Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Blue Ridge Trip '24 #13
Boone, NC - Tue, 3 Sep 2024. 11:15pm

I'm skipping ahead from my previous blog. Rest assured that once we arrived in Lexington, VA we went enjoy two days of hiking in the area. I'm skipping over those blogs as my photo workflow is backlogged and I'm not going to have time to deal with it tonight. And tonight I want to write about, well, tonight. After two days of hiking out from Lexington we drove to Boone, NC to set up for our next several days of hiking. And it's been a long day of driving.



We've driven over 360 miles today. No, that's not a lot... if all we did was drive. But we didn't just drive. We also hiked for several hours up in the Shenandoah National Park. (Hiking blog is in the backlog.) So it's been a long day.

We stopped for dinner this evening in Roanoke. (Yes, same area we stayed a few nights ago.) We were hungry, in a hurry, and had low standards. So we ate at a buffet restaurant. One thing... interesting... about this buffet restaurant was the number of morbidly obese people there. I'm talking 400 lbs, 500, or maybe more. Several of them, though not all, had motorized scooters to get around. I swear it felt like bumper cars in the restaurant at one point. It's kind of stereotypical to say, "These people need scooters because they're too fat to walk." That's a little unfair because the fact is a handicap that prevents a person from walking contributes to weight gain. But at some point you gotta say, "Maybe stop loading up at the buffet."

After dinner we finished our drive to Boone. One interesting thing about the drive there is the last leg, on US 421 from I-77 outside of Winston-Salem, is just up, up, up. Drive up a hill, level off. Drive up another hill, level off. Drive up another hill, etc. After about 40 miles of that we crossed the Continental Divide at the Blue Ridge Parkway at elev. 3,100'. Yeah, that's not high by Western US standards; a few weeks ago we were hiking above 9,000' in the Carson Pass. But here in the east it's a lot.

Well, it's after 11:30pm now. I'd better wrap this and wind down for bed so I can get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow. Another day of hiking awaits!

Blue Ridge Trip '24 #4
Pembroke, VA - Sun, 1 Sep 2024. 4pm

You know how sometimes you see a picture of a place and say, "I've got to go there!"? I do that a lot, actually. It's not really that surprising. We humans are visual creatures, and here in 2024 it's easy to find high resolution, full color pictures when researching places to go... or even when not particularly looking, but a friend shows you their pictures— like I do in this blog. Our hike today was inspired by a poster I saw at a highway rest stop, of all places.

On our trip to West Virginia last year we stopped at the Welcome Center in Virginia— we were just passing through that state— and saw a big picture of a waterfall on the wall. "I want to go there!" I said aloud to Hawk. It was Cascade Falls. We looked it up... and it wasn't near enough to where we were already going to fold into our plans. Ah, but when we say "No" to things such as that, "No" is not short for "Not ever"; it's just short for "Not this time." We came back out to the Blue Ridge Mountains again this year, 11½ months later, and Cascade Falls was absolutely on our list. It even wound up being the first hike we did this trip!

We got going a bit late this morning from our hotel room in Roanoke. I slept in 'til 8:30 this morning after a late night last night and let Hawk sleep in 'til 9:30. We were rolling by 10:30. We stopped in Blacksburg, VA for lunch, eating just off the campus of Virginia Tech, and got to the trailhead near Pembroke, VA just before 12:30pm.



Cascade Falls is a hike of about 4 miles roundtrip with 700' of elevation gain. The trail follows the creek all the way up, so the ascend is mostly gradual over the 2 miles in. At the end of the lower part of the canyon we reached a 66' tall waterfall.

Soaked on the Way Back

The weather was not great today. It was cloudy and humid. At least it wasn't hot. It was around 80° F. ...But it was also near 100% humidity, so hiking was tough. Sweat was pouring down my face. Then just after we got to the falls it started to rain. At first it was a mild drizzle but then the sky opened up. We decided that was a good reason to start back.

It rained pretty hard on us for 15 minutes. We took refuge under the canopy of some trees, but even those didn't hold the rain off for more than a few minutes. Hawk put her rain jacket on while I decided I'd just get soaked. It was still warm enough that being drenched didn't totally suck. I knew if nothing else I had a dry change of clothes in the car at the trailhead.

The rain let up once we were far enough down the trail to not want to go back up and see the falls again. 😅 We continued back down to the trailhead, mostly focusing on putting one foot in front of the other to make it quick in case the rain returned. It didn't, and in fact by the time we got to the parking lot the weather was warming up. Steam was rising off the blacktop as water evaporated. None evaporated from my shirt, though. The dang thing was plastered to my torso when I peeled it off at the car.

Now we're down the hill in town, enjoying snacks at a convenience store. Hawk bought a bag of cheese puffs while I bought an ice cream cone. Pembroke's not even a one-stoplight town. Thankfully, though, it's got 2 or 3 gas stations with big mini-marts. In a few minutes we'll hit the road again... but not to home. We're off to another hike, this one at the hopefully not aptly named Dismal Creek Falls!

North Carolina Travelog #30
Balsam Grove, NC - Sat, 23 Sep 2023. 5:30pm

Hiking the Rainbow Falls trail today— and visiting not just Rainbow Falls but also Turtleback Falls and Drift Falls— took most of our energy. Not to mention most of the daylight. Dusk falls early here on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But there was enough of each left for one more waterfall on our list near our homebase in Brevard. Courthouse Falls.

Well, okay, it's not really near Brevard. It's about 20 minutes west on US-64, then about 10 minutes north on 215 toward the Blue Ridge Parkway, then off on a dirt and gravel road for a few miles— which took at least 15 minutes (or seemed like it) because I wasn't driving very fast. Despite having an SUV as our rental car this week it's a two-wheel-drive model shod with street tires. I veered toward the ditch at the side of the road while passing a vehicle coming the opposite direction down the road and felt the tires start to slip.

Near-misadventure aside we got to the trailhead for Courthouse Falls with no real problems. It's a fairly remote location considering the many other trails we've hiked the past few days, but still there were 6 other cars parked there. We parked, laced our boots and shouldered our packs, and headed up the trail.



Compared to many of the other falls we've visited the past few days, Courthouse Falls involved a genuine hike. It wasn't 5 miles roundtrip like our hike at Gorges State Park earlier today, but I was tired from that 5 mile hike, so hiking a mile each way here was about the limit of what I could do. The falls was worth it, though.

Despite it being late in the day, with dusk falling over these deep mountain valleys, Courthouse Falls was crowded when we arrived at the falls. In addition to a group of young people taking turns jumping off the side wall into the pool beneath the falls there were at least two family groups sitting on logs and playing in the shallow water further downstream. We waited out the families, but the group of young adult cliff jumpers did not tire so easily. Oh, to be young again!



They did finally decide enough was enough and towel off to start the hike back up the hill. I snapped a few more pictures, like the one above, after everyone else left.

The hike back to the car was uphill much of the way. I'd benchmarked the distance and elevation on the way in so I could pace myself on the way out. I knew I'd be tired and didn't want to feel wrecked. My pacing worked; I made my way uphill gradually yet steadily. I topped the shoulder of the mountain right when I thought I would then glided down to the end of the gravel road where our car was parked.

In beauty I walk.

North Carolina Travelog #28
Gorges State Park, NC - Sat, 23 Sep 2023. 1pm

Rainbow Falls is obviously the main event on the Rainbow Falls trail, but the trail does continue to two other waterfalls that are worthy of the time and effort to visit them. Not too far past Rainbow Falls, and a mostly level walk from the top of the falls, is Turtleback Falls.



Turtleback Falls is not awe-inspiring like Rainbow Falls. It's barely 20 feet tall in total, versus Rainbow's 100+, but it sure looks fun. A gaggle of young men were foot-surfing down the falls. A few of the best slides/jumps are in the video I've put together above.

Remember, this immaculate day started out with clouds and a dire hurricane warning.

North Carolina Travelog #26
Gorges State Park, NC - Sat, 23 Sep 2023. 12pm

We're hiking the Rainbow Falls Trail at Gorges State Park in North Carolina. It's yet-another of the seemingly countless waterfall trails that are within ~30 minutes of driving from our home-away-from-home in Brevard, NC. Better yet, this isn't just another waterfall trail; it will take us to three waterfalls starting with Rainbow Falls.

The trail starts out easy. It's wide and it's downhill. Of course, down on the way in means up on the way home. It's like buying on a credit card; you enjoy it now but have to pay later. At least there's a lot to enjoy!



After bottoming out in the canyon the trail starts upstream— and uphill— to Rainbow Falls.

Rainbow Falls is huge. It's not as tall as the many tiers of Whitewater Falls added together but it does fall over 100 feet in pretty much one big drop.

One first catches a glimpse of the falls when the trail rounds a bend and offers a narrow lookout point. That's where I captured the photo shown above. As the photo shows there's also a wide open viewing platform closer to the falls and down a bit (right edge of the photo). From near that lookout there's also a obvious footpath to get down to the pool at the bottom of the falls.

Guess where I went.



Yes, I scrambled down the use trail to the bottom then rock-hopped partway across.

As you can see with the photo above, I also used my backcountry camera monopod to stabilize pictures taken with a neutral density filter.

After a fair bit of rock-hopping and scrambling I headed back up the hill to rejoin the main trail. It turns out I had a spy along with me for that scrambling and rock-hopping.



I've mentioned a few times this week that the AllTrails app has been coming in really useful. On this trek I somewhat inadvertently engaged the tracking feature. It builds a trace of where I've actually hiked, along with a total distance and an elevation profile. The trace, though, makes it look like I've wandered around in a stupor. It's even loopier than one of those Family Circus comics showing Billy walking through the neighborhood. It's like I'm drunk. Drunk on beauty!

In beauty I walk. Even if some dumb app thinks I'm walking in circles. 😂

North Carolina Travelog #22
Nantahala National Forest - Fri, 22 Sep 2023. 4pm

I mentioned two blogs ago that we were headed to visit the tallest waterfall in the eastern US. Well, we're here now. It's named Whitewater Falls, and it's in the Nantahala National Forest of North Carolina, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. An easy trail* leads about 1/2 mile from a huge parking seemingly built in anticipation of hundreds of simultaneous visitors. Today we saw, like, 7.



Obviously the 411 foot tall drop here is not all in one single falls. There are multiple tiers and cascades. And there's no trail to get closer to the falls.

As far as record setting waterfalls go, this "Tallest in the eastern US" waterfall leaves me feeling meh. I mean, it's beautiful, and I enjoy the beauty in which I walk. But it's not "One for the record books" awesome. The thought again of that ginormous parking lot out front, seemingly built for the throngs of people flocking to see this nominally superlative waterfall, makes me chuckle.

BTW, I starred "easy trail" a few paragraphs up because while this trail goes gently uphill on the way in, there's also a descent of 154 stairs down to lower the viewing platform we visited. That means the return trek starts with climbing 154 stairs. Ugh. It's not that 154 stairs are hard; just that it's been a long day already so I'm going to have to take them slowly.

North Carolina Travelog #19
Highlands, NC - Fri, 22 Sep 2023. 1pm

Not every waterfalls "hike" we do requires an actual hike. Some just require hopping out of the car and scrambling a short distance over some rocks or through some trees. Sometimes that turns into a lot of scrambling, as it did with Cullasaja Falls just before this. But here at Bust-Your-Butt Falls, there's no butt-busting required to see it.



Apparently the butt-busting option here is to try sliding down the falls. There's a rope on the dry rock next to them to help climb up. These falls are flowing way faster than yesterday's Slide Rock Falls, though. I wouldn't try sliding down the chute here... there'd probably be not just a busted butt but a busted foot, a busted leg, and maybe a busted head.

North Carolina Travelog #17
Highlands, NC - Fri, 22 Sep 2023. 12pm

I mentioned in my previous blog (Dry Falls) that we drove right past another falls this morning en route to Dry Falls. That's Bridal Veil Falls— and it's right on the roadside on US-64 outside of Highlands, NC.


Link: watch video on YouTube

You can walk right up to it and behind it. The route is even paved. It looks like they used to let people drive behind the falls!

North Carolina Travelog #15
Back at the hotel - Thu, 21 Sep 2023. 10pm

Today has been an amazing day. We went on several hikes and visited a whopping 10 waterfalls... all within a 30-45 minute driving radius of our hotel. I didn't even realize it was 10— I kind of lost count after 5 or 6— until we got back to our hotel room this evening and I sorted through my pictures.

As deliriously happy as we were throughout the day we also had moments of self criticism. You know, that feeling you have when you're doing something that is amazing and you pause to reflect, "Okay, this is amazing.... Why didn't I do it sooner?"

In our case "sooner" could have been twenty-some years ago when we lived in North Carolina. We lived here. Well, not here-here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We lived a few hours away in Chapel Hill, NC. I was doing my grad work there, and Hawk stayed with me two summers between finishing her undergrad in another city. We could have made weekend trips out here.

North Carolina Travelog #13
Pisgah National Forest - Thu, 21 Sep 2023. 4:45pm

After visiting a bunch of waterfalls on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains today, most recently Log Hollow Falls, we drove up to the ridge itself. Here the Blue Ridge Parkway traces along the crest of the mountain for an amazing 469 miles. We will only drive about 20 miles of it today, from the junction with US-276 to the junction with NC-215, then back down the mountain and looping along US-64 back to our hotel in Brevard. Elevations along this stretch of the parkway rise above 5,000 feet.

In this 20 mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway we're driving today there are several points of interest marked on the map that caught our attention. One was Graveyard Fields. Despite its very metal name it wasn't actually our top interest, more like maybe #3 instead... until from 1/2 mile away we caught a glimpse of a big waterfall there. Then we knew we had to stop.

So, what is Graveyard Fields? Before arriving I guessed, based on the name, it's a place where some early settlers died trying to cross the mountain in a harsh winter storm, kind of like how Donner Pass in California is named for the doomed Donner family emigrants. Nope, I was wrong. It's actually about trees. This sign in front of the namesake Graveyard Fields explains:



A strong windstorm hundreds of years ago knocked down all the trees in this area, leaving them looking like a huge graveyard. Then a fire in 1925 burned away all the fallen trees. Now, 98 years later, the area has completely regrown and looks nothing like a graveyard. I'm amused by the irony that the fix for one natural disaster was another natural disaster. 😅