Hurricane Creek Wilderness at 15,307 acres in the Ozark National Forest,
is the second largest of the five ‘ONF’ wilderness areas, smaller are Richland
Creek Wilderness 11,801 acres, and Upper Buffalo Wilderness 11,094 acres, my two personal favorites. The largest, Leatherwood Wilderness along the lower Buffalo is 16,838 acres, the smallest would be East Fork Wilderness at just 10,688 acres.
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Buck Branch
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Hurricane Creek Wilderness doesn't seem to have much information written about it. Even though the Ozark
Highlands Trail goes right through the middle, yeah right through the
wilderness some purists may scoff, but I like having trails and don’t believe
that a trail detracts from the wilderness experience at all…but allowing
vehicles to drive in the wilderness is just wrong and should not be tolerated, no exceptions. |
road crossing at Buck Branch
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We want to see some of Hurricane Creek and do some hiking on the
Ozark Highlands Trail. We park off NC 7050 in an open field under the powerline just before the old road crosses Buck Branch, t
his is the Chancel Trailhead parking
area and access to the Ozark Highlands Trail via the Chancel Spur Trail. |
Buck Branch
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Right off the bat we need to cross Buck Branch which is about twenty
feet wide here at the crossing and
running swiftly. It doesn’t appear to be very deep,
so
we slip on the creek waders and head across. Well,
it’s deeper than it looks, the water comes over the tops of our
waders and our feet are instantly soaked. We always carry spare socks in the pack,
but our boots need to
dry
out some before changing so onward we ‘slog’. Ahead 200 yards or less is a gate, to the left up a little rise a nice shady campsite.
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on Chancel Spur Trail
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On the open gate are signs warning of the
hazards ahead to vehicles on this road, but nothing even suggests that vehicles
are banned. I don’t get it, I thought vehicles
and even roads were illegal in wilderness areas. Oh well you never know until you go, I do
appreciate the easy hiking down this road.
We now realize we could have driven the truck across Buck Branch keeping
our feet dry and
parked at the campsite just outside the gate.
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rock wall along old road
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Continuing on, the road passes an old homesite on the left, we notice rock walls and some rusty tin
roofing where an out-building has collapsed.
Soon the road arrives at Hurricane Creek, which is quite wide probably
75 feet or more across and I don’t see where the road emerges on the other
side. No matter though, the Chancel Spur
Trail leaves the road here up the cut road-bank on the left. |
new OHT sign-in box at end of Chancel Spur
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Still
on a road, but this one hasn’t seen a vehicle in many years, this road is more like a real trail.
This section is easy on the flat and straight old road, and
it’s also very scenic with a lovely little moss-covered cascade across beautiful
Hurricane Creek on the right and a long rock wall on our left. As we drop down some into a little ravine the
old road gets washed out, we scramble through some big rocks and brush then up a little cut-bank, and 100
feet further come to the intersection with the Ozark Highlands Trail. |
near campsite with easy access down to the creek
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Now on the OHT we continue southwest about 100 more feet coming to a small creek with a lovely little waterfall tumbling over sharp moss-covered rocks. Soon on our right below the trail is a campsite with a great view and easy access down to Hurricane Creek. In less than a quarter mile we start hearing frogs,
thousands of peepers down fifty feet or so below the trail in a flooded area, the song they sing echoes off the bluffs, we stop on a convenient log next
to the trail to enjoy the ‘music’.
Continuing through a couple side drainages then passing mile
marker 116, followed by some nice views of Hurricane Creek below. |
OHT mile marker
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Hurricane Creek alternates between
long tranquil pools and fast rocky whitewater, it
really is a beautiful waterway,
and the Ozark Highlands Trail offers
the perfect vantage from which to explore the creek. Now the trail climbs a little and away from the
creek, high above is an impressive wet bluffline. Then we cross through a low rocky saddle like
a ‘pass’ between two huge crumbling shale boulders.
Almost a quarter mile farther off the trail on our right is a big flat vista rock with a great view down to Hurricane
Creek and beyond. Three tenths of a mile further on the OHT is
mile marker 115 after which the trail curls back to the southeast down to a
little feeder creek and a very nice campsite.
Crossing the creek we continue southwest 200 yards to a road crossing,
not an ‘old road’ either this looks well used maybe even maintained.
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Sexton Cemetery
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We leave the OHT here turning left (almost straight really) on the road
winding uphill, it’s pretty steep but soon levels out then ends in a
turn-around at the gate to Sexton Cemetery.
The graveyard is enclosed by chain-link fencing which was paid for by
Cora Pellham who is buried here in what appears to be the most recent gravesite
dated back to the 1970's. Over the years
trees have fallen damaging the fence in six or seven places, but otherwise the
cemetery is in good shape. |
Hurricane Creek
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Back
down the road past the OHT a couple hundred yards to an intersection with another road, we turn left and soon pass around a
closed gate. The road soon comes close
alongside Hurricane Creek, with just a couple feet from the edge of the road to
the steep eroded cut-bank. We’re standing
here at this narrow ledge between road and water taking pictures of Hurricane Creek,
when we hear a loud truck approaching, soon an old Chevy 4X4 pulls up to
say ‘Hi’.
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daffodils at the cemetery
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We're informed, they’re out
testing out the ‘new’ truck (circa 1980) and want to see how far they can get. With more than a little pride tell us, 'We have already crossed the creek three or
four times.' I see in the truck bed that they have come prepared with jack, chains, come-along, ladder and lots of other ‘necessities’, we wish them well as they roar off
downstream. Maybe when done playing,
they’ll replace the muffler they lost crossing Hurricane
Creek. Yes, that’s right this is a
federally protected ‘wilderness’ area. |
the road through the wilderness
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And on that note,
we decide it’s time to head back, up the road we go to
the OHT, then left and back the way we came. Along the way we stop once again at the log
above ‘Peeper Pond’ for some rest and water.
When we get to Buck Branch,
I realize that I never did change into those
dry socks and don’t even bother with the slip-on waders, back at the truck we
change into dry shoes. This was a great
hike along beautiful Hurricane Creek, today we hiked just under 7 miles
with an altitude gain of 668 feet.
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rocky mossy creek crossing
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Chancel Spur Trailhead: Statistics Chart 84 Turn off Highway 7 at the Who-Da-Thought store onto NC 7050 and follow this dirt road down the mountain around a few hair-pin curves and at least one creek crossing about 3.9 miles to an unmarked right turn into a small field under the powerline about 100 yards and park
just before Buck Branch. Or if you're so inclined
drive right into the wilderness, apparently there's no law against that. |
| base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS Forest Service-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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