Boogerman Trail

Sunday morning, we woke up and packed up camp as soon as possible to get in a nice hike before heading back home. We moved our cars to the trailhead for Caldwell Fork & Boogerman Trails hiked across the first of many footbridges. Hiking on the Caldwell Fork Trail, we passed the first turn for Boogerman Trail. I had hiked this trail in March and two of the bridges were out requiring stream crossing and butt-sliding across a narrow log. But the park had replaced one bridge and stream crossing could be accomplished by walking across a very large tree that had been cut down. So we didn't have to get out feet we this time. At about 2.7 miles, we came to the second junction with the Boogerman Trail and turned left to begin a gradual climb. Along the way, we saw some artifacts from before the area was a park - an unknown metal device, an old foundation, and some stone walls, including one that is still in very good shape.

We also stopped at the big tulip poplar tree with a hole so big, at least two people can fit inside. After some amusing pictures, including handstands and yoga poses at the tree, we continued along the trail. But we didn't go too fast, because there were just too many opportunities for beautiful pictures of the fall foliage.

Leaves in every shade of red, orange, yellow, pink, and peach brightened the landscape and made for a very relaxing and enjoyable hike.

We even found another giant tulip poplar, this one with a hole in the back, so it was not as obvious from the trail. And the hole went all the way up with light coming in at the very top. Continuing on, the trail twisted around before starting to head back down and joining back up with the Caldwell Fork Trail.

When we got back to the car we didn't leave immediately. Instead, we headed back towards the group camp and stopped at the Palmer House were two male elk were grazing near the road.

We walked around the old barn and headed up to the cemetery for more pictures and stopped again at the Cataloochee overlook for some last fall foliage views before heading back home to Raleigh.

Enloe Creek Falls Attempt

For our annual fall foliage trip this year, we stayed at the Cataloochee group campsites at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Sandy and I left after work Friday night and arrived at the camp at around 10. We set up our tent and went to bed shortly afterwards. In the morning, we ate breakfast and drove through Cherokee towards the Oconaluftee visitor center, then took Big Cove Road into the park, where it becomes Straight Fork Road. We parked at the trailhead to Hyatt Ridge Trail and began our hike. The Hyatt Ridge Trail runs for about 1.9 miles before meeting up with the Enloe Creek Trail. And it is uphill the entire way, for more than 1000 feet of elevation gain.

But with cooler weather and beautiful fall color, it wasn't too bad. There was even a big log about three fourths of the way for a nice break. At the junction, we turned left to head down the Enloe Creek Trail. The steady downhill was a nice relief after heading up for a ways, but of course that means more uphill on the way back. After heading down a bit, we came to a bridge over a river crossing and stopped for a bit.

Just downstream of the bridge were several nice cascades and Raven Fork Falls, a small 8-foot cascade.

Getting downstream was a bit of a challenge, however, and it took some rock climbing and tree hugging to get downstream. After a short bit, it was clear that further travel was impossible, so we headed back to the bridge. There is a campsite immediately across the bridge and the Enloe Creek Trail continues past the intersection of Raven Fork and Enloe Creek and heads upstream along its namesake creek.

Casey told us that there might be some marking tape to get down to Enloe Creek Falls, but we never saw any. After a while, we could see Upper Enloe Creek Falls through the brush and made a very challenging descent down to get a good view of the falls.

And the climb up was even more challenging. We ate lunch near the river and tried to find the actual Enloe Creek Falls, but to no avail.

We will have to come back another time and this time, make sure to have a GPS waypoint. As it was getting late, we turned around and made our way back to the cars. On the way back to camp, we stopped at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center to see the elk and stopped in Maggie Valley for dinner before heading back to camp.

Salem Lake Trail

This past weekend, we knocked out another one of the 100 Classic Hikes in NC - Salem Lake Trail (#23 in the book) in Winston-Salem. We left in the morning and made the drive out to Winston-Salem, arriving at Salem Lake right at 10. We were hoping to see some of the first fall color of the season, but it was a little early.

A few trees had started to change with patches of yellow and red among mostly green, but definitely not peak color. Leaving the parking lot, we followed the trail clockwise going behind the dam on a paved trail.

Shortly, the trail became unpaved and crossed a footbridge, providing a nice view of the lake and an old railroad bridge in the other direction.

Continuing on, the trail ducked in and out of coves along the north side of the lake and eventually, the lake became more like a marsh or wetlands with little visible water among the grasses and other plants.

At the end of the lake, the trail becomes paved again and parallels Linville Road as it crosses on the east end of the lake and goes back to unpaved as it follows the south shore of the lake.

Right before the trail becomes unpaved again was a drinking fountain that had another fountain near the ground for dogs to get a drink! I had seen one of those before. Heather had brought Duke Henry along for the walk so he was able to use the doggie drinking fountain.

Continuing on, the trail went through more coves on the south side of the lake, with a larger one towards the end.

Here was another small footbridge that crossed a small creek with water cascading over rocks as it made its way to the lake - another very picturesque spot along the trail.

Finally, we finished the trail and made out way back to the parking lot. Since we were in the area and didn't stop for lunch along the hike, we headed downtown and had beers and burgers at Foothills Brewing.

Birkhead Mountains Hike

Today, we started back with our series of hikes from Joe Miller's 100 Classic Hikes in NC, doing hike #36 from the book. This hike is in the Birkhead Mountains Wilderness area of Uwharrie National Forest. Following the book, we started from the Robbins Branch Trailhead, which is off a small gravel road off of Lassiter Mill Road. After hiking just a few minutes, we took the left fork in the trail to stay on the Robbins Branch Trail.

Initially the trail had a very gentle ascent for a mile or so, passing the Thornburg Trailhead spur, then headed down to Robbins Branch and followed the creek for a ways before a steeper climb up to the Birkhead Mountain Trail. The Uwharrie Mountains are so worn down, that even the steepest ascents are moderate at best. But it was fairly warm and humid today, so I could definitely feel the elevation gain. We turned right onto Birkhead Mountain Trail and made the gradual descent back down.

About half way, we stopped on a nice log and had lunch. Being a federally-designated wilderness area, there are very few amenities. But many of the backcountry campsites do have fire rings and even a few had signs. We also saw a plaque for the Christopher Bingham Plantation from around 1780 and the remains of an old chimney.

At the next turn, we went right to go on the Hannahs Creek Trail and intersects the Robbins Branch Trail near the parking lot.

Along the way, we saw a snake hiding in a hole under some rocks.