Daniel Ridge Loop, Pisgah

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/4/2022	5.1 miles	2 hours 44 minutes	806'	2.1 mph	544.7

Parking: 

• See 100 Favorite Trails Map. The parking area was crowded, but most of the people there were hanging out in the river, not hiking.

Maps:

• Pisgah Map Co. Pisgah Ranger District (for navigation)
• 100 Favorite Trails of the Smokies and the Carolina Blue Ridge (for directions)

Directions:

• See 100 Favorite Trails map

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges

• 100 Favorite Trails #55
• Waterfall Challenge - Toms Spring Falls (Danial Ridge), Brevard
• Pisgah 400 Challenge - #105 Daniel Ridge Loop

The third day of a 3-day weekend with a chance of thunderstorms every day. What to do? A short Pisgah hike on the 100 Favorite Trails list. It was another warm humid day. As we started out, a couple told me there was a yellow jacket nest on the trail near the end of the loop - the woman had been stung. I'm so glad they told us. I feel like it must be a rite of passage to get swarmed and stung by yellow jackets from passing over one of their ground nests. For the last mile of the hike, I kept Krummholz very close to me. I took out some Stingeze just in case. I kept scanning the ground for a physical nest. I never saw the nest, but I did see lots of bees swarming. Glen decided to run past them. He got lucky and wasn't stung. But then I wondered are they more aggravated now? Unfortunately, the trail had steep sides on both sides. I was only able to go around 4 feet off trail, but that's what I did, keeping Krumm close. Of course, as I was doing it, I thought - if they do come after me, it's going to be really hard to run since I'm walking through brush. We got by unscathed. Shortly after the nest, we stopped by Tom Springs waterfall. We met some people with 3 dogs. They said their dogs had been badly stung. Ugh. I don't suppose the forest service cares for reports of yellow jacket nests on trails, right?

The beginning of the hike follows the Davidson River. You can see a lot of the damage from last year's hurricane. The terrain varies between rocky and very nice terrain. We still got some areas with lots of rhododendrons blooming. The hike was very buggy - time to put some bug spray in my pack.

Krumm thought the highlight of this hike was the very end, where we stopped and let him swim in the Davidson River. I think he looks like an alligator when he lies down in the river ;)

Glen trying to encourage Krumm to bring the stick all the way back.