Hickory Mountain, Dupont

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/1/2026	4.9 miles	3 hours 4 minutes	694'	2.0 mph	31.2

Parking: 

• Lake Imaging Parking Area

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co. Dupont State Recreational Forest

Directions:

• Take the gravel road (Lake Imaging Road) from the parking lot. Turn left on the Ridgeline Trail and start climbing uphill. Pass Hooker Creek Trail. Turn left onto Hickory Mountain Loop trail. Pass Hickory Mountain Road. Continue to the Ridgeline Trail and follow that downhill to the end. Turn left on the gravel road to visit Lake Imaging. Turn around and follow the gravel road back to the parking area.

Another hike in Dupont to do some new-to-us trails. Against my better judgement, I chose the Ridgeline Trail to Hickory Mountain. This part of Dupont gets heavy mountain biker use, so hiking there on a weekend is a bad idea. The weather was cloudy but warm. I figured it was still early in the season, so it might not be bad. I was wrong lol. As we climbed the mountain, we stepped aside for around 100 mountain bikers flying downhill. A few almost ran us over. We had to stay very alert the whole time, listening for bikes, and being careful going around bends in the trail where there is limited visibility. Glen was commenting on the safety of mountain biking, especially after seeing so many young kids flying down too. I told him it isn't that bad. Less than a minute after I said that one adult wiped out 100 feet away from us. Oops. Once we reached the summit, we took off our packs, and I had a tea break. We kept Krumm on leash, because it was too dangerous with all the bikers. We started our hike late in the day, so when we came down, we only encountered 6 mountain bikers going downhill. We didn't encounter any hikers (everyone else knows better than us!). At the very end of the hike, we took a short detour to Lake Imaging, to let Krumm have a swim. The water didn't look to scuzzy, so we threw his swim toy for him. He whined in excitement all the way back to the car.

Turning from 

The Ridgeline Trail looks very much like a mountain biking trail with its mini ups & downs.

Hairpin left onto the Hickory Mountain Loop Trail

Some winter views on the loop trail

I almost got run over by a mountain biker while trying to take this photo lol

Summit

It looks like new trails are being built around the Hickory Mountain Loop Trail

We've stopped at this shelter before to play with Krumm

We didn't see any workers, but we saw signs of new trails being built.

Turning left onto the Ridgeline Trail to descend back down.

Done with the loop, staying on the Ridgeline Trail

Passing a turnoff for Hooker Creek Trail

Turning left onto Lake Imaging Road to visit Lake Imaging for a swim

Getting a post-hike swim in.