Exploring The Shining Rock Wilderness

What comes on the heels of a successful and wonderful hike? Another hike of course! My friend Lady Slipper is staying in the area for a month, so we planned another hike to follow our recent adventure on the Foothills Trail. Lady Slipper is still toiling in the world of work, though remotely, but making it necessary for us to plan a weekend expedition. Some of my hiking friends had recently recommended the Little East Fork Trail in the Shining Rock Wilderness in the Pisgah National Forest, a trail both of us had yet to hike, so we planned a 2 night figure 8 loop through this beautiful and rugged area.

Late Friday afternoon found us hoisting our packs at the Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp in unexpected and unpredicted drizzle. We were not going to let a little rain dampen our spirits and happily set off up the trail along the Little East Fork of the Pigeon River.

Despite the increasing rain, the trail lived up to it’s lovely reputation. We walked upstream and the tumbling river was beautiful, running along and sometimes below the trail. Lots of mossy rocks and green Rhododendrons. We eventually had to rock hop the river and found an attractive campsite on the other side. Not much fun erecting your tent in the rain, but we both managed with minimal rain intrusion. A quick dinner was followed by a hasty retreat to our tents as the temperatures began to seriously drop. I can’t say I was dangerously cold throughout the night, but I was certainly not comfortably warm either. Morning light revealed frozen condensation inside my tent as well as a frozen exterior and entry zipper. Then, there was the lovely sensation of slipping cold feet into frozen hiking shoes. Lady Slipper struggled to get her JetBoil lit in the frigid temperatures but managed coffee. I elected to pack up and move to get warm. I really struggle with cold hands and my fingers were frozen and it was difficult to do any task this morning. Must find that elusive perfect glove!! Lady Slipper’s gloves were wet so she used my sleeping socks as mittens. At least it was a good 2 mile uphill climb to get to Shining Rock Gap and we slowly began to warm up. Shining Rock Gap is a popular destination and we encountered our first fellow hikers, all complaining of the cold night too! We quickly started our descent down the Shining Creek Trail and when the sun finally appeared took a long break to dry out our gear and for me to make coffee and eat breakfast. None of the trails are blazed in the wilderness and we accidently wandered off trail a couple of times. My Gaia GPS app. proved to be very useful in getting us back on track. The day turned out to be perfect with a bluebird sky and warm temperatures and we were reminded by day hikers that it was the first day of spring and it certainly felt like it. We were soon shedding layers and very much enjoying the day. The trail followed Shining Creek with waterfall after waterfall.

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Upon reaching Hwy 276 we had a very short road walk to intersect with the Big East Fork Trail and were soon following the Big East Fork of the Pigeon River.

At the intersection of the Greasy Cove Trail we decided to ford the river immediately rather than in the morning, despite the nicer campsite being on this side. It was quite an exciting ford as the rocks were extremely slippery and water came up to mid thigh, though was not as cold as expected. We camped on the other side of the river and it was definitely a warmer night, though some light rain forced us to pack a wet tent yet again.

Quite a climb back up to the Art Loeb trail and we were soon in sleet and hiking frozen trail. Hikers coming down from Shining Rock mentioned snow last night! Despite not having the usual amazing views from the Shining Rock Ledge because of dense frozen fog, the view was still very beautiful with all the ice covered trees and flora. The rhododendron foliage was hanging limply, as it does in the cold and a reminder that spring has not completely arrived.

As the temps warmed and the ice began to melt, it looked like the trail was covered with ice cubes. At Shining Rock Gap we connected the dots of our figure 8 by following the Art Loeb Trail back to the Boy Scout Camp. The highlight of this section was the The Narrows, a thin rocky ledge just wide enough to hike on. The fog cleared and we had some great views north and could see the Smokies and Mount LeConte in the far distance.

We opted to skip the 1.4 miles side trail up Cold Mountain since we both had been up there before, though I highly recommend if the day is clear and you’ve never seen the view. It was all downhill from Deep Gap with lots of wildflowers beginning to peek out of the earth. I introduced Lady Slipper to ramps which were in abundance and beginning to emerge also. This pungent wild onion is much in demand by foragers and foodies in the western Carolina mountains. We were soon back at my vehicle and on the way back to Brevard. Excellent weekend!