WNCOutdoors.info Blog

Though I didn’t see a Forest Service announcement to this fact, I have confirmed with a personal visit that Yellow Gap Road appears to be open again. This closure was in the Pisgah National Forest near the Pink Beds area. Time to get back out and enjoy the Laurel Mountain, Pilot Rock, Slate Rock, Pink Beds, High Falls, and other trails that are accessible from this road.

You might still wish to call the Forest Service to confirm and see if there are any other areas that remain officially closed - always a good idea before heading out anyway.

The US Forest Service has issued a decision regarding the trail naming and use designations within Panthertown. Most of the trails themselves remain uncharged, however, as a lot of the maintenance budget was lost and that project was mostly scrapped. Volunteer efforts are still underway to maintain the trails, though. Signage will probably be updated to reflect the changes and we’ll get the changes made to our trail listing soon. However, until it’s all said and done, expect a bit of confusion and treat the area like you would a wilderness if you’re hiking into the interior areas there. (Short trips to, say, Schoolhouse Falls or the falls on Frolictown Creek shouldn’t really be an issue though for families and those with any hiking experience).

The forest service has released a nice official map of the area showing trail names, landmarks, and uses. Hikers will notice little impact. The main impact to mountain bikers in the area is the closure of the main Panthertown Valley trail to bikes from near Schoolhouse Falls up to near the falls on Frolictown Creek. There is a decent by-pass, though, and we’ll get our maps updated to reflect this soon!

Although Mount Mitchell’s new observation deck has been open for a while, the Park will hold a dedication on Saturday (May 9) which marks its official unveiling to the public. The dedication ceremony is scheduled for 11:00 AM at the summit. Go on up and enjoy the views before the summer haze sets in, as the wet weather of late has made for some spectactular, clear air. Just be sure to approach via the Parkway from the North - it is still closed at Craggy Gardens (although this section is set to reopen May 15 also).

And although Gorges State Park’s Frozen access has remained technically open, the Grassy Ridge entrance has been closed for construction. Unfortunately, it was where most of the park’s main attractions were reached and where visitors hiked to the nearby Turtleback and Rainbow Falls on the Horsepasture River. Fortunately, the Grassy Ridge area is scheduled to reopen Monday (May 11), with plenty of parking and new trailheads. This means we can FINALLY add Rainbow Falls and the other falls of the Horsepasture to this site, as up until this point, there was no reasonable and legal way to reach them!

Use the following links to get more information about Mount Mitchell or more information about Gorges State Park.

In response to my post about the new observation platform atop Mt. Mitchell, Allen said:

“Now that the old 45 tower has been replaced by the observation deck on Mt. Mitchell, is a person standing on the Clingmans Dome tower in the Smokies at a higher elevation, or does the Mt. Mitchell deck still put you at a higher level? In other words, how tall is the deck above the mountain top?”

Good question! I figured this one was worth a little bit of research.

The summit elevation at Mt. Mitchell is 6,684 ft. and the deck of the new Mt. Mitchell platform is 12 ft. above the mountaintop (according to the Asheville Citizen-Times), so the elevation of your feet when standing on the platform would be 6,696 ft. Now the summit of Clingman’s Dome is said to be 6,643 ft. According to Brittanica, the deck of that tower is 54 ft. high. So if the base of the tower is right at summit elevation, that puts the deck at 6697 ft. Which means that you’re now standing 1 foot higher on the Clingman’s Dome tower than the Mt. Mitchell observation platform!

 

Are these folks now standing higher than people on the platform atop Mt. Mitchell?

That would be a bit of justice finally to Mr. Clingman, I guess, considering the famous dispute between he and Dr. Mitchell regarding which mountain in the region was higher. But of course, the figures above might be just a hair off. In fact, I recently read that one new satellite-based measurement of Mt. Mitchell put the actual summit elevation at closer to 6,710 feet. (I need to find that article again, so don’t quote me on it).

Now these figures are so close, in the age of data and technology I think we need a better way to come up with a winner than just adding up numbers that “The Officials” have told us to be true. So let the new quest to find the highest tower begin! If anyone cares to get some GPS or altimeter readings on both towers, I’d be interested in seeing what they said. The more readings, the better. Both barometric altimeters, and actual GPS measurements. Make sure the unit is on the deck of the tower (the part you stand on, not the railing) when getting the reading. Come back and post it in the comments here, along with as much info as you can - device used, date, time, and other information such as calibration point. If we could get multiple readings by multiple people that we could average together, that’d help correct any aberration in any given unit at the time the measurement was taken. And use the same device for both readings, calibrated to the closest USGS benchmark or known elevation you can find. And if anyone wants to pull a tape up there and confirm the heights of the decks, that’d help too. We’ll collect the readings and start to see which one looks like it’s coming out the winner!

Regardless, of the exact measurements, they’re both literally within a stone’s throw of each other in height (as is Mt. Craig at 6,645′, and it has *no* tower at its top, making it my favorite).  Best to go to each one and enjoy them all so no matter what, you can say you were standing at the highest possible (albeit man-made) point in the Appalachians!

According to an article in the Asheville Citizen-Times (which I won’t link to anymore since they delete their articles from their web site after a few days), the Blue Ridge Parkway between the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area will be reopening (albeit 1 lane at the landslide site) on May 15. The official word to the public from the National Park Service is “Late Spring 2009″, so I expect that date is subject to change.  This is great news - lots of trails along that section have been inaccessible for the last two years. We will let you know when the actual reopening takes place!

As part of the new maps initiative, all trails, hikes, and rides on WNCOutdoors.info will eventually be GPS-mapped and all the GPS data will be available for download. Right now, a number of trails in the Pisgah National Forest, as well as all of the Tsali trails, have GPS-based maps. As time goes on, details about how each trail’s GPS data can be accessed (as well as updated) on the sites will be refined and finalized, and much more data will be added.

For now, here is a view of all the trails for which we have GPS data in WNC. The map will be displayed in Google Maps. You can download the KML by clicking “View In Google Earth” by clicking the link in the upper-right hand corner of the page. You can get this data into your GPS unit by saving a trail or Hike/Ride as an individual KML file, and converting that to a format your GPS understands with GPS Babel, which is a great, free program.

The data is all original, produced solely by WNCOutdoors.info. It is hand-drawn in Google Earth, and then compared to (usually multiple) GPS tracks, official Forest Service GIS data, USGS topographical maps, satellite and aerial imagery, other available maps, and memory of the trail in relation to natural features for accuracy. This means that the routes shown represent what we feel is a general consensus of where that trail actually is on the ground. It is mainly intended for the purposes of displaying maps, and as with all maps and GPS data, it should not be relied upon for navigational purposes (without a certain, boulder-sized?, grain of salt). Excellent GPS units and even the most accurate private and government map sources can be slightly off, out-of-date, or just plain wrong in their depictions of trails! However, the process used to map these trails should produce a more accurate representation of our trails than many sources that have been available in the past.

The data is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. This means you can do whatever you want with it, as long as you attribute WNCOutdoors.info. Be sure to let us know if you have suggestions, want to make corrections, or have other comments about the maps and data. Enjoy!

A “beta” of a new map interface using Google Maps is up and running for the Davidson River Area (link). The new maps allow zooming, panning, various base layers (such as Satellite, USGS Topos, and the excellent new Google Terrain view). With the new Google maps you can:

• Zoom in and out, and scroll seamlessly across the entire region
• Swap out the base imagery and map layers
• Mouse over a trail to hilight it (helps you see individual trails in a network)
• Click trails and placemarks for additional information and links

The major drawback to this interface is that it’s not very printable. So all Best Hikes and Rides will continue to be mapped separately, which can be printed out and taken with you when you go.

The new Google maps are powered by a database. I’ll eventually get all the trails in there - but right now it has just a small number of them. Trail data will eventually be downloadable via KML, GPX, and other GPS- and GIS- formats. (For now, here’s a Google Earth .kmz of every trail I have). Trail data is taken from a variety of sources, including USFS GIS data, spot-checked with satellite views and other published maps, freely available GPS maps that people post on their hikes and rides, as well as memory of the trail in relation to the terrain.

Be sure to send us feedback as to how you like the new maps (and of course if you notice any errors)!

The Forest Service has installed gates on FR 1206 and the road is completely closed to all uses, including hiking and mountain biking. Originally, only FR 476 leading to the South Mills River trail was closed, but due to individuals snooping around the closed area, the FS has expanded the closure area.

This all started when some crazy felon booby-trapped his campsite/hideout a while back (find out more about that here). The Forest Service had planned on a prescribed burn eventually in the area to remove udergrowth anyway, and decided that might help them expose any potential “issues” that might remain. But it’s too wet to burn right now, so until the Officials are convinced that there’s no further danger to the public, the area will remain closed.  This cuts off access to a lot of trails in the area, including Pink Beds, Mountains to Sea Trail, Pilot Cove, Slate Rock, Laurel Moutain, Pilot Mountain, and others.

You can find the offical closure notice here.

The new observation deck atop 6.684′ Mount Mitchell has opened. It was originally scheduled for completion in 2007, but was finally finished around November 2008. As of January 2009 notices on the Park’s web site regarding closures around the construction site were removed, and a visit in February confirms that the summit has reopend. The short deck replaces the aging concrete and stone tower which was torn down a couple of years ago to make way for the new structure. Why not make the trip to the summit to check it out, before the crowds return in spring? You can drive to the summit, but an invigorating hike along the Old Mitchell trail will get you there without feeling like a tourist!

Update 2/15/09: Here are some pictures from my trip, on a windy, foggy day.

Looking up the trail from the Environmental Education building.

Looking up at the observation platform from the trail.

The summit area and platform.

The top of the platform. It was comletely fogged in, so I didn’t even try to get a picture of the view.

 

The Forest Service has completed rebuilding the bridge over the Davidson River at the Daniel Ridge trailhead. It’s a neat, steel and wood arch bridge which is wider, higher off the river, and should provide many years of flood-proof access to this neat backcountry area. (Looks like it’ll provide access to heavy equipment and logging trucks, too, though, so that might be in the area’s future). Here’s how it turned out: