When Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina last September, we were awed by the destruction. How would places such as Lansing and Chimney Rock and Marshall, to name a few, get back to a semblance of normal?
Normal may still be a ways off in some cases, but the recovery has been remarkably swift. From what I’d seen of Hot Springs, a town that I’ve been leading hiking trips to for years, I was certain it could be years before we would return to hike on the Appalachian Trail, which runs through downtown.
And yet come May, just seven months after Helene, I found myself in Hot Springs at the town’s reopening, a reopening that included a hike on a favorite stretch of the AT, from Tanyard Gap into downtown. Two weeks later I was back in the mountains, for a weekend of hiking in Panthertown Valley. And next weekend this celebration of mountain towns and trails will continue, with a weekend of hiking in Ashe County.
This will be the third of our Return to Western NC events, and by “our,” I mean the communities involved working with the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Hometown Strong unit. Hometown Strong works to help communities in the state’s 78 rural counties in a variety of ways, including helping them promote their recreational assets. My day job is with Hometown Strong, and helping to organize these events is how I spend part of my time. Enough about that. Let’s talk about our next Return to Western NC hiking weekend, in Ashe County.
Ashe County, for the unaware, is in the far northwest corner of the state. The mountainous area is unique in that it’s home to the Amphibolite Mountains, steep and rugged mountains covered in dense forests of northern hardwoods, including a type of aspen and sugar maples that blaze orange come fall. It’s a different experience than you’ll get in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests to the south. And because there’s significantly less public land in these mountains, the opportunities to hike here are limited. Which makes an event like this one on June 27 and 28 that much more special.
Three hikes are planned for the weekend:
Friday, June 27
Return to Western NC: Hike Paddy Mountain, 2:30 p.m., West Jefferson. Last year, the first segment of the nascent 40-mile Northern Peaks State Trail opened in West Jefferson. It was promptly closed by Hurricane Helene. But thanks to volunteer-led efforts, the trail has reopened, and we’ll get to hike it as part of our Return to Western NC weekend in Ashe County. Jordan Sellers with the BRC will lead this 3.6-mile loop hike, which utilizes long switchbacks to ease its way up Paddy Mountain, gaining nearly 350 feet in its first 1.3 miles. Passage is through a Rich Cove Forest. What’s that mean? Join us to find out. Learn more and sign up here.
Saturday, June 28
Return to Western NC: Hike Elk Knob State Park, 9 a.m., Todd. On this 4-mile out-and-back hike we top out on 5,520-foot Elk Knob, which offers incredible views to the north, of the Southern Appalachians in northern North Carolina and southern Virginia. And the 2-mile hike to the summit, gaining nearly 1,000 vertical feet, relies on well-designed trail to ease the impact of that elevation gain and to usher you safely through some of the mountain’s rockier sections. Learn more and sign up here.
Return to Western NC: Hike Pond Mountain, 2 p.m., Pond Mountain is a 2,900-acre game land made possible by the Blue Ridge Conservancy and the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. Stunning views dominate the 5,000-foot summit plateau, but so does water. According to the Blue Ridge Conservancy, the area got its name from surveyor Peter Jefferson (Thomas’s son), “…because of the many natural ponds that dotted the mountain’s high ridgeline. The historic ponds point to the mountain’s special significance as an important water resource. Several important streams and creeks originate on Pond Mountain, including Big Laurel, Ripshin and Big Horse Creeks, all of which flow into the New River, a National Heritage River and one of the oldest rivers in the world.” Learn more and sign up here.
In addition, there’s an outdoor concert Friday evening in downtown West Jefferson featuring the Whitetop Mountain Band, a popular family-based band with deep roots in mountain music. All the more reason to come up for Friday’s Paddy Mountain hike and make a weekend of it.
Learn more about these hikes, the concert, lodging/camping and more by going here.
See you in West Jefferson!