Art Loeb Trail to Grassy Cove Top, Shining Rock Wilderness

[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] M [/dropcap]ilepost 420 on the Blue Ridge Parkway is where you will find Black Balsam Road. It’s a short drive to a spruce forest where the Art Loeb Trail crosses the road and heads up onto the balds. This is North Carolina high country. There are several mountains greater than 6000 feet with treeless summits, affording spectacular 360° views of the surrounding Blue Ridge. I love it here. I can’t get enough of the natural beauty to be seen along the Art Loeb Trail as you cross Black Balsam Knob and then Tennent Mountain. The land is rich with blueberry bushes and rhododendron thickets, with mountaintop grasses and spruce groves as far as the eye can see. I will always keep coming to the Shining Rock Wilderness as long as I am able. This hike occurred on Thursday, July 5, 2012 from 7:45am to 11:50am. Our plan was to take the Art Loeb Trail up and over Black Balsam Knob, Tennent Mountain, then on to Ivestor Gap. From there we would climb Grassy Cove Top, then return to our car on the Ivestor Gap Trail.

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Hike Length: 7.3 miles Hike Duration: 4 hours Blaze: None, wilderness

Hike Rating: Moderate Hike Configuration: Figure 8

Elevation Gain: 997 feet Elevation Change: 528 feet

Trail Condition: Extremely trenched and rocky, very high grass in summer.

Starting Point: Art Loeb Trailhead on Black Balsam Road.

Trail Traffic: We encountered three dozen other hikers on the trail.

How to Get There: From Brevard, NC take Hwy. 276 into Pisgah National Forest, and all the way to the top at Wagon Road Gap where it meets the Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 412. Turn south on the parkway toward Cherokee and go 8 miles to the Black Balsam Rd. (FR816) It is 1/2 mile up the spur road to the trailhead on the right.[/box]

The first part of this hike has already been reported. No sense in being redundant. So go to the Black Balsam and Tennent Mountain trail report to read about the first few miles, then return here to pick up on the back side of Tennent Mountain.

As much as I love this section of the Art Loeb Trail, it is only fair to warn you about trail conditions in the high country. This trail is extremely popular. Combine that with storm drainage, and the trail is very trenched across the balds. On occasion the trail rims will be shoulder height or deeper. Also, in summer, the mountaintop grasses grow 3-4 feet high and cascade over the trail. There will be long stretches where you will not be able to see your feet. This means you also can’t see the floor of the trail, so be careful of rocks and holes. In the morning, there is almost always a heavy dew on the tall grass, so long pants and long sleeves are recommended. You will get quite wet.

Now, having said all that, have I told you how beautiful it is? From the moment you pop above the black balsam spruce forest the Blue Ridge Mountains open up in every direction. It’s pretty hazy in summer, but in winter and spring you can see South Carolina, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the west 60 miles away. Other high mountains are clearly visible like Sam Knob, Mt. Hardy, Green Mountain, Cold Mountain and Mt. Pisgah. The majesty will take your breath.

As you begin the descent on the north side of Tennent Mountain you enter blueberry country. Some of the bushes have been here so long they stand as much as 10 feet high. In late summer, when the berries are fully ripened, there are hundreds of people in the wilderness competing with the bears and birds for the pickings. There’s plenty enough for everyone. They’re very sweet.

The trail winds through these tall bushes for roughly a half mile before approaching the clearing that is Ivestor Gap. There’s an interesting sight on the left, old dead spruce trees that have turned white. Only the trunks are left, and they’ve lost all pigment. There are clusters of these white trunks scattered throughout the wilderness.

Ivestor Gap is a major trail junction. The Art Loeb and Ivestor Gap Trails cross here. The Fork Mountain Trail comes in from the northwest and the Graveyard Ridge and Greasy Cove Trails come in from the east. You will almost always see tents pitched in this grassy cove, especially in August during blueberry season. More than once I’ve encountered lost hikers here who are so glad to see someone with a map. [hint]

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