A fellow asked me last year what made the "perfect" trip. I admit I was a little perplexed at how to answer that question. Every outdoor experience I take has something that makes me say "Well we will never beat this one". Even the really bad days in the outdoors beat great days inside. I feel blessed and fortunate that I get out as much as I do. If I had it my way, I would never be "indoors". Well, maybe there are exceptions to that rule but lets just say generally I would prefer to be outside. This past weekend was just another "Outdoor High" for me. Back last fall, I was put down as an advisor with 2 Scouts to lead a trip to DuPont State Park in Brevard. DuPont is a gorgeous place, but its not really set up for backpacking. Its OK for day hikes(if you don't mind a few cyclists) or for Mountain Biking. But not for overnight backpacking. So after huddling with my Scouts, we decided to change direction and go back to an old favorite "Linville Gorge". I never tire of going there because it changes with every trip. Its not extremely high in elevation ~3000 ft., but it has extremes in altitude gains and losses in short period. Linville was donated by John D Rockefeller in the 50's with a stipulation it remain untouched by man. It was designated Wilderness in the 60's and has remained fairly constant since. In 2004-2005, a bridge was constructed connecting the east side to the west side. Prior to that, you had to ford the river to access the other side. The folks who constructed the bridge did a great job making it "fit in" to a wilderness area. So our group of 17 folks broke into 2 groups. One group parked on the East side at Shortoff Trail and the other parked at the top of Pinch in on the west side. We planned to switch keys somewhere on the Table Rock trail around noon.
Friday afternoon was hot in Mooresville (almost 90) when we left. My group headed to the East side and hiked up the Shortoff trail to an area I knew would be out of the wind. A front was passing through that was supposed to cool things off but promised only a slight chance of rain. The hike up is about 1.5 miles and is a moderate hike. Steep in a few sections but not too bad. One of our Scouts had a boot issue almost immediately. He had already begun to form blisters before we were a mile in. I guess his boots didn't fit from last year. SO, he took off his boots and walked the final 1/2 mile in socks!! More on that later. When we got to the appointed campsite, it was already inhabited by 2 young men from UNC Chapel Hill who were just there for the night. I knew there was another site about 1/4 mile on down the trail but it is generally always taken. I asked them if they minded us setting up and they said sure. I don't think it was what they really wanted but they were very cool about it. Once we set up, the boys got an hour or so to gaze at the view off Shortoff Mountain. We thought we saw lights from our campers on the other side but we were not sure. We all sit by the fire the guys from UNC made. We watched as they tried to cook on a full size Coleman stove they had hiked in from the trail head. The white gas stove had a leak and I thought they were going to burn down the whole forest and kill themselves in the process. I offered my isopro stove thinking all they were doing was heating up some food. I had no idea they were cooking a feast for an army. The boys all watched as they cooked chicken, peppers, onions, soup, mashed potato's and filled wraps with all of this concoction. They had so much food, our boys all ate some as well. Everyone was full. I had very little gas left but it was all good. It was the least I could do for them since they let us crash their camp site. They had to go back down the trail for 1 mile to find water because they used all of theirs putting out the stove fire. About 11, I made them all go to bed because I knew the day ahead would be rough.
The next morning, we rose "kind of" early to start the day. I was kind of itching to get going but I knew you let boys go at their own pace. Our Scout with the Boot issue devised a makeshift moccasin (see picture above) to get him through the day. I pleaded with him to wear boots but he wanted to try the sock/duct tape version. "its your feet" I said. We took off about 8:30 towards Table Rock. The early part of this hike follows a long ridge line about 2 miles. Then it meanders around the top of the ridge before falling into the gap between Shortoff and the Chimney's. Once it hits the bottom , it is a nice walk in the gap for about 3/4 of a mile. We stopped at a campsite for a few minutes before quickly ascending to the chimneys. The hike up was pretty uneventful except for a couple with 2 boxers who thought there was a trail leading from the gap to the gorge. I tried to tell them I knew of no such trail but they insisted someone told them it was there. OK, have fun. We hiked through the Chimney's and on to Table Rock where I thought there was water. Guess what? NO WATER!!!. No big deal for us because we were going to the water (Linville River), but it was going to be bad info for the group coming up. We started up towards Table Rock and just as we were about to head up the trail to the top, we heard our other group coming up from Spence Ridge. We waited on them and switched keys/swapped stories and hiked up to a great overlook to see more sights. The wind was blowing really hard on the ridge. The boys would throw large sticks over the edge and they would blow right back over our heads 40 feet behind us!! I estimated the wind on the ridge was blowing 40 MPH sustained and 50+ gusts. Once you got off the ridge it was just a good breeze. Next we headed down Little Table Rock trail to intersect with Spence Ridge. Our climbing was over for the day but we still had a long hike. After a "slight" miscalculation (bad trail reading),we hit the Spence Ridge and descended into the Gorge. We arrived at the bridge and spent about 45 minutes pumping water and playing on the river.
We could have stayed there longer but I knew we still had 3+ hours of trail before we hit our campsite. So off we went. The Linville River trail follows the River from North to South. Sometimes you are right on the river and other times you ascend as much as 500 feet above it. It has a lot of turns and you need to pay special attention early in the year especially since it is fresh with new vegetation and is not highly used. The west side of the Gorge has trails that are just not used as much because of the steep trails that you have to take in and out. Most day hikers don't want to work that hard. We got off track only once and quickly figure out our mistake. Still it worried me that our progress was slow as I wanted to give the boys time to hang out and enjoy.
(A quick update on the 2 Scouts with boot problems: both were doing fine. One was still wearing his sock moccasins and his twin brother who had the same boot issues was wearing flip flops with duct tape)
So, on with the story: We finally made it to camp at 6 PM. It was a nice campsite and nobody there. It is by far the nicest campsite in the Gorge as its close to water and very flat. We cooked, set up, built a small fire, talked and just hung out. It wasn't too hard to get them in bed by 9:30 PM. I had prepared them for a really tough trail on Sunday morning. The Pinch In Trail is aptly named. Its only 1.6 miles in length but gains almost 2000 feet in that distance. It hurts your quads going up or down. It starts out kind of benign at first as it slowly ascends up through a lush dense forest. Then about 1/2 mile in, it turns up to the sky and has numerous switchbacks and "false ridges" where your mind tells you its over. then you crest and see another ridge line 500 feet further up. This happens 3 or 4 times. You are in a rugged section with no cover and the sun beats down on you. Even in cold weather its hot and hard to go. I personally feel this trail is one of (if not THE) toughest trails in the Carolina's. No I haven't walked them all, but I don't think many can compare. But, I was very proud of both Scout and Adults as we made it up in 1.5 hours. We were at the cars at 8:30 and loaded up to meet the other group. We only waited 5 minutes at the intersection and there they were. On to Morganton and a "quick" breakfast at Mickey D's.
All in All, it was a great weekend. The weather was about perfect. It was cool enough you could feel comfortable and the bugs were not bad. Warm enough to wear shorts, and NO RAIN. I classify my hikes as all Epic. No one knows when I will no longer be able to do these kind of things. I guess that's why I cherish all the time I spend with these boys and men. I know that one day, my son and his friends will all be in college or away at jobs or the service. I will be hiking these trails either alone or with another group of Scouts. But it will not always be the same. Epic? Maybe. But never the same. So I guess my answer to that fellow who wanted to know my perfect weekend would be "all of them".
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