Fool's Errand to Wiseman's View
North Carolina on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Part One
We didn’t see no otters in North Carolina, either.1 But we had a great time. We began the day in Boone, digesting the jalapeno hush puppies we had at The Cardinal. Sarah achieved this by sleeping in at our cozy hotel, the Graystone Lodge, while I woke early and drove to Rocky Knob Mountain Bike Park.
Free to the public and managed by locals, I had no idea what to expect upon arrival. I reviewed the trails on TrailForks, and then again on the helpful sign which explained the difficulty of each. My home turf has nearly all easy trails: no mountains, no rocky knobs, and the last time I brought a mountain bike to the Carolinas, I made my first OTB (over the bars) crash on a blue trail.2
Rocky Knob has a lot of blue trails and black diamonds, and the only green trail is the entrance to the park, called “Kinner Garten.” You start at the bottom of a small rocky mountain, or knob, whatever, and to get to the trails you pedal your ass off up switchbacks to get to the fun parts. I’m not complaining, but after a day of sitting on said ass driving, I was not ready for a trail without any warmup. I was huffing and puffing and cursing by the time I got up there, but it was beautiful:
Once I got up there, I realized that after two years of riding, I don’t know shit. I didn’t crash, but my sandy trails, no matter how twisty, steep, or technical, are nothing compared to “easy” trails in rocky and mountainous areas. I was careful and had fun on the way down, but my wrists got cramped from gripping the handlebars that tight for so long. Now I get why full suspension mountain bikes exist. My Trek Marlin 5’s front shocks might as well not have existed.
I’m glad we stopped in Boone, it’s a cool little town, and I want to return to Rocky Knob with the Sweaty Yeti, my steel frame fat tire bike. That should absorb more impact. I’ll be making trips to the rocky trails of northern New Jersey to hone my skills before I try a real mountain bike park again! At least I didn’t crash, so that’s an improvement…
Boone is only a few miles off the Blue Ridge Parkway, so it makes for a natural place to stop and stay, refuel, and grab a bite. We were back on the road quickly, and the highlights of the next day of our trip included the Linn Cove Viaduct, a detour up a mountain road to Wiseman’s View, and a hike to Crabtree Falls.
The Linn Cove Viaduct was the last major project on the Blue Ridge Parkway, completed in 1983 after a forty-year plan to procure the land and engineer the highway bridge in a manner that would not scar Grandfather Mountain, the ancient 6,000-foot-tall Appalachian peak that the viaduct circumscribes. Forty years after its completion, drivers still stop to walk along its edge and contemplate its simple elegance contrasted with the natural beauty of the landscape, as a monument to how with patience and thought, humanity can build feats of engineering that join hands with the Earth rather than blast and hammer it to pieces.
The free Museum of North Carolina Minerals is a good stop on the Parkway if you have to pee and want to look at a few rocks. I am a minor geology nerd, and they didn’t have anything that got my rocks off. The best detour we took was in nearby Linnville Falls, up Old North Carolina 105. This is an unimproved road through the mountains to several campgrounds and natural areas, including the falls for which the town gets its name, and Wiseman’s View, a spectacular vista of Linnville Gorge. Getting there takes about 20 minutes to drive four miles at the lazy pace required to jounce over its ruts, climb its inclines, and ease down its hills. For a Subaru it was a piece of cake. On the way up, we passed woman driving a minivan who begged us to tow her if she got stuck on the ruts we just cleared. I told her to honk, and if we didn’t hear her, there was a Jeep at the campsite we just passed who could help, or we’d get her on our return trip. I always carry traction boards, a hitch block, soft shackles, and a tow strap, but she made it. I don’t want to know what the underbody of her Honda Odyssey looked like, but she didn’t get stuck. I had fun climbing the rutted parts, but the view was really the best:
As you can imagine, we lingered here quite a while enjoying the view. And we had it to ourselves. On our way to the parking lot, we met an older couple in a pickup truck who made the climb.
We met mountain bikers on the way back to the Parkway, and Sarah gave a bottle to one guy who was short on water. They were headed to the falls, so I hope he filled up there. It was a warm day to ride without water. They made me want to try taking the road further, but as far as I can see, it leads to several trailheads and never reconnects with roads west of the gorge, so it will always be an out-and-back trip if you want to return to the Parkway. The falls are a short but strenuous hike from the beginning of Old North Carolina 105, and we didn’t take it, because there was another falls I wanted to see, and I wanted to get us to Asheville by nightfall.
Crabtree Falls is described as a strenuous hike on the wooden sign that marks the trailhead. Hikers assured me it was “easy.” That only means that other hikes are much harder. We made good time hiking out-and-back to the falls, to avoid a longer loop hike, but it was all downhill to the falls, and then an hour uphill, including several steep stairways cut into the rocks, to get back to the car. Crabtree Falls is a beautiful site, but having seen enormous waterfalls in Iceland a year ago, that you can literally drive up to and observe from your car, made me feel like I could have skipped it. But that’s just sour grapes and sore ankles talking.
I was tired enough to forget to fiddle with my camera’s exposure to make the water look like it was running, so my photos are a little blown out in the sun and have droplets frozen in air. The video captures them better. We heard several warblers on the way down, but saw none; they were all too well hidden in the trees, and I didn’t bring my field glasses on the hike. Their songs helped make the hike a little cheerier.
In Ireland you get Castle Fatigue; in Iceland you get Waterfall Fatigue. On the Blue Ridge Parkway, you get vista fatigue. When flowers are in bloom, or leaves have turned color, the plethora of overlooks must help reduce waiting times, as the parking for bigger scenic views fill up. There are plenty of hikes and vistas for us to explore on future trips, and I expect to take them. I really enjoyed this one.
The final leg of our trip includes the highest peaks of the Blue Ridge Parkway: Craggy Dome, Richard Balsam, Waterrock Knob, and the Devil’s Courthouse. We also spent a night in Asheville at New Belgium Brewing, stopped to see the train wreck from The Fugitive, drove the twisty stretch of Tennessee state highway 129 known as the Tail of the Dragon, and visited Natural Bridge State Park on the way home. After I catch up, I’ve got carnivorous sundews in the Pine Barrens, and more to share with you…
Read last week’s newsletter, for a frame of reference.
Trails are rated in order of difficulty, like skiing: Green, Blue, Black Diamond, Double Diamond.
I’ve never been this far south on the Blue Ridge & it’s so beautiful! Thanks for the pics.