Monday, September 3, 2018

Woods Mountain on Labor Day

Monday morning, I woke up and broke camp and left the Curtis Creek area.  Going east on US-70 to Marion, I took US-225 north to the Woodlawn Work Center where there is a trailhead for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.  Hiking MST westbound, the trail climbed gradually so was hoping it would stay this way.  After about a mile, however, it started to go down for about another mile to cross Toms Creek.


There were a lot of wildflowers blooming along here.  The devil's bite were particularly nice.


In a short ways, the trail then crossed South Fork Toms Creek at a concrete ford.  Not wanting to get my feet wet, I rock hopped a little downstream.  After this point, the trail started heading up very steeply.  With the heat and humidity, it was a brutal climb up.  It leveled off in places, but was all uphill to Woods Mountain.  A very overgrown spur trail led to the summit but there were no views from here.


A lookout tower had once stood here, but now all that's left are the concrete supports.  So I started hiking back down.  Before leaving the area, I wanted to get one more waterfall, so made the short drive to Toms Creek Falls.  Its only half a mile up Falls Branch Trail (#214) to the scenic waterfall.


I climbed around on the rocks to get some photos and then made the short hike back.


It was about a 3 hour drive home from here.

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