North Harper Creek
Sep. 5th, 2021 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flyminion
So the plan for last Sunday was to explore North Harper Creek for swimming holes, which has been on my back burner since 2016. What actually happened was that I got to call 9-1-1 for the first time (more on that later). As a result, I ended up having to bail halfway through the hike last weekend, and I returned to finish it up today.North Harper Creek was the last major creek accessible by trail that I had not explored in the Wilson Creek Area. I had scanned it on Google Earth way back in 2015 or 2016 and marked several points of interest (POIs) that could be potential swimming holes. North Harper Creek features three named waterfalls (North Harper Creek Falls, Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, and Bard Falls), but I couldn’t find any info on whether or not there were any significant swimming holes, which is why this hike has never been a top priority for me. But, the weather was nice the past two weekends, and the larger rivers in the area were too high for swimming due to recent hurricanes, so I finally ended up doing North Harper for lack of anything better to do.
I had two options for this hike. Since the most promising-looking points of interest were all upstream of Bard Falls, I could do an out-and-back hike from the North Harper Creek Trail head to Bard Falls, or I could start at the Harper Creek Trail head and do a through hike up Harper Creek to the confluence with North Harper Creek, and then hike the entire North Harper Creek trail. I was more interested in the latter option, as it would allow me to also check out Harper Creek between Harper Creek Falls and the confluence, and the area of North Harper Creek downstream of Bard Falls. Plus, it would include Harper Creek Falls, which would be a fine swimming hole consolation prize should I not find anything interesting on North Harper Creek. I had marked three POIs on regular Harper Creek between the falls and the confluence, as well as seven POIs on North Harper Creek for a total of 10 POIs along the route I had planned to hike. The POIs are numbered from upstream to downstream, with POI 1 being the farthest upstream on North Harper Creek, and POI 10 being the farthest downstream on regular Harper Creek. The only obstacle for the through-hike option was that I needed a second vehicle and someone who was willing to do an 8-9 mile hike, so I had to wait for a weekend when Brian (my brother) was free, which ended up being last weekend.
I stayed in Boone last Saturday night, and Brian and his girlfriend Rachel met up with me on Sunday morning (August 29). We drove out to the Harper Creek area and left my car at the North Harper Creek trailhead. We then drove Rachel’s truck several miles down mountainous gravel roads to the Harper Creek Trail head with the intent of hiking back to my car. The parking lot was overflowing (as usual for a sunny weekend), so we parked a short distance up the road and walked back to the trailhead. We hiked the two-ish miles to Harper Creek Falls. Just before the falls, the North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) joins the trail and continues to follow the creek upstream until a side trail branches off and leads down to Harper Creek Falls. We stopped at the falls and climbed down the sloped sides of the waterfall chasm for a dip.
The water was 72 °F. There were two slack lines high above the falls, and one guy was jumping off the line (attached to a harness) and doing flips and whatnot. We slid down the slide, but it was basically wedgie central because the moss on the rocks created too much friction (photo from a previous visit):
The rope next to the upper waterfall had been restored since my last visit, so I used it to climb up the natural(?) footholds and jump from about six feet. As we were leaving, a guy climbed up the river-left side of the falls, crossed the creek, and ran down the rock face and jumped into the pool from about 30-40 feet high.
We continued up the MST, which leveled off and became fairly flat and sandy after we got upstream of Harper Creek Falls.
POI 10 consisted of two spots. POI 10B was nothing interesting.
POI 10A was slightly around a bend, so I couldn’t see it from 10B. The trail climbed about 10 to 15 feet above the creek, and I was able to get an obstructed view. It also didn’t appear to be anything interesting.
POI 9 consisted of three potential spots as the creek rounded a bend, but none of them looked deep enough to be a legit swimming hole. POIs 9C and 9B didn’t look like anything interesting.
POI 9A looked almost deep enough to be a swimming hole and even had a couple of boulders that could serve as would-be jumps if the water were deeper. Oh well.
Also, I believe this is the spot where the tip of one of my trekking poles got stuck in a crack between two rocks when I tried to lift up on it, which caused me to drop my phone in the creek and ostensibly crack my screen. Luckily my phone is waterproof. I haven’t peeled off the screen protector yet, so hopefully it was just the protector and not the actual screen that was cracked (update: the screen was fine, the protector did its job… yay).
POI 8 had a sandy beach but still didn’t look deep enough for swimming.
I had actually marked two points as POI 7, because I had already numbered all my POIs when I found an extra one on Google Earth between 7 and 8. One was the uppermost POI on regular Harper Creek, and the other was the lowermost POI on North Harper Creek upstream of the confluence with Harper Creek. POI 7 on Harper Creek turned out to be absolutely nothing, so I declared that the one on North Harper Creek was now the one true POI 7. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! ...and this wasn't it:
From the nixed POI 7, we continued about 0.3 miles upstream to the confluence of North Harper Creek.
Aaaand swimming hole trek goes south in 3... 2... 1…
As we approached the confluence, I was in the lead as we ascended a small incline of about ten feet, and I felt a sharp pricking/stinging sensation on the back of my calf. I darted ahead a few feet and looked back, and I saw some yellow jackets flying around where I had just walked. I warned Brian and Rachel. Rachel said she could see where the nest was, and she tried to tiptoe past it but also got stung. Brian was wearing long pants and managed not to get stung. We saw a shirt lying on the ground just past the yellow jacket nest. Just below, I could see a broad open area on the creek marked with an orange flag (I think this was where the Harper Creek trail branches off from the MST and continues up Harper Creek toward South Harper Creek Falls). I wanted to check out the open area, and as we emerged from the trees, two golden retrievers came darting towards us barking loudly. A man in his 20s or early 30s was shouting to us, but we couldn’t understand him at first because of the dogs. As we got closer and the dogs quieted, he asked us if we had any Benadryl. We asked if he had gotten stung by the yellow jackets, and he said his girlfriend had and was having a severe allergic reaction. He said her face was swollen, she couldn’t get up, and she was having trouble breathing. I asked if they wanted us to try calling 9-1-1, and he said yes. I had one bar of signal, but I was having trouble getting a call out. At one point I could barely hear the dispatcher talking, but then the call dropped. I told everyone I was going to try to find a better signal. The boyfriend said their car was parked at the North Harper Creek Shortcut trailhead and told me to see if I could find anyone with Benadryl.
I had planned to only go a short distance until I could get two bars of service. However, this turned into me running three miles to the road via the MST before finally getting enough signal. I could have gotten to the road faster if I had used the Persimmon Ridge Trail, which is maybe a mile upstream of the confluence, but I looked at my paper map too hastily and mistakenly thought I had already passed it. I ended up running right by it without noticing. I also didn’t find anyone with Benadryl. The rescue squad finally made it down to the scene about 2.5 hours after I had gone for help, but no one was there. It was starting to get dark by this time. They then started searching the woods, blowing whistles, and had people watching my car, Rachel’s truck, and the patient’s car.
Long story short, someone had come along with Benadryl about 30 minutes after I had left, and it helped enough that the woman was able to get up and walk out. She and her boyfriend eventually made it back to their car and opted to drive themselves to the hospital. Hopefully there wasn’t a surprise twist that she couldn’t get in because it was full of COVID patients. Brian and Rachel made it back to my car a few minutes before the patient and her boyfriend had reached theirs, so the fire marshal gave me a ride back to my car. We then drove 35 minutes down the gravel roads (again) to get Rachel’s truck.
After I dropped Brian and Rachel off at their truck, we drove another six or so miles through Wilson Creek Gorge (whose scenery we unfortunately didn't get to admire in the dark) until we finally hit the paved road. It took a hellacious hour to get back to Boone, in which I was sore, crusty, hungry, and basking in my own stench the entire time. I picked up a pizza from Hungry Howies because 1) I know from past experience that they are decent, and 2) they are open until 1 AM, and it was past 10 PM by this point. I then ate the whole pizza, showered, and wrote this trip report.
So yeah, last Sunday was pretty much a bust. I cracked my phone screen (or so I thought), got stung by a yellow jacket, and had to run 3 miles up a trail with a backpack on to call 911. I had to bail right as we were getting to the good stuff, and I did notice some potentially legit-looking swimming holes on North Harper Creek (probably POI 3) as I was booking it up the trail. Obviously I didn’t have time to stop and take in the view or figure out which POIs they were, but it piqued my enthusiasm for getting back down there and finishing my explorations.
Also, I think I’m going to make it a point to hike with Benadryl from now on.
___
And today…
Since this is Labor Day week, I decided to take the entire week off work, since it would only cost me four vacation days instead of five. My first order of business for this vacation was to wrap up North Harper Creek after having to bail during last weekend’s debacle. Brian was not able to go with me today, but we had knocked enough out last weekend for me to solo the remainder of it. There were still about five miles or so, which was too long for an out-and-back, so I parked my car at the North Harper Creek Trailhead (which is where we were supposed to end last time) and rode a mountain bike that I had borrowed from my parents down the road to the Yellow Buck/Persimmon Ridge Trail head. The bike ride was 4.5 miles, but it was mostly downhill. There were only a couple of spots where I had to pedal. It was pretty relentlessly downhill from the North Harper Creek Falls Trail head to the North Harper Creek Shortcut Trail head, and my hands and forearms were hurting from squeezing the brakes the whole way (I wrecked my bike as a kid from losing control on gravel, and I was not looking to repeat that experience as a 100-pound-heavier adult). I passed some people riding their bikes uphill, and they looked pretty miserable (since for them, it was relentlessly uphill). It took me about 40 minutes to bike to the Persimmon Ridge Trail head. My arms were “itchy” due to all the vibration from riding on the gravel. I now understand the allure of bikes with shock absorbers. I locked my bike to a tree and took the trail about a mile down to the creek.
I reached the water around 2:30 PM. The air temperature had been 68 °F where I parked the car, but it was noticeably warmer down here. The trail reached the creek between POIs 5 and 6, so I continued about half a mile downstream to the real POI 7 to pick up where I left off.
POI 7 had a small sandy beach and a slightly deep pool where the creek rounded a bend against a rock wall. The pool looked like it may have been up to 6 feet deep in one spot up against the wall, but it didn’t look worth getting into.
I headed back upstream to check out POI 6. On the way, I saw a small pool that I believe was either behind a campsite or right next to the trail, but the part that looked like it might be over my head was too small to warrant a dip.
POI 6 had two potential pools. POI 6B ended up being nothing.
POI 6A looked like it could be 4-5 feet deep, but I didn’t get in to check it out.
I passed the Persimmon Ridge Trail junction again as I headed upstream, and it was easy to see how I had missed it last weekend. There was a double white blaze (for the MST) on a tree where the Persimmon Ridge Trail forks off, but it’s still hard to notice if you’re not looking for it (or in my case, you were looking for it but thought you’d already passed it). Just upstream from the trail junction was my least favorite creek crossing from last weekend. The water here is about waist to chest deep, which makes it annoying to cross if you’re wearing a backpack.
POI 5 was a short distance upstream behind a campsite. It ended up being nothing interesting.
I saw a couple more broad spots on the creek between POI 5 and Bard Falls, but I didn’t get into them. From what I could tell, they didn’t look very deep.
Bard Falls was between POIs 5 and 4. I’m guessing it was about 20 feet high and dropped into a small churning rock tub.
There was also a big hole in the rocks next to the falls.
The tub looked like it might be deep, but I didn’t go in because the current looked rough, and the waterfall spray was chilly. After the tub, the creek made a 90 degree turn against a rock slab, where there was another small pool.
I didn’t get in, but I put on my diving mask and looked under the water. It looked to be about 6-8 feet deep right against the rock slab, but mostly shallow everywhere else.
POI 4 was a short distance upstream of Bard Falls. This one was a legit swimming hole. I remembered catching an obstructed glimpse of it from the trail last weekend as I ran by, but I hadn’t gotten a good look at it. When I scrambled down to the creek to check it out, I could see that it was a fairly large pool fed by a sliding cascade about 6-8 feet high.
I snorkeled the pool, and it looked to be about 10 feet deep up against the rock wall on the river-right side of the pool along the base of the waterfall. It also looked like sliding down the sloping rock was possible, but I didn’t try it. You probably couldn’t slide down the waterfall itself or you would hit the rock wall opposite the cascade at the bottom. It looked like any potentially viable jumping spots were too cluttered with rhododendrons for jumping to be possible.
From the trail, I had noticed several other potential pools downstream of POI 4. The next one down was just past a cascade where the creek spilled over a pile of boulders, so I worked my way down for a closer look.
This pool looked like it might be deep right where the cascade fed in, but it was probably five feet or shallower in most areas. If the water was deep just below the cascade, then jumping from the boulder about six feet high might be possible, but you would have to be very precise with your landing. Getting around the boulders to access the pool looked like it would be more trouble than it was worth for the time I had available, so I returned to POI 4. I took the water temperature and got several readings from 62.5 to 65 °F. Most were closer to 65, but I was more inclined to believe the one that said 62.5, because the water felt pretty cold. That may have been because this pool was shaded, though.
POI 3 was the one I was most interested in, because I assumed it was the one I had caught this glimpse of last weekend with a cascade spilling over a rock wall into an apparently deep pool:
On Google Earth, POI 3 actually looked like a series of cascades. The creek was only a few feet below the trail here, but the rhododendrons were thick, so I had to force my way through them to get down to the creek in the middle of POI 3. I elected to go to the bottom of POI 3 and work my way up. The last cascade was a bit tricky to get down.
It had a broad pool at its base, but it didn’t look very deep, although I didn’t get in to check.
I continued downstream to the next cascade, but this was just the top of POI 4. I returned to where I had first dropped down to the creek for POI 3 and saw the potential swimming hole that had caught my eye last weekend. I unfortunately just missed the opportunity to get a view of it with the sun shining down into the water, so you'll have to settle for this un-sunny picture:
I snorkeled the pool, and it turned out to be mostly shallow, except for one small spot on the river-left side of the rock wall (on the opposite side from the cascade) where the water was about 7-8 feet deep. I climbed to the top of the cascade, but there was nothing else above this, so I went back down for a quick dip and then had a snack consisting of a Clif Bar and a pack of leftover pretzels from my return flight from California last month.
Here is a video of POI 3 in its entirety:
It was getting close to 6 PM, and the sun was dropping, so I figured I had better get a move on, since I still had about 2.5 miles, 2 POIs, and 2 known waterfalls to see.
Upstream of POI 3, the creek and trail were relatively flat and uneventful. After the MST diverged from the creek and headed uphill, the North Harper Creek Trail became fainter and narrower. Brian and Rachel had mentioned last week that it wasn’t very well marked past this point. It ventured about 50 feet away from the creek at a point that I had marked in Google Earth as a “possible rock slide”. Getting to it would require walking through a heavy bed of ferns (in which ticks and venomous reptiles could be lurking) and pushing through some rhododendrons. Given the flat terrain here, I assumed the possible slide was probably nothing interesting and blew it off. The creek stayed flat until I reached POI 2, which ended up being a small cascade with no swimming hole.
Just past this, the creek ascended in a series of small cascades. I had marked POI 1 as a possible cascade series, and from ground level I can confirm that it was definitely a cascade series.
The first noteworthy cascade was a small slide about 6-8 feet high. The pool beneath it wasn’t very deep, but it was sufficient for sliding down the rock (although the rock wasn’t very slick).
Just above this was a cascade consisting of three small drops totaling about 15 feet.
It was about 6:45 by this point, so I didn’t have time to explore POI 1 as thoroughly as I would have liked. The bottom of the triple drop had a fairly small pool that could have been deep, but even if it was, it wasn’t very broad. The upper two drops looked like they might also have pools, but I didn’t see a quick way to check. The trail ended up going right past the top drop, which did not have a significant pool. I didn’t get a good look at the middle drop, although I could have if I weren’t in a hurry. There was one more small cascade above this one (which I was only able to get an obstructed view of without putting in effort):
After this, the trail rose about 30-40 feet above the creek, and the creek sounded busy below. The creek rounded a corner here below a large cliff that was probably hiding some minor goodies, but I didn’t have time to bushwhack to the edge and look down. The creek stayed out of sight below the trail and continued to make noise all the way to Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, which was a long sliding waterfall over a rock face with a total height of about 60 feet (I’m guessing).
Despite the name, the waterfall is on North Harper Creek, but the real Chestnut Cove Branch feeds in from a hidden nook at the base of the falls:
A short distance upstream from this was North Harper Creek Falls. The part I could see from the base was a near-vertical drop of about 30-40 feet.
I knew there was more to the falls, so I took the trail hoping to get to the top of it. The trail switch-backed away from the creek but then returned to it at the very top of the falls.
There was actually a lot more to the falls than I thought. It was a long slide of probably 400 horizontal feet with an elevation loss of about 100 feet before reaching the final vertical drop visible from the base. I worked my way all the way down to the brink of the final drop. There were a couple of rock pools along the way, but none of them looked more than waist deep.
Here is a video of the falls in its entirety:
I left the falls and headed for the car around 7:45 PM. I could smell campfire smoke, and I had seen people camping at both the top and bottom of the falls. It was now almost dark outside, and the trail was becoming harder to see. I actually almost lost the trail at one point. The creek got noisy again as the trail started ascending. I hadn’t marked any POIs here, but it sounded like there were several spots worth investigating. This was the only cascade I got a decent view of from the trail (thanks to my iPhone’s long exposure feature, since it was basically dark outside by this point):
After the last of many creek crossings, the trail veered a few hundred feet away from the creek and climbed up to the road. I finally reached the car around 8:10 PM. After washing out my Vibrams and changing back into my dry shoes, I drove about 20 minutes to the Persimmon Ridge Trail head to pick up my bike. I got quite a show from the bats as they swooped in front of my car to eat the bugs that were attracted to my headlights. By the time I retrieved the bike and made it back to the paved road, it was nearly 10 PM. Cook Out is about the only thing in these parts that is open this late (in the post-covid era), so I stopped by the one in Elizabethton on the way home. Everyone hypes up how good Cook Out is, but I didn’t remember having any strong opinions about it from the two times I have previously eaten there (admittedly years ago). My assessment tonight was that their burger was pretty good (hella salty, though), but their mushy fries left much to be desired. I still gobbled them after the appetite I had worked up, though, and I went through the drive-thru again for a chocolate chip cookie dough shake. I then drove back to my parents house and took a bubble bath.
In summary, I guess I don’t have any strong feelings about North Harper Creek. There were a couple of legit swimming holes, and although they weren’t anything remarkable, they are more secluded and pristine than most trail-accessible places you would find in the Wilson Creek Area. North Harper Creek does have some significant named waterfalls as well as some nice unnamed cascades. The most noteworthy sections of the creek were from Bard Falls to POI 3 (above which the creek flattens out for a while), and from POI 1 to North Harper Creek Falls. POI 4 ended up being a legit swimming hole, as did the uppermost pool of POI 3 (which was smaller than POI 4, but also less shaded). A good out-and-back waterfall + swimming hole hike would be hiking to Bard Falls from the North Harper Creek Shortcut Trail and stopping by POI 3 or 4 for a dip. The section of creek from Bard Falls downstream to the confluence with Harper Creek was pretty forgettable, as was the section of regular Harper Creek from Harper Creek Falls up to the confluence with North Harper Creek.
With about 9 miles of creek and 10 POIs to explore, this definitely ended up being more of an undertaking than I had anticipated. I probably would have ended up having to break it up into two trips regardless of last weekend’s 9-1-1 incident. I wish I hadn’t wasted an hour and a half today exploring the section downstream of Bard Falls, because my explorations of the good stuff ended up being rushed. That said, this excursion did leave some lingering curiosities. If I were to come back here in the future, I would want to explore a little downstream of POI 4, and creek walk the area between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, as it sounded like there were probably more cascades there than what I saw. The creek seemed like it was probably too tight and boulder-strewn in this area for there to be any significant swimming holes, but you never know. It also sounded like the area upstream of North Harper Creek Falls could have some potential as well, but most of it was not visible from the trail (plus it was basically dark out by the time I reached that point).
___
Update: I returned to North Harper Creek in 2022 and thoroughly explored the area upstream of POI 1. Click here for the trip report.
