Well, hey! It’s as good a time as any to start the new wilderness trails blog. If you are wondering ‘what’s that Boulderman doing’, or ‘what kind of crazy adventure has he been on’, wonder no more…
Spring fever has taken hold of me already, as I seem to require a lot of fresh air and adventure in my life. And so, after whetting my adventure appetite on a 4 mile hike around Sams Gap last weekend, and another short A.T. hike up to ‘High Rock’ near Spivey Gap a few days before that, I decided to go and see some waterfalls in the Sampson Mountain/Clarks Creek Wilderness Area. I got a late start, because I had been invited to eat lunch with some friends, and ‘shrimp et tu fe’ over a bed of rice is quite an awesome treat. Despite being full of shrimp, soup, and ice cream, I managed to get out on the trail about 3:30 (pm).
The weather was brisk, temperatures in the lower 40’s, and the wind was blowing pretty hard while driving down there, but subsided somewhat where I was, blocked off from the tall ridges of Rich Mountain. I decided to hike up the ‘Devil’s Fork’ branch and visit the waterfalls there. The first waterfall was achieved without any difficulty, although the trail isn’t what it used to be when the ‘Rat Patrol’ (the hiking club I am in) was actively exploring the area. There is a tricky spot climbing the rock one must navigate to get to the top of it, but again, no problems. From there the trail became progressively worse, but not too bad, considering the beautiful waterfall (#2) I hung out beneath. There was quite a lot of water flowing off the top, and I once again regretted not remembering to bring a camera with me. I do, however, have photos of this place from years ago, so I wasn’t too upset, and decided to climb to the top and hike to waterfall # 3.
As I recall, the hiking club had made up names for all of these falls, because ‘Devil’s Fork Falls numbers 1, 2, and 3’ just seemed way too formal, but now I can’t remember what we had named them. Anyway, I hiked up the right fork of the creek (it splits just above waterfall # 2) to a waterfall I have nicknamed ‘Shangri La’ because of its remote location and beauty. I don’t have any pictures of this waterfall yet, but it is quite nice, being about a 20 foot shear drop into a small pool below.
For whatever reason, probably because there wasn’t anyone there to stop me, I climbed those falls, remembering a trail that connected to a old log road above it. That ‘trail’ however, was overgrown with mountain laurel and littered with blow downs. It was also much longer than I remembered. After passing by a nice cascade, I finally reached the log road, having acquired several scrapes along the way.
I was getting a bit anxious by this time because it was starting to get dark. I moved as fast as I could along the old road bed that wound in and out of the hollows of ‘Big Pine Ridge’, stopping only briefly to get a drink of water, because I realized that I didn’t have a flashlight with me. When that road connected into the yellow blazed ‘Longarm Branch Trail’ near ‘Bear Wallow Gap’ , I discovered that I had failed to properly cap my water bottle the last time I used it, and it had spilled out in my pack (I was wondering why everything, including myself was wet). It was also almost dark, and I still had almost 3 miles to walk. I didn’t panic, however, and accepted the fact that I would have to walk out down the steep and rocky trail in the dark. I just kept telling myself to ‘keep smiling’. Fortunately, there was a new moon, like a bright smiley-face, shining in the sky, occasionally lighting the ever darkening trail. I couldn’t resist the temptation to howl a couple of times.
I walked by waterfall # 4, ‘Longarm Branch Falls’, but it was too dark to see (it sounded nice, however, in the dark). By the time I got to the trailhead it was very hard to navigate the creek crossings and trail, even with the moonlight, but I somehow made it out without falling even one time, which has to be some kind of record. I’m not exactly how far I had walked/jogged, but I’m estimating 8 miles in about 3 1/2 hours. My legs and knees are a bit sore even now as I write this trail report. Next time, maybe I’ll take a flashlight, or I’ll just stick to my plan and turn around instead of trying to do a loop hike. Either way, I should allow more time for hiking so I don’t end up in the dark.