ntang
10-09-2011, 20:40
A few weeks ago, I made my first foray on to the Art Loeb trail, starting at the Daniel Boone Camp off of Route 215 and making it down to Ivestor Gap before heading back up to Shining Rock Gap and taking the Little East Fork trail back to my car. I completed that hike much quicker than I had expected (really just two half-days of hiking), so this time around I wanted to try something a little more ambitious. So armed with a good map, my compass and a dog that has a knack for finding lost trails, I charted out a three-day trip through the Middle Prong and Shining Rock Wilderness areas. I would start off at the Sunburst campground area on Route 215 and head east up the Fork Mountain Trail up to Ivestor Gap, take Art Loeb south to the MST, hike west on the MST back into the Middle Prong and then take the Green Mountain trail north back to the Sunburst camp.
The weather was perfect - clear skies forecasted for the next several days, mid-70s in the day and mid-40s at night. I arrived at the trailhead around noon (having driven from Durham) and after loading my German Shepherd's doggy backpack with kibble and her food dish, we headed out. I chose to take this "clockwise" route because the Fork Mountain trail was reported to be (and I can confirm) a relatively gentle grade up. I was climbing for a solid two or three hours before I reached the main ridgeline, which seemed to be a long-abandoned logging road. There, I ran into some trouble due to poor navigating on my part (abetted somewhat by a technical issue with my compass) - I made a wrong turn, and found myself soon on the top of Fork Mountain, where at the end of a hairy Forest Service trail, I found a weather monitor! Definitely not where I was supposed to be. I made my way back down to the erstwhile logging road, confirmed I had gone in the wrong direction, and went right (S/E) instead.
On my first pass, I missed where the Fork Mountain trail splits off from the logging road, and soon came to a dead end. Doubling back, I finally located the real trail, which is probably only ~0.3 miles from where I'd started. I think that was sort of an omen, because from that point on, the trail definitely got a little harder to follow than it had been. While generally okay, there were several spots where I had to either double back or pause to look around for the path. I definitely wouldn't want to do that section in bad weather. About an hour in, my pup and I also saw a coyote pass about 25 yards from where we were! At long last, the forest opened up into a nice bald. We kept going after that bald and soon came to the Ivestor Gap trail intersection around six o'clock. The sunset and the stars that night were amazing, but boy, was it cold.
Day two, we were back on the trail by around 8:30. The goal for the day was to get as far down the MST as possible, and hopefully all the way back to the Middle Prong. We hit Tennent Mountain pretty soon - really a great view - and afterwards started running into a number of people as we approached the BRP. Once on the MST, the contrast was marked - easy, blazed, and well-maintained. Lots of great vistas for sightseeing too. After a quick snooze at a stream just after the 215 crossing, we continued on past Black Mountain, and then past Hardy Mountain, and then I started paying close attention for the Green Mountain trailhead. I'd heard that it was elusive, but I thought it was actually pretty clear. We made such good time that we headed north on the trail, and I just decided to go for a few hours and then make camp at whatever spot presented itself. We passed a really good campsite or two before I found a good spot just north of Green Knob. The night was notably less cold (not to say "warmer") up there than at Ivestor Gap.
I had expected our final day to be a quick jaunt north to the Sunburst camp, but it turned into more of a hike than I'd thought! We had two sharp ascents, neither of which was real welcome to my quads. The trail got very hard to follow at some points, requiring a lot of double-backs. But the real kicker was the final descent down to 215 and Sunburst - though the whole north half of the trail is kind of steep, for at least the last half a mile down to the road, the grade is literally 30-35%. Even my dog was skidding down - for me, with my backpack, I had to side-step much of the way down, holding on to trees for support. The hike back to 215 took about two hours, and I honestly cannot imagine doing it southbound. It'd be terrible. Definitely save this trail for the return trip!
Water sources:
Two good streams on the way up the Fork Mountain trail, before you hit the long S/E ridge line down to Ivestor Gap. Basically nothing on that second section of the trail, but there's a good, reliable water source at Ivestor Gap, so you can fill up there. There are a few healthy streams on the MST north and south of the 215 intersection. I filled up again at a stream just south of Black Mountain on the MST, which is the last good source I found. No water on the Green Mountain Trail, but it ends at Sunburst at a river, so no worries there.
(I had trouble finding ANY information about the Middle Prong Wilderness on the interwebs, so I decided to write this admittedly lengthy report. Sorry!)
The weather was perfect - clear skies forecasted for the next several days, mid-70s in the day and mid-40s at night. I arrived at the trailhead around noon (having driven from Durham) and after loading my German Shepherd's doggy backpack with kibble and her food dish, we headed out. I chose to take this "clockwise" route because the Fork Mountain trail was reported to be (and I can confirm) a relatively gentle grade up. I was climbing for a solid two or three hours before I reached the main ridgeline, which seemed to be a long-abandoned logging road. There, I ran into some trouble due to poor navigating on my part (abetted somewhat by a technical issue with my compass) - I made a wrong turn, and found myself soon on the top of Fork Mountain, where at the end of a hairy Forest Service trail, I found a weather monitor! Definitely not where I was supposed to be. I made my way back down to the erstwhile logging road, confirmed I had gone in the wrong direction, and went right (S/E) instead.
On my first pass, I missed where the Fork Mountain trail splits off from the logging road, and soon came to a dead end. Doubling back, I finally located the real trail, which is probably only ~0.3 miles from where I'd started. I think that was sort of an omen, because from that point on, the trail definitely got a little harder to follow than it had been. While generally okay, there were several spots where I had to either double back or pause to look around for the path. I definitely wouldn't want to do that section in bad weather. About an hour in, my pup and I also saw a coyote pass about 25 yards from where we were! At long last, the forest opened up into a nice bald. We kept going after that bald and soon came to the Ivestor Gap trail intersection around six o'clock. The sunset and the stars that night were amazing, but boy, was it cold.
Day two, we were back on the trail by around 8:30. The goal for the day was to get as far down the MST as possible, and hopefully all the way back to the Middle Prong. We hit Tennent Mountain pretty soon - really a great view - and afterwards started running into a number of people as we approached the BRP. Once on the MST, the contrast was marked - easy, blazed, and well-maintained. Lots of great vistas for sightseeing too. After a quick snooze at a stream just after the 215 crossing, we continued on past Black Mountain, and then past Hardy Mountain, and then I started paying close attention for the Green Mountain trailhead. I'd heard that it was elusive, but I thought it was actually pretty clear. We made such good time that we headed north on the trail, and I just decided to go for a few hours and then make camp at whatever spot presented itself. We passed a really good campsite or two before I found a good spot just north of Green Knob. The night was notably less cold (not to say "warmer") up there than at Ivestor Gap.
I had expected our final day to be a quick jaunt north to the Sunburst camp, but it turned into more of a hike than I'd thought! We had two sharp ascents, neither of which was real welcome to my quads. The trail got very hard to follow at some points, requiring a lot of double-backs. But the real kicker was the final descent down to 215 and Sunburst - though the whole north half of the trail is kind of steep, for at least the last half a mile down to the road, the grade is literally 30-35%. Even my dog was skidding down - for me, with my backpack, I had to side-step much of the way down, holding on to trees for support. The hike back to 215 took about two hours, and I honestly cannot imagine doing it southbound. It'd be terrible. Definitely save this trail for the return trip!
Water sources:
Two good streams on the way up the Fork Mountain trail, before you hit the long S/E ridge line down to Ivestor Gap. Basically nothing on that second section of the trail, but there's a good, reliable water source at Ivestor Gap, so you can fill up there. There are a few healthy streams on the MST north and south of the 215 intersection. I filled up again at a stream just south of Black Mountain on the MST, which is the last good source I found. No water on the Green Mountain Trail, but it ends at Sunburst at a river, so no worries there.
(I had trouble finding ANY information about the Middle Prong Wilderness on the interwebs, so I decided to write this admittedly lengthy report. Sorry!)