Waterfalls near Brevard

This past weekend, we headed out to the Brevard area for a couples' weekend of camping, hiking, and waterfalls! We drove up on Friday night and camped out in Pisgah National Forest in the Avery Creek roadside campgrounds near Davidson River campground. Saturday morning, we woke up and started our waterfall adventure with Looking Glass Falls, just up the road from our campground on US-276. This one is right along the side of the road with a few stairs leading down to a viewing area at the base of the falls.

As such, it is one of the most popular waterfalls in the area, but there wasn't a crowd when we arrived while it was still early (and quite cold) in the morning.

After a few photos, we continued on, heading down US-64 past Brevard towards Rosman and turned onto NC-215. Our next stop was the Living Waters Ministry, about 7.5 miles up NC-215 for three more waterfalls. These waterfalls are on private property, but the people at the ministry are kind enough to allow public access to the waterfalls. Heading down the short trail, we immediately came upon the first waterfall.

Here, Shoal Creek and the North Fork of the French Broad River meet up just behind an old mill, with a pretty waterfall on each.

From here, a short quarter-mile trail leads downstream to Bird Rock Falls, which is a smaller waterfall, but within a beautiful setting of a giant rock bluff over the falls. We walked out onto the rocks below the falls, looking up at the massive cliff above us.

Although Bird Rock Falls is not a very big waterfall, the scenery around the falls made it very beautiful.

After a few photos, we headed back. Along the way, I noticed several smaller cascades along the creek between the falls, but it was hard to get out and get a good picture through all trees.

Leaving this area, we drove back to US-64 and out next stop was at Toxaway Falls. We pulled over at the bridge on US-64 and stopped for a few pictures of the falls from above.

The river flows from Lake Toxaway under US-64 and down the bedrock as it continues into Gorges State Park. A major flood in the early 20th century swept past the dam and washed away much of the vegetation leaving exposed bedrock where the river flows downstream. Although it's not possible to get a good picture from the road above the falls, the colorful bedrock was very pretty. Another time, I'd like to try and hike down to get a better view of the falls. The west side of the river is private condos with no public access, but the east side is part of Gorges State Park and as such, its possible to bushwhack down and get a better view.

Stadium Park in the Snow

This, past weekend, I had to travel up to Canton, Ohio for my grandma's funeral. After a very long drive in a snowstorm that turned into a two-day trip, I really needed to stretch my legs and get outside, despite the snowy weather. I remember now why I moved to NC. So before the wake, I headed over to Stadium park to go for a walk. I started off in the first parking lot on Stadium Park Drive just of 12th Street and tried to make my way to the trail.

The trail itself is a "rubber road", a soft paved greenway trail that makes a narrow loop. Due to the deep snow, I couldn't actually see the trail, and had to follow footprints in the snow to try and stay on the trail.

I followed the trail as it lead along a small creek that was mostly frozen but had a few spots that were still liquid and a couple of ducks were swimming around at these parts.

At the northern end of the trail near the stadium, there is a small lagoon. Since everything was covered in snow, I had to be especially careful to stay on the trail and not venture out onto ice.

I also found a spot where the creek falls a couple feet over a cascade - the moving water kept it unfrozen and provided an opportunity to see a "waterfall", even in Canton, Ohio.

Then I followed the other side of the loop back towards 12th Street and crossed the street into Monument Park. I took the trail here over to the William McKinley Monument and took some pictures of the monument.

On a nicer day, I could have gone up and down the stairs to simulate a mountain, but they were snowy and icy and would have been very dangerous to try in this weather.

There was even a sign that said No Sled Riding - not that I thought riding a sled down icy stairs would be a good idea.

Then I followed the trail back and did another loop around Stadium Park and finished up. Despite moving quickly, I was getting quite cold. Not used to the freezing Ohio temperatures anymore.

Last Day of Skiing

Sunday, the weather had gotten a little more pleasant with temperatures in the 30s and sunny skies. And most importantly, the wind had really died down. After breakfast at the hotel, we took the shuttle up the mountain and starting skiing from the Village area.

The village is right in the middle of the Snowshoe Basin ski area and the criss-crossing trails make it easy to ski down to different lifts. We decided to start off heading north and took the Hessler Way, Log Slide, and and Greenway trails down to the Powerridge lift.

The lines for the lifts were definitely longer than at Silver Creek, but still not too bad - 10 minutes or so. We took this lift up the mountain and took the Gangway and Yew Pine trails back down to the lift. This was a nice run and so we did a couple of times before moving on to the next. When we were ready to move on, we took the lift one last time, and then skied down the Powderidge, Powder Monkey, and Whiffletree trails down to the Ballhooter lift. We took this lift up, which dropped us off near the Village where we had started, and then took the Upper and Lower Hootenanny trails down to the southern end of the basin area. The very end of this trail, where it meets up with Widowmaker, was quite steep and I was able to pick up some speed. We took the Soaring Eagle lift up to the Top of the World area and skied down the Upper Flume to the Lower Hootenanny trails back to the same lift.

Looking up, the Widowmaker didn't seem to bad, although Sandy had no intention of skiing it. On the ride back up the lift, I asked the guy riding the lift with us how difficult the Widowmaker was and he said "not bad, my 5-year old daughter skied it." So now, I had to do it. So Amanda skied the easier route while I took the Widowmaker, my first time on a black diamond. I waited until no one else was on the slope and headed down, slaloming to keep my speed down. At one point, I felt like I was going incredibly fast (34.5 mph according to the GPS) until another skier flew by me like I was standing still. But I survived and didn't fall - and have the GoPro video footage to prove it. After this, we took the lift back up and skied down the Upper Flume, Mid Flume, Lower Flume and Whiffletree to the Ballhooter lift and took this back up to the Village.

We had lunch at Sunset Cantina, which was a little pricey but the service and food were good. Definitely much better than eating at Silver Creek. Then we got back on the trails and skied for a while longer until the Snowshoe Basin Area was getting ready to close. We took a shuttle back to Silver Creek and skied there for a while, since that's the only section that has night skiing. It was getting a little icy and we were both tired so after a few more runs, we called it quits, returning our ski equipment and heading back down to the Inn for one more time in the hot tub. We checked out in the morning and made a much easier drive home. All the roads were cleared and we had no trouble making it in 5.5 hours.

Skiing at Silver Creek

This past weekend, Sandy and I headed up to Snowshoe, WV for a ski weekend. Although this winter has been very unpredictable with a roller coaster ride of weather, we lucked out and had good skiing weather. Not so much for the drive up. It started lightly snowing almost immediately after we left the Raleigh area and was getting heavy and sticking by the time we crossed into Virginia, making the drive take a lot longer than normal. Particularly on some of the narrow mountain roads north of Lynchburg and through George Washington and Monongahela National Forests. What is normally a 5.5 hour drive turned into about a 7.5 hour drive, but we made it safely, the most important thing. After checking to our room at the Inn at the bottom of the mountain, we took the shuttle up to Silver Creek and picked up our rental gear, then headed back down and relaxed in the hot tub for a bit before getting to bed.  Saturday morning, it was still snowing and very cold - highs in the lower 20s with windchill below 0. We bundled up as much as possible and hit the slopes. Being a Saturday, the busiest day, we spent the day at Silver Creek, which has a lot less people than the main Snowshoe skiing area.

The slopes are also a little easier here, so it provided an opportunity to brush up on skiing before hitting more slopes. It was also a chance for me to try out my new GoPro camera for point-of-view video while skiing. Since it doesn't have a view screen on the camera, I wanted to practice a bunch and then check it in the evening on the computer. I really realized the importance of simplicity for such a camera. Even with big bulky ski gloves on, I had no trouble pressing the buttons on the camera and taking pictures and video. At around lunch time, we went to Misty's Sports Bar to get some lunch, probably a mistake. It was very crowded, loud, and the service was very poor. I had a Steak & Cheese sandwich that was pretty good, but my wife ordered the soup and salad. The soup was lukewarm at best, not what she was hoping for to warm up on a very chilly day. And the server failed to bring silverware for her salad. After almost 30 minutes of being ignored by the server, I finally just went up to the bar and grabbed some from behind the bar. After lunch we skied for a while longer, but by night time, it was getting very cold, so we decided to head back to the hotel and warm up in the hot tub. Talking to some of the other guests in the hot tub, we realized we weren't the only ones disappointed by the food at Silver Creek and they told us there were much better options in the Village.

Crowders Mountain & Kings Pinnacle

This past Saturday, we headed to Crowders Mountain State Park for a day hike. The previous week had lousy weather, being rainy most of the week and then a small snowstorm, but Saturday was forecast to be a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the 50s. I had only been to the park once before, almost exactly a year ago, and the weather was rainy and cold, so I was really looking forward to visiting Crowders Mountain on a nicer day and enjoying the scenic views across the Piedmont. I met Jim around 630 in Morrisville and we carpooled out to the park, arriving around 9. Everyone else arrived shortly thereafter and we set out from the visitor center around 930. We started hiking along the Crowders/Pinnacle Trail past the Visitor Center and turned right to stay on the Crowders Trail. After about a mile, we reached the street crossing at Sparrow Springs/Freedom Mill road. Across the street, we headed left to stay on the Crowders Trail, running along the western end of the mountain. This trail is fairly moderate with only small gains in elevation as it slowly winds up towards the summit and ending at an old road bed up the mountain, which is the Backside Trail. Rather than turn right and head straight up the mountain, we decided to extend our hike a bit and go left and then take the Tower Trail up the mountain. Heading in this direction, the trail goes down until it reaches the terminus at the Linwood Access Area and then the Tower Trail goes back up. Thus, we knew that going down now would mean that much more up before we reached the summit. The Tower Trail is also an old gravel road that heads up to the summit, starting out gradually and growing ever more steep as the trail approaches the top. There was a 10 MPH speed limit sign along the trail, suggesting that this road is still used for vehicle traffic heading up to the radio towers.

At the top, we passed the radio towers and stopped along the cliffs at the summit to eat lunch.

The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had great views of the surrounding landscape, including the Charlotte skyline in the distance. Being such a nice day, there were a lot of people up here enjoying the views and even a few climbers scaling the cliffs. After lunch, we spent some time exploring around on the summit, climbing and scrambling over rocks and cliffs, and then started our hike back. To minimize backtracking and make a loop, we headed back on the Rocktop Trail, the most fun trail to hike in my opinion. The trail splits off from the Tower Trail just below the radio towers and follows the ridgeline of Crowders Mountain.

Much of the trail crosses narrow ledges and cliffs, requiring rocks scambling and careful footing, and there are fabulous rocks formations all along the length of the trail. At the end, the trail heads down the mountain and meets up with the Crowders Trail where the trail crosses the street. Here, we followed the Crowders Trail back to the Visitor Center to use the restrooms and get more water.

Heidi and John, who were camping out for the night, grabbed their backpacks from the parking lot and we headed back out on the trail, this time turning left to hike the Pinnacle Trail. After a short ways, we made a quick detour on the Family Campground Trail and stopped so that John & Heidi could set up their tents, then headed back to main trail. Looking up, I could see King's Pinnacle towering above us, and knowing the trail wasn't very long, we were in for a good climb. As the trail ascends the mountain, it starts out gradually with a few switchbacks and then its just straight up. For some reason, I was under the impression that the hike up to King's Pinnacle was easier the the one up to Crowders. Maybe in terms of mileage, but the Pinnacle Trail gains more elevation in a shorter distance and this definitely seemed to be the more challenging hike.

After the trail ends, it was a short scramble up some rocks to reach the summit and then wonderful views in all directions.

Short trails leading off to various parts of the summit provided views in all directions - we could again see the Charlotte skyline to the east, and the mountains to west.

We spent about an hour up here taking pictures, resting, and enjoying the views.

John & Heidi were staying up for the sunset as they weren't leaving the park. But the rest of us needed to get out before the park closed, so we said good-bye and made our way back down the mountain. About three-quarters of a mile down the trail, we turned right onto the Turnback Trail and followed this back to the parking lot and starting heading back to Raleigh. We stopped in Gastonia for dinner and drinks along the way.