London Bald Work Trip | June 19--21, 2009

Five GATC members, two Mountain High Hiking Club members, me and John Ray met at Junaluska Gap Friday morning. Four of the GATC people had been presidents of that 1600 member club. We split into two groups: John with four who started at the London Bald/Junaluska intersection and I had three others at our starting point of Hickory Branch Trail/Junaluska. It was a 1.5 mile, watery trip up Hickory Branch Trail to the intersection with Londo Bald. We turned westbound to meet up with John's group who were coming East on London Bald.

At 3:30, we met them around the mid-point and kept in our direction back to our cars, ending the day. We got a lot of work done and the two trails really needed it. London Bald is a gorgeous trail with and incredible assortment of wildflowers, probably because the northeastern end is mostly shady while the southwestern side is mostly sunny due to it being a burned area some years back. I had done maintenance on that area back ilast Fall in late October and it had already become grown over.

Late Saturday afternoon, John & I went just beyond Appletree Campground where we pitched our tents just off the Bartram Trail near the Nantahala River. We partook of the cool water for an afternoon bath in the river.

Saturday, we hiked north on the Bartram. John wanted to include the Piercy Creek Trail in his updated guide book, so when we got to the trail head, we hiked down the 1.4 miles to where it dead-ends at the Nantahala River. Piercy Creek Trail is a deep cut in the gorge with lots of shade and water, so it stays cool, no matter how hot it is in sunny, open areas. There are a number of cascading waterfalls along the way.

Tim Warren and the Bartram maintainers had built five (?) bridges across streams along the trail, plus done sufficient trimming to make the trail passable.

We back-tracked to Bartram then headed West on Laurel Creek for a mile or so until it intersected with Appletree Trail which in turn, led us back to Appletree Campground where we had left our cars.

Plants that were putting on a show were galax, flame azalea, firepinks, mountain laurel, goats beard, clintonia, foamflower, phlox, bee balm, several daisies, about ten different ferns, many mosses, lichens, grasses, tradescantia, iris, epimedium and some I couldn't identify.

We heard one turkey take off and saw two rattlesnakes at the split rail fence at Appletree Campground, apparently molting their old skins.

This area gets little attention but is well worth the effort to find and hike. When you are at the burn area up on London Bald, besides the big display of wildflowers, there is a great view over to the Rim Trail and Tusquittee Bald with its' double-top. I like it because in addition to the beauty, it is wild, un-spoiled and unlike the nearby AT and all of the Smokies, there are far fewer people using it.

Chris David Capital Group Outings Leader