mikebellhelo

Date: 07/08/2025 Name: Bartram Trail to Scaly Mountain Distance: 4.1 Difficulty: Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 1,135 Type: Out & Back Notes: With an early start, it was a "not too warm," sunny, summer day with 70-80°F temperatures. The almost continuous forest and rhododendron cover provided welcome shade. The trail was quite dry and in good […]

Date: 07/01/2025 Name: Homestead + 4 More Falls Trail Distance: 4.7 Difficulty: Difficult Total Climbing Elevation: 548 Type: Loop Notes: This was one of the more challenging hikes we've taken. Except for the first mile on Pumping Station Rd, most of our hiking was on poorly or not identifiable paths with extensive overgrowth and numerous

Date: 06/03/2025 Name: Terra Incognita Loop + Pigeon Mtn Trail Distance: 8.0 Difficulty: Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 1,237 Type: Loop Notes: It really was a "great day for a hike" with Chris Ernst guiding us around several of the on-property trails and points of interest at Terra Incognita Vineyard. The trails in Terra Incognita were

Date: 05/20/2025 Name: Rhododendron & Chenocetah Tower Loop Distance: 5.6 Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 958 Type: Loop Notes: We had a sunny, warm and humid day for this late spring hike. The trail was in fair condition except for 3 passable blowdowns. The outbound half of this hike was moderately difficult with

Date: 05/06/2025 Name: Park Creek-Park Ridge Loop Distance: 5.8 Difficulty: Easy Total Climbing Elevation: 656 Type: Loop Notes: Truly a "great day for a hike" with perfect mild weather, good trails, numerous wildflowers and the pleasant sights and sounds of Park Cree and the Nantahala River. This was an easy hike with well maintained trails,

Date: 04/29/2025 Name: Foothills Trail-Whitewater Falls to Lower Whitewater Falls Distance: 6.6 Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 988 Type: One-way Notes: It was a beautiful, mild sunny day for this easy to moderately difficult hike. The trails were in excellent condition. There was lots of water flowing over both falls making them very

Date: 04/15/2025 Name: Appalachian Trail – WilsonLick Ranger Station to Wayah Bald Distance: 6.2 Difficulty: Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 1,483 Type: Out & Back Notes: It started as a sunny, but fairly cold, 47F, windy morning, but ended sunny and mild. Trail conditions were quite good, but still had the usual rocks and roots of

Date: 04/08/2025 Name: Opossum Creek Falls Trail Distance: 5.1 Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 860 Type: Out & Back Notes: We had another mild, sunny day, on our hike on this familiar trail. We were fortunate to see a fair, not spectacular, number of wildflowers. However the recent rains made for a very

Date: 04/01/2025 Name: Sosebee Cove & Coosa Backcountry Trails Distance: 5.3 Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 860 Type: Out & Back Notes: Great weather for a hike, but not the best day for wildflowers. This hike should have been scheduled two weeks later, mid-April, to see many more wildflowers in bloom, especially at

Date: 03/25/2025 Name: Glassy Mtn Trail – Glassy Mtn Rd to Davis Gap Rd Distance: 4.3 Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Total Climbing Elevation: 807 Type: One Way Notes: Overall, the weather, shuttle, trail conditions and west to east direction we hike worked out quite well. This was a moderately difficult hike based on the initial