16.5 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain • 1 night
Last night I decided to do one more quick backpacking trip for the week.
The drive to Table Rock is pretty quick - about 42 miles, 7 on gravel. For the first several miles to Table Rock I must have seen 35 people (including one guy crossing the snowfield with a baby carrier! hmmmm...), but then not a soul past the intersection towards Rooster. The trail between Table and Rooster gets very little travel. A few snow drifts were still lingering right before the intersection with Rooster, but everything was quite manageable.
Rooster had some nice flowers in bloom and something that smelled strongly of sage, but not quite. Both the trails from Table to Rooster and Rooster to Peachuck were very nice - they almost have an Appalachian Trail ridgewalk vibe to them.
Before heading to Pechuck, I headed down the hill about a mile to look for water, but had no success. Fortunately, there is a little spring on the backside of the lookout. I ran into one guy who was just leaving as I arrived, but saw no one else until the last mile back to the car the next morning, when I ran into the Tryon Creek Day Trippers - a friendly group with Mazama-like proportions.
The lookout is a nice little spot, save all the flies and wasps. There seems to be a group of maintainers that take good care of the place. You could see the fireworks in the valley, but they were quite small from that distance, and silent. For some time, these white-tipped-winged birds were flying around, chasing each other, making this funny noise, and then later, barking up a storm:
This morning, on the way back, there were several birds making a fantastic call that I've heard a few times before - I think they may be Meadowlark, but I didn't have a chance to record them. The trip back to the car was a breeze, except one short straight up section halfway between Rooster and Table.
A highly recommended hike!
