February 28, 2016
As I pursue the Pisgah 400 Challenge (hiking all the trails in the Pisgah Ranger District) the greatest surprise are the sheer number of waterfalls near Brevard. There are two waterfalls within a relatively short distance of our house in Sylva, NC, and that’s it. Every single trail that I have hiked thus far has a cascade or waterfall. Some are on the maps, some are not. But, it’s always a wonderful surprise to find them: the roaring hush of water cascading over rocks, the deafening thunder.
Near the Cove Creek Campground on F.S. 809 is a great hiking loop. If you’re like me, you get in the woods for the experience or solitude, the sounds and sights experienced uninhibited by others.
Caney Bottom Trail and Cove Creek Trail are intertwined. I started on Caney Bottom, hiked to the northern terminus of Cove Creek, before backtracking to the start of Caney Bottom. Cove Creek is 2.6 miles, while Caney Bottom is 1.8 miles.
Caney Bottom is wondrous trail! Everything I love about nature: coves of rhododendron, mushrooms sprouting from logs, the dampness of hiking beside a creek for miles, Tolkien-like seas of green. If you go on one hike this spring, please choose Caney Bottom Trail.
Total mileage is 4.4 miles.
sweetwilder 