Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/13/2026	3.6 miles	1 hour 57 minutes	186'	2.3 mph	142.3

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc. trails

This has been an incredibly busy week, so we are again staying close to home to hike. Our normal swimming hole already had a bunch of people, so we chose a different spot for swimming. We saw a couple of bears today from our car.

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/12/2026	3.4 miles	2 hours	219'	2.2 mph	138.7

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc. trails

This has been an incredibly busy week, so we are again staying close to home to hike. Our normal swimming hole already had a bunch of people, so we chose a different spot for swimming.

Trail Maintenance, Garenflo Gap to Bluff Mountain, Appalachian Trail

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/8/2026	8 miles	7 hours 36 minutes	2,151'	1.7 mph	135.3

Parking: 

• Garenflo Gap

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Hike from Garenflo Gap to Bluff Mountain on the AT. On the return trip, we walked the woods road instead of the AT back to our car.

Out to do weed whacking. This is always our biggest trail maintenance job of the year. It typically takes 3 long days to complete. Today was our first day. I was able to hike to the summit, the first time in over a year. Yes, my hips did hurt on and off, but I was excited I could do it. We weed whacked on the way down, only getting 0.45 miles done in 3 hours of work. That's pretty typical. Weed whacking the top always takes the longest. We use a swing blade to cut the weeds. An electric trimmer would be nice, but I don't want to hike up 2,150 feet with it. We met a dozen thru hikers on our way up. Krumm loves to join us on trail maintenance days. We'll be back in a week once our bodies recover.

A low priority tree

We need to save this for a later day

Broken step that needs addressing

Another low priority tree

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/5/2026	3.6 miles	2 hours 4 minutes	206'	2.1 mph	127.3

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc. trails

This has been an incredibly busy week, so we are again staying close to home to hike. Our normal swimming hole already had a bunch of people, so we chose a different spot for dog swimming.

Bull Creek Preserve Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/4/2026	3.7 miles	2 hours 1 minute	240'	2.1 mph	123.7

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc. trails

Second hike after getting back from my National Park trip. Krumm was still so excited to go swimming again! He was making all sorts of excited noises as we started the hike until we reached our swimming hole.