Pisgah Overnight - Long Branch/Art Loeb/Butter Gap 4K

Fifth backpacking trip of 2024 … May 11-12, 2024
Included … myself sally, Laura, and Amy
Another short overnight - this time in Pisgah. We started at the big parking area by the fish hatchery and went out of the southeastern side of the lot to start our intended loop on the Cat Gap trail. This lower portion of trail is pretty easy and well maintained (other than the one unbridged stream crossing - but it's pretty easy to cross if you don't mind wet feet!), After crossing the stream .. the trail algzags a little bit before you start making your way uphill. Just past Cedar Rock Fills, we veered to the right onto Butter Gap trail which is currently being re-routed in places. At the next junction, we took another right onto Long Branch trail. This was a gorgeous trail that was well shaded and pretty easy hiking. There was one bridge that whille still in place and usable - was off it's axis a bit. We continued along until we reached FS475, and road walked past a nice little waterfall/cascade on our way to the junction with the Art Leek. Once at the junction, we turned left (heading south) and continued climbing up to the summit of Chestnut Mountain - the trait up wasn't bad and not at all overgrown, which was nicel At the summit - we took our packs off and enjoyed a nice break. Afterwards, we descended to Butter Gap where we stayed the night in the shelter. Much to our dismay … the shelter has already been marred by people's expressions with various writing and stuff on the inside of the shelter. But other than that the shelter was really nice. We set up camp, enjoyed a nice meal, and had great conversation around the campfire! We had the shelter all to ourselves - not even a mouse was seen. I'll note that the pipe by the shelter wasn't flowing -I had to go down the hill a little ways behind the shelter to get water (and there is poison ivy behind the shelter - so use caution).
The next morning, we got a nice fire started to enjoy our coffee and more conversation before packing up camp and hiking out to the car. The hike out, starts out uphill - but it's reasonably short. From there we took a right onto the new Butter Gap trail (because the old one has been shut down and debris has been piled onto it). The new re-route isn't in Gaia or AlITrails yet - but it's pretty easy to follow, however it is much longer than the old trail. We continued our way along the re-route which involved little ups and downs as it winds its way down the mountain - keeping our ears open for mountain bikers so wed be able to get out of the way. At one point ... my friend who was behind me yelled - BIG SNAKE!! Which was shocking to me - considering Sally & I had both just walked past whatever she'd seen. Thankfully, it was just a black snake - who seemed pretty chill. Continuing along the new trail .. it just continued going up and down until it rejoined the old Butter Gap trail - where there was some more trail work being done. We continued down the trail, and I took the short scramble path down to Grogan Creek Falls - this is a very nice cascade and worth the little bit of effort to see. Once back on the trail, we started seeing more people and we were ready to see our cars! Thankfully, the trait from this point was easy aside from getting my feet wet again (but honestly even that felt great!). We made it back to the parking area - which was pretty full, and we were happy to see our cars!
Things to note, we did see some beautiful pink lady slippers in a couple places along this loop - if you find them then admire them and leave them alone for others to enjoy as well. This loop I'd consider easy to moderate - there was nothing too technical about this loop other than the unbridged water crossing and the off-axis bridge. The shelter area is nice and there's plenty of tent sites as well if staying in the shelter isn't your thing. The hike out is significantly longer now due to the re-route and the re-route seems to be more mountain bike designed than hiker friendly - what was 3.96 miles from Butter Gap shelter to the parking area is now 6.06 milles. There's also an increase in elevation gain - from 194’ gained to 663’. This will definitely be a fun trail for mountain bikers with all the little rollers, rock gardens, and such - but with the fun they'll be having you'll need to keep your ears open to get out of their way. One person said that the re-route was designed with mountain bikers in mind and that for hikers it's recommended to take Cat Gap instead. I don't know what the distance for that would be - but 1 do know it's a climb up from the shelter of course! Overall, it was a great weekend with great friends!