| Date |
Distance |
Time |
Elevation Gain |
Average Moving Time |
Year to Date Miles |
| 10/2/2026 |
6.3 miles |
2 hours 45 minutes |
397' |
2.3 mph |
283.3 |
Parking: - Pinnacle Mountain Road, room for 1-2 cars only on the side of the road
Map:- From the trailhead, take the Turkey Knob Trail to the left. Pass the first entrance to the Poplar Hill Loop Trail on the right (there is a sign saying the trail is closed). Take the second sign for Poplar Hill Loop and hike until the sign where its closed. Turn around and return to the Turkey Knob Trail. Turn right onto the Turkey Knob Trail and hike to the intersection of Reasonover Creek Trail. Turn around and take the Turkey Knob Trail back. Pass the parking area, and follow the Turkey Knob Trail over two stepover stream crossings until you reach the third crossing at a closed bridge. Turn around and return to the parking area.
After being out of town for 2 weeks, I was eager to return to Dupont to work on hiking more trails. Neither of us have hiked these 2 trails before. We had no idea what condition Pinnacle Mountain Road would be. Its a dirt road, but is okay for a regular clearance vehicle for the 1.5 miles to the parking area. From what I read, it gets much more rough beyond this.
We headed out on the Turkey Knob Trail, heading southwest. Its a wider trail with good terrain - very pleasant to hike on. We saw lots of gentians flowering along the sides of the trail. Our Pisgah Map Co. map shows Poplar Hill Loop as a full loop, but we knew it no longer is. The portion of the Poplar Hill Trail that was open, is less well maintained. We went threw a meadow area, where we had to push through tall weeds. Then we passed 2 areas of blowdowns. So, not a trail I'd bother doing again. The remaining portion of the Turkey Creek Trail to the Reasonover Creek Trail, continued to be nice. We saw a handful of bicyclists on that section, but it wasn't busy. We returned to our parking area, and continued on the Turkey Creek Trail to the northeast. We had read that the bridge 1/2 mile in was closed, so we wanted to see if it was passable. The bridge itself looks perfectly fine on top, but from what I've read, its rotting below the decking, making it unsafe. The stream it crosses is trivially small, but the problem is the bridge crosses a steep embankment. Yes, it could possibly be bushwhacked, but it would be very challenging and a pain, so we didn't try. We are going to have to hike the remaining part of the Turkey Knob Trail, approaching from the north.
 |
| Trailhead |
 |
| Turkey Knob Trail |
 |
| Many Appalachian Gentians on this hike |
 |
| The first end of Poplar Hill Loop is closed |
 |
| The second end of the loop is open - now an out and back |
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| A short section is very overgrown |
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| A couple sections had down trees that we had to climb over |
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| A barrier shows the closed section of the rest of the loop |
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| Continuing on Turkey Knob Trail |
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| Which ends at Reasonover Creek Trail |
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| This is on the other end of Turkey Knob Trail |
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| The closed bridge |
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| The top looks okay, but from what I read it is rotting underneath |
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| Hard to see, but there is a steep embankment under the bridge |
