July 3rd, 2010
Little Bradley Falls is in the Green River Gamelands near Saluda, NC. Easiest access is via a red-blazed trail that leaves across the road (Holbert Cove) from the trail to Big Bradley Falls. The trail follows the creek about a mile to the falls which are quite scenic.
Little Bradley Falls
There’s a lovely (if murky) swimming hole at most water levels here although it’s a substantially longer hiker than the more popular swimming holes on the way to Big Bradley Falls. On the plus side, you can actually see Little Bradley Falls close up without risking your life.
Little Bradley Falls
Another bonus is that along the trail we found several wineberry bushes with ripe berries. Wineberries are a close relative of the raspberry.
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May 16th, 2010
Glassmine Falls
At 800 ft. high, Glassmine Falls is one of the highest in the Eastern US. It’s seasonal and this overlook off of the Blue Ridge Parkway is about the only vantage point. It drops into the Asheville watershed which is closed to all activity including hiking.
Painted Trilliums
From the Glassmine overlook, the Mountains to Sea Trail runs north to the Black Mountains and Mt. Mitchell. This section crosses over Walker Knob (not to be confused with the Walker Knob above Montreat, which is probably visible from here). In May there are a lot of wildflowers in this area including the painted trilliums above, and the fringed phacelia below.
Fringed Phacelia
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April 25th, 2010
Goldmine Loop is a three to four mile trail segment located just off the end of the Road to Nowhere in the Smoky Mountains. Part of the trail follows a creek down to Lake Fontana and there is in fact the remnants of a cabin along the way.
Lake Fontana
The end of the Road the Nowhere incidentally is the Tunnel to Nowhere which has a certain place in Smoky Mountain lore by now. Only hikers and horses (intrepid horses apparently) are allowed through now. It’s about 1000 feet long and other than some fun optical effects when you’re in the middle of it, it’s really not that exciting.
Tunnel to nowhere
We were doing a wildflower survey along the way as well. Melanie is particularly good with the wildflowers and generally spends about 2 hours after a wildflower hike with the assorted wildflower books coming up with a list of things that I will forget the name of by the time we go hiking next weekend.
However, to commemorate all the work she did on it, here is her list from this 4 mile loop:
Common Blue Violet
Dog Violet
Halberd-leafed Violet
Sweet White Violet
Crested Dwarf Iris
Rue Anemone
Wild Oats
Mountain Dog-hobble
Star Chickweed
Canadian Dwarf Cinquefoil
Wood Vetch
Common Strawberry
Wood Betony
Baneberry (prob. Red Baneberry)
Highbush Blueberry
Yellow Star-grass
Pussytoes (prob. Plantain-leaved)
Common Blackberry
Foamflower
Smallflower Phacelia
Kidneyleaf Buttercup
Aster species (2 different unknown)
Vetch species (unknown, purple)
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April 2nd, 2010
Twin Falls, located in Pisgah Ranger District a bit north of the Davidson River campground is actually much more impressive than we expected. There are several ways to get there. We did it by parking at the horse stables off of FS 477 and hiking up the road to the Avery Creek Trail. This follows Avery Creek to a junction with Buckner Gap Trail. A mile or two up this trail is the Twin Falls branch trail, although there seem to be quite a few ‘extra’ trails around as well.
Twin Falls
The trail ends in a canyon with cliffs on three sides. Hundred foot waterfalls pour into the canyon from opposite corners. It was really difficult to get pictures of the falls as both of them complete the drop in several distinct cascades. Definately a worthwhile hike though.
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March 27th, 2010
Deep Creek is a campground and trailhead in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s located just outside Bryson City on the North Carolina side of the park. From the Deep Gap trailheads it is an easy 3 mile loop (or less if you backtrack a bit) to reach three different waterfalls.
Tom's Branch Falls
Tom’s Branch Falls is just about 2/10ths of a mile up the Deep Creek Trail and enters Deep Creek from a side stream.
Indian Creek Falls
Farther up the Deep Gap trail, Indian Creek Falls is just off of the main trail.
Juney Whank Falls
Juney Whank Falls is actually about a half mile in the opposite direction from the trailhead. It can be reached by backtracking (which is cheating of course) or by crossing Deep Creek and doubling back on the Deep Creek Horse Trail.
The bridge over the falls is rather surprisingly close to the water. I would suspect in higher water the bridge would definately be in the splash zone.
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March 20th, 2010
We went up to Salem, Virginia for the Div III Final Four since Williams College was once again involved.
Salem Civic Center
Williams won their Friday semifinal against Guilford College in a relatively tense affair, but at least that meant Friday night was more festive.
Williams vs Wisconsin Stevens Point
Unfortunately, Wisconsin Stevens Point was victorious in the final on Saturday in another exciting back and forth game. The Div III Final Four is pretty low-key. It’s nothing like a sell out (at least not this year) and there isn’t a whole lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding it.
We also made a side trip to nearby Blue Collar Joe’s Donuts which is just north of Roanoke.
Blue Collar Joe's Donuts
This is definately a worthwhile detour if you’re passing by on I-81 (which we do a couple times a year). They have some very creative concoctions including: Blueberry pancake with maple and bacon, PB&J, Turtle, Blueberry Cheesecake, Coconut Creme Pie and Lemon Drop.
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March 13th, 2010
Our first BBQ contest judging of the year (and Melanie’s 15th overall) was at the American Bass Anglers event at Lake Lanier, Georgia. The setting on the lake was pretty nice and realistically you’d never know this was also a bass fishing tournament since the boats were all out on the lake most of the day.
Lake Lanier BBQ
Just in case any competition teams happen to read this, we’d like to share our newest BBQ pet peeve: chicken thighs smoked in muffin pans. Myron Mixon did this on national TV and now everyone thinks it’s a great idea. For one, they come out looking like chicken balls which is not the most appetizing form of chicken. Second, it doesn’t seem to pick up any smoke flavor whatsoever. We’re not saying this couldn’t be done well but 50% of our respective entries at this contest were in muffin form (compared to about 2% in the past).
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January 23rd, 2010
Our first AT hike of the year, we drove to northeast Tennessee and hiked three miles up to Double Springs Shelter from TN 91.
The lower portion of this hike crosses the Osborne Farm which is in trust to the A.T. This includes a couple stile crossings of pastureland.
Stile crossing on the Appalachian Trail
After the farm the trail is wooded and winds up the ridge. Double Springs shelter is just barely off the trail.
Double Springs Shelter
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November 21st, 2009
Bearwallow Mountain is remarkably close to Asheville but not directly accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway so not nearly as well known as some of the other area mountains.
David on Bearwallow mountain.
The hike itself is pretty easy, about a mile up a forest road which is maintained because of all the radio and cell towers at the top. On a clear day there are good views of Asheville, Hendersonville and Lake Lure.
View north from Bearwallow
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September 27th, 2009
Panthertown is a valley in the eastern portion of the Nantahala National Forest, just north of Lake Toxaway. It is not heavily used and this was our first visit to it – a few days after Toxaway had received more than 10 inches of rain.
Schoolhouse Falls
The trails in general are not well-signed and there are old trails that are being reclaimed by the forest, new trails that will eventually be official, and then some unofficial trails. It’s generally a map and compass area. Schoolhouse Falls is easy enough to find however. Almost everyone else we saw in the forest was in the vicinity of Schoolhouse Falls which has a lovely big swimming hole at the base of it.
Greenland Creek Falls
About 2 miles upstream from Schoolhouse is Greenland Creek Falls. The trails go up out of the gorge and connect back with the river about a half mile from the falls. We decided to bushwhack up the river directly. There was an old trail on the east side of the river but portions no longer exist. With high water, this is a strenuous hike that involves almost as much climbing as hiking. There are several more falls along the way. Pothole is the most impressive of these but it involved hanging over the river from branches just to get a glance at it.
The Greenland Creek Falls trail is not marked but it mostly heads upstream from an old forest road. At high water it involves crossing several tributaries.
Leaves in Greenland Creek
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