WNCOutdoors.info Blog

An article in the Roanoke Times mentions the possibility of adding mountain bike trails to the Blue Ridge Parkway’s list of off-road recreational activities. In 2008, the Parkway asked for public comment on its trails development plan, and specifically those trails which connect to other trails on public lands in the area. Many riders from our region enthusiastically supported adding mountain bikers as an acceptable user type, including myself. Although, according to the article, the plan won’t come out for review until at least next year (and then it could be years until the trails are opened or built), it appears that there is hope that the National Park Service might start opening some of its trails to bikes.

Currently, there is only one trail on National Park land in the entire region that is open to bikes: the lower portion of the Deep Creek trail (and it is more of a gravel road). And although bike-friendly Forest Service trails connect directly to the Blue Ridge Parkway, users must stop riding and carry their bikes over the short section of trail on Parkway property until they reach the roadway, an awkward and senseless requirement which would hopefully be lifted once the new plan goes in place.

We’ll keep you posted as we here more about the prospects of bikes on National Park Service lands.

A while back, I was surfing around Google Maps and noticed that “The Loop” on US 441 in the Smokies wasn’t showing up properly on the map. And when you tried to use the Street View to go around the loop, it jumped from the lower part of the road to the upper part at the tunnel. So, I used the nifty little “Report a Problem” link on the map to describe this to Google. It’s now been fixed! Here’s the email Google sent me as notification:

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 10:04 AM, <noreply-maps-issues@google.com> wrote:

Hi Jordan,

Google Maps has been updated to correct the problem you reported. You can see the update here, and if you still see a problem, please tell us more about the issue:
Link to view and/or reopen issue

Report history
Problem ID: FB89-4FC9-1447-A5D4

Your report: US 441 loops over itself right here. It’s a bizarre little bit of engineering to get the road to a lower elevation in a hurry. “The Loop” isn’t shown on the map, nor is it possible to follow Street View around the loop – it jumps right from the lower part of the road to the upper part as you go through the tunnel.

–
Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team

In addition to the major rockslide blocking Interstate 40 just east of the Tennessee border, with the heavy rains from the remnants of tropical storm Ida, rockslides are occurring all accross the region:

• Interstate 40 remains closed and will be that way all winter or longer.
• The Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville is closed indefinitely due to a creep/slide
• US Hwy. 64 just west of the NC Border (near Ducktown) is closed due to a large slide, which was caught on video.
• Scattered smaller slides have also occurred on secondary roads.

FR 477, Avery Creek Road, is closed beyond the Pisgah horse stables due to a landslide that occurred during the recent rains. This slide appears to have happened in the same spot as an earlier slide from the rains in late 2004. From the looks of the pictures posted in various forums, it will be closed for a while.

This closure affects access to the Buckhorn Gap, Bennett Gap, and Avery Creek trails. Right now it looks like it’s possible to hike or ride the closed portion of the road but this will likely change when/if the Forest Service starts doing work on it.

A number of trail projects are listed on the Forest Service’s 2009 Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA). A lot of these will undoubtedly be placed on hold or canceled as they wind their way through the bureaucracy, but we might actually see some work done on some of them. There are definitely some trail maintenance needs across the National Forests so it’s nice to see these coming up.

In addition to these projects, some of the money from the Economic Stimulus plan of earlier this year has been sent our direction. One project listed as a result of this is trail bridge construction and maintenance. No specifics have been announced, but we’ll keep you posted as we learn more. But expected some changes on our area trails over the next couple of years!

Here are some specific proposals from the latest SOPA:

Pisgah National Forest

– Reroute a section of the Little East Fork trail around washouts from the storms of September 2004. This project is officially on hold.

– Relocate a portion of the Pink Beds trail (Davidson/Mills River areas) around the beaver-created pond/wetlands. This project is completed.

– Officially extend the Rainbow Falls trail up to meet the new trail from Gorges State Park. The actual trail is already in place and easy to follow; this proposal is just to make the naming and routing of it official. A decision is expected in November 2009 with implementation in March 2010.

– Reroute of the very bottom of the Sam Knob trail where it’s eroding into Flat Laurel Creek. A decision is expected in November 2009 with implementation in August of 2010.

– Reroute a portion of the Spencer Branch trail (Mills River area) “to higher ground”. A decision is expected in November 2009 with implementation in April 2010.

– Fix a damaged culvert by building a bridge on the Wolf Branch trail (Bent Creek area). This project is listed as completed on 7/13/09.

– Relocate the Cherry Creek Trail as part of the Harmon Den project. Implementation is expected in June 2010.

Nantahala National Forest

– Relocate a portion of the Appalachian trail off the ridgeline of Hogback Mountain onto the west side of the ridge. A decision is expected October 2009 with implementation in October as well.

– Cut down dead trees along the Joyce Kilmer Memorial trail using crosscut saws and “explosives”. A decision is expected in December 2009 with implementation in Jaunary 2010. This trail will definitely have to be closed while this is carried out.

– Extend the Bartram trail by 4 miles, from below Doubletop Fields down the ridge to Hickory Knoll Road. A decision on this is expected in Februrary 2010 with construction starting March 2010.

So as you can see, there are a number of trail projects in the works across the Western part of the state.

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, officials have closed the picnic area due to bear activity in the area. I can vouch for that – on a recent family trip to the area, we witnessed a bear chase a family out of their picnic site and chow down on their food, still hot on the grill. The closure is expected to last until at least next weekend, but call the Parkway at (828) 298-0398 for updated information.

According to the Pisgah Ranger District office, in the Bent Creek area, North Boundary Road will be closed Mondays through Fridays for road re-construction. This might put a few folks onto alternate routes if you used that old road to get to Ingles Field Gap (not the best route, though, in my opinion). Also, relocation work was recently completed on the Club Gap trail, which has been reopened, in the Davidson River area.

There’s also mention of a new trail, the “Estatoe Trail”, being constructed near the Lowes at the intersection of US Hwy’s 276 and 64 and NC 280 in Brevard. No details were given about the type of trail, length, route, etc., but I’ll try to get some more information soon.

Speaking of new trails, wouldn’t it be fantastic to have a multi-use trail leading along the Davidson River from town all the way up to or past the campground???

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!

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!