffs of Table
Rock, Hawksbill, and the Chimneys towered high above the river. If anything, the west rim of the gorge
appeared to be even snowier. The only
disappointment was that the high peaks of the Black Mountains and the Roan
Highlands were still lost in the clouds.
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day on Shortoff,
but it was probably still snowing up at the highest
elevations.
We
reached the overlook at noon, and I enjoyed warm soup for lunch. Afterwards we explored the cliffs and took more
photos. At some point I became concerned
with how many photos I’d taken. Jack
confessed to taking over 300, and I figured I wasn’t far behind. In fact, the final damage was 272 shots,
meaning I would end up spending most of Monday going through them.
Originally
I thought we’d continue the hike farther north, but we all succumbed to wet,
cold feet. Instead we returned the same
way, dodging falling ice as we hurried down the mountain. We returned to the truck unusually early, as we’d
only hiked 5 miles or so. I was
satisfied though. Hiking in the snow is
tiring. I was worn out, even though we
only encountered a few fallen trees. In
fact, I was so whipped, I managed to fall asleep
during the 4th quarter of a pretty exciting Super Bowl that night!
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