This morning while trying
to decide where to go hiking today, I thought ‘its been a long time since I’ve
been to Kyle’s Landing’. Sure enough, my
last time at Kyle’s was four years ago when I attempted to go see
Copperhead Falls (see: 117 Indian Creek). There are loads of trails accessible
from Kyle’s, and many of those I haven’t hiked, so today I’m headed to Mt.
Sherman then down to Kyle’s Landing.
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rugged upper Indian Creek
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At the bottom of the long
hill, I enter the campground and head west to the BRT/ORT Trailhead. Before I get ‘geared up’ with boots,
hydration pack and camera, I meet John and Chris from Branson, who have a very
nice (high end) roof-top tent. They
camped out last night and now are looking for a trail to go hiking. I tell them ‘there’s plenty of trails here to
choose from’ as I point to the two big trailhead information boards next to where
we’re parked.
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Kyle's Landing trailhead/parking
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After I learn some details about
their camping rig, they head up the trail, and I’m not far behind. Here at the trailhead this is the Old River
Trail, with access (soon) to Buffalo River Trail. After crossing dry rocky Bear
Creek it isn’t far to the first trail intersection, south here is the BRT heading downriver eventually
to Pruitt. I stay on the ORT just a little further to the next junction, where I leave the ORT turning south on the
BRT, headed upriver eventually all the way to Boxley South Trailhead.
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on the ORT at the BRT turnoff
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But I’m not going that far,
in fact I don’t stay on the BRT very long at all. After climbing the gentle
hill then passing through where an old fence line once crossed, I soon notice
another trail junction 4x4 post next to the trail. This post isn’t very informative, only that
this is a ‘primitive route’ it also has a yellow blaze (horse trail)
attached. After consulting the GPS, I
realize this is what I’m looking for ‘Indian Creek Horse Trail’ (ICHT).
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| BRT is in great shape... |
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the Indian Creek Horse Trail, not so much
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I don’t see a ‘trail’
though, just tall wet grass and weeds in a small clearing. Plowing through the weeds headed east I soon
land on the trail going uphill, stopping briefly to brush off all the ticks. ‘Indian Creek Horse Trail’ I’ll come to the
conclusion later, hasn’t seen a horse in years.
Yeah, it’s pretty obvious this trail doesn’t get much business, most of
the trail especially here on the east side follows an old road, making it a
little easier to find but no less rugged.
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a 'good' section of ICHT (typ.)
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The road soon turn more to
the south and follows a ridge for a while, with lots of low rocky ledges on both
sides of the trail. Not far past an ‘elk
rub’ (too high on the tree to be a buck rub) is the first fallen tree that
requires detouring off the trail to get around.
The first of seventeen on this trail, I don’t include any logs I can
step or climb over easily, just the major downed tree messes where leaving the
trail is required. 'Primitive route' is right!
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| elk rub |
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not so good section of ICHT
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This road continues
climbing up onto the next ridge, then further south and uphill a few hundred more
feet. The total elevation gain on this
east side of Indian Creek Horse Trail is about 900 feet, nothing too steep, but
it has it’s moments. The low rocky
ledges continue as does the numerous dead-wood debris across the road. After the road tops out, is an old homesite
with a stacked rock footprint and nearby rock walls.
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low ledges along ridge
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I soon lose the trail in a
rocky area with lots of deadwood debris, about a hundred yards fighting the
jungle I remake the trail, like all the ‘downed tree’ obstacles, ‘losing
the route’ will also become a reoccurring event today. Right after getting ‘back on track’ I start
hearing falling water, the first is a small side stream with lovely little
falls and cascades. It’s fairly easy to
step across on some big sharp rocks never loosing sight of the trail.
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sone rugged terrain
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But then only about 250
feet further comes a bigger drainage with bigger rocks in a tighter canyon with
a huge fallen tree right in the middle.
I’m forced to climb up and over a big long bark-free log to get past
this creek, I can hear the water but don’t see much through the large tight
rocks everywhere. I don’t know how a
trail was ever built through here but I soon find it once again on the other
side.
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a rocky little drainage
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About 400 yards of rugged
trail later, I lose the way again at yet another tree fall mess. On my map, right here the trail turns and
heads uphill (steep), makes a big sweeping U-turn then comes back downhill to
the original elevation. This just seems crazy, and since I lost the trail anyway, I continue mostly west trying to
maintain my current elevation. I soon find out
why the ‘U-turn’ as I enter then cross a large area of small sharp ‘boulders’
everywhere.
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| rocks and more rocks |
With cracks and crevices
(ankle busters) all hiding in dead leaves, this is very slow going. I take my time on this almost 300 yard
bushwhack, and make it across unscathed.
Now back on the trail, my elevation stays pretty consistent, close to
the 1700 foot mark. After a while and
past a couple more fallen tree obstacles is another small steep drainage
crossing. More scattered sharp rocks
here, and below the trail a wet weather waterfall.
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wildflowers in the jungle
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Just over a hundred yards
past this little creek crossing is a trail junction marked by fluorescent
ribbon tied in trees. Directly 200 feet below
this steep zigzagging trail is the infamous Eye of the Needle, it’s tempting
but no, it would be suicidal to attempt this trail without a rope and
companion hiker. I wisely continue south
200 yards to the next two closely spaced steep, wet and rocky little creek crossing.
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| 'swampy' little pond |
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yellow blaze on fallen tree
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About a hundred yards more,
on my right is a small swampy pond, then I come to another trail
intersection. Here the better
trail forks to the left uphill, and to the right I notice a yellow blaze nailed
to a small tree that has fallen across the trail. I go right since ‘yellow’ is for horse
trails, I’ll assume the left fork heads up to Hammerschmidt Falls which is
about 1000 feet south and almost 300 feet up.
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@ Indian Creek crossing
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After stepping over the
little tree with the yellow blaze, the trail starts downhill to Indian Creek
for my wettest creek crossing yet.
As with many crossings, I have lots of options but I don’t see a trail
anywhere on the other side, there is a big mess of tangled trees obliterating
where I’m assuming the trail ‘was’.
After a few pictures, I easily get across hopping from one rock to the
next, but now what?
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a trail obliterated
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I decide to climb the steep
muddy bank and attempt to get around the massive trail obstruction from up above,
probably the wrong choice. It just gets
steeper and slicker the further I go, with no trail to be found, slipping
sliding for the better part of half an hour. I end up back down and eventually
find the trail, now I look like a wreck after slipping and falling on the muddy hillside
twice, but at least I’m back on the path.
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some interesting rocks @ next creek
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Now on the west side of
Indian Creek, I head north soon coming to a big log across the trail that
someone has attempted to chop apart with a hatchet, they didn’t quite get half
way through, next time bring a chainsaw.
Why bother, this is one of the easier fallen trees to get past, I
continue north. Indian Creek Horse Trail
doesn’t appear to be following a road over here on the west side, it’s just a
trail and a pretty faint one at that.
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on the very faint trail
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After about a half mile is
the next fallen tree in a little drainage with lots of interesting rocks and
flowing water. I lose the trail again,
and it won’t be the last time, the trail is so faint anyway, losing it doesn’t
make much difference. I continue along
where the map indicates the trail ‘should be’ hoping it will eventually show
up, which it does so I don’t get to concerned.
Luckily these woods don’t have much undergrowth or briar-patches, just a
lot of young poison-ivy.
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the last little crossing
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This routine continues for
over a mile, one more wet crossing, 3 or 4 more fallen trees where I usually
lose the trail and a few times the trail just ‘fizzles out’. After a good mile, I’m definitely not on the
trail when I come to a low stacked rock pillar.
The GPS shows my ‘trail’ just uphill 60 feet, it also shows the BRT
downhill about twice as far, I go down, landing on the obviously well used
Buffalo River Trail.
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low stacked rock pillar
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Heading east on BRT (back
toward Kyle’s) the trail almost immediately starts going downhill, some stretches
are steep, watch your footing. The
descent winds down 700 feet to Indian Creek, but spread over a mile, it isn’t
too bad. Along the way I pass a small
campsite then almost 200 feet lower is Buffalo Overlook a wintertime vista rock
about 50 feet off the trail. After that
is Indian Creek Vista, with a nice open view from the caprock ledge with a flat
rock for a well needed break.
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downhill on well maintained BRT
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Now it’s about a third of a
mile further to the bottom, with another wintertime vista and some nice rock
formations then 15 stone steps built into the trail, most of these are natural. Indian Creek at the bottom is completely dry,
about 25 feet across round river rock not a drop of water to be found. Just up the bank is the trail junction with
Indian Creek Trail, possibly the most beautiful hike in BNR, and probably the
most dangerous (see: 117 Indian Creek).
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nice views through the thick greenery
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I turn left staying on the
BRT and in just 200 feet more its a right, still on BRT (there’s many trails in
the area), now up a little hill with lots of wildflowers. I’m soon back to the trail intersection where
I headed through the tick infested tall grass onto Indian Creek Horse Trail. From here its just over a third of a mile
back to the trailhead/parking area where I started. Pretty worn out, but I had a great time
trapsing through the woods, top to bottom around Indian Creek.
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| Indian Creek Vista just ahead |
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view into Indian Creek
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Today’s hike took me over
six hours, the total distance of 6.8 miles is part of that but the 1282 feet of
elevation gain is a bigger part, and the rugged terrain undoubtedly played a
big part too. Looking at a map before
hiking this route, I assumed a moderate hike considering the distance and
elevation gain, but I had no idea that Indian Creek Horse Trail is about the
same as a 5 mile bushwhack. At least the
well maintained BRT was a breeze.
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| dry as a bone lower Indian Creek |
Indian Creek Loop: Statistics Chart 228 Kyle’s Landing is easy enough to get to,
but the road is steep and reportedly gets pretty slippery when wet so go slow
and enjoy. Turn north off of Highway 74
in Mt. Sherman onto NC 2650 Kyle’s Landing Road follow this all the way to its
end at the back of Kyle’s Landing Campground and park here at the BRT/ORT
trailhead. It’s about 2.7 miles down the
dirt road to the parking area.
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| base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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