Posted By auntie on October 23, 2020

7.7 miles; 524 feet ascent; Asheville, NC

A variation on the Hard Times/Arboretum Loop which I thought would be shorter but, no, nope, not shorter at all. Longer. Okay. Also, at about the 4.9 mile mark, it started to rain, and I mean RAIN. I got very wet. Although I must say I loved the Owl Ridge Trail…really pretty!

Owl Ridge Trail Junction

This trail is on Arboretum property, not far past the gate.

See What I Mean? Pretty!

This was the last dry stretch for me today. Not much past here the sky opened up and it started pouring. I dug out my trusty little umbrella, but after a while I still got pretty wet from splashing and dripping. I didn’t take any photos past here, either, so this is a short post.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the North Carolina Arboretum from their website (includes a “Trails” link from which you can download a pdf trail map). You can find a link to another trail map at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest website which includes the Hard Times Road Trail. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

UPDATE: Not 24 hours after I posted this, my local newspaper highlighted the Owl Ridge Trail as one of the best 5 hikes in Western North Carolina (where you might find someplace to park)!

Category: Mountains-to-Sea Trail, North Carolina, Walks and Hikes | 1 Comment »
Tags: 7–10 miles, Asheville NC, NC, Pisgah NF

Posted By auntie on October 20, 2020

9.73 miles; 7 feet ascent; Marshall, NC

Oh, wow, what a beautiful trail! And considering it’s in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it’s a remarkably flat trail, too, with only 7 total feet of ascent. It follows the Laurel River out to its confluence with the French Broad River. Again, though, AllTrails said it was 7 miles out and back, and uh, no… More like almost 10.

Old Train Cars

Right off the bat on this trail you look right and up to see a red train caboose and a black rail car. The sign declares them to be the “Hager Family Trains.” Several whole minutes of searching on the intertubes turned up absolutely nothing about them. I thought they might be a cute little VRBO or AirBNB, but like I said, nothing turned up.

Glorious Asters

There are still tons of flowering asters out, and some Snakeroot, and Self-Heal… Amazing the amount of stuff there is to see flowering this late in the year.

Laurel River

The river this trail follows is beautiful. Lots of whitewater sections. Apparently this trail used to be a rail line (which explains its flatness!) which brought logs to a sawmill that used to exist down near the French Broad River.

Rail Line and French Broad River

You can just see the far bank of the French Broad River from here. This is basically where the Laurel Trail, and the Laurel River, end.

GIGANTIC Mushroom

On the way back I noticed this HUUUUGGEE mushroom. The biggest was was seriously the diameter of my car’s steering wheel, no lie. I didn’t come up with an definite ID, but I thought it looked like an old Dryad’s Saddle. If that’s what it is, I had no idea they got so big.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the Laurel River Trail from this Romantic Asheville page. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track. NOTE: the linked track is for one-way. I recorded the return trip separately.

Category: North Carolina, Walks and Hikes | 1 Comment »
Tags: 7–10 miles, Marshall NC, NC

Posted By auntie on October 12, 2020

7.7 miles; 475′ ascent; Arden and Asheville, NC

Another Feisty Women hike. This has a heck of a lot less ascent than it felt like. Most of the climbing is at the beginning. Only had to stop while gasping for air once, so getting better.

The River at French Broad River Park

We had a lot of rain this past weekend as the remains of Hurricane Delta moved through, and the French Broad River was really high. The trail was pretty muddy, and covered with wet leaves in places, too, so I was moving slower going downhill than up.

View

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which we hike on the regular, is in places way above the Blue Ridge Parkway, though it’s still on US Forest Service land. Makes the views extra special.

Lady Glow-worm (Phengodes)

Someone spotted this gal as we walked. We didn’t know it at the time, but it’s an adult female glow-worm. The males have wings and are basically only around for te sexy times, as they have no mouths with which to eat. Had it been nighttime we wouldn’t have missed her, I’m sure. Glow-worms are actually a kind of beetle.

Beautiful Web

Right after the glow-worm I saw this gorgeous little spider web nestled into an old stump. Nature is cool.

Lovely Golden Trail

I love this time of year when the yellow leaves gild the trail. It was a great hike.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the Mountains-to-Sea trail here. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

Category: Mountains-to-Sea Trail, North Carolina, Walks and Hikes | No Comments »
Tags: 7–10 miles, Asheville NC, NC

Posted By auntie on October 1, 2020

4.3 miles, 787 ft. total ascent; Gerton, NC

This was a difficult hike [for me], as it was entirely uphill for the first 2 miles. Nothing especially steep, except for the first few 10ths of a mile from the parking lot, but still, a lotta work. Beautiful hike, though. No major waterfalls and no views, which is kind of what I like. I very much enjoyed it.

Old Cabin

There was an old cabin on the first section of this hike. It’s pretty much firewood at this point… barely holding together.

Goldenrod

Still plenty of goldenrod and asters in bloom. We haven’t had a frost here yet, although the predicted low for tonight is in the high 30’s, so I’m guessing I’ll see some frost-killed plants on any weekend hike I do, particularly at higher elevations.

Speaking of elevations, I plan on adding total ascent notes to the little hike intro on each post, starting with this one. I’m finding elevation more and more relevant down here in the North Carolina mountains.

Snake Tongue Truffle Club (Maybe?)

I thought this was Dead Man’s Fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) when I saw it, but it looked more like the Truffle Club photos that I found. Anyways, if it is the Snake Tongue Truffle Club (where do I join?), it is feeding off another fungus, or truffle, buried beneath it, attached by a golden thread. Cool!

Shelf Fungus

No idea what this shelf fungus is, but I liked the composition and the colors.

Indian Cucumber Root

And I’ve seen plenty of these in my travels in New England. I like the colorful bracts with the little blue berry more than the small, uninteresting flowers of this plant.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the Florence Nature Preserve from this Conserving Carolina web page. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

Category: North Carolina, Walks and Hikes | No Comments »
Tags: 2–5 miles, Gerton NC, NC

Posted By auntie on September 26, 2020

7.2 miles; Asheville, NC

This was a “Feisty Women” hike and hooowee this was a hard one for me. Lugging my extra 20 Covid pounds up and down the hills was just not fun, and I ended up at the end of the group. Again. Good news? No major disasters, although we were warned there was a mama bear with 2 cubs ahead they were gone by the time we got there.

Blue Ridge Parkway marker

If you’re not familiar, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail basically parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway for a long stretch through Asheville. And if you’re not familiar with the Blue Ridge Parkway, lemme outsource this to Wikipedia:

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America’s longest linear park, runs for 469 miles through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It runs mostly along the spine of the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Its southern terminus is at U.S. 441 on the boundary between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, from which it travels north to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The roadway continues through Shenandoah as Skyline Drive, a similar scenic road which is managed by a different National Park Service unit. Both Skyline Drive and the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway are part of Virginia State Route 48, though this designation is not signed.

The parkway has been the most visited unit of the National Park System every year since 1946 except four (1949, 2013, 2016 and 2019). Land on either side of the road is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, and in many places parkway land is bordered by United States Forest Service property.

Anyhoo, the hike pretty much paralleled the BRP.

At the Haw Creek Overlook

About 5 miles into this hike we came to the Haw Creek Overlook, which was a beautiful spot to sit and chat.

Leafy Brain (Phaeotremella foliacea)

This is a great common name for this fungus! This specimen was pretty big. Oh… and taking photos is one of the reasons I was so far behind the main group. These ladies don’t stop for nothing!

Strawberry Bush (Euonymus americanus)

Lots of stuff still to take photos of, too, including this cool euonymus fruit.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the Mountains-to-Sea Trail here. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

Category: Mountains-to-Sea Trail, North Carolina, Walks and Hikes | No Comments »
Tags: 7–10 miles, Asheville NC, NC

Posted By auntie on September 23, 2020

5.7 miles; Asheville, NC

This is a pleasant little walk through the Bent Creek Experimental Forest. Mostly on gravel forest roads and heavily trafficked by mountain bikers. So many mountain bikers!

Unlike most hikes in Western North Carolina, this one didn’t have any waterfalls or spectacular views. And astonishingly, very little total elevation gain, about 11 feet. A real easy-peasy walk for me today!

Signage

There were tons and tons of interpretive signs all along this walk. This forest is a teaching and experimental forest, so you see signs about how some sections were clear-cut and when, and what kind of trees to look for and their significance to the forest ecology. I’d say reading all the plaques added prolly 30 extra minutes to this hike. Also, “The Irregular Shelterwoods” was my college band’s name.

Moar signage

This is also a National forest, so there were also the expected trail signs.

Asters!

This really was a day for asters, as you would expect for late September. They were everywhere, and so many different kinds. These are Hairy White Oldfield Aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum).

Hikes with Bathrooms (a continuing series)

About 3/4s of the way through (walking the loop counter-clockwise), you come up to a trailhead and yet more signage and a nice composting toilet. Love me a hike with a bathroom break!

From here, I left the forest road and picked up a nice little woodland track through the woods just beyond the bathroom to get back to my car. This trail was labelled the Deer Lake Lodge Trail. Didn’t actually see a lake. Or a lodge. Or, for that matter, any deer. Just another mountain biker.

Pinesap

I did see a pretty little bunch of these non-chlorophyll producing plants. They are, as you might guess, related to Indian Pipes, and like them, they get their nutrients from tree roots via a fungal network.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the Bent Creek Experimental Forest and download a trail map from this USDA website. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

Category: North Carolina, Walks and Hikes | No Comments »
Tags: 5–7 miles, Asheville NC, NC, Pisgah NF