100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina by Joe Miller

Author:Joe Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594852596
Publisher: The Mountaineers Books
Published: 2013-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

Catch a profile of Pilot Mountain on Sauratown Trail’s Section 15.

To some, that’s not an experience to be replicated in a recreational hike—although replicate may be pushing it: Lawson didn’t cross any paved highways, pass under any mega-powerlines, or have occasion to stumble upon quaint bed and breakfast cottages fashioned out of retired tobacco barns. Still, you may have moments on the Sauratown Trail where you’re forced to wonder, “Am I still on the trail? ‘Cause this sure looks like someone’s pasture.”

Such moments occur frequently on the 2-mile Section 15 (the trail is divided into seventeen sections). This is a particularly good section for the tentative Sauratown explorer because it starts from the familiarity of a state park (Pilot Mountain), has a bailout option, and if, upon completing the 2 miles, you’ve had enough, you can walk back along the road rather than returning the way you came.

From the state park visitor center parking lot, hike southeast into the woods. In a quarter-mile you’ll come to an intersection that isn’t marked “SAURATOWN TRAIL” but is clear about where horses may go. Take a left.

Your first John Lawson moment comes a quarter-mile into the hike when you T into Pilot Knob Park Road. Go right under US Route 52—that part is marked. What isn’t so clear is where to cross the road. The map indicates a spot 50 yards west of the highway exit ramp. After fifteen minutes of searching, I was stumped and decided to take a short cut along a gravel road, which the Sauratown Trails Association trail map indicated would meet up with the trail in a halfmile. Not 10 yards down the road, I glanced left and noticed a 2-foot-tall stick with a white circle nailed to the top, followed by a similar stick another 40 feet into the woods—my first Lawson/eureka moment. More would follow.

Less than a mile into the hike, I came upon Grassy Creek, where I realized horses don’t need no stinking bridge to cross 6 inches of water. Walking the edge of a powerline clear-cut looking for the trail to duck back into the woods, I found myself in someone’s spacious backyard. I scooted through this backyard and picked up what could have been the trail or could have been an abandoned farm road from years earlier. Was I on the trail?

Suddenly, the “trail” emerged into a vast meadow of golden wildflowers with the distinct massif of Pilot Mountain in the background 2 miles distant framed against a pristine, Carolina blue sky.

Such a moment may have made the uncertainty worth it for John Lawson as well.

Alas, this was a quarter-mile spur (well worth the diversion). I retraced my steps to the backyard and discovered a short connector trail missed earlier that ascends 100 yards to a gravel road that takes you the remaining 0.75 mile to the end of Section 15, at Old Winston Road.

Either retrace your route, or return by taking the slightly faster road route: take a right on Old Winston

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