I have been wanting to go back up to WCU for two reasons. First, to see my old college area and how it's grown since i graduated and secondly to see if all the rumors i've heard about the trail closures was true.
First off, it was bitter sweet to see some of the campus progress. Change is sometimes tuff, but for the most part it seems to be a positive change. My old house is now gone and there is a huge apartment complex there. Some of the old stores and coffee shops are gone and in their place are new, fancy structures. The drive through campus is closed, you now have to loop around campus. A lot of new classroom buildings are up as well.
Then we headed up caney fork to ride up moses creek all the way up to Old Bald. There was a big construction crew at the entrance of moses creek that were replacing the two bridges. Once we passed them, the gravel road up was smooth and the trail off of the gravel road was open! We were pumped. First thing i noticed is how smooth and graded the trail was. That was a big disappointment and just shows how stupid (in my opinion) their management program is. They smoothed it out so that anyone in a honda civic could drive up there and then they complained that the area was getting over-used... genius! Anyways, it was open all the way to the top and then we hit our first gate. So, the bald is closed. You can hike up to it but no driving on it. We came all the way back down and headed up caney fork to try to go up the other side. Gate, closed. The trail leading off to wet camp, gated and closed! So we came back down and headed up to try the short cut to sugar creek gap.... gated and closed.
We came back down and decided to head up 281 to sugar creek gap and camp at the clearing at the top. The gravel road was again, smooth and graded. When we got to the top there were signs and boulders saying it was illegal to go up on the cleared area and you could be fined. So we continued over and turned onto a trail... gate. Backed up and continued down the gravel road to the trail leading to ruff butt... gated and closed.
By this time i was really getting frustrated. We camped at the bottom of the gravel road in front of a gate for the evening. Two wildlife officers came to visit and we talked about the closures. They agreed that what had been done was overkill but said there is nothing they can do about it and they went on their way.
The next day we came back down to the store at caney fork to gas up and talked to a group of old - time locals. They were mad as hell about the closures and said that they have been complaining and writing letters for years and nothing has changed.
So, with that said, the rumors are true. It appears to be locked out for any vehicle use and it seems that will not change anytime soon. I urge you to write whatever politician you can and tell them this is not management of our resources.
Here is a little drone footage of old bald:
First off, it was bitter sweet to see some of the campus progress. Change is sometimes tuff, but for the most part it seems to be a positive change. My old house is now gone and there is a huge apartment complex there. Some of the old stores and coffee shops are gone and in their place are new, fancy structures. The drive through campus is closed, you now have to loop around campus. A lot of new classroom buildings are up as well.
Then we headed up caney fork to ride up moses creek all the way up to Old Bald. There was a big construction crew at the entrance of moses creek that were replacing the two bridges. Once we passed them, the gravel road up was smooth and the trail off of the gravel road was open! We were pumped. First thing i noticed is how smooth and graded the trail was. That was a big disappointment and just shows how stupid (in my opinion) their management program is. They smoothed it out so that anyone in a honda civic could drive up there and then they complained that the area was getting over-used... genius! Anyways, it was open all the way to the top and then we hit our first gate. So, the bald is closed. You can hike up to it but no driving on it. We came all the way back down and headed up caney fork to try to go up the other side. Gate, closed. The trail leading off to wet camp, gated and closed! So we came back down and headed up to try the short cut to sugar creek gap.... gated and closed.
We came back down and decided to head up 281 to sugar creek gap and camp at the clearing at the top. The gravel road was again, smooth and graded. When we got to the top there were signs and boulders saying it was illegal to go up on the cleared area and you could be fined. So we continued over and turned onto a trail... gate. Backed up and continued down the gravel road to the trail leading to ruff butt... gated and closed.
By this time i was really getting frustrated. We camped at the bottom of the gravel road in front of a gate for the evening. Two wildlife officers came to visit and we talked about the closures. They agreed that what had been done was overkill but said there is nothing they can do about it and they went on their way.
The next day we came back down to the store at caney fork to gas up and talked to a group of old - time locals. They were mad as hell about the closures and said that they have been complaining and writing letters for years and nothing has changed.
So, with that said, the rumors are true. It appears to be locked out for any vehicle use and it seems that will not change anytime soon. I urge you to write whatever politician you can and tell them this is not management of our resources.
Here is a little drone footage of old bald:
HC will likely go this route eventually, especially with the increased traffic we've been pumping in there the last few years.
