- Gretchen Pardon
Linville Gorge Wilderness Loop
Date: October 10 - 12, 2021
Mileage: 21 miles
Trails hiked: Wolf Pit - Shortoff - MST - Spence Ridge - Little Table Rock
Apps used: Avenza, Hiking Project
It was mid October and my friend Marcy and I decided to do a short backpacking trip. Fall is my absolutely favorite season and I didn't want to miss a chance to sleep outside before the leaves fell off the trees and the weather turned cold. For this trip, Marcy brought her dog Coda. Dogs are allowed in the Linville Gorge Wilderness as long as they are on a leash. We were fortunate to have some pretty good weather with warm temperatures and sunny skies.
We started our hike at the gravel parking lot of the Wolf Pit Trailhead. Although the road to reach the trailhead is gravel and very narrow, there is plenty of parking at the trailhead. If you choose to backpack on this trail on Fridays or Saturdays then you will need to get a permit at the ranger station. We started on a Sunday since all the permits were taken and this made it easier to backpack.
The plan for this hike was to do a loop that would start and end at this trailhead. We began a 1 mile climb up Wolf Pit trail to reach the Shortoff trail. The trail is a little rocky but for the most part the terrain is easily manageable and there were a couple of small water sources in this 1 mile section.
There are several views of the surrounding gorge as you climb up Wolf Pit trail so if you want to do a really short hike with great views this is the trail, but don't be fooled by the difficulty as the trail has an elevation gain of 750 ft over 1 mile. With the warm temperatures and steep grade, I was already pretty spent by the time I reached the junction with the Shortoff trail. No matter how great of shape you are when hiking, take a few weeks off and it feels like I hadn't hiked in years let alone the heat always zaps me when I'm climbing.
Shortoff trail continues to climb for another 1/2 mile before it levels out. Luckily, there were sections with more tree coverage making it not feel quite as strenuous in the shade. The terrain does get a little bit rockier in some spots but the views were absolutely outstanding.
Most of the 7 mile hike along Shortoff was along the ridge with excellent views of the surrounding gorge. There is a nice piped spring shortly after passing one of the first overlooks along this trail, but this was the only water source I saw available until I reached the junction with the Little Table Rock trail. According to the map, there are places were you can go a little ways off trail to reach a water source but those areas seemed to require some pretty steep descents to reach.
Marcy and I had planned to camp on Table Rock but found out there wasn't anywhere to camp on top of Table Rock Mountain. So as an alternative, we hiked to the next available campsite which was situated at the bottom of Table Rock Mountain along the MST trail. Although there wasn't any views overlooking the Gorge, the campsite area was flat with great tenting spots and a flowing clear piped spring close by.
The next day we continuing hiking on the MST and reached the Spence Ridge trailhead parking area. There are a few spots for parking in the gravel lot. The first mile on this trail was wide and flat and a very pretty section of trail. The trail started descending towards the Linville Gorge and the terrain became pretty rugged with lots of roots along the trail and a few small water crossings. Once we reached the river we realized we couldn't cross without having to swim as the water was way too deep. Because we had full packs and Marcy's dog, we decided it wasn't worth the risk to try and cross so we turned around and headed back up Spence Ridge trail. There is a junction with Spence Ridge that gave us a little bit of a short cut by taking Little Table Rock trail. From the map, I could tell it was pretty steep but I didn't realize just how steep it was until we started hiking.
The end of the trail climbs almost vertically for about a mile and in that portion the terrain is rocky, rooty and washed away in spots making the climb slippery. We decided to head back the direction we came along Shortoff and camp at the Linville Gorge overlook at Table Rock mountain. We were fortunate that it was still fairly early in the day and the previous night's campers were still there and were getting ready to leave for the day and let us set up our tents. This was a terrific campsite with flat tenting spots and magnificent views. This area is known as the Grand Canyon of the South and when you see the views from here you can completely understand why.
We spent the afternoon exploring the area a little better and climbing to the top of rocks. This is a popular area for rock climbers and rappelers and we saw several rock climbers and even a family with young children rappelling from the high rocks to the ground below. With such fantastic views, I'd hoped to catch a sunset from our vantage point, but unfortunately the clouds rolled in and although we didn't get a colorful sunset, our camping spot was still amazing none-the-less.
We woke early in hopes of at least catching a sunrise. It was pretty cloudy but still beautiful to watch the clouds roll over the mountains while drinking a cup of coffee. We were fortunate that even with the cloudy skies we never had rain and finished out our last day with a beautiful warm, sunny day.
This was an absolutely fantastic backpacking trip that although had some tough sections was one of the most beautiful areas and had some of the best views I've ever seen. I'll definitely be making a trip back to this area in the future!
Watch the full video of this 3 day adventure: