One Man's Odyssey: Linville Gorge Wilderness

"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest" - Henry David Thoreau

So, I haven't posted in awhile, and it will likely be quite awhile longer until I am able to post again. Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to post an update on my current status and speculate as to when I will be able to get back on the trail. I will start out with a brief review of a recent overnight trip in the Linville Gorge, then talk about my upcoming plans and long-term overnight goals, and finally talk a little about my trip back from Los Alamos to Raleigh, which included Great Sand Dunes National Park and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

Linville Gorge Wilderness - Babel Tower to Conley Cove Loop

Day 1

On October 13, we had planned to drive to the Linville Gorge West Rim to hike from the Bynum Bluff trailhead, enter the gorge, and hike back up via the Conley Cove trail, then try to catch a ride or walk the forest road back to the car. We planned this to be a leisurely 2 night trip, about 12 miles in total length. Unfortunately, being a weekend in October, permits were required to camp on a Saturday night. This would not have been an issue, except the ranger station had run out of permits Friday morning (as an aside: it's worth noting that the website misleadingly implies that there is a fixed allotment of permits given out both on Friday and Saturday, not that there is a fixed allotment of permits for Friday and Saturday that are given out starting Friday, which is actually the case). Fortunately, the unpaved forest road that traverses the West Rim is loaded with quality campsites, and even on this beautiful fall weekend there were plenty of options for us. We opted to stay at the "Old Conley Campsite", which is just outside the Wilderness limits, which we legally needed a permit to camp in. With the day ahead of us, we hiked the Rock Jock Trail to Razor Point and back, a roughly 3 mile trip.

Table Rock Mountain from Rock Jock

Hawksbill Mountain

The Chimneys

Looking south into the gorge

Blue Jay Falls

Struggling campfire

The Rock Jock trail is a great hiking trail, with magnificent views and some awesome campsites (that we could not camp at). However, unless you want to do an out-and-back or add forest road mileage, it does not make the best backpacking trail. We found enough dry wood to get a fire going, no simple task considering the remnants of Hurricane Michael had passed through the area two days prior.

Day 2

We left the car at the parking lot, packed up, and hiked up the forest road to the Babel Tower trailhead. From here, the plan was hike to Babel Tower, continue into the gorge, camp, then hike back up to Conley Cove the next day. All told, we'd be hiking 8-ish miles, but remember that "every mile in the gorge feels like two". Unfortunately, we were surprised with a solid 3 hours of rain after waking up. Rain had been in the forecast when we checked the day before, but it was not supposed to come until later. The updated forecast showed that front had moved up, but would be heading out before too long. While the hike started out reminiscent of Shenandoah due to opaque fog, the cloud coverage thankfully just thinned enough to give us some views of cloud-flanked mountaintops.

Cloudy Table Rock Mountain

Once at Babel Tower we encountered a very large group of overnighters who probably were responsible single-handedly for there being no permits the night before. The harrowing climb up Babel Tower would have been a tad easier were the rocks not soaking wet, but we made it up with no injuries and took in the view.

Looking down at the river from Babel Tower

View from Babel Tower

From here we decided that we would finish our hike in a single day to avoid missing work on Monday and settled on trekking the remaining grueling 6 miles through and out of the gorge back to the car. When we had done our March trip, we had barely spent time in the gorge proper, as most of the hike was along the East Rim. Thus, I had not experienced the torture that is hiking the Linville Gorge Trail that flanks the Linville River at the gorge bottom. Partially due to heavy rain, seemingly every foot of this trail was one of the following: ankle-killing rockiness, mud, rushing stream requiring a rock hop lest you wanted soaked boots, slippery rock that would send you rocketing into the river, probably killing you, steep uphill, or steep downhill. As a result, we maintained barely a 1 mph hiking pace. As a rule of thumb, I average about 3 mph on easy terrain, 2 mph on uphills, downhills, or rocky terrain, and 1 mph only on the steepest mountain climbs.

The river at this point is probably 30-40 feet wide due to heavy hurricane flow

We passed where we had planned on crossing the river on our failed Linville Gorge Loop attempt back in March and marveled at how high the water was (over 10x greater flow rate than in March). We also saw a lot of trash, which made me a little less upset about the permit situation. It's a shame that such a beautiful place gets utterly trashed, probably mostly by inexperienced hikers carrying too much stuff in the first place. Many of the people we've talked to at the gorge decry the difficulty of hiking and route-finding. Personally, with the exception of the actual Linville Gorge Trail, which will obliterate your joints, but is not exhausting in itself, the difficulty and route-finding is pretty par for the course with what I've experienced in New Mexico and Colorado, especially given the documented availability of campsites and water sources.

We hiked up the Conley Cove trail, which, despite being all uphill, was a welcome respite from the ankle-grinder that was the Linville Gorge Trail. All told, the uphill and downhill portions were the easiest parts of this hike, which is rarely the case. Admittedly, the difficulty of the Linville Gorge Trail was at least partially due to the massive amount of rainfall the region had experienced several days prior, making rocks slippery, mud more common, and creek crossings more pronounced. My honest opinion is that aside from the challenge of hiking in the gorge, there isn't much to see on the Linville Gorge Trail. The rims are the real show at Linville, but the unfortunate lack of reliable crossing points (flow generally needs to be below 50 cfs to make a safe northern crossing; it was 1000 cfs when we came and 80 cfs last March) makes stringing together a loop such as this impractical. I am making something of a bucket list when it comes to North Carolina hiking, since my remaining time as a PhD student is likely less than 2 years, so I don't know if I make it back to the gorge before I leave. If I do, I would love to try to do the "Is That All You Got?" Loop, which is very similar to the Linville Wilderness Loop we attempted in March.

What's Ahead?

Unfortunately, I am and have been incredibly busy until roughly late-January. Lindsey and I are taking a joint birthday trip to England and Ireland in mid-January, and just about every weekend between now and then is spoken for. I had considered doing an overnight trip in November or December in the nearby Birkhead Mountains Wilderness, part of the Uwharrie National Forest, but despite my utter disdain for hashtag trends, Lindsey and I decided it would be best if we #optoutside on Black Friday and do a long day-hike there. It may be for the best anyway, since this summer took a toll on my backpacking equipment. My boots are one or two trips away from falling apart, my rain jacket and hiking pants got torn up on the Linville trip, and I don't actually own any cold weather hiking gear, just heavy sweaters.

Recently I got it in my head to do the Trans-Zion Trek in Zion National Park. Zion National Park has been on my bucket list for awhile now, and because of its proximity to Las Vegas, it actually appears to be a rather affordable trip. I am eyeing October 2019 as a good time to do it. However, I need to train myself to do this sort of mini-thru hike, so I am considering doing either the ~30 mile Art Loeb Trail or some or all of the 76 mile Foothills Trail as a trainer come spring break. Either of these would be a big step for me on my backpacking journey, especially since I'd be hiking alone.

Other than that, I will probably be silent until January at the earliest if I dare to do a cold weather hike before spring break. I am sure Lindsey will post about Christmas and birthday travels, so I will still be around. Hopefully you hear from me sooner than later, but have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! What follows is a description of my last two weekends in New Mexico as well as my eventful road trip back to Raleigh.

Last Two Weekends in New Mexico

Santa Fe Baldy

Santa Fe Baldy is moderately long (~14 miles round-trip) day-hike accessible via the Winsor Trail at the Santa Fe Ski Area. Because we were in monsoon, I wanted to get on the trail as early as possible, managing to get to the trailhead at 4:30 AM, well before sunrise even in late summer. The trailhead sits at over 10,000', so even on a mid-August evening the temperatures were probably in the lower 40's. I enjoyed the pristine night sky, saw a couple shooting stars flash by, and began my hike, watching the city of Santa Fe in the distance slowly light up on this Saturday morning. Not used to hiking at night, the rustling trees admittedly spooked me quite a bit until the sun rose enough for me to see more than what my headlamp illuminated. I followed the Winsor Trail, which crosses several streams that will eventually meet the Rio Grande as the morning sun lit the northern slopes of Lake and Penitente Peak until I reached the popular camping meadows of Puerto Nambe.

Puerto Nambe

From here, I turned onto the Skyline Trail #251, which switchbacks up to a saddle that overlooks the Espanola Valley to the west and the Pecos Valley to the east. I encountered a surprising amount of campers, given that it was relatively exposed and monsoon season, and hiked past hail patches that had been deposited by the same weather system that had done likewise in Los Alamos.

From the saddle, left to right: Penitente Peak, Lake Peak, unnamed subpeak

Down into the Pecos Valley

From the saddle one leaves the trail and follows the well-trodden path to the summit of Santa Fe Baldy (12,631'). This is moderately difficult, but given the relative ease of the hike leading up to it, it is not too bad.

Looking back at Lake Peak near the summit

Heading up the summit

At the summit, looking towards the Truchas Group

Looking into the sun at the Pecos Valley

The saddle I came from on the lower left

Looking towards Santa Fe

Looking down the western slopes into the Espanola Valley; too hazy to see the Jemez

Lake Katherine

Official summit cairn

Looking back at the summit

Looking at Lake Katherine made me remember my two trips there (only one successful), and made me realize how badly I wanted to go back. However, based on the traffic headed towards the lake on my hike out, I will not be going on a Saturday night. The hike back was uneventful aside from all the traffic, but the trail condition was surprisingly good given the number of people. Were it not for the clouds amassing, I might have tried to also summit Penitente and Lake Peak. I went to Second Street Brewing and enjoyed a green chile enchilada burger, which was literally a green chile cheesburger topped with a blue corn enchilada. It was amazing. Aside from the length, this is not a strenuous hike, but there is not any water after starting the climb to Puerto Nambe.

Jemez Hike

I had not managed to go into the Jemez at all the entire summer except for my Bandelier trip, and I figured that since I was about to start a 1900 mile road trip I would stay relatively local, hiking from the East Fork trailhead to Battleship Rock and back. My main goal was to find the McCauley Warm Springs. This hike was not particularly eventful, but it was harder than I had anticipated, mostly due to the high heat and humidity caused by rains the night before. The rains also made the drive through the Valles Caldera rather foggy and spooky.

Foggy Valles Grande

The canyon formed by the East Fork Jemez River; great rock formations and colors

Pool of McCauley Warm Springs

West Rim of Jemez River canyon

Battleship Rock

This hike was a nice way to say goodbye to New Mexico and Los Alamos in particular. I was a little worried there would be nude hippies at McCauley Warm Springs, or that they'd be trashed, since the hot springs in the Jemez tend to have that reputation, but I saw none of either. In fact, the warm springs were truly only warm, and they were not even above the ambient temperature, which was in the mid 80's.

Road Trip Back to Raleigh

My parents met up with me in Alamosa, CO, where we'd spend the next two days and see some of the local sights. I'm not an expert on Colorado, but my understanding is that this south-central region of Colorado is a bit different culturally than the rest of Colorado, since it has distinct Spanish roots. It is culturally more similar to northern New Mexico than, say, Denver or Colorado Springs. The first day, we went to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes is mind-blowing, and I enjoyed it more than White Sands, but unless you are going to hike all the way to Star Dune, there is not much to do in one day except hike to the top of High Dune, provided dune sledding doesn't enamor you. Nevertheless, hiking to High Dune is not particularly difficult, but puts enough distance between you and screaming kids to really make the park magical.

Looking out at Star Dune

Atop High Dune

As you can see, this is a pretty dreamlike place. I don't like hiking with music, but if I were going to listen to something here, it would probably be Sleep's Jerusalem album while I hiked to Star Dune.

The following day we drove to San Luis, CO, the oldest town in Colorado, and visited the Shrine of the Stations of the Cross. This is a beautiful shrine, and definitely worth the trip if you have the chance. We also visited Fort Garland, a fort from the pioneer days. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I am appreciative for the pioneers who were willing to move out West to eke out a living and for the American servicemen who protected them from Indian raids. Obviously, I wish things could have been different, but they weren't.

Culebra Peak, the only privately-owned 14er in Colorado, in the background

Fort Garland

After that, my dad and I left for our long drive to Raleigh via Kansas City, Louisville, and Lexington. Kansas wasn't as bad as I've heard people say it is. It's not great, but I would put it above panhandle Texas and eastern Colorado. On the third day of our long drive, we stopped at three bourbon distilleries as part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. I have been trying to get into whiskey lately, so it was a nice treat to see how the big dogs do distilling. I will say that the tours start to get repetitive, so if you can go on a special tour, I would recommend it. If I had to rank the tours, I would say from best to worst: Woodford Reserve, Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace.