Throughout the mountains section of the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST), this trail shares a close relationship with the Blue Ridge Parkway. It crosses and parallels the Parkway many times as it meanders in an out of adjoining wilderness areas. Buck Creek Gap Overlook sits at the junction of the Parkway, Hwy 80 and the Eastern Continental Divide. It is at this point, about 182 trail miles from Clingman’s Dome, where the MST leaves its friend the Blue Ridge Parkway and heads across Woods Mountain and on into the Linville Gorge. It will be another 67 miles before the MST joins the Parkway again at Beacon Heights, just below Grandfather Mountain.
My hike would take me 12.5 miles from Buck Creek Gap Overlook to the Woodlawn Picnic area on Hwy 221 N, above Marion, NC. Today’s journey was a “Tale of two Trails”: the experience of the first 6 miles did not compare to the last half of the hike.
The first section of the hike consists of scenic ridge walking as the trail ascends and descends 3 different peaks, finally reaching the pinnacle of Woods Mountain. After 6 miles, I was at roughly the same elevation as when I started, but had ascended and descended 1600′ each direction.
Today was exceptionally hot (low 80’s) for March. It was hard to make the adjustment from hiking in 40 degree weather just a week earlier. This early in Spring afforded great long distance views of Mt. Mitchell and surrounding mountains and then Hawksbill and Tablerock on the other side. As typical for this area, I was surrounded by galax, mountain laurel and rhododendron.
At the midpoint, about 6 miles into the hike, the trail begins its descent. Overall, it is a smooth walk down with long steady switchbacks. At 8.5 miles, the MST veers off to the left and takes a steep drop down several wooden steps and eventually opens up onto an old roadbed. The first crossing is the South Fork of Tom’s Creek. It is an easy trek over an old concrete road bed.
The crossing for Tom’s Creek is 10 miles in from the trailhead. The creek can be deep in areas and it seemed to be abundant with small trout. The only “dry” crossing was this tree, which was actually an easy walk.
From Tom’s Creek it is only 2 miles to the Woodlawn Picnic area at the USFS Woodlawn work center. The hike from Buck Creek Gap Overlook to Woodlawn Picnic area is 12.5 miles.
This was an unseasonably warm March hike, however it was great to be able to have the views without leaves on the trees and to also see many spring flowers beginning to emerge.
40 Hike Challenge Blue Ridge Parkway Conserving Carolina Falls Lake Hickory Nut Gorge Hiking Jones Gap State Park Lake Lure Linville Gorge Mountains to Sea Mount Mitchell North Carolina Trails
As always such a lovely description of your hike. Thanks for sharing!
Many thanks for sharing your hikes, always interesting. Photography is top-notch!!