MURPHY’S LAW
Ah, the joys of home
ownership. The garbage disposal died –
again. This time the reset button isn’t
having any effect. The only thing worse
than this was when the electric garage door started going up and down all by
itself. That’s what I thought until a
few days ago.
Just recently, we discovered
we have a critter living inside our living room wall. I’m not sure what it is, but it sounds big. Every so often you can hear it behind the
wall, rustling around, and chewing.
This is rather disturbing, especially the chewing part. What could it be? A squirrel, or opossum, or even a raccoon? I had to investigate. So I slithered under the house, through the
crawlspace. This really isn’t all that
bad, if you don’t mind crawling around in the dark among hundreds of spiders,
waiting to confront a potentially rabid beaver. I didn’t find the critter, but I did find its hole, tunneling up
through the floorboards along the outer wall.
Since the badger wouldn’t show itself, I left a box of rat poison before
crawling out, throwing away my clothes, and bathing for an hour.
Since then, the sounds
haven’t abated. It’s like having a new
pet. I think we’ll name it Wally. To make matters worse, the dog is now aware
of it, and Saucony now spends hours whining and staring at the wall. This was pretty cute for a day or so, but it
is getting old. So, I crawled back
under the house, only to find that the Wolverine had eaten most of the rat
poison, to no affect. The obvious
solution would be to somehow get the critter out of the wall, and put it under
the sink, where all that chewing could be put to better use.
This was driving us crazy,
so we had to get out of the house.
Luckily, Memorial Day weekend gave us an opportunity. So we loaded the car, dragged the dog away
from the wall, and headed for the mountains.
On Saturday morning, we headed to Valdese, where Christy was competing
in a triathlon. Saturday’s forecast was
warm and sunny, but that didn’t stop it from being cold and rainy in
Valdese. The good news is that Christy
did place 3rd in her age group.
That afternoon, we left
Valdese, and the rain, behind. We drove
to Highlands, where we had reservations at the Van Hook Glade Campground. The campground is small and quiet, with
heavily wooded campsites offering privacy.
After setting up camp, Saucony and I did a short hike.
We picked up a trail near
the campground entrance, following it up to the road to Cliffside Lake. We followed the road briefly, before
starting up the westernmost trail to the Cliffside Vista. This path led up through woods, passing many
Catesby’s Trillium along the way. Near
the summit, I spotted a pair of Pink Lady Slippers. At the top, I found a gazebo featuring a decent view of Cliffside
Lake far below.
I met the nature trail
there, with one end heading downhill and the other crossing the summit. I continued across the mountain before
descending rapidly. I reached an
unmarked junction with a faint trail, and decided to follow it. It turned out to be the Potts Memorial
Trail, which led through a pleasant white pine grove before descending to the
lake road. From there, we returned to
the campground. That night, Christy and
I enjoyed fajitas and chips with homemade salsa, as well as beer and a campfire
before heading for the tent.
On Sunday, we hiked Yellow
Mountain. Yellow Mountain (not to be
confused with the peak in the Roan Highlands) is the highest in the area, and
is reached by a 5-mile trail from Cole Gap.
The hike is difficult, because it requires climbing and descending
Shortoff Mountain (not to be confused with the peak in Linville Gorge) en
route. From the trailhead at Cole Gap,
the trail climbs 700’, before descending 1000’ to Yellow Mountain Gap. It then climbs another 1000’ to the summit
of Yellow Mountain. On the return, the
hiker has to climb Shortoff Mountain again, meaning that the 10-mile roundtrip
involves climbing 3000’.
The drive to the trailhead
only took 20 minutes, which compensated nicely for a late start and leisurely
breakfast. We headed up the ridge,
following a trail that is unmarked but well-maintained. An initial ascent brought us to the top of
Cole Mountain, where a side trail provides a fair view to the north. We resumed the hike, passing hundreds of
Catesby’s Trillium. After a short
descent, we climbed switchbacks up Shortoff.
A couple of openings provided limited views, but the best is on a side
trail just short of the summit. The
path heads out to the right to a cliff, where the view to the southwest
encompasses Highlands and the surrounding mountains.
Beyond the summit, we
descended steadily along the ridge. We
reached a sign at a junction that stated that we were halfway there. We descended to a gap on the ridge, and dropped
on switchbacks to skirt the west side of Goat Knob. We passed a small stream, and joined a grassy logging road that
may get overgrown in the summer.
Several junctions followed, but all were marked with signs. A few minutes later we arrived at Yellow
Mountain Gap, where we found several dozen Pink Lady Slippers. We also found a small tree adorned with an
orange ribbon stating that it was a “killer tree”. I’m sure there is a story there, but I don’t know what it is.
We endured one more climb on
eroded trail. Near the top, we passed
near a fire road that provides a shorter hike to the summit. The last ˝ mile seemed to take forever, and
we were startled when we were passed by 2 hikers moving fast. We reached the top after a 2 ˝ hour
hike. There is a small observation
tower there that provides a view in every direction except east. The tower is largely unnecessary though, as
great views are available from the rock outcrops. We had lunch on the rocks, and took in a fine view that extends
from Chimneytops Mountain to the southeast to the Fishhawk Mountains to the
southwest. Most prominent was
Whitesides Mountain, which towers over the area just beyond Shortoff.
The hike took a turn for the
worse while we were eating lunch. Two
large groups of hikers arrived, having made the climb up the fire road. Our peaceful lunch spot was quickly replaced
with chattering children, barking dogs, and people yapping on cell phones. Eventually they left, but a few minutes
later the rain arrived. Sunday’s
forecast had been for a warm, sunny, dry day, but once again it was
raining. It was cold and windy,
too. Christy, Saucony, and I took
shelter in the firetower, where the roof kept most of the rain off. Unfortunately, Christy had neglected to
bring a rain jacket or warm clothes, which of course explains why it was
raining. Is there any better way to
guarantee foul weather than to forget your rain gear?
I shared some of my warm
clothes, and we huddled out the rain. I
even dozed for a time, despite fears that I would wake up late that evening,
without time to hike out before dark.
We were finally roused by another group of hikers approaching the
summit. They had no idea we were there,
and we briefly considered jumping up and yelling “boo” when they reached the
top of the ladder. If it had been
someone we knew, we may have actually gone through with it, but we couldn’t do
it to strangers. Plus, there’s a fair
chance a scare like that might’ve sent them tumbling off the ladder.
It was almost 3pm when we
left. We headed down in a light rain
that showed no signs of letting up. My
rain jacket didn’t do much good, as I walked through dripping vegetation. We hiked out fast, looking forward to
returning to camp. That night, a
roaring campfire helped offset the persistent drizzle.
It was still raining the next
morning, so we packed up and headed into Highlands for a hearty breakfast at
the Fireside Restaurant. We decided to
skip the hike I had planned for Monday, as all of our clothes were soaked. Since we ended the trip early, we’ll have to
return to the area for some more hiking.
Back to Nantahala National Forest
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!