I never considered 'The Slatey Place' as a day-hike destination,
mainly because of the elevation change, round-trip from Steele Creek about 10 miles is over 600 feet of elevation gain, and from Kyle’s Landing only about 5 miles, but even more elevation gain, over 800 feet. Many people park a car at Kyle’s then drive a second car over to Steele
Creek and hike the nearly 8
miles on the BRT in a long one-way hike, I think I'll pass.
But then I was looking at some maps recently and saw a horse trail just
a mile north of Low Gap logically named ‘Low Gap Trail’. This looked like just the ticket for a couple
older hikers looking to explore deep into the
Ponca Wilderness without a lot of altitude change. We park off the road near a locked
gate, with the Low Gap Trailhead and the boundary to the Ponca Wilderness at an elevation of almost 1650 feet.
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fall, in all its glory
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Low Gap Trail was once a road to the east, here at the
trailhead are some strategically placed boulders to discourage driving up the trail. The old road makes for easy hiking and little chance of wandering off
trail even today with a fresh blanket of fallen leaves everywhere. The trail circles around the head of Beech
Creek east then north, off to our right just outside the wilderness are a bunch
of curious cattle watching us from up on the hillside.
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trailside pond
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Past a sweeping curve to the north the
trail stays pretty much north bound all the way to Slatey Place. I soon spot a
very big boulder sitting about 100 feet above the trail all by itself and go up the hill off-trail to check it out thinking
I’ve spotted a cave, it turns out to just be dark shadows. This rock is about the size of a small house
with a few little trees trying to survive on top. The boulder is covered in hundreds of fist-sized pock holes, the forces of erosion do some strange things.
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big boulder up in the woods
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Continuing north the trail stays fairly
level, easy going all the way.
A couple horseback riders pass by and comment on the beautiful day, these will be the only
people we see all day. Soon we notice a
little pond down the hill to our left about 100 yards below the trail, we
continue on as it’s pretty steep down to the pond. Then a bunch of smaller boulders scattered
around on both sides of the trail and some tin roofing and wash tub, there evidently was a home
once nearby. Less than 100 feet further a good size pond right at the
edge of the trail. This pond is just beautiful with the fall colors framing the
emerald green and deep blues, of course we stop for pictures.
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nice pond next to trail
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The next mile goes by quick, still easy hiking and the autumn foliage is
nice too. Soon we’re at a trail
intersection, a sharp right and up the hill on another old road is Kilgore
Mountain Trail. We continue north, about 100 yards further is another intersection. This marks the end of Low Gap Trail at the Buffalo River Trail. A left turn would take us down into the
Beech Creek drainage and about 5 miles west to Steele Creek
Campground.
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autumn in the forest
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Continuing north now on the BRT for the
next quarter mile, we are beyond Beech Creek, now on our left
is Jackie’s Big Hollow then our next trail junction. Just past a tiny pond and nice campsites on both sides of
the trail is The Slatey Place, which is a name given to this intersection. Here the BRT
turns east and down to Kyle’s
Landing 2.5 miles, straight to the north is Horseshoe Bend Trail. But before continuing north we take a
break at Slatey Place. The Slatey Place while nice isn’t anything special really, just a trail intersection named for the small pieces of broken shale (slate) littering the ridge in this small area with a few nice campsites. It is a popular overnight stop for backpackers thru hiking the BRT.
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at the junction with the BRT
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We
head north on Horseshoe Bend Trail, in maybe 100 feet come to another trail intersection, straight
ahead on the old road is Slatey Place Trail, we however veer to the
left off the old road staying on Horseshoe Bend Trail. The trail winds its way through woods to the northwest, with all the
leaves we stop occasionally to locate the trail. The trail crosses an old road and turns more to the west then begins heading downhill. We leave
the trail continuing north, we’re now ‘off trail’.
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hard to find Horseshoe Bend Trail
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We’re hoping to reach the top of the bluffs to our north for some
fantastic views down to the Buffalo River almost 700 feet below and under half a
mile in the distance. The bushwhack
proves difficult though, it’s not undergrowth that gives us a problem. The woods are wide open, but I wouldn’t say
‘clean’, there are rocks everywhere including lots of big house size boulders
but it’s the smaller rocks underfoot that make the hiking hazardous. We
trudge along slowly first north then curving toward
the northeast around some large boulders. Just as we come to a decision to
give up on the bluffline views an old road appears
‘out of nowhere’ heading north and south. We turn north in the hope of finding those elusive fantastic views.
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thick 'canopy' of leaves
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Technically I
guess this is still a bushwhack but now on the old road it’s much easier, soon the old road curves around to the
west. Leaving the road, we head north
down the steep and rocky hillside which gets steeper the farther we
go, and still no sign of the top of any bluff.
From here looking northeast toward Kyle’s we can just make out some bluffs far below along the Buffalo but the foliage in the trees is still too
thick to see much. We turn back, up the steep hill to the old road past where we first found it a little over 100 yards, we come to Slatey Place Trail which is also an old road.
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looking for the elusive bluffline
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Slatey Place Trail south
about a third of a mile brings us to the intersection with Horseshoe Bend Trail, from there we can see familiar Slatey Place 100 feet ahead. After another break at the same campsite we begin the hike back. Retracing our route back to Low Gap Trail Trailhead is easy and enjoyable. We had a great
time today the weather was perfect the fall colors fantastic and the hike
easy. We hiked Low Gap Trail
plus short portions of the Buffalo River Trail, Horseshoe Bend Trail and Slatey
Place Trail, and about a half mile off-trail for a total distance there and back of 6.3 miles with 576 feet of elevation gain.
Low Gap Trail: Statistics Chart 103 Trailhead/Parking can be reached going up Fisher Point Road (NC 2620) which heads north
off Highway 74 next to a church just east of the Low Gap Cafe, follow this gravel
road about 1.5 miles to a locked gate. Park
here along the road, don't block the gate and try to avoid the private property all around. Low Gap Trail begins to the east past the big rock barricade.
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| base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS Topo-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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