Noland Divide - Pole Road - Martins Gap - Sunkota Ridge - Loop Trail - Indian Creek - Deep Creek

Date: 9/26/16
Distance: 19.1


Today I was back on the NC side of the park with the GSHAG group.  JD planned a "Heinous" hike and 4 of us were game for the challenge (Jenn, Ahmad, Annie and I).  We started the day about 9:20 in Deep Creek at the Noland Divide Trail.

Noland Divide climbs steeply up the mountain gaining about 2500' before losing about 500' and then a bit more climbing to the Pole Road Intersection.  Noland was a very enjoyable trail.  It was a steep climb, but was really beautiful.  About 4 miles in, you reach an open area with lots of views of the valley below.

The sign was gone, but a short trail leaves to the left just after this opening to the Lonesome Pine Overlook.  It is another good place to view the valley below.

 Up at the Pole Road Intersection, we had some lunch before heading down the mountain toward Deep Creek.  Last week there was very little color on the mountain, but this week there were many yellow leaves about.

 Pole Road Creek Trail loses 1800' over 3.3miles.  It has several creek crossings.  One was a little challenging.  I walked a big slippery log.  After making it over, I decided that it wasn't so smart.  Much of the trail was rocky or muddy or both.  It ends at the Deep Creek Trail.  We only spent 0.7 miles on Deep Creek before we reached Martin's Gap Trail.  The original plan was to go all of the way down Deep Creek, but on the drive over, JD decided that we should do Martins and the lower part of Sunkota.

Martin's Gap climbed 1000' over 1.5 miles.  It was tough late in the day.  This was  the "Heinous" part of the hike.  At least it was only 1.5 miles.  Up at Sunkota Ridge, we turned right and thought we were starting our downhill part of the hike, but Sunkota had a few more up hill sections before we finally started down.

This cool mushroom was along this section of trail.

Sunkota was 3.8 miles from Martins Gap to the Loop Trail.  At the Loop trail, we turned left and hiked to Indian Creek (0.5 mi).

Indian Creek is a gravel road, so the hiking was easy from there.  Indian Creek Falls is along this trail.  My phone battery was dead, so I didn't get a photo, but it is like a slide down the mountain.  The 0.8 miles on Indian Creek went quickly as did the final 0.7 on Deep Creek.

We all piled in my car and drove over the JD's car at the Noland Trailhead.

We finished up about 5:00.  I got back home about 7:30.

All 19.1 miles were "new" miles on map #2, so it was a very productive day taking me over 300mi on Map #2.