Gorges State Park - North Carolina

May 12-14, 2001

This old trip report is special to me because this was the first hike that Marisa and I went on together.  Although we somewhat look the part of hikers, we were pretty clueless.  It's hard to believe she ever went hiking me again after these tentative first steps into the wilderness!

Always looking for something new to do, Marisa and I headed out for the mountains of Ashville over the weekend for some heavy-duty hiking.  We decided on the brand new Gorges State Park based on the information we found on their web-site.  Since it is a new park, there is very little in the way of facilities and the trails are not even marked yet.  As such, a compass, a topographical map and a very valuable guide put out by the Sierra Club's Bill Thomas (hereafter referred to as "The Thomas Guide") were all that kept us on track over the course of three days.

(click on pictures to expand..)

Our first day took us from the north-western corner of the park down along the Horsepasture River and the beautiful waterfalls. 

The trail was quite narrow and overgrown with several dead-falls where storms had scattered debris across the trail.   From along the river our course took us east into the interior of the park toward a juncture called Dead Oaks, appropriately named for a cluster of fallen oak trees.  At Dead Oaks we took a south heading and followed the Grassy Ridge utility road.  Many of the trails in the park are old hunting trails and utility roads that Duke Power uses to maintain some high-tension power lines that run through the park. 

As you can see on the contour map, the Grassy Ridge road runs very steeply down to a junction called Turkey Pen Gap.  The whole time we are going downhill we are thinking in the back of our minds that if we have to go down this steeply, we also have to come back up!!  The downhill gradient was very tough on the calves and Marisa's toes, but she was a trooper and we managed to hit Turkey Pen Gap by about 5 PM or so.

Continuing on a southerly course from Turkey Pen Gap we hit a spur running off to the east that a park ranger indicated would lead to an excellent camp-site along the Foothills Trail.  The downhill trek seemed never-ending and I was starting to get skeptical that we'd like what we saw when we reached our camp-site at Bear Gap.  Our skepticism turned to delight when we reached a turn in the woods and beheld a beautiful camp-site nestled right up against a nice, cool flowing stream.

We quickly made camp and settled in for dinner.  Soon we had a fire roaring and our stove cooking our meal.  We both took the opportunity to take bird-baths in the stream and it was very invigorating as the water was very cold.  Since passing the upper water falls about a mile into our hike we had only seen 3 people during our entire hike!  A check of our map indicated we had hiked about 10 miles to reach our first camp-site.

Soon the sun dipped below the mountain ridges to the west and it got very dark and chilly.  We bundled into our mummy bags and read by the light of the lantern until we fell asleep. 
 

We awoke the next day to a beautiful, sunny and brisk morning and all our attendant aches and pains from the previous days hike.  Marisa was wise enough to have brought some ibuprofen (good girl!) and soon enough we were up and about the camp making breakfast.  Planning for our three-day hike we had carried with us about 4 liters of fresh bottled water.  Water, by far the heaviest item we carried with the exception of the tent, was very important to us.  I had planned to purify water taken from the stream at Bear Gap with iodine tablets, but was unimpressed by the "garden hose" taste of the water after purification.  Instead we opted to boil all our water and we were pleasantly surprised to find the boiled water to be as perfect tasting as our bottled water.

Since our descent into the valley was so extremely steep the previous day, we decided that instead of spending two nights at Bear Gap, we should hike out today and make camp on the Horsepasture River near the water-falls.  We didn't want to the pressure of having to make it all the way back to the car in a single day, something I wasn't quite sure we could do even if we wanted to.  So by mid-morning we had packed up our camp and started up the trail once again.  Instead of following our exact route out, we elected to go east along the Foothills Trail for a mile or so and pick up the north-bound Old Cow Trail to take us back to Turkey Pen Gap.  Little did we know we were setting ourselves up for a major blunder that cost us many miles and a lot of muscle power.

Examining the Thomas Guide map I could see that the Foothills Trail, the power-line and the Old Cow Trail intersected each other all in the same place.  Upon reaching the power-lines, Marisa and I looked left and continued down what we thought was the Old Cow Trail.  The Old Cow Trail was supposed to head due north and parallel the power-lines for a mile or so before turning west and intersecting Turkey Pen Gap.  As we continued down the trail I was noticing that the elevation was going down, not up, as would have been expected.  In addition, my compass readings were showing more of a north-easterly heading instead of a due north heading.  I chalked it up to the map being a bit inaccurate and perhaps not showing all the twists and turns on the trail.  After passing a stream, my unease heightened even more since I figured that we might accidentally be on the Foothills Trail and that we were passing Cobb Creek.  Something kept telling me to continue though, and that the trail would eventually take that west-bound turn.  WRONG!  Finally about 3 or so miles down the trail I concluded I had made a major blunder back at the power-lines.  We had hiked 3 strenuous miles out of our way and had to hike 3 more just to get back to where we were supposed to be.  My language reflected my mood <grin> but I wasn't laughing then!

After back-tracking to the power-lines I realized my stupid error had been in not looking around completely when I reached the junction of the three trails.  Staring back at me was a clear path up the power-lines:  the Old Cow Trail.  Muttering about my lack of navigation skills and very hot and tired, we started up the Old Cow Trail, which was extremely steep and in direct sunlight.  It was so steep that we would climb about 20 steps or so, then just pause for a minute to catch our breath and swig down some of our water.  Even though it was a very hard climb, it was nice knowing without a doubt we were heading in the right direction this time. 

Upon reaching Turkey Pen Gap we started looking at our options as our water supply was dwindling fast. We decided to hike north-west out of Turkey Pen Gap along the same trail we used coming down from Dead Oaks the previous day, and that we would stop where Robinson Brook intersected the trail to have lunch and boil a couple of liters of water to top off our supply.  This was a great plan and we felt refreshed after eating lunch and relaxing for about an hour while our water boiled and cooled.  Soon we were headed off again toward Dead Oaks in the same "climb, pause, drink, climb, pause, drink" fashion.  We reached Dead Oaks in the late afternoon and were elated because we knew it was only about an hour or so hike from Dead Oaks back to the Horsepasture River and the water-falls.

We reached our campsite just down river from Rainbow Falls about an hour before the sunset and shed our gear and made for the river for a nice cold bath.  After cleaning up and getting a fire going we set up the tent and made ourselves dinner.  The roar of the river was very soothing and we were happy with the knowledge that Day 3 would be a simple 3 mile or less hike back to the car and that we could goof off along the river the whole way back without worrying about the time.

Day 3 dawned bright and clear with perfect weather yet again.  We had some coffee, boiled some more water to take with us and broke camp by late morning.  We hiked up to Rainbow Falls and enjoyed a refreshing swim in the pool below the falls. 

The view was awesome as the falls are probably a good 60 or 70 feet high.  After our swim we laid out on the rocks and soaked up some sun in our bathing suits while the mist from the falls swirled around us.  It really was perfect and both of us felt so relaxed and content it was hard to shake ourselves off and continue back to the real world.   (We decided if it weren't for Mexican restaurants we really could live a Bohemian lifestyle..)  We made the short trek back up the river toward the parking site, stopping to take pictures and were on our way back home to Charlotte by the early afternoon.  What a great trip! 

Thanks to all the great park rangers that gave us all kinds of tips and information and to the great state of North Carolina for providing us with such a beautiful place to hike.

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