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…)

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…)

I hiked to this section of Pilot Mountain State Park a few weeks back, but the 13 miles of getting there and returning didn’t leave much energy for exploration. This time I just drove up to the River Sections and wandered a few narrow, sandy trails along the Yadkin River. Rain in the forecast kept everybody else away so I had the park mostly to myself.

The hiking’s easy to moderate — flat near the river, a few climbs up and down the nearby bluffs. Crowding at the mountain section of the park is a serious issue during spring and summer, I’ve been told, so these more remote river sections might offer a break from the multitudes in peak hiking season (Click here for driving directions ).

Most of the Yadkin is flat, shallow and sedate — but one of the most interesting bends in the river passes through Pilot Mountain’s River Section. No rapids or waterfalls, but abundant rocks jutting up, plus a couple islands (one of which has two campsites set aside for paddlers only). The current looks too strong to venture across at this time of year, but the wading opportunities are no doubt more promising in summer when the water’s lower and the tributary creeks have seen the last of the spring showers.

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The whole point of this hike was to stroll down the 6-mile Corridor Trail connecting the upper and lower sections of Pilot Mountain State Park and check out the Yadkin River at the far southern end. I knew I was in for 12 miles, but I never counted on hiking 15 and never getting a glimpse of the river.

The Corridor Trail near its southern end; it’s 5.5 miles from here but the whole thing is over 6.

Which is fitting, because my new hangout is less than a quarter mile from another bend in the slow-rolling Yadkin. I think the fates were punishing me for driving 30 miles and walking another 15 when I knew good and well what the river looks like. Wide, muddy, meandering, best seen from an innertube with a beer in one hand and a fishing pole in the other.

So about the trail: It starts out from the west end of the Sauratown Trail, which connects to Hanging Rock State Park 22 miles to the east. OK, so it’s 28 miles of dodging horse poop but it could be worse — at least it ain’t cows. The Corridor is a 100-yard-wide tree tunnel cutting through a countryside dominated by farms, timber and a few ranches. The trail has a decent gravel bed in most places and requires a bit of rock hopping over a few creeks (I suspect these run dry later in the year).

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Three weeks of gross lassitude and all-around laziness ended Sunday with a seven-mile hike at Pilot Mountain State Park (site of my first-ever North Carolina hike.)

Pilot Mountain two days after the Blizzard of ‘09 blew through. Most of the snow’s gone now.

I was so out of shape that I skipped Pilot Mountain’s main attraction — the Big Pinnacle, which from a distance looks uncannily similar to a Big Nipple — and concentrated on a moderate loop along the Grassy Ridge Trail, Mountain Trail and Grindstone Trail.

It’s mostly standard walking-in-the-woods fare without much eye candy, but when I’ve sat on my fanny for most of a month, my cranky bones need a gentle reintroduction. Hiking to be hiking, for sure, but hey, they’re my feet. I’ll punish ‘em as I choose.
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Pilot Mountain is the real name that inspired the town next door on The Andy Griffith Show (Andy’s hometown is Mount Airy, which got Hollywoodized to “Mayberry”; presumably Andy approved it to protect the identities of Otis the Town Drunk and Earnest T. Bass, the stone-throwing lunatic). Remember how somebody was always heading over to Mount Pilot?

There is a little town called Pilot Mountain, right at the foot of the peak of the same name, which looks conspicuously like the place where Zeus might have been weaned. The nipple is actually called the Big Pinnacle, which rises to over 2400 feet, a tall peak indeed for these parts. (The Appalachian Mountains start rising in earnest about 100 miles west of here).

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