SPIDER AND SNAKE

Back in the good old days Christy and I never would’ve passed up the chance to go car camping or backpacking over a three day holiday weekend. This year though, for Independence Day, we decided to take it easy. We weren’t interested in battling traffic, and we still had a lot of things to get ready for our upcoming trip to Wyoming. Still, I wanted to get some exercise. I contacted my friends, Bob and Laura, and we made plans to hike Snake Mountain, which is on the NC / TN border near Boone.

I drove up to Boone on Sunday morning to meet Bob and Laura. The drive wasn’t without some excitement. I had just gotten on the interstate when I noticed a black spider strolling across the dashboard. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like it might be a Black Widow. I held the wheel with one hand and grabbed a napkin with the other. I went to smash it, but hit a minor bump. Somehow I missed, but managed to knock the spider into my lap in the process. Zoinks! I pulled over onto the shoulder and jumped out. I didn’t see the spider at first, so I pulled the floor mat out and gave it a good shake. The spider tumbled out and strolled off towards the weeds on the side of the highway.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. I met Bob and Laura in Boone and rode with them from there. We headed up through scenic Meat Camp and passed the new entrance to Elk Knob State Park. Snake Mountain is on the opposite side of the valley from Elk Knob. We drove another mile or so, to a hairpin curve. We parked on the shoulder there, near a gate.

I’ve hiked Snake Mountain several times over the years. Part of the mountain is now included in Elk Knob State Park, but legal access is iffy. The mountain is surrounded by private property. I can access the mountain from the back side, through a housing development called the Sunlei Preserve. The development is private, but the manager there just happens to be a friend of mine. However, that approach requires a longer drive, and the trailhead is on the ridge crest not far below the summit. For today’s hike, I was looking for a more demanding workout.

On our last visit to Snake Mountain we’d hiked to the summit from Rich Mountain Gap. That route had passed through a cattle pasture that was clearly private property, but unposted. However, it had been a steep climb featuring lots of briars. This time, I was hoping to find a more enjoyable approach. Prior to the hike, I researched the area on Watauga County’s GIS website. There I discovered a narrow corridor of state-owned land extending from Meat Camp Road up to the crest of the ridge. I thought that might offer a reasonable approach. That corridor extends up from that same hairpin curve where we parked. The only question was whether we could find a manageable route from there.

Bob, Laura, and I followed Boone to the gate. A road continued beyond it, into an overgrown field. Another faint path ran parallel to it, but on the other side of a barbed wire fence. We tried that trail first. It was overgrown, and the vegetation was heavy with dew. We hiked a short distance before reaching an overgrown stream. There was no sign of a path beyond here, aside from continuing up the creek bed. That didn’t look like fun, so we doubled-back to the gate.

We passed through the gate and climbed up through the overgrown field. Boone went crazy here, running full speed through the shoulder-high weeds. Weimaraners are bred to hunt bear and deer. Specifically, their job is to flush the animals out of heavy vegetation. I guess his breeding really kicked in here. If there’d been anything there to flush, we would’ve seen it for certain.

At the top of the hill we encountered another barbed wire fence. We eventually found a place where we could step over it. A few steps beyond the fence brought us to a maintained dirt road. I was pretty sure we were no longer on public property, but the road was heading in the correct direction. We weren’t about to pass it up.

We followed it up the mountain, enjoying nice but hazy views of Elk Knob, Old Field, and The Peak. We eventually reached a fire ring in a clearing, which looked like a great campsite. From there we continued to climb, mainly on switchbacks. We passed a small spring, which Boone made good use of. It was hot and humid, and his tongue was dangling all day long. We passed lots of summer flowers, including Spiderwort and Brown Eyed Susans.

We reached the end of the road and picked up a steep footpath. We climbed along a craggy ridgeline dotted with boulders. It was along here that we encountered the first other hikers I’ve ever seen on Snake Mountain. They were on their way down, and had two dogs with them. We chatted and the dogs played before we all resumed hiking.

We climbed and climbed, before finally reaching the crest of the ridge. The rock outcrops continued along here, offering views to the west, north, and east. More peaks were visible to the east now, including Three Top, its jagged summits stretching towards the sky. To the north, the bulk of Mount Rogers was barely visible thanks to the clouds and haze. Below us we could see a good bit of the Sunlei Preserve, which features many lots but only a few constructed houses. Unfortunately for my friend, the development was started right before the housing market crashed. At this point, the development includes some paved roads and two clubhouses. The upper, smaller clubhouse was just below us, at the end of the development’s main road.

We went the other direction, following a rugged trail along the ridge crest. We scrambled over numerous rock outcrops, generally trying to follow occasional yellow or white blazes. At times we found multiple routes, where we attempted to proceed by the path that required the least scrambling. Eventually we reached a significant peak. From there, we hiked through a dense Heath Bald before reaching a more wooded stretch. The views were less frequent along here, until we reached the southern-most summit. Just beyond it we found a nice meadow, featuring grass, boulders, and fine views to the west, south, and east. From here we could see Grandfather Mountain despite the thickening clouds.

We had lunch there before heading back. I was a little concerned about the building clouds, since the exposed ridgeline of Snake Mountain would be an exceptionally bad place to be in a thunderstorm. We didn’t linger around much on our return, and reached the north end of the mountain fairly quickly. There we encountered some other hikers heading the other way. A bit later, after beginning our descent beyond the ridge crest we ran into two women and several young girls. They were very friendly, and we found out that they actually owned the next section of property to the south. They told us that although the road we had followed that morning was private property and posted, the owner didn’t mind people hiking it. She also told us that the landowner directly opposite the entrance to Elk Knob State Park was friendly towards hikers, and didn’t mind people passing through his land. It was rather refreshing to be in an area with such a positive attitude about hikers. Sometimes that seems all too rare in places like Watauga and Ashe County, which have limited public land.

We headed down from there, and followed the dirt road all the way out to Meat Camp Road. We passed through a gate at the end, and noted a large parking area immediately across the road. That would probably be a better place to park on future hikes in the area.

Originally we had talked about hiking Elk Knob afterwards, but it was getting late, and we’d caught a brief, light shower on the hike down. The weather looked threatening, so we decided to save Elk Knob for another time. I’ll definitely be back in the area, as Snake Mountain is one of my favorite dayhikes in northwest North Carolina.

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