Bent Creek from Hard Times Road Trailhead

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/19/2024	4 miles	2 hours 13 minutes	212'	1.9 mph	684.8 miles

Parking: 

• Hard Times Road Trailhead

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Pass through gate at trailhead. Take first right onto a trail. Turn left onto Homestead Road. Turn right onto Homestead trail. Turn left onto Small Creek Trail. Turn right onto Deerfield Loop. Turn left onto Homestead Trail. Turn left onto Powhatan Access Road. Turn left onto Pine Tree Loop. Turn right onto Pine Tree Connector. Turn right onto Explorer Loop. Turn right onto Bent Creek Gap Rd. Turn right onto Campground Connector. Turn left onto trail (not shown on map). Keep left to return to trailhead.

Carolina Mountain Club Challenge:

• Pisgah 400, Campground Connector #329
• Pisgah 400, Small Creek Trail #334

I've been home sick this week, after getting sick on my last day in Lisbon. Glen has been eager to get out hiking, and the first hiking trails in our area opened up as of yesterday. I'm still sick, but we decided to go for a short hike in Bent Creek. Luckily, we found parking. There were a lot of people out on the trails. At first, I thought the trail conditions weren't bad at all. Some stepovers, but that was expected. I had imagined with all of the rain, that some trails would "wash away". That wasn't the case at all. However, once we got to the Pine Tree Loop Trail, the blowdowns got much worse. We had to bushwhack a lot off trail due to piles of trees down. It reminded me of bushwhacking in the Catskills. We were originally going to hike all of the Pine Tree Loop, but the number of blowdowns we'd have to navigate around became "old", so we decided to head to larger trails/roads.  So yes, there will be a ton of work to do removing these massive blowdowns. Glen was a happy boy after getting a hike in. Krumm, was also a happy boy. If you are hiking in Bent Creek, realize your hiking time will be longer than normal due to blow downs, and you probably want to avoid the Pine Tree Loop trail. Wider trails will more likely be clear.

Communications wires down on the trail

We turned right onto a trail here.

A crawl under tree.

A crawl over tree.

But then it just got worse.

Cannot get through here - had to go off trail.

Bushwhacking around the trail.

Cannot get through here either - more bushwhacking.

Leaving Pine Tree Loop for easier to access trails.