Distance: 8.5
Today I hiked with the GSHAG meetup group up to the Mount Sterling fire tower. The day was clear and started off a little cool, but quickly warmed up. We hiked it as a shuttle hike. We left cars at the Big Creek campground and drove to Mt Sterling Gap to start the hike. Most of the drive was on gravel roads and took about 30 minutes. The Gap was at 3800 ft as measured by my phone. The Mt Sterling trail heads up the mountain from this point. The hike is a workout on this section as it is a steady hard climb to the firetower which is at 5800 ft. There were a few good views on the way up and a few wildflowers along the way.
After 1.8 miles, there is a trail intersection. You take the Mt Sterling Ridge trail for about 0.5 miles to the fire tower. The Fire tower is about 60' tall and is open so that you can climb up and view the scenery. The wind was really blowing at the top, but the tower was not moving at all. It was very stable. The Views were awesome today.
Leaving the fire tower, the name of the trail changes to Baxter Creek Trail. It is a 6.1 mile trail with an elevation drop of 4200ft. I got very tired of going downhill and was actually happy to have a few very short uphill sections. Near Big Creek Campground, a short spur off to the right leads to a very large Chimney. No one in the group knew why it was there.
We started the hike about 9:00 and arrived at the tower about 10:30. We left the top about 11:30 and arrived at the car close to 2:30.
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