Chestnut Mountain Road

We drove from Cashiers, turning right onto NC-281 off of US-64. Shortly, we pulled into Gorges State Park. The parking lot to Rainbow Falls was packed... two park rangers were working parking duty...

We kept driving, though, on the Chestnut Mountain Road. And unlike the packed paved parking lot, the dirt mountain road was almost totally empty. Besides one other car, we had the place to ourselves to explore.

The drive isn't a fast one. It's a sit back and enjoy it one. It's about 6 miles, one way, from where the pavement ends to the Horsepasture River. It's a soak in the mountains and the rocks and the trees and the leaves rustling in the wind and the small streams gurgling past.

You'll need a vehicle with a little ground clearance, though you don't need anything too crazy. You may want four wheel drive, though I don't think it's necessary, due to some loose rock and gravel.

You'll drive down the Chestnut Mountain Road in Gorges State Park, and then will enter Toxaway Game Lands and turn right onto Auger Hole Road (marked Cow Trail Hike above).

Unfortunately, the bridge over the Horsepasture River was closed. But we got out and fished a bit in the river. In early September, the Horsepasture seemed a bit warm for trout. At the river were several campsites... I'll definitely try to come back and camp.

Go get some dirt on the tires. Go escape the crowds.

Comments

Chunkin' Bait

If you've ever stumbled across any of my words online, you've probably noticed that I'm more of a fly guy. I just love that feeling of propelling fly line through the air with the rod, feeling the bend and strength of the rod as it loads and projects the line towards your casting target. But, occasionally, there's a time to chunk some bait. The good news was we didn't have to leave Edenton too early. The bite hadn't started until 9:30 in the morning or so, my buddy said. So, thankfully, no need to wake up at the crack of dawn to make the hour or so drive to Swan Quarter. The goal was to catch a few drum, and maybe even invite a few to dinner. It wasn't "old drum" time of late summer, but there were still some big ones out there. We launched Johny's Jones Brothers Cape Fisherman, idled down the canal, and jumped on a plane to get over the bar and shoaling right outside the canal. We ran out, not too far, fishing little cov...

A Little Do-It-Yourself Boat Painting

"Hard hard can it be?" After hours of YouTube videos, I thought I had this whole boat painting thing figured out. My Jones Brothers skiff was looking a bit faded. The 20+ year old cream/off-white gel coat was in need of some major cutting and buffing, and there were some cracks and gouges and an errant screw hole for a swim ladder only filled in with silicon sealant. Just the conditioning and buffing would be a major undertaking. On top of that my ablative bottom paint, that wears off on its own, that I'd done myself, was starting to look rough. Then, I'd stumbled across a picture on Facebook, of someone who'd painted the same hull as mine with the Alexseal brand topside paint with their "roll" additive, which smooths out the paint after rolling it onto a surface. I was mesmerized with the pictures online, drawn to doom scrolling online forums like Hull Truth, and others. It looked too good to be true. As anyone who...

The Simple Things---the love of a canoe

You don't need much to get out and enjoy the natural world. Really, you don't need anything at all. Just take a walk in the woods and breathe in that fresh air. Having said that, a few items expand your range into nature exponentially. A simple canoe is one of those things. Pick one up cheap on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or even Walmart. You don't need anything fancy. One person can easily lift a less than 15 footer, especially made of ABS or Royalex or other light materials, and about any vehicle can carry that size boat on the roof.

The Tar Heel Outdoorsman

Search This Blog