With Silas on spring break, our family took an extended weekend to visit friends in Madison County. During our visit, Kevin and Charlie joined me for an adventure run starting and finishing in the town of Hot Springs. I'll take the blame for devising this infinity loop, which turned out to be rather tough...
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| Kevin and Charlie atop Rich Mountain fire tower |
I wanted to get off the beaten path, see some new sights, but also revisit some favorites. So at 6:30 am on Sunday, March 19th we set out in the dark up Roundtop from the downtown parking lot to race sunrise to the top of Rich Mountain. We hurried along amid flurries blown by a bone-chilling wind.
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| Kevin and Charlie near start of bushwhack from Mill Ridge |
The next objective was to link up to Laurel River utilizing minimal pavement. To do this, we took the AT south past Tanyard Gap to Mill Ridge and then started a steep bushwhack descent down a draw into Hurricane. This was the first of 3 (or 4) off-trail sections on the loop. It was slow, but not terrible.
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| Descent to Hurricane |
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Big Laurel Creek
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| Crossing trestle to Pump Branch |
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| Not even halfway through the fun |
This was my first time along Laurel River, it was beautiful! We crossed a trestle over Big Laurel Creek at the French Broad and found the trail up to Pump Gap. From Lovers Leap on the AT we could see the parking lot, our midway resupply in Hot Springs. I'd anticipated that we'd have been there by now!
I didn't mean for this run to become an all-day affair. After our pit stop, we realized the fun was just getting started. According to forest service maps, Squirrel Gap heads south right out of town onto Spring Creek Mountain. Let's just say it took us a while to find this trail. Some wrong turns didn't help.
It was time to make a bushwhack descent to Spring Creek. The map above shows the planned (blue) versus actual (red) route we took. I was sure we were at the blue circle when we were at the red circle, so I was initially reluctant to veer into the draw to our right thinking we'd end up at Squirrel Branch.
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| Kevin enjoying the ride |
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| Wrecked car 400 ft below Vann Cliff |
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| Charlie's highlight was the refreshing ford |
Our target was the Rocky Bluff trails across the gorge. In hindsight, it would've been best to get oriented before making our descent. Instead we just went for it and dropped precipitously down to the creek. What followed was a half-mile rhodo-choked creekside jaunt complete with refreshing ford.
Our legs regained feeling just in time for the briers along the last and longest bushwhack, which started with a steep ascent away from the Vann Cliff Loop toward the AT near Lamb Knob. To avoid the dreaded rhodos, I suggested we take a higher more circuitous route, maybe actually a good choice.
Once on the AT, it felt like we could move at light speed... That is, if there was gas left in our tanks. I think it's safe to say we were all quite thankful to finish this one up in
just under ten hours! Follow in the footsteps of this fool at your own risk!
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| Google Earth playback |
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