North Harper Creek - Part 2

[flyminion]

Today, I finished up my explorations of North Harper Creek. I normally wrap up my swimming hole explorations around the beginning of September, since it’s usually too cool in the mountains for swimming to be pleasant after that, but I saw an unseasonably warm, dry stretch of weather coming up this week, so I decided to take the whole week off work to take advantage of it. After all, I haven’t really taken a legit vacation this summer due to the lack of dry weather here in the Carolinas, and airfare to California being super steep.

When I explored North Harper Creek last summer, I spent two weekends checking out some points of interest (POIs) I had marked on Google Earth. The first weekend was cut short when I had to abort the hike to get help for a woman having an allergic reaction to yellow jacket stings. On the second weekend, I managed to check out all of the remaining POIs I had marked, but it seemed like there might be some interesting parts of the creek that were not visible on Google Earth. I had marked seven POIs on North Harper Creek (numbered in order from upstream to downstream), and it was starting to get dark by the time I got to POI 1. After that, the trail rose high above the creek, and it sounded pretty busy between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls. I also had not marked any POIs upstream of North Harper Creek Falls, but there were almost certainly some cascades there judging by the noise and the amount of elevation gain (but I couldn’t see them because it was almost completely dark). My objectives for today were to creek-walk the area between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, and check out the area upstream of North Harper Creek Falls in daylight.

I left Greensboro around 11 AM and stopped for lunch in Winston-Salem. I ended up arriving at the trailhead around 2:30 PM. I wasn’t sure this morning if I would do North Harper Creek or check out Lost Cove Creek downstream of Hunt Fish Falls. I was only going to do the latter if it was warm and sunny, and it was 66 and partly cloudy when I arrived, so North Harper it was. My rationale was that North Harper would be better for a cloudy day since it is mostly shaded anyway, plus I wasn’t optimistic about finding any swimming holes on that section of the creek. Also, tangent: I don’t think the town of Edgemont was a very good weather forecast proxy for this area. The high was supposed to be 80 and mostly sunny, which was a far cry from the yucky weather that I got (I guess it would be great for dry hiking, but not wet hiking).

Anyway, I got on the trail and came to the only cascade I got a decent look at last time (thanks to my phone’s long exposure in low light). The pool beneath it looked about waist deep.



After that was a series of small cascades and slides that ended in a longer slide partially obscured by the rhododendrons. It looked like there might be a significant pool at its base, but there was no scramble trail. The only direct way down was to walk down a large fallen tree. I decided I might check this out on the way back if I had the energy.

There was one spot I had marked in my GPS last time where it sounded like there was a significant waterfall. The trail descended pretty significantly here, at least 100 feet over less than a quarter mile, and the creek seemed to be descending at about the same rate. I took a couple of scramble trails through the rhodos to get a better view, and it looked like the creek was making its way down the hill in a series of slides. The scramble trail came out on top of what looked like the most significant one, but there was no access to the base from here, so I added it to my to-do list for the return hike (I’ll save the photos of this spot for later to keep things concise).

After I reached the end of the string of slides, the creek was pretty uneventful until North Harper Creek Falls, which I had already checked out last time. When I got to the base of the falls, the whole area reeked of dead animal. The smell was gag-inducingly strong. Since I’ve seen too many horror movies, I was worried about coming across a dead body. The smell didn’t dissipate until I got to the bottom of Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, which is about a quarter mile downstream of North Harper Creek Falls. I thought I remembered the trail staying high above the creek for the entire stretch between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, but I was mistaken. The trail was actually right next to the creek for at least half of that stretch.

Given the weather and my general lack of energy from getting up early this morning, I wasn’t too pumped about walking through the creek, but I was on a mission to tie up loose ends. When I got to POI 1, which was a series of cascades, I got a better video than I had gotten last time of the uppermost cascade.

Watch on YouTube

I then waded into the creek just upstream of POI 1 and photographed a small cascade where the creek went around an island (I was in too much of a hurry to wade out and get an unobstructed view last time).



Once I got my feet wet and began tackling cascades, I started to get more enthused about the project. I won’t give a play-by-play of the creek-walk of this area, since it was just a series of low slide cascades and shallow pools (but some deep enough to be annoying when trying to keep a backpack dry), and I don’t have specific remarks about any of them. The only spot I had been specifically interested in was the area where the trail rounded a cliff above the creek, which I hadn’t been able to see down from last time. The area below this ended up being nothing interesting:



Here are some other pictures of the creek between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls:

Watch on YouTube

Photo of Chestnut Cove Branch Falls from last year:



I climbed up the sloping rock face beside Chestnut Cove Branch Falls and was reunited with the stench of death. I didn’t stop to take in the base view of North Harper Creek Falls because I wanted some clean air ASAP. There was no smell where the trail crossed the top of the falls, so I stopped there and had a Clif Bar before continuing upstream. I was looking for the path of least resistance down to the creek near the base of the slide series, but I had to enter well downstream and creek-walk to it. Here are a few small cascades I encountered along the way:





The pool below this next one looked like it might actually be over my head, but I didn't get in. Even if it was deep, it was too narrow to be a legit swimming hole.

Watch on YouTube

Just past this was the bottom cascade of the slide series.



This would have been a nice spot if the cascade and pool weren’t cluttered with deadfall and overhanging branches. The pool here was about waist deep. I was actually able to climb up this one, although it was slippery in spots, and I walked up most of the slides I had seen earlier.



The top slide, which was about 15 feet high, was actually the most significant (and looking back at my pictures, I was actually here earlier in the day but somehow forgot about it).



Here is a video of the slide series in its entirety:

Watch on YouTube

There was no surmounting the top cascade, so I got back on the trail. After this was the cascade and pool with the fallen tree leading down to it. I tried a scramble path a short distance downstream, but it quickly faded into the rhododendrons, so I decided to try my luck with the log.



I carefully scooted down it and saw that it was about eight feet above the ground in some places. I want to say this spot was probably the nicest find of the day (of the stuff I hadn’t seen before). A sliding cascade about 20 feet high zigzagged down a sloping rock into the pool.

Watch on YouTube

I didn’t get into the pool because I was worried about how I would get back onto the tree if I got off of it, but if it were warmer, I surely would have made the effort. The pool wasn’t very broad, but it looked like it could potentially be deep enough for swimming. It looked like there was more to this cascade than what was visible from this vantage point, so I climbed back up the log. There wasn't much to the top part of the cascade, but it was easily accessible from the trail.



After this was the easily visible cascade I had already seen on my way in. I walked back to the car and drove down to where the creek flows under the road to rinse out my water shoes and change back into my dry ones. I headed out after that, and I stopped at Pal’s in Elizabethton on the way home. They had a limited edition cotton candy milkshake to go with their scrumptious Frenchie Fries, and that shake was delish. I might have to get another one before I head back to Raleigh next weekend. I then stopped at Food City in Bristol to get groceries for my Lake Jocassee Trip tomorrow.

In summary, I didn’t find anything super noteworthy on the section of North Harper Creek I explored today. The section of the creek between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls was pretty uneventful, but the section above North Harper Creek Falls proved to be worth a look. There were no major swimming holes (a couple of small pools that may or may not have been deep), but there were a few cascades that were nicer than any of my marked POIs, a couple of which were at least 15 feet high. I would say the nicest one was the one that I had to scoot down the fallen tree to get to. Normally I would be bummed about not finding a swimming hole, but given the cool weather today, I was fine with just doing a creek walk.