Cascade Loop Trail, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/25/2026	5.5 miles	2 hours 43 minutes	426'	2.0 mph	53.2

Parking: 

• Corn Mill Shoals Access

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co., Dupont 

Directions:

• Cross the street from the parking area and go through the gate. Turn left onto Longside Trail. Where it intersects with the Twixt Trail, turn right to stay on the Longside Trail. Turn left onto Cascade Loop Trail. Follow the road a short way. Where Cascade Trail makes a hairpin turn, turn left onto an unmarked spur trail. Pass a meadow and hike to Cascade Lake Road. Turn around and re-hike the spur trail. At the intersection with the Cascade Loop Trail, take the left side (to continue clockwise around the loop). Cross Sheep Mountain Trail and cross Staton Road. Turn left onto Longside Trail and take it back to the parking lot.

Back to Dupont for another hike. We have a new Dupont map! It is closer to reality, though there are already trails that have been decommissioned since it was published.

The Corn Mill Shoals parking area was pretty busy, but we only encountered one pair of mountain bikers and one pair of hikers. We hiked up the Longside Trail, which was rocky in spots. I was so impressed by the number of graded dips (water diversions) - I was checking, and it seemed like there was one every 30 steps! I've never noticed a trail with so many! From there we headed onto the Cascade Loop Trail. I enjoyed this trail. It didn't have wildflowers and it didn't have views, but it was a pleasant, quiet hike. We saw the spur trail heading to Cascade Lake Road on Gaia, but it isn't shown on the Pisgah Map Co map. It isn't particularly worth hiking on except to see the meadow, which is very close to intersection. It might be a good place to play fetch. Anyways, we took the spur trail by accident - missing the hairpin turn of Cascade Loop Trail. No worries - we were planning on taking it anyways. When we crossed Sheep Mountain Trail - we saw a gravel truck driving down it. It's called a trail on the map, but it just looks like a wide gravel road. 

Trailhead

Turning left onto Longside Trail

Turning left onto Cascade Loop

Briefly walking parallel to Cascade Lake Road

A pretty grove of pine trees

The spur trail off of Cascade Loop Trail goes through a meadow

The spur trail ends at Cascade Lake Road

The intersection of Cascade Loop Trail and the spur trail

Burnt Mountain Loop Trail, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/24/2026	5.6 miles	2 hours 52 minutes	470'	2.1 mph	47.7

Parking: 

• Corn Mill Shoals Access

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co., Dupont 

Directions:

• Cross the street from the parking area and go through the gate. Follow Corn Mill Shoals Trail to the right. Turn right onto Burnt Mountain Trail. Turn right on Nooks Trail. Where the trail splits, stay to the right to do the lollypop. When it rejoins, stay straight. Turn right when you return to the Burnt Mountain Trail. Turn right onto Corn Mill Shoals Trail. Hike up to Little River. Turn around. Follow Corn Mill Shoals Trail until just before the parking lot. Turn right onto Longside Trail. Go straight onto Twixt Trail. When you reach the road, turn left onto Cascade Lake Road (a paved road with cars) and return to the parking area.

We're back to working on redlining Dupont. The parking lot was pretty busy, but luckily, we encountered only 1 hiker and half a dozen mountain bikers on the trails. We started out on gravel Corn Mill Shoals Trail. Then turned onto Burnt Mountain Trail, which feels very much like a mountain biker trail (hard packed dirt). We saw an unmarked side trail which we were guessing leads to the summit of Burnt Mountain, but we didn't explore it. Shortly after getting a glimpse of Little River, we found the Nooks Trail. It's an unmarked trail, but it looks maintained. We both enjoyed this trail as it had softer footing - pine needles & leaves. You can't see the river from the Nooks Trail. What we did find were tiny fairy doors. I'm not a proponent of leaving anything in nature, but they were fun to find. Upon further research, I found out that the Nooks Trail was decommissioned in 2024: Master Recreation Plan Update  - Friends of Dupont Forest. We took the Corn Mill Shoals Trail to Little River. The map lists the river crossing as "Caution: Major Stream Crossing". I agree. The crossing is right above a cascade and though the water isn't deep, it looks like it would be a slippery crossing on rocks. We'll hike the east portion of Corn Mill Shoals Trail approaching from a different way. It's a pretty spot that we had to ourselves. I wouldn't let Krumm swim there, much to his disappointment. We decided to head over to the Twixt Trail. It's a nice trail, but parallels Cascade Lake Road so has some car noise (as well as a few mountain bikers).

Corn Mill Shoals trailhead

Passing Big Rock Trail

A quick dip at Tom Creek which passes under the trail.

Turning onto Burnt Mountain Trail

Intersection with the Nooks Trail on the right

We started noticing fairy doors in crevices

Looking down at Little River

Bloodroot

Turning right onto Corn Mill Shoals Trail

Yeah, not crossing that

Trailing Arbutus

Turning onto Longside Trail, just before the gate

Leaving Longside Trail and heading up Twixt Trail.

We could have taken the trail back, but we walked next to the road.

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/23/2026	3.5 miles	1 hour 48 minutes	183'	2.1 mph	42.1

Parking: 

• Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

Out hiking in cooler weather today. Fun seeing the cattle out in the pasture.

Happy to be in the creek

Star Chickweed

A handful of students were out in the pasture - we think they were tagging newborn calves.

Trail Maintenance, Garenflo Gap to Bluff Mountain, Appalachian Trail

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/22/2026	3.8 miles	4 hours 30 minutes	1,000'	0.8 mph	38.6

Parking: 

• Garenflo Gap

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Hike southbound to second woods road. Return the same way.

Glen, Krumm, and I went out to do our spring walkthrough on our AT section. It was 80 degrees. Ack - that's pretty hot for working. Glen hiked to the summit and removed 2 down trees on the way down. I worked lopping, only hiking part way to the summit. Our section is in good shape. We ran into 11 thru hikers. Krumm can be nervous with strangers, but he greeted them all. Spring ephemerals have arrived.

Rue anemone

Lunch break

There's a waterfall under that blowdown.
We have nicknamed it Krummholz Falls.
Most reliable water source on our section. 

You will always find this dog in the water

Carolina Spring Beauty

Rue anemone

Bloodroot