Art Loeb - Shinning Rock Wilderness Loop

[Summit]

Everyone likes loop hikes that eliminate the two-vehicles at each end hassle, or cost of shuttles.

Just finished this one and it was absolutely amazing!

Started at the Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp - northern end of the Art Loeb Trail. First day - quite a haul up over 3000 ft elevation gain to Cold Mountain Spur trail and then camped near the summit of Cold Mountain. Rained during the hike and then poured down that evening. Woke up to beautiful clearing day.

Hiked on up to the summit of Cold Mountain (see gallery) and then back down to the Art Loeb and continued south to Shinning Rock Gap. "The Narrows" section was tough with a lot of rock scrambling, but beautiful. Only about a five mile day to Shinning Rock Gap, but well worth the early stop - lots of nice campsites and good water.

Finish the loop by taking the Ivestor Gap trail out of the Shinning Rock Gap clearing for 1/2 mile to trail 107 (Little East Fork Pigeon River). This little used, overgrown in places trail is pure wilderness hiking and solitude. Didn't encounter a soul. Beautiful creek - stream - river as you descend with lots of awesome cascades and a nice fall. At the end you come into a section of the Boy Scout Camp and continue to the bridge, cross it and you are back at the parking for the Art Loeb Trail and your vehicle.

Altogether, only about a 15-mile loop, but recommend two nights, three days to take it in and appreciate all of its splendor.

[Waterfall]

Sounds like you had a great hike. That climb out of Camp Daniel Boone is tough! So are The Narrows, but as you say, it's a beautiful hike.

[Corrigan]

When did you go? I hiked out of Daniel Boone on Sat(26th) with two friends and took the trail down to Davidson River Campgrounds and then the short walk to Brevard. We got drenched Saturday and stayed around Shining Rock never making it to Investor Gap. Sunday we woke up and made it to Butter Gap shelter making it quite a hard and tiring day. On the bright side we had beautiful weather and great views. Monday we walked from Butted Gap to Davidson and then on down to grub at restaurant I didn't even catch the name of. Right beside the Bi-Lo. The lady working at Backcountry Outfitters could not have been any nicer and helped us catch a ride back up to Daniel Boone. It cost 120 bucks(split 3 ways) but it was well worth it considering how long it takes someone to drive up there and back from Brevard. If anyone decides to do this hike in the future I would recommend going up 276, hoping onto the Parkway and then getting on to 215. The drive is great, lots of turns and unbelievable views. Anyways, too bad we didn't cross paths Summit.......

Great hike, I recommend it to all.......any questions send me a PM

Cheers!

[Summit]

When did you go? I hiked out of Daniel Boone on Sat(26th)I drove in well after dark and spent the night of the 25th in the back of my SUV 30 yds from the Art Loeb Trailhead. I hiked up to Cold Mountain the morning of the 26th also. Got to Shinning Rock Gap on the 27th. We must have just missed one another. Drats!

[johnnybgood]

This is great timing Summit, as I have been gathering information from another thread regarding the Art Loeb.

I had been calculating on how to get a shuttle back to the trailhead and the cost .
You mention plenty of water sources , could you elaborate on this ?

Again thanks for the report. I must put this at the top of my "to do list ".

[Corrigan]

I was armed with only the National Geographic topo map and an extremely vague overview of the trail and did not run into water problems once. It seemed like every time I thought about water, I stumbled upon it. Granted it did downpour the first day out, however it looked like all the water sources will be consistent otherwise.

Backcountry Outfitters no longer offers shuttles however they will probably take you if there are two people at the shop. Pura Vida(spelling?) does offer a shuttle for 120, they were booked last weekend=( We got City Cab to drop us off for 120. We didn't go with much of a plan though, so there may be easier/cheaper ways.

cheers

[Reid]

Hey man, how was the fall colors setting in? I'm going up there when Im sure that the fall colors are in their peak. From your pics it didn't look like they had even started to turn.

[Summit]

You mention plenty of water sources , could you elaborate on this ?Water is running great. The only dry section is the very rocky "Narrows," and it isn't that long. There is a good piped water source about half a mile from the summit of Cold Mountain and great campsites just past it going on up.


Hey man, how was the fall colors setting in?There was a hint of yellows . . . just starting to turn. I'd say in about two more weeks there will be plenty of color.

BTW, in case anyone needs a suitable for printing map (this described loop in the upper left corner), here's one: