Fall 2013 Art Loeb Trail

From September 28 to October 3, 2013 I hiked the Art Loeb Trail from the Davidson River Access to the Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp.  I then hiked back into the Shining Rock Wilderness and over the ridge back to my car at the Big East Fork Trailhead.  The Art Loeb Trail is one of the more popular, but long and relatively difficult trails in NC and is about 30 miles long.  I had hiked various pieces of it over the last 40+ years, but was determined to hike the whole damn thing for once. My GPS registered the whole trip as 37.9 miles.  I had my father meet me at the Big East Fork Trailhead, left my car, and he then dropped me at the Davidson River Access.

This was my first “extended” trip in a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I had no bad weather; only some clouds rolling in late in the afternoon of the third day.

I used my Mountain Hardware Skyledge 2.1 for the first time.  I ended up losing a tent pole brush busting up the summit of Shining Rock on my last day, but when I contacted MH, they sent me a free replacement – I do like their equipment and service.  I had just cinched the poles onto the side of my pack, without the stuff sack, and obviously didn’t do a great job at it.  From then on, I’ve used the stuff sack and use the cinched-up closure on the bag to tie it down, in addition to cinching to my pack.  No lost poles since (I’m still using the whole thing in 2022).

The first two days were relatively easy – I just wanted to get my hiking legs under me.  I stayed near Cedar Rock the first night (8 miles) and just short of Pilot Mountain the second night (7.3 miles).

The third day was a tough climb up to Silvermine Bald (5978 ft) from the campsite at Pilot Mountain(4598), down and a loooonnngg up.  I finished the day hiking over Black Balsam and Tennent Mountain, and then collapsed in the clearing next to the Ivestor Gap road (8.1 miles).  The end of the day was cloudy, but I was rewarded the next morning with a great sunrise.

I don’t know if you can tell it from the amount of pictures, but this was one of my favorite hikes, ever. I’ve been up here for more than 40 years now (as of now) and truly love this place.

The fourth day, I hiked over Flower Knob, through Shining Rock Gap, over Stairs Mountain (I stopped for lunch of cheese and salami on Stairs Mountain), and camped at Deep Gap, short of Cold Mountain (5.6 miles).  Enjoying dinner, and an after-dinner cigar/bourbon, I heard several coyotes in the valley to the north.  That night I heard them run through the campsite shortly after turning in.  They’ve pretty much decimated the deer population in the area.  I used to see dozens of deer in the early 80’s in the Wilderness Area.

The fifth day, I finished the section to CDB (should have taken a picture there), and then turned back eastward up the slope toward Shining Rock.  I camped that night at a small turnout on the trail (9.8 miles).

The last day, I finished the climb to Shining Rock, lost my tent pole, and then headed down the Shining Creek Trail.  I ended up getting off trail near the bottom, but then remembered the trail closely followed the creek most of the rest of the way, so then found the trail again near the creek.  I think a couple of day hikers got lost in the same area a couple of years later, in the snow, and had to be rescued by chopper.  The rest of the trail was easy, and I got to my car with no more problems (7.1 miles).

Funny part – when I got to the car, the forest service guys had “barricaded” the parking area with traffic cones, because the government had shut down.  Guess I shouldn’t have been in there the last couple of days!  How was I supposed to find out?