Agile Trekker: Warren Wilson College trails, Swannanoa, NC

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/23/2025	3.1 miles	2 hours 13 minutes	147'	2.0 mph	164.1 miles

Parking:

Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Church

Map:

Warren Wilson College Trails new

Directions:

Misc trails

Back to Warren Wilson College to take Krumm swimming. Today we tried out two different swimming spots along the river - trying to find the perfect spot. Krumm has a habit of retrieving a stick and leaving it in the water at the shore, so we experimented with tying a long line to the stick. He does well when retrieving balls on dry land, but in the water, not so much. He likes to stay in the water.

We had a couple of strange things happen today. The first was the cicadas. They were eerily quiet. They're still out in mass. But the meadow which was noisy from them 2 days ago was completely quiet. So bizarre. It was a cooler and windy day, and we were out hiking later. Were they taking a nap? They weren't flying around either.

We have never seen bears on the trails here, and we have hiked here a lot. Today we saw 2! First was a large bear. It took off when it saw us. Good bear. We decided to change our route anyways and headed away from the bear. Then when we saw a black blob at the edge of the pasture. We weren't sure if it was a dog or a bear for a long time. We stood and watched. Eventually we figured out it was a young bear - maybe 1 or 2 years old. We started talking loudly and singing to make the bear aware of us. It took a long time for him to notice us. The meadow grass is tall, but we saw him pop his head up and stare at us. We continued singing and continued on the trail heading moderately towards the bear. And continued singing down the trail after we passed the pasture. No bear photos.