backpacking

Paris Mountain State Park

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Mountain Lake,  Sulphur Springs Trail

It is easy to underrate the beauty of a place you see regularly because you’re used to it or to oversell it because it’s a dear old friend and your love adds value to it that others might not perceive. This has been my dilemma in writing about Paris Mountain State Park, the spot in our own backyard where we get outside most frequently.  A wild place, no matter how small will always contain surprises and even longtime neighbors can be strangers to us. So here is an introduction (or reintroduction for many in the Upstate) to one of our favorite places.

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Sulphur Springs Trail to Fire Tower

Paris Mountain is a solitary peak or monadnock roughly 6 miles north of downtown Greenville. The 1,540 acre state park is traversed by 9 trails covering around 15 miles. When you enter the pristine moss and tree-lined drive, you are transported quickly from the bustling ever-expanding city below to a peaceful natural playground. Hiking, camping, trail running and mountain biking are probably the most popular activities available, but there are also opportunities to fish in the 4 park lakes or swim and boat during the summer.

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Sulphur Springs toward Shelter 5

I love the fact that the foliage, the upper lakes, the loudly tumbling streams and certain steep rocky places make you really feel like you’re high in the mountains, very far away from civilization. This is a park where you can bag a mountain run on technical single track trails with well over a thousand feet of elevation gain or take a short leisurely walk around the lake before starting your picnic. We have been amazed to see how different activities in the same place can completely change our perspective. There are trails on Paris Mountain that we have run countless times only to hike them and catch views we’ve never seen–glimpses of a lake far below or the trail weaving above our heads. No matter which activity you choose, you can wrap it up and be back in town within 10 or 15 minutes (plenty of time left for pizza). It’s amazing!

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North Lake Loop

We have had the opportunity to explore nearly every nook and cranny of this park, and I can’t wait to share some of our favorite trail loops and activities in future posts. While Paris Mountain may not be as expansive as the ranges of mountains further north, it offers great variety, ever-changing beauty and fantastic accessibility. Get out and enjoy it today!

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Lake Placid

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North Lake

Keep looking for adventure far and nigh!

 

Art Loeb Trail Run- Black Balsam to Shining Rock Loop

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Art Loeb Trail, Tennent mountain near Black Balsam Knob in Shining Rock Wilderness, Trail Running

Location: This is an amazing trail with stunning panoramic views of the mountains, Shining Rock Wilderness, and Pisgah National Forest. The section of the Art Loeb Trail beginning at Black Balsam Knob, is beautiful and challenging.  There are ups and downs, technical footing, and a lovely variety of sceneries.  It is great for hiking or running. We completed a roughly 9 mile loop that included one section of out and back running. The exact route we took is detailed below.

Getting There: Black Balsam Knob is about 1 hour 45 minutes away from the Greenville area. If you’re leaving Greenville, take 25 N towards Hendersonville to 26 W. Get off at Exit 37, turn left NC-146 W. Take a right on Clayton road. Continue 1.3 miles. Slight right onto NC-191 N. Continue 1.2 miles. Turn left onto the Blue Ridge Pkwy. Continue 26.8 miles. Then, turn right onto Black Balsam Knob Rd. Continue to the end parking lot or park in one of the designated spots along the road. The Art Loeb trail begins on the right side of Black Balsam Knob Rd. as you’re driving in towards the parking lot. There are parking spaces beside the trail head and it is well-marked.

What to Bring: Running shoes- preferably trail shoes, lots of layers- It is always colder here than in the valleys and the weather can be very changeable at this altitude (around 6,000 ft), water/snacks (for during or after since you’re a bit isolated from restaurants and stores), change of clothes if you run it and don’t want to feel sweaty or chilled all the way home

Where to Eat: We love having a fun meal to look forward to after a big run. Farm Burger in Asheville, NC is one of our current favorites and an easy detour on the way back from Black Balsam (roughly an hour from Black Balsam). West First Pizza in Hendersonville, NC is another awesome post-run stop (also roughly an hour). We’ve enjoyed Mayberry’s Soups and Sandwiches in Brevard on several occasions too (around 45 mins away).

Art Loeb Trail to Shining Rock Wilderness

What an enchanting run this is. David and I have run and hiked parts of this loop on multiple occasions, but until this day, we had never delved very far into the Shining Rock Wilderness. We needed a longer run since we were training for a trail half marathon and we always like having a goal destination to run to, so we decided to try to find Shining Rock. Until planning this run, I didn’t know that there was in fact a “shining rock” which gave the wilderness area its name. As it turns out, there is snow white quartz at the top of a mountain in the wilderness area which is rather eye catching amidst the other more common rock features in the area.

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View from the top of Shining Rock including some of the unusual snow quartz.

We parked at the trail head for the Art Loeb Trail which is found on Black Balsam Knob road. Our run took us up and over Black Balsam Knob and Tennent Mountain, through a large gap-like clearing area with signage pointing towards Ivestor Gap and then through Ivestor Gap itself where we were welcomed to the Shining Rock Wilderness. Here we decided to stay to the right on the Art Loeb trail instead of taking the left fork onto Ivestor Gap trail. We tried to stay on the Art Loeb for our entire outward journey just to keep it simple and avoid getting lost.

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This led us around and over another mountain which I believe was Flower Knob. It was kind of hard to tell because once you’re in the wilderness area nothing is signed. We got to a smallish grassy clearing eventually where there was a piece of orange/pink tape dangling. This seemed to mark the spot where Ivestor Gap trail emerged from our left, but we weren’t positive about that either. We kept going along a bit of a ridge line until we started climbing once more. We had begun to wonder if we were still headed the right direction when we hit over 4 miles with no sign of the white quartz that would mark Shining Rock, but at last it started to appear scattered along the path. We hit the top around 4.5 miles which was what we had hoped would be the case based on our research of this route. After some pictures, we turned back retracing our steps exactly until we came to the clearing at the base of Tennent Mountain. Instead of ascending on the trail to the left, we took the lower trail to the right which circumvents Tennent and Black Balsam returning you to the parking lot at the end of Black Balsam Knob road. This path is pretty wide and flat, however there are a ton of loose rocks, and if it’s rained lately the whole thing can be somewhat flooded. This does not make it impassable, but it can slow you down if you don’t want wet feet.

The only bummer about looping back like this is that you have nearly half a mile on the road once you reach the parking lot if you parked at the Art Loeb Trail head. We always dislike ending on pavement after longer runs. It just hurts, but finishing the loop is satisfying and at least the footing was super easy! If you need a great day hike, trail run, picnic or backpacking spot, this one is hard to beat. You could go out for a much shorter distance and still enjoy stunning views and wild beauty. Keep looking for adventure far and nigh!

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Middle Prong Wilderness Backpacking

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Exploring the meadow

For some reason, we have yet to get motivated to do a winter camping trip. In some ways, it’s silly because we live in the Southeast and spring or fall temperatures at 6,000 feet elevation are often just as cold as anything we would encounter at lower altitudes in the dead of winter. Regardless, we have a mental block about it and just don’t get motivated to gear up and go during the winter. So when spring, in all its wishy washy starts and stops begins to melt and green the landscape, we inevitably feel that the time has come to venture out into nature. This year we had the added pull of friends who invited us to join them. Remembering that semi-spontaneous backpacking is often the only way we end up doing this sort of thing, we immediately accepted the offer and quickly started planning.

On this occasion, we got an amazing recommendation from Bob, a church friend who has spent many years as a scout master and an adventurer at large. We were relaying our customary debate of whether to return to an old, beloved location or explore somewhere new with the risk of disappointment, when he described a place he had nicknamed “the Shire” because of its wild beauty, quiet green paths, and dramatic scenic views. Immediately, we were captivated, and I definitely felt like any place besides the Shire would be a total letdown.

Our friend described where this place was, but with our lack of experience we couldn’t begin to place it. He mentioned something about figuring out more specific details for us, but it was nearing our departure day and I wasn’t sure we would be able to reconnect in time to get the information and make it happen. We were in for a surprise. I don’t think 24 hours passed before my mother-in-law dropped off a map she had received from Bob at a church function. It felt like a treasure map, with its circles and other markings. I poured over it eagerly, and then immediately texted a picture of it to my husband. It was quickly settled that the Shire would be our destination, and looking at the map we found that it was in an area called the Middle Prong Wilderness (not Middle-Earth) near Mount Hardy.

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Our map

We began to research our travel route and look for various hiker accounts of the trail. The intrigue continued as multiple sources described a place of unmarked trails, gorgeous vistas, stream crossings, and many accidental wrong turns. After printing two detailed accounts of the trails we were planning to take into this area, stuffing our bags and car, and loading up on enough food for 3 days of backpacking, we set out on our 1 night trip. (We tend to overpack in hopes that it will make us feel less unprepared to face the wild.)

Without cell phone service, it was a little tricky to connect with our friends, but thankfully our meeting place and timing worked out perfectly. We had no specifics on where to actually set up camp, but we figured we could just start hiking and keep our eyes open. One of the hiker accounts had mentioned a meadow that sounded promising about 4 miles in, so that was our tentative goal.

The hike was unbelievable. There were lovely streams, carpets of moss, boulder-sized rocks, and dark higher elevation forest growth that added an air of mystery to the whole scene. As the sun was getting ready to set we finally stumbled upon a meadow. We weren’t even sure we had taken the right turn, but the trees opened up and as we continued to climb we came to a stunning clearing. The view revealed mountain after mountain and a softly setting sun. Along the way, we had not passed other hikers, but scattered across this spot a few pairs of other backpackers were also making camp. We settled in for the night, made dinner, hung our bear bag, and slept as soundly as possible.

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Sunset Summit

Ironically, our lovely spring camping trip ended up being about as cold as any we’ve taken. It cooled off dramatically as soon as the sun began to set, and in the morning it felt even colder. We were so grateful for our nervousness-induced overpacking because it had included some hastily snagged gloves and beanies. Our breakfast was a feast with french pressed coffee, eggs, and summer sausage, but even with that we never quite warmed up until the hike down was almost complete. Nevertheless, we all felt that we had indeed found a treasure with the help of our special map, and we are determined to return as soon as possible for more adventures. This place is breathtaking!

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A cold, tired Zoe dog

Hike or Backpack this trail: This area is not far from Graveyard Fields off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’m posting two of the blog posts we looked at because they were very detailed and helpful to us. There are a lot of different ways to explore the Middle Prong Wilderness, but we found this to be a great entry point. http://www.hikewnc.info/besthikes/middle-prong-wilderness/green-knob http://smokyscout.blogspot.com/2012/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

Tips: Always exercise caution when exploring a wilderness area. We found out ahead of time that campfires are not allowed in this region, so that is definitely something to be aware of if you’re camping. This is a decently tough hike, definitely not something you would want to do without water, a map, good footwear, and some careful study beforehand about what to expect. The trails are pretty worn, but it does seem like you could get lost pretty easily since there are no signs. Always take a buddy or let people know where you’re going and when you expect to return.

Keep looking for adventure far and nigh!