Two-Heel Drive, a Hiking Blog

I have as much fun finding these trails as I do hiking on them. They’re all tucked way, way back in the countryside, and while there are reasonably direct routes (like less than a half-dozen turns from a major highway), I much prefer the challenge of navigating a mad tangle of two-lane blacktops. The brain’s more hike-ready if I’ve gotten lost three times on the way to the trailhead.

I hiked Saturday in the upper half of Pilot Mountain’s River Section and Sunday in the lower. Had the trails mostly to myself, except for one group of people on horseback and a few folks out fishing. Frankly, despite crazy-hot weather and the risk of encountering the occasional copperhead or cotton-mouth, August might well be the best time to visit because nobody else is there.

You have your bugs buzzing, birds chirping, waterways burbling, all under thick, shady tree cover. The trails are easy by North Carolina standards, though there are a few streams to cross and hills to negotiate. A hiking pole is handy.

All in all, a great place to just get away from everybody without having to drive a hundred miles and deal with a bunch of crazy-complicated mountain trails (and even more complicated human beings). (more…)

You know how in the movies where the heroes are slogging through the jungle, then the camera shows subtle changes in scenery implying something big is about to happen, then they round a bend and see this vast civilization splayed out as far as the eye can see?

EveryTrail Guide for this hike

Something like that happens on the Stone Mountain Loop — cinematic in scale except the view is way bigger than a movie screen. You have to park at the Upper Trailhead and take the first left turn where the signs point toward the waterfalls. Once you’re past the falls, the trail flattens, passes a great big rock on the right, and the view ahead starts to brighten, like maybe there’s a big meadow up there.

I alluded to this after my first trip to Stone Mountain last year. Pretty soon an immense gray shadow forms on the right, and you realize it’s really, really big, because it fills the background in your field of vision.

Within moments there’s a break in the forest and the full, vertical-striped glory of Stone Mountain’s granite dome fills your mental frame. Even if you’ve seen it before, the effect is surprising. There must be a thousand more examples of scenic splendor in the Carolinas that I haven’t seen, yet I have a hard time believing many of them surpass the sheer visual impact of Stone Mountain. But only if you go the way I outlined. (more…)

It was so hot this past weekend I couldn’t muster the ambition for an ambitious hike; best I could do was 4.6 miles on the mountain-biking single-track at the park across the road.

Tanglewood Park has a raft of amenities, among them an antebellum mansion/B&B, arboretum, horse stables, championship golf course, several ponds and a path along a lazy river.

And then it has these three mountain-bike single-tracks. Two of them are fairly mild, but Track No. 3 is an impressive 4.6-mile tangle — more labyrinth than trail in many parts. It’s built expressly to give mountain bikers a place to practice their moves, a bad-ass bunny slope compared to MTB tracks in the real M’s. It has obstacles, a few jumps, countless hairpin turns and the very real prospect of getting hopelessly lost.

Normally I avoid mountain-bike tracks because I think the paucity of bike-specific trails obliges generosity from those of us with far more options. I certainly stay off Tanglewood’s MTB tracks when they get the most use on weekends or evenings after work. (more…)

I’m warming to this idea: at least one sweltering outing a year at the top of Pilot Mountain, just to test the principle that there’s no bad time to hike up there. I finished a sweat-drenched wretch on Sunday just as I did 11 months ago, when I made my inaugural North Carolina hike at the Great Stone Teat of the Triad. Now I’m all for trying it again — in another 11 months.

EveryTrail Guide for this hike

There’s barely more than 3.5 miles of trail atop Pilot Mountain, and you can’t even go to the true summit, aka Big Pinnacle — it’s essentially a bird sanctuary. None of the trails are exactly easy; even the shortest is steep and jagged enough for a “moderate” rating. Then there’s the Ledge Spring Loop, a cliff-hugging, stair-stepping trail that introduced me to the concept of a 2.2-mile “strenuous” hike, as abundant in North Carolina as it is non-existent in the Bay Area. You hear your heartbeat on this one.

I went out Sunday thinking I’d give the summit a once-over before devoting an EveryTrail Guide to it. As much as the Guides create the theoretical possibility of being paid to hike, the reality is there are chores involved: reading interpretive panels, remembering key turns, etc. Just ask my wife: I hike to avoid chores. (more…)

The road to Clingmans Dome — highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park — opened a few weeks back after a long closure for renovations, so it’s been high on my list of places to check out.

The Dome is more tourist destination than hiking destination: you can trek to it via the Appalachian Trail (a 14-mile out-and-back from the parking lot at Newfound Gap), but the parking lot a half-mile from the summit is an irresistible temptation. (Feeling more intrepid? Check out the 16-mile South Beyond 6,000 route bagging Clingmans Dome and Mount Collins. There’s also a four-mile out-and-back to Andrews Bald from the parking lot).

The path to the peak is wide and paved. It gains about 330 feet in a half-mile, roughly a 13 percent grade. Not ruinously steep, but far from flat, and all above 6,000 feet, so altitude will be an issue. Expect lots of people on the weekends, especially in the summer. The road to the top is closed in the winter from December through March, which makes it a prime cross-country skiing destination (as long as there’s snow). (more…)

Craggy Gardens, about 20 miles north of Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is a must visit in mid-June, when the peak bloom of the Catawba rhododendron lights up vast swaths of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

As you’ve no doubt noticed I’m writing three weeks later — I took my Fourth of July day off on Friday and headed down I-40 to the Craggies, where I was hoping a day of abundant sunshine and jagged stone would yield a harvest of photo ops. I left mostly disappointed: no blue sky, not many crags, and the annoying realization that it’s not called “Craggy Gardens” because of the crags, but because the rhodo bloom creates a high-country flower garden.

I went to bed last night convinced there’s no earthly reason to hike here outside the bloom season. This morning I trudged to the computer with the idea of throwing something on the blog to get it out of the way and get back to enjoying my three-day weekend.

Then I looked at my pictures again. Turns out there’s a lot going on in the Craggies that you’ll never notice while the Big Bloom is hogging the spotlight. And the bonus: no swarms of rhodo gawkers (presumably the area gets pretty crowded on peak-season weekends, since it’s so close to Asheville). (more…)

I’ve proved beyond doubt that Grandfather Mountain is no place to hike if you’re in a hurry. I’ve established a firm 1.1 mph pace after five outings totaling about 25 miles.

Sign for the Profile Trail, seen heading north on Highway 105.

And half of that was downhill.

Profile Trail proves the point: It’s 3.5 miles to Calloway Peak with 1,900 feet of ascent — hardly formidable stats for experienced hikers. It even gets off to a very sane start: the first two miles are all uphill, but not grueling.

After that, though, it’s one boulder-hop after another for a mile and a half, culminating with three short ladder climbs at Calloway Peak. Not as hairy as the hike across the mountain’s spine I did a few weeks back, but there’s still no way to be quick about it (call me a coward but I prefer intact tibias.)

Grandfather Trail, the route across the mountain’s highest peaks, is the best in the park. Despite the intimidating ladder climbs and cable descents, it’s one of the most rewarding hikes I’ve ever done. Only downside: you pay $15 per person for the privilege of parking close to those trails (the fee preserves a priceless local treasure, but I’m a slave to anything free, hence my four visits to the free trailheads — Profile Trail off Highway 105 and the Boy Scout Trail route from the Blue Ridge Parkway).

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One-word summary of this outing: Wet. Sweat on the way up, rain on the way down. I finished soaked from the top of my Trailspace cap to the soles of my shiny new New Balance trail runners. Yes, I took rain gear; no, it did not keep me dry.

Hanging Rock, from the Hanging Rock Trail

Backstory on this one: Hanging Rock State Park is the best place to hike within 30 miles of my front door. I’d hiked almost all the trails except a stretch of Indian Creek Trail up to the Dan River in the far northern section of the park, where the Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club hiked a few weeks back. I got up Saturday morning in no mood for a long drive to the Blue Ridge, so I decided to follow in their footsteps, adding a quick jaunt up to Hanging Rock.

Hanging Rock has glorious views of the nearby terrain. The most sensible way to get there is to park at the visitor’s center and take the one-mile trail to the rock. It’s steep and rocky in the last quarter-mile; doable but not crazy-difficult. Getting there from Dan River via the Indian Creek Trail is another matter: five miles one way with nearly 1,400 feet of ascent, complicated by suffocating heat on the way up, the risk of a lightning strike at the top, and the likelihood of hiking back in a thunderstorm.

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This is a great combo if you’re into contrasts: start out with a sane, scenic hike to the Mile High Swinging Bridge, then move on to the utterly crazy ridge route to MacRea Peak.

There’s a certain sanity to the .6-mile hike up to the bridge from the Black Rock parking area: the climb warms you up for the gale-force winds creating an eerie hum as they pass through the span. The insane part is the bridge itself: it serves no practical purpose beyond offering a shortcut to a rocky knob on the far side of an 80-foot-deep gorge.

Of course the absurdity of an unnecessary bridge makes it an irresistible tourist stop. The first law of tourism: cash mistakenly placed in a tourist’s wallet must be handed over to its rightful owner, the tourist attraction developer. Second law: the tourist must feel good about the hand-over.

This brings us to the real utility of the Mile-High Swinging Bridge: It’s very cool. Cool to walk across, cool to take pictures of your sweetheart walking across, cool to stand under and take even more pictures, cool to listen to that never-ending hum. After a half-hour at the bridge, Grandfather Mountain’s $15 entry fee feels like Deal of the Decade.
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It took me 30 years to rediscover how much I liked walking in the woods, so I guess it’s an improvement that it took a mere nine months to discover a park that suits me almost perfectly.

South Mountains State Park is about 80 miles southwest of my doorstep — longer than I’d prefer but considerably closer than the Blue Ridge Parkway and beyond. What I like about it:

• 40-plus miles of trails and a sprinkling of backcountry campsites. Most of the nearby parks are hiked out in a couple weekends, whereas it’d take at least a month — and some overnighters — to hike all of South Mountains’ trails.
• One great waterfall, many water features. Upper Shoals Falls pours over a 70-foot cliff face just a mile from the main trailhead. Actually, the cascade coming down the rocks after the falls is more scenic (and photogenic).
• Hills on all sides. South Mountains is at the eastern edge of the southern Appalachians. While we have a few high peaks nearby, they all look out over farmlands and civilization. South Mountains is much more hilly, and seems much more wild. Elevations top out just under 3,000 feet; climbs of over 1,000 feet are abundant.
• Mostly pine forest. Pines are just more pleasant to walk among compared to the deciduous tangles we see at lower elevations.

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