Jason's Jaunts: Wilson Creek Area

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Wilson Creek Area- Huntfish Falls

At the corner of Brown Mountain Beach Road and NC Highway 90 (Edgemont Road) is Betsy's Old Country Store and Cabin Rentals. There is also a small campground on the premises. Our tent was a folded down back seat of my Jeep with Army mats and wool blankets.

North Carolina Highway 90 isn't what you typically think of as a highway. It is a dirt road barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass by with one lane bridges every time you cross over water. For the better part of our drive, there was a 70-degree cliff of several hundred feet to your right going East.

From our campground to get here, we went left on NC Hwy 90 West for two miles then turned left onto Forest Road 464. The trailhead parking is 3 miles up the road on the right.

Our hike from the trailhead is a 600-foot descent. My thought was what a killer this was going to be on our way back.

Stone bridge is crossing a small creek.

For 5 1/2 hours, we didn't see any other humans except for a fisherman with his daughter about Aaron age. His Cocker Spaniel Royal wanted to be in the picture.

Aaron is taking in the awesomeness of God's creation.

The scene further downstream.

Huntfish Falls

This waterfall was a bonus and isn't mentioned in the book that brought me to Huntfish Falls or at the various websites. Apparently it's because it doesn't always have an adequate amount of water. We became memorized by its beauty and sound.

This hike wasn't a walk in the park.We had to climb over or crawl under fallen trees and walk across creeks in knee high water ( thigh height on Aaron).

There is nothing spectacular about this picture, except it was the last picture I took just before I realized that something wasn't quite right. The book 100 Classic Hikes In North Carolina said "Shortly thereafter, cross Lost Cove Creek and within five minutes you'll come upon the Timber Ridge Trail. Take it to the left." So far so good for us everything happens just as the book said. The book continues "Timber Ridge Trail is a mile-long ascent that gains just over 700 feet of elevation. In its entirety, Timber Ridge is a 7.5-mile loop. But a mile into the trail there's a short and steep bailout trail to your left. Take it and you'll wind up less than 15 minutes later just above the falls and pool." What the book did not mention is the Timber Ridge Trail took a hard left turn with a false trail continuing straight. When I took the hard left, I thought I was on the bailout trail. But after 20 minutes of walking with no sight or sound of water, I began to wonder especially after stumbling upon another unmarked trail that went left going steeply downhill. For two days I had no cell phone service. At just about where I took this picture, my phone beeps with incoming messages. It was decision time. It was 6 pm with the temperature beginning to drop, and Aaron had wet pants, socks, and shoes. Do I follow this other trail for 15 minutes only to discover it was a dead end or do I continue down the trail the I'm currently on? I decided to call 911 to let someone know that we were lost and possibly going to return to our vehicle after dark. The dispatcher suggested we return the way we came, and he would send someone out in case we needed medical attention. We did make it back to the Jeep after dark. Embarrassingly waiting for us was a rescue vehicle and all sorts of people. Aaron was cold and promptly hopped into the Jeep and turned on the heat. They checked my blood sugar even though I told them I have hyperglycemia and never have hypoglycemia. My glucose level was 67 even though I hadn't eaten for 8 hours and been hiking for 5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwj3oAxwGTY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=900GCT94nGg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNHFAWGLXp0

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Wilson Creek Area- Harper Creek Falls

Wilson Creek was designated as a National Wild and Scenic River by Congress on August 18, 2000. There is a network of trails within the area. The Harper Creek Trail is a three mile (one way) trail to the waterfall by the same name.

Aaron is ready and excited. He is equipped with his hiking stick and survival knife. Gypsy showed her excitement by hardly being able to sit for a few seconds for me to take a picture.

The trail did a switchback, but Aaron took a shortcut up a washed out embankment with exposed roots of a fallen tree to help him climb. We are walking through a canopy of Mountian Laurel.

Our first view of the beautiful Harper Creek.

Ice cool water! Even Gypsy wasn't going to take a dip.

While following the trail downstream we came to this small obstacle of an eight-foot drop between some narrow rocks. Gypsy was able to leap down the four-feet on a rock then jump the rest of the way down while we use a rope and the same stepping stone.