The majority of these pics are from last weekend.
This is the start of the pics I took today:
This is the start of the pics I took today:
I've gotten out for a few hikes recently but I havent been able to do much more than that due to a heavy work load and no functioning bike. The latest exploration hikes I've gotten under my belt was on a sweet little trail that begins less than 15 minutes from my house off of hwy 126, across the road from Lake James and between the bridge over the Linville River and Wolf Pit Road. I had been wondering about trails in this area for a long time and now thanks to a little beta from Todd C. I feel like I've hit the jackpot. I've done two hikes out there now and today I ran into father and son, Bob and David Benner. They are the co-writers of CAROLINA WHITEWATER A Paddler's Guide to the Western Carolinas which was first published in 1981 and is now on it's 9th edition. I've personally had three different editions of their book and have been using it for about 15 years. They were doing trail maintenance on the Blue Blazed trail. My hats off to them.
Anyway, the blue blazes trail is full of character and has a section that runs parallel to the Linville River for a few hundred yards. It rolls through a nice beautiful wooded forest and meanders down to the river then climbs quickly away from it and up the ridge and into a burned out section of woods before it ends by T'ing into the Mountains-To-Sea Trail. To the left at the T is the Linville River ford which if crossed leads on up the other side of the lower gorge to The Pinnacle. Taking a right at the T leads to the top of Shortoff. Last weekend I followed it to the other side of Shortoff and to my favorite little photo-op looking up the Linville Gorge towards Table Rock and Hawksbill. Today I followed the MTS Trail to the river crossing. A couple of exceptional "out and backs" that I will be doing many more times as well as linking up some big destination hikes.
Anyway, the blue blazes trail is full of character and has a section that runs parallel to the Linville River for a few hundred yards. It rolls through a nice beautiful wooded forest and meanders down to the river then climbs quickly away from it and up the ridge and into a burned out section of woods before it ends by T'ing into the Mountains-To-Sea Trail. To the left at the T is the Linville River ford which if crossed leads on up the other side of the lower gorge to The Pinnacle. Taking a right at the T leads to the top of Shortoff. Last weekend I followed it to the other side of Shortoff and to my favorite little photo-op looking up the Linville Gorge towards Table Rock and Hawksbill. Today I followed the MTS Trail to the river crossing. A couple of exceptional "out and backs" that I will be doing many more times as well as linking up some big destination hikes.
