Agile Trekker: Boone Fork Loop, Blowing Rock

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/11/2022	5.4 miles	3 hours 34 minutes	480'	1.8	942

Parking:

Julian Price picnic area.

Maps:

Pisgah Map Co, Grandfather Ranger District
100 Favorite Trails of the Carolinas and the Blue Ridge (for directions)
Also, 100 feet in from the start of the hike, there is a little kiosk with maps of the area. It's a blown- up map, so nice to have.

Directions:

See 100 Favorite Trails map. Trail starts behind the picnic area.

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges:

100 Favorite Trails Challenge #96
Waterfall Challenge, Hebron Falls
Also (not CMC Challenge) MST Section 5, miles 13-15.7

Another dreary, drizzly day. But it was barely raining, so off we went to hike! I have hiked the Boone Fork Loop by myself, but Glen hasn't done it, so I chose this hike to help him catch up on the 100 Favorite Trails Challenge. I found a driving route there that doesn't go on the parkway until the last mile or so. It goes through Blowing Rock and is an easy drive. More turns than taking the parkway, but nice roads (other than fog near Blowing Rock). Yep, 2 sections of foggy roads again today. Not as bad as yesterday luckily.

The parking lot was very empty. The last time I did this hike, it was packed. Both the picnic area and the trails. Today we saw very few people. This hike is partly on a paved trail and partly on a regular trail. With all of the rain we had, some parts of the trail were very muddy. This hike is easy except for challenging footing in some areas - made more challenging because everything was wet. Amazingly, neither one of us fell today. Yahoo! The trail has a ton of water crossings - Glen thinks the trail designers tried to see how many water crossings they could fit in. We mostly were able to keep our feet dry. And this time I remembered to bring thick dry socks & crocs for the car ride home. We took the turn off to visit Hebron Falls but didn't climb around on the rocks. It was just too wet. Close to the end, there's a nice spot with calm water. We let Krumm off leash to swim. It's December, and its cold, but he thinks it's worth it. We were joined by a mother and son and their aussie Daisy, who doesn't know how to swim yet. Their aussie was very interested in Krumm, but Krumm only has eyes for whomever throws him sticks. He completely ignored the aussie. When we called it quits (we quit before Krumm is ready to quit), Krumm was shivering. Luckily, as soon as we get moving, he warms up. This hike makes a nice winter hike (as long as it isn't icy), because of all of the green rhododendrons, clubmoss, and ferns.