Linville Gorge - Wilson Creek Cameo

[flyminion]

Today I did a river-walk along Wilson Creek Cameo in Linville Gorge. To be clear, this is actually a spot on the Linville River, not Wilson Creek, but the kayakers call it that apparently because the riverbed features large bedrock slabs that resemble those in Wilson Creek Gorge (as in my previous Linville Gorge entries, all rapid names are per American Whitewater and A Wet State). This spot had caught my attention during my hike last summer to check out Adam’s Wall and scope out a route to Cave Falls. Wilson Creek Cameo is about a half-mile stretch of river that is mostly obscured by summer foliage from the Linville Gorge Trail (LGT), but the glimpses I caught through the trees of the bedrock slabs and potential pools inspired me to plan a return visit for some up-close exploration. I knew I needed to take advantage of the lower water levels on the Linville River at some point during this trip, and Wilson Creek Cameo is about the only thing left on my Linville Gorge to-do list that seemed safe-ish enough to do alone.

After being lazy this morning, I drove up from Marion but had to take a 15-minute detour to Pineola to get gas, because the Mountain Mercantile in Jonas Ridge was apparently out of gas. I’m one of those people who can’t stand being below a quarter tank, especially on remote gravel roads.

I had considered dropping down to the Linville River using the Devil’s Hole Trail this time, but the parking area there was full as usual (even on a Monday), so I continued on to the Spence Ridge Trail, which had a couple of empty parking spots. The Devil’s Hole Trail is shorter but has about 400 more feet of elevation loss, so I wasn’t too bummed about not trying it today.

It took me about 35 minutes to hike down to the Spence Ridge swimming hole, located where the trail reaches the river (photo from 2021):



There was a couple at the swimming hole who asked me if I knew how to get to the Spence Ridge Trail. I told them this was it, but they apparently wanted to go to Table Rock and not to the gorge floor, although they did say they took a swim since they were here. The woman was now waiting at the edge of the woods near the bridge remains. I told the guy, Chris, that I wasn’t very familiar with the rim trails, as I normally just come down to the river, but I offered to let him look at my National Geographic map. Apparently they meant to take the Little Table Rock Trail, which branches off from the Spence Ridge Trail shortly after the parking area. He was curious where I had gotten the map. I told him I had gotten it off Amazon and let him take a picture of it. They had added an unintentional 2 mile detour to their hike, but at least they got to go swimming!

I switched to my water shoes and waded across the river. The water was a smidge lower than in September, but a dry-foot crossing was still not possible today. I picked up the LGT on the other side of the river and followed it a short distance upstream to the side-path down to Adam’s Wall. There were four college kids at the campsite at the end of the path. I worked my way around the Adam’s Wall swimming hole and noticed the rapid was a little less forceful today, meaning a swim could be possible in the pool immediately at its base.



Last time, I had gone upstream to the next rapid, Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde, and I knew I was not going to be able to get around the boulder on the river-right side of the pool with my backpack on, as going around it involves getting into chest-deep water.



I elected to cross to the river-left, which had more of a shoreline. Wilson Creek Cameo began upstream of Jeckyl/Hyde. This was the beginning of it (or end, if you’re going downstream):



Past this, the river was more boulder-strewn, but it did have a couple of small Wilson-esque bedrock cascades.



I believe I crossed back to the river-right after this (I crossed several times throughout the hike to stay on the path of least resistance). The next rapid I came to was the most reminiscent of Wilson Creek:







The rapid consisted of two small bedrock slides and had a deep pool at the top.



I snorkeled the pool, and it was about 12 feet deep. It didn’t have any jumps or slides, but it made a nice accessory swimming hole to be included in a river-scramble. The water temperature today was 67.5 F, according to my thermometer.

After this, the river looked more Linville Gorge-y than Wilson Creek-y. I didn’t think there would be big cliffs in this area based on what I had seen last time from the trail, but there was one along the river-right side. It looked like it might have a cave in it, but I didn’t cross over for a closer look.



There were a couple of spots where I had to go up into the woods a little bit to bypass large boulders, but after the cliffy stretch ended, the river was mostly boulder-strewn and was fairly easy to navigate by wading and rock-hopping.



At the end of the boulder area was another vaguely Wilson Creeky rapid that I had seen last year from a high spot on the LGT. This rapid marked the end of Wilson Creek Cameo (or beginning, if you’re going downstream). It actually had a pool that was about 12-15 feet deep.



Here is a collection of video clips from the entire stretch of Wilson Creek Cameo, starting from upstream and going downstream:

Watch on YouTube

Just past the uppermost rapid of Wilson Creek Cameo was a rapid called Sock Em’ Dude that I had scrambled down to last time, so I knew I had reached the exit trail that led up to a campsite on the LGT.



I could see the Bob Ross Gorge (BRG) and an obstructed view of the top of the Dr. Shoosh rapid just upstream (photos from 2021):



The river closes in and gets a lot more gnarly above Sock Em’ Dude, so I searched the bank and found the escape trail, and I climbed back up to the LGT. I had originally planned on checking out Jailhouse and a couple of other potential swimming holes from my winter scouting trip, but I didn’t feel like hiking up and around the BRG, so I elected to go down to Dr. Shoosh and swim through BRG to work on finding the best route to Cave Falls. It’s actually a very short distance upstream of BRG as the crow flies, but there are three gnarly rapids in between, and bypassing them is challenging because both sides of the river are very cliffy and rugged. The first rapid to get around (going upstream) is Welcome to Bob’s World, so named because it ends in the Bob Ross Gorge (photo from 2021):



From downstream, it looked like the river-left would be the best route, but that way quickly turned into sketchy town. I could see that the rapid funneled underneath a large boulder, and it was unclear if a person could fit all the way through the passage if they got sucked under, which would almost certainly happen if you fell in the water here. The wall got pretty vertical around this point, and the consequence of any rock-hopping mishaps would be disastrous due to the funnel. It also looked like I'd risk falling if I tried to go higher up on the cliffs, so I decided to try the river-right (all subsequent photos are from a different visit this year):



I had to get into the water to make it up the rapid on this side, but it was shallow, and the river was calmer on the right, so there wasn’t much chance of getting sucked down the rapid as long as I stayed toward the edge. I made it to the top of Welcome to Bob’s World. The second rapid is Seal Launch Portage (aka A Good Way to Die).



It was a ten-foot waterfall that appeared to drop into shallow water inside an area mostly enclosed by sloping rock walls (which I guess is why boaters portage around it). On the river-right was a massive sloping rock wall that obstructed the view of the waterfall from where I was standing. It looked like the easiest way around this one would be to cross to the river-left and climb up the pile of boulders, which looked like a potentially doable wade near the top of Welcome to Bob’s World, but losing one’s footing here would be dangerous. The walls of the BRG opened up at the top of the Bob’s World rapid, and I was able to hug the rocks and scoot my feet along in about waist-deep water.



I made it to the cobblestone strip and crossed to the base of the sloping rock.



The rock wall was about 15 feet high at its lowest point, and it looked like I could probably Spider-Man my way up it, but I figured I shouldn’t attempt this alone. I tried climbing slowly and using notches as handholds, but it wasn’t possible to get up without momentum. It looked like I might be able to go all the way to the end of the rock where it met the river-right gorge wall and climb up, but it was probably about 35 feet high at that point. I decided it was probably time to call it a day, so I worked my way back down the Bob’s World rapid and snorkeled for a little while in the BRG. I then sat next to Dr. Shoosh and ate a Clif Bar before taking the 20 minute walk back to the Spence Ridge swimming hole via the LGT. I probably could have done it faster with my boots on, but I had forgotten my foot towel (i.e., hand towel that I carry with me to dry my feet), so I left my water shoes on. When I reached the Spence Ridge swimming hole and waded across, another couple was there and seemed curious about how I was going to get across, since rock-hopping all the way wasn’t possible at today’s flow. I was able to rock-hop most of it, but I used a stretch of underwater boulders to cross from the hoppable line of above-water boulders to the river-left shoreline. The guy said he was going to steal my route. I took off my water shoes, and it didn’t take long for my feet to air dry. I put my boots back on and hiked up to the car.

On the way back into town, I stopped by Forest Service Road 197, which runs along the lower section of Upper Creek, to see what kind of shape the road was in, since I plan on doing a hike there tomorrow. I didn’t go all the way to the trailhead, but the road was in decent enough shape from what I saw that I felt confident about driving back out there tomorrow. I returned to the main road and drove to Morganton. I got a Firehouse sub for tomorrow’s breakfast, and then I went to Cook Out for tonight’s dinner. I was still hungry after a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, and hushpuppies. At first I decided to blow off Cook Out because I didn’t feel like waiting for them to take my order again, so I went to another place down the street for ice cream, but I discovered they only had shaved ice, so I went back to Cook Out and got a mint chocolate chip shake. I’m glad I did; it really hit the spot.

In summary, Wilson Creek Cameo is a relatively uneventful section of Linville Gorge, but that also means it makes for a relatively chill off-trail river hike. It had a couple of legit swimming holes, and while they were nothing worthy of making a special trip for, they made nice bonuses to a river hike. The areas of this stretch that actually looked like Wilson Creek were pretty limited, which I guess is why it’s a cameo and not a guest star.