Linville Gorge Dayhike

We had not done a real hike in a long time. We had been home from three months in Florida for less than a week. What kind of real hiking can you do in Florida? Our friend Andy called and proposed a hike in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. Anytime you hike into the Linville Gorge, well, that's a real hike. He had heard of a special place near the lower part of the river known as Daffodil Flats. It's not on any map but he thought he could find it. It was reported to be an open area with thousands of daffodils. If our calculations were right, they should be in peak bloom about now. Andy sometimes plans rather ambitious hikes, and we had no reason to believe this one would not be hard. It would probably be hard even if we were in good shape. But we are always a sucker for Andy's hikes, so we loaded our packs and I donned my brand new virgin LL Bean Leather GoreTex Cresta Hikers and off we went.

We met Andy at the usual place: the Burger King off I-40 at the Icard exit. From there we proceeded towards Lake James and up the Kistler Memorial Highway (a pretentious name for a steep , mostly single lane, gravel road) to the Pinch-In Trailhead. We put in and began our 1800' descent into the gorge. The trail started rather gently and passed through a recently burned area, which offered unusual and outstanding views of of the gorge and Shortoff Mountain on the far rim. The trail then dropped steeply into the gorge, with no switchbacks and no relief for aching toes and knees. Did I mention my new boots? Normally one would not want to wear out-of-the-box boots on such a trip, but this is my fifth pair of Bean Cresta Hikers and I have always been able to wear them without any break-in period. Today my luck held once more and my feet hurt no more than anyone else's.

Before long we reached the bottom of the gorge and the Linville Gorge Trail. Our exit route was left and upstream, but Daffodil Flats would be right and downstream, at least a mile. So we turned right and proceeded down the Linville Gorge Trail. Most of the Linville Gorge Trail is very rugged. It is steep, poorly graded and poorly maintained, if maintained at all. If a tree falls across the trail, hikers will blaze a route around the tree, resulting in steep and ugly scrambles. However, this section of the trail, while not very heavily traveled, was relatively level and smooth, with few obstructions. After about an hour and perhaps two miles we reached Daffodil Flats. There we found a flat open area perhaps 150' across, thick with daffodils in bloom. I have seen fields with more daffodils, but never in a setting as rugged and remote as the Linville Gorge. How did they come to be here? Perhaps there was a homestead here once, but that seemed unlikely. We saw no signs of a cabin. Perhaps it had been washed away long ago. After a while taking pictures we backtracked up the river to a gravel beach and ate lunch. From there we started our return trek north up the Linville Gorge Trail. After reaching the junction for the Pinch-In Trail, the Linville Gorge Trail I remembered so vividly reappeared with a vengeance. We scrambled up and down around boulders, downed trees and ravines. We probably averaged less than 1 mile per hour for the next 3.5 miles. We finally reached our exit, the Conley Cove Trail and began our ascent. The Conley Cove Trail is pretty heavily used. We saw signs of trail maintenance and foolishly assumed the trail would be clear. No such luck. We had to negotiate several more particularly nasty downfalls before cresting the ridge and reaching the trail head.

It was a hard hike, but a rewarding one. I think we will give Andy another chance and hile with him again sometime.

Andy writes a pretty good trip report. You can read his version of this hike here.