Hiking Journal: Sam Knob

Details

Date: June 4, 2012
City: Pisgah National Forest, Black Balsam District
Route: Trail
Rating: 4 out of 5

My Experience

I knew I wanted to come back here, but ultimately decided not to camp out and climb Cold Mountain in the morning. Instead, with darkness a few hours away, I decided to hike a loop down to Flat Laurel Creek and up a spur to the top of Sam's Knob. This is one of my favorite places. You start the hike in an area that appears completely clear, and quickly end up in laurel tunnels and small copses of trees. The creek at the bottom of the valley was amazing, with vegetation growing up and around it, creating a tunnel. The top of Sam's Knob was neat. You could see the storm coming in, and the valley below kept filling with fog and then the fog would disappate. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay too long as I had to get back before dark to my car. Wish I could have camped there, but with the storm that I encountered on my drive home that night, I'm glad I didn't.

The Beginning to the hike down to Flat Laurel Creek.

A dead tree.

Mountain Laurel.

Sam's Knob

 

Hiking Journal: Linville Falls

 

Details

Date: June 4, 2012
City: Pisgah National Forest, Grandfather District
Route: Walking Trail
Rating: 3 out of 5

My Experience

On my return journey from Chapel Hill to Nashville, I knew I wanted to see more of the Pisgah National Forest. The first place I wanted to see was Linville Falls and with it Linville Gorge, as I had heard it was the second largest gorge on the east coast. Ultimately, I enjoyed the brief 2 mile excursion, but it wasn't anything unbelieveable. If I had had more time, I would have hiked down into the gorge, which I think would have been much more impressive, but I was pressed for time and just the easy hike along the western ridge. It gave some good views of the falls, but was pretty crowded.

The bridge across Linville River above the falls.

The Upper Falls.

All the dead hemlocks in the forest from a blight.

The rapids that have helped form the Gorge.

Hiking Journal: Radnor Lake 2

 

Details

Date: May 13th, 2012
City: Nashville, TN
Route: Lake Trail to Ganier Ridge Trail
Rating: 4 out of 5 (Urban Location)

Our Experience

Having only a few more weeks here in Nashville, we knew we needed to get back to Radnor Lake and hike the other half of the park. We started by the dam at the west end of the lake, and hiked along the lake trail until we came to the Ganier Ridge Trail, which was moderately steep.

It was amazing coming to Radnor Lake again. In March the ground was just beginning to turn green, and the sunlight streamed through the trees, bathing the forest in a beautiful glow. Today, the forest was covered in green, and for most of the hike, except at the top of the ridge, we were in complete shadow.

My wife was again amazing at spotting wildlife, including the scared little guy shown above and the deer below.

We are definitely going to miss having such great hikes nearby, Minneapolis doesn't have quite the same level of secluded nature in the middle of a city that Nashville does although I think that might be because many more people use the parks there than here in Nashville.

With moving and everything else, we'll see how much more hiking we'll get to do before we leave. But as it is, I feel like we have done a lot, given our severe lack of time.