WHERE BUZZARDS ROOST
Have
you ever taken a hike that turned out to be disappointing? Perhaps one that you had
great expectations for that just didn’t live up to the hype? Last weekend’s hike in South Mountains State
Park was pretty much the opposite. I
wasn’t really expecting much, but it turned out to be a grand adventure.
Last
year, Bob S., Jack and I attempted to hike to Buzzards Roost from the game
lands on the south side of the South Mountains.
Buzzards Roost is just under 3,000’ in
elevation, and is the highest summit in the entire range. That attempt required a long approach on old
forest roads, followed by a challenging bushwhack. On that occasion, we simply ran out of time
and energy before we reached the summit.
Last
weekend, we tried a different approach.
I planned a route from the Clear Creek entrance to South Mountains State
Park. This entrance, which is a few
miles southwest of Morganton, is in the new addition to the park. This area was
purchased a few years ago, and the park has an official plan for Clear Creek
that includes a campground and a trail network.
However, very little has been done there to date.
I
once saw a map that shows a trail running up Clear Creek from the Broughton
Hospital Reservoir, which sits right at the entrance to the park. Clear Creek starts in a gap just east of
Buzzards Roost. I was hopeful that we
could follow the trail most of the way up the ridge and then bushwhack from
there to the summit.
I
met Bob S in Charlotte and Bob J in Morganton.
From Morganton, it only took us about 10 minutes to get over to the
trailhead. There is a small, official
parking area there, just downstream from the lake. The parking area was deserted when we
arrived, but minutes later a local in a loud pickup passed by. We noticed this because he was driving about
50 mph down a one-lane road, backwards.
We were all ready to get on the trail after that encounter.
Boone,
the Bobs and I headed up a gated gravel road at 9:30 under cloudy skies. We followed the old road up to the dam that
creates the reservoir. From the dam we
had a nice view of the lake and the mountains beyond. From there we had a clear view of our goal,
Buzzards Roost. The fall foliage around
the lake and on the slopes of the mountains was at its peak, adding to the
beauty of the view. In fact, the color
was impressive almost all the way to the top of the ridge. The very crest was bare, likely due to strong
winds at the higher elevations.
We
followed an old road / official horse trail around the east side of the
lake. Once on the far side, we continued
upstream along Clear Creek, rock hopping it once. The official trail eventually petered out in
a maze of old roads and footpaths. I
navigated by the seat of my pants, following my instincts at each
junction. That seemed to work until the
old road we were following started to descend back towards the lake. That was clearly wrong, so we doubled-back
until we reached a faint road heading uphill on the west side of Clear
Creek. This took us to an old
homestead. There wasn’t much left of
this one except for some scattered rocks.
Beyond, we continued upstream through a young forest. Then the old road faded away and we entered a
stretch of mature forest. Apparently the
road we had followed was used as a logging road 20 or 30 years ago.
Our
trail had disappeared, and Clear Creek was somewhere off to our east. We didn’t have many options at this point, so
we decided to continue ahead on a wooded ridge.
The ridge was steep, but the forest was fairly open and the bushwhacking
wasn’t terrible. Still, the hiking to
that point had been fairly easy. From
that point on, the climb was slow and grueling.
Along
the climb we noticed that the ground was littered with clusters what appeared
to be blueberries. This was odd, as
there weren’t any shrubs in the area.
There were plenty of tall trees, but they didn’t look like the type that
would have berries of any kind, particularly not blueberries. Our uncertainty about the nature of the
berries didn’t stop Bob S from picking up a cluster and licking one of the
berries. He swore that it tasted like a
blueberry, but we had our doubts. As we
hiked on, we began teasing him that he was going to drop dead from licking a
poisonous berry. That’s when Bob uttered
the Official Quote of the Day: “I
touched it with my tongue, but I didn’t put it in my mouth”.
Insert
your own punch line here.
Bob
didn’t drop dead, but we all struggled with the climb. At one point I thought we were nearing the
summit, but it was an illusion. We
climbed another 30 minutes before reaching the wooded summit. We hacked our way through the briars and
weeds to the highest point, which lacked a view or any other redeeming
qualities. It was almost noon and we
were beat, so we stopped there for lunch.
While
we ate we debated exactly where we were.
The route we had followed was rather different than what I had
planned. Rather than following Clear
Creek to the ridge crest, and then bushwhacking west to the summit, we had
taken a more direct approach. We had
stayed west of Clear Creek, but the question remained – were we actually on
Buzzards Roost?
The
terrain dropped off dramatically to the west, but a high ridge continued to the
east. Unfortunately, Buzzards Roost is
at the corner of my map, so I couldn’t tell from it what was immediately to the
west. I thought we were probably on it,
but couldn’t rule out the possibility that the true summit was to our
east. Bob S checked his altimeter, which
was calibrated. It indicated an
elevation of 2,967’, which was very close to the official elevation of Buzzards
Roost (2,980’). We were pretty sure we
were on the peak, but in the interest of being thorough, we decided to follow
the ridge east to the next peak.
The
ridge was a bit overgrown, but the bushwhacking was still reasonable. We descended to a minor gap, and then began
climbing the next peak. Part of the way
up we passed through a neat boulder garden that provided some limited views to
the north. From there we continued to a
rocky, narrow summit. There were enough
trees here to eliminate any view though.
We did notice several markers along the ridge on either side of the
summit. I guess those markers indicate
some sort of property line. In fact, the
ridge is now the boundary between the state park and the game lands.
Bob
checked his altimeter here, which indicated an elevation of 2,992’. That wasn’t an exact measurement, but clearly
we were higher than we’d been at lunch.
At that point we still weren’t certain if we were on Buzzards Roost, but
it seemed likely.
Later
we determined that the second peak we summited was in
fact Buzzards Roost. Initially we had
climbed Propst Mountain, which is approximately 2,960’
in elevation.
We
descended the east side of the ridge in hopes of finding an easier route back
to the trailhead. After a short distance
Bob S spotted a cliff just below us. We
dropped down to it, where we were greeted with a fantastic view. From there, we gazed out over the Piedmont
and Lake James to a long stretch of the Blue Ridge in the distance. The view stretched from the Black Mountains
to the west all the way to Grandfather Mountain to the northeast. The fall foliage added to the beauty, as the
ridges and valleys below were a brilliant gold.
We
loitered there for awhile, enjoying the view.
Eventually we had to get moving though.
It was the first day after the end of daylight savings time, meaning it
would be dark by 5:30. We continued down
the ridge to the east, still hopeful of finding an easier route back.
At
the next gap we headed north down a steep, somewhat overgrown ravine. This was slow and tedious, but at least we
were heading in the right direction. The
ravine did feature some impressive trees, including some mature Tuliptrees and at least one massive Oak. Farther down the fall foliage was as
impressive as any I’ve seen this season.
The
descent seemed to take forever, thanks to the steep terrain and bad
footing. Everybody fell multiple times,
but there were no major disasters.
Eventually the terrain eased, and we began following a small stream
downhill. I wasn’t exactly sure where we
were at this point, but I knew that continuing downstream would eventually
bring us to the lake. Finally we
stumbled onto the old road we’d followed early that morning. We reached the lake a few minutes later,
where we actually passed a family out for a walk. They were the only people we saw all day.
None
of us really expected much from this hike, which is probably why it was so
enjoyable. Buzzards Roost was a tough
climb, but it proved to be worth it. The
view from the cliff just below the summit is probably the best vista in the
entire park. The funny thing is that very few people know about it. One day there may be an official state park
trail to it, but I’m glad we blazed our own route there.
For
our next South Mountains adventure, I think we will drive up to the fire tower
on Walker Top and follow the ridge southwest to Buzzards Roost. There’s no telling what else we’ll find up
there.
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