Quiet Hiker Videos

Some more videos from my Quiet Hiker YouTube channel. Enjoy.

Waterfall on Scotsmans Creek.

Winter Backpacking trip, Panthertown Valley.

Chattooga River hike, waterfall search.

Next!

Our next camping trip is to Van Hook Glade near Highlands, NC. Highlands is known these days as one of the most exclusive communities in the US. Many rich folk owns homes there, both vacation places and permanent abodes. Poor people are generally not welcome, unless it's as workers in the domestics profession.

However, there is much there to be enjoyed in the National Forests and nearby State parks. The place has, I've heard, the highest concentration of waterfalls in eastern North America. So we're pulling our Casita travel trailer there for four days of camping and waterfall wandering.

(The first two photos are not mine, garnered from public access sites on the Internet.)

This is the campground where we'll be staying.

The last time I was here, you were still allowed to drive behind this waterfall (just off the highway). But I've been told that these days it's blocked off and just foot traffic is allowed.

Salt Gap at the nearby Panthertown Valley.

Meself at Granny Burrell Falls in Panthertown.

Old Favorite

One of my favorite places to hike and backpack used to be Panthertown Valley in the mountains near Highlands, North Carolina. I won't talk too much about the history of how it came to become a part of Nantahala National Forest except to say that originally it was to have been declared a wilderness area. But Duke Power stepped in and snatched it away from those wanting to protect it and rammed a transmission line through the center of it. Yes, they then sold the land on either side of their right-of-way to those same interests who subsequently bequeathed it to the National Forest system. But with a powerline running down the center of it, there is no way that it could ever be considered wilderness, or be designated as such.

When I first discovered Panthertown is was known but not often visited by crowds. So I used to be able to go there and hike all day without seeing anyone. I once backpacked in there for two nights and three days and never saw another human. And the vistas were forested with no sign of the hand of Man (other than that freaking powerline).

But in recent years it has become extremely popular. When I go there now to hike or backpack it's with the resignation that I will encounter many other hikers and backpackers and horseback riders and mountain bikers and kayakers. Those mountains that once held no sign of habitation are now speckled with million-dollar homes the crowd in around the edges of the protected areas. You cannot walk very far without hearing people talking or their dogs barking. It just ain't what it once was.

I still go there from time to time, but it's not one of my favorite destinations anymore.

(All of these stitched panoramas were taken in Panthertown Valley on a solo backpacking trip in 2004. I didn't see another person in there for three whole days. That wouldn't happen, now.)

I had to cross this river to remain on the trail I was hiking. Water was up. Beyond the bend there was a pretty impressive waterfall. I did not want to lose my balance here.

This is near a spot called Salt Gap. It used to be hard to get to. But now there is a parking area not far from it and it gets a lot of traffic.

This is at Granny Burrell Falls. I pitched my tent not far from the top of the falls.

I shot this the last time I backpacked there. It was cold and snowy. But I still ran into what I can only define as crowds of people deep into Panthertown. Solitude? Not anymore.

Happy Trails!

Various photos from some of my hiking and backpacking trips. Just the trails, thanks. If I can recall where I took each one, I'll list it. (Let's see how well the old memory works.)

The Big Butt Trail, Black Mountains.

Trail in Big Ivy, Pisgah National Forest, Black Mountains.

Birkhead Mountains Wilderness.

Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

Dolly Sods Wilderness.

Panthertown Valley, North Carolina.

Mount Rogers area, Virginia.

Kubrabow State Forest, West Virginia.

Appalachian Trail, Round Bald, Tennessee.

Avalanche Peak, Yellowstone National Park.

Mount Washburn, Yellowstone National Park.

Blue Lakes Trail, Mount Sneffels Wilderness, Colorado.

Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado.

Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado.

Switchbacks leading up to the Continental Divide, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

No More Solitude

One of my old favorite hiking destinations used to be Panthertown Valley. It wasn't a terribly long drive for me, and the rewards of scenery and solitude were high. However, since I first discovered the place it has become a hiking/camping Mecca. Many thousands of people flock there to enjoy the scenery. It has much to offer, of course. Cliffs and mountains. Streams and waterfalls. The forests aren't impressive because the place was logged down to the mineral earth and left to burn, but in general it's a gorgeous place.

However, it is now so popular that I can't find any solitude there. No matter the season and no matter the weather I run into crowds. In addition, very wealthy people bought up lots on some of the ridges surrounding the Valley so that there are now mansions looming over the place--and no likelihood that they'll be righteously burned to the ground. Thus, I probably won't return there much. Fortunately, I've seen most of it so there's not a lot there to draw me back for an initial experience.

Still...I miss the quiet that I once found there in Panthertown Valley.

The first few times I went hiking in Panthertown I saw no one at all. It was if I had the entire Valley to myself. On at least one occasion, I'm pretty sure that I did have the whole valley to myself (the National Forest had posted it as closed after a hurricane had gone through, dumping vast amounts of rain. But a forest ranger had told me that the Valley was actually opened but they hadn't gotten around to taking the "Closed" signs down. For three days I saw no one else there.

One of many views on Little Green Mountain. The mountain through the trees there now has houses all over it. So you can forget about any illusions of feeling like you're in a wilderness.

School House Falls. One of the nicer waterfalls in the Valley. I like to go swimming in that plunge pool. The water there is VERY cold!

I'm sure that stump has been used as firewood by now.

Another great view from Little Green Mountain.

How'd I Miss That?

Damn. June 1st was National Trails Day! And I let it pass unnoticed. My fault, I guess for being too busy writing.

Well, in honor of a day I ignored but should not have, some photos of trails I have hiked.

Appalachian Trail (Don't go. Overcrowded, camping areas filthy.)

Yes, that's a trail. I swear it. Black Mountain Crest Trail.

Appalachian Trail at Carver's Gap, Tennessee.

Dolly Sods Wilderness, WV.

Panthertown, North Carolina.

A coyote was just in front of me along the Boogerman Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Stone Mountain, NC.

Engineering help on Stone Mountain Trail.

Volcano, WV.

One of the rim trails in the Linville Gorge Wilderness.

Blue Lakes Trail, Colorado.

Trail in the Weminuche Wilderness, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

Glacial moraine on the Chasm Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Panthertown Shelter

We had decided to spend the night at the A-frame shelter in Panthertown. It's a remnant from the Valley's days as a doomed place. Once upon a time it was slated to have been turned into a real estate development. Up to and including the damming of the Tuckaseegee River for a large lake, around which houses would have been built. Some of Panthertown's waterfalls would have been buried underwater, while others would have become the private property of the rich elite.

Fortunately, through an accident of failing finance for the people putting that venture together, the Valley first ended up in the hands of the rapacious Duke Power Company who rammed a transmission line down the center of the Valley and then gave all but the right of way to the Nature Conservancy who then handed the remaining 6,000 acres over to Nantahala National Forest. Duke Power got lots of favorable publicity out of the stunt, and the public got what was to have been a wilderness area but which is now two forests bisected by a hideous transmission line.

Still and all, it's better this way than being in the hands of a few private individuals. If you have the time and the will you can hike all around Panthertown and take in the views.

The shelter as we arrived. I'm not sure how old the shelter is, but I've heard that it's been there since the 1960s when the Valley was being planted in white pines as a Christmas tree farm. It has been repaired and renovated many times since.

Sign and good luck charm above the threshold. The cutting of live vegetation for campfires in the Valley is a problem.

Our stuff in the shelter. Later, we ended up pitching our tents in the shelter when blowing snow began to cover the floor (and our stuff).

The shelter as it looked as we were preparing to leave, after four inches of fresh snow had fallen after our arrival.

Crowded!

When I first started visiting Panthertown Valley it was a relatively unknown place. I could go there and not see anyone, even on the finest of hiking days. I once spent three entire days in Panthertown and never saw (or heard) another human. It wasn't quite wilderness (not with that Duke Power right-of-way scar running down the center of the 6,000-acre plot), but it was close.

On this visit, even though we were greeted with cold and wintery weather, the Valley was pretty damned crowded. I would not hesitate to guess that there were at least 100 people in the southern half of the Valley when we were there. We camped in the northern part of Panthertown and seemed to have that section to ourselves, but that's because of a deep creek crossing that we were willing to make, while others were not. (Take your shoes off and roll up your pants and try crossing a wide creek when it's 20 degrees out. It ain't fun.)

Because Panthertown's perimeters are easily accessible by auto, I supposed it's doomed to be a very popular destination from now on. Add in the fact that many of the trails are old roadbeds from when it was almost wrecked as a real estate development, and it's ripe for abuse from the hiking public. I saw at least one teenaged kid sawing down live trees to use as fuel for a campfire. And the forests were loud with human voices when in the old days all I'd hear was the water and the wind and the birds (and the singing coyotes in the evening).

Alas.

Panthertown Valley as seen from Salt Rock Gap.

The view from one of the cliffs on Big Green Mountain.

Big Green Mountain.

 

Panthertown is a moist place, for sure.

You can't quite see them in this video, but some of the nearby ridges across the Valley are covered in the houses of millionaires that have ruined the wild aspect of Panthertown.

Waterfall Videos

Just a few videos from the trip to Panthertown Valley.

Wilderness Falls

Schoolhouse Falls

Weird Little Falls

Another shot of Wilderness Falls