Linville Gorge Memorial Hike

Saturday was our first hike since we had to say good-bye to Alex and wanted to do his favorite hike.  Leaving early, we headed up to the Wolf Pit Trailhead at Linville Gorge.  I heard rumors the road was going to close to the public, but didn't see any indication.  We headed up along the Shortoff Mountain Trail.

The mountain laurel were really popping all along the trail.

Other pretty wildflowers like goat rue were flowering as well.

Some fly agaric mushrooms were popping out of the ground.

It was humid heading up, especially carrying Harper, but after a mile or soon, we made it up to the top.

It was much cooler up here and the clouds were clearing, so we started getting some great views of the gorge.

We took a short break at a rocky overlook and Sandy spotted an orange-patched smoky moth.

We also spotted a eastern turkeybeard flowering.

At high elevation, there was a lot of sandmyrtle flowering around the open areas at the top of Shortoff.

We also saw some interesting bristly locust.

It had small pink flowers and seed pods covered in red bristles.

There were also a few rhododendron blooming up here.

We stopped at the campsite along the trail before it turns east.

I think this spot has some of the very best views in all of Linville Gorge and Alex really loved the hike up here.

We hung out up here for a while then made the hike back.

We were pretty hungry by the time we got back down so stopped at Fonta Flora Brewing Whippoorwill Farm for pizza from the food truck and drinks.  Then we headed over to Lake James State Park to get in a quick hike before the rain.

More mountain laurel was blooming along Paddy's Creek Trail.  At the end, we got on Overmountain Victory Trail, but it soon looked like it was going to rain.

Fortunately, it didn't really start until we got back to the car.

From here, we headed to Spruce Pine and checked into Pine Valley Motel.  I noted a trailhead right across the street so I went on a short exploration.  A small trailhead for Overmountain Victory Trail was just off Carters Ridge Road.  The trail led about a quarter-mile along Grassy Creek.  At the end, stairs led down to the creek at the base of a small waterfall.

It wasn't big and there was a tree fallen down the middle, but it made a nice spot to turn around.

It started raining lightly, so I didn't stay long.

Back at the hotel, we took showers and went to bed.