Linville Gorge 1-25-2019

On January 25 my hiking buddy Mark Haigler and I made a dayhike trip to the Linville Gorge in North Carolina.
Dubbing this place the "Grand Canyon of the East" can certainly justified when you visit here.  The photos I am attaching are just a brief taste of the beauty found there.
Our trail for the day was the Shortoff Mountain trail.  We drove into the Wolf Pit Road trailhead and soon began our hike.
The weather was clear but quite cold and windy, the temperature was 21 degrees when we set out with a wind chill of 10 degrees. However, I believe the wind chill was much lower when you approached the viewing points along the rim of the gorge.
There was a lot of ice on the trail, so you had to be very cautious with your footing.  We avoided some areas where it was not safe to travel due to ice.

Sun rays basking on the mountains as we drove in.

 The Dawg taking a break on the climb.  It was about 1100 feet of climb.

 I love how the ice needles are forced up out of the ground.

 I did not venture out to this spectacular view, due to the ice everywhere.

Lake St. James down in the valley

We went down the Mountains To Sea Trail and were considering a loop hike on a un-named trail on our map, but decided against it.

 Which way to go?  Thought the sign was so cool, even though crude.

 More ice crystals, there were 4 inches long.

Linville river far below

Weather takes its toll.

Ive been told there are freshwater shrimp in this pond

The Water Tree, a spring flows strongly out from under this tree.

Breath taking!

I hope you enjoy this pictures from our journey, it was a wonderful day in God's creation.  Give the Gorge a try, but remember, most of the trails are quite difficult and take considerably longer to hike a given distance.