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| Round, Jane, and Grassy Ridge |
On Tuesday, July 2nd, my family and I did the
hike across Round Bald, Jane Bald, and Grassy Ridge Bald. We were staying at
our mountain house on Powderhorn Mountain (near Boone, NC) for the week of the
Fourth of July and our relatives from Pennsylvania were visiting. Amy had done
this hike before I had met her, and it was on the list to be included in the
book. Amy and I will be in Boone in a couple of weeks to visit some of the
Balds around the area, but we decided that I could do the Round, Jane, and
Grassy trip while I was up here over the 4th in order to collect
extra field data, ease our persistent schedule, and share the experience with
my family.
My mom, my dad, my brother Ryan, and our dog Baci were the
hiking companions on this trip. My brother Connor was at home in Greensboro
working an internship and Marissa had decided to go to Tweetsie Railroad with
my Pennsylvania relatives.
We left at 10:40 am. The three Balds, Round, Jane, and
Grassy Ridge, were located on Roan Mountain, Tennessee and could be accessed
from Carvers Gap, which the phone navigation system estimated to be a 2 hour
drive from our house. The drive to Carvers Gap utilized numerous back roads and
we ended up getting lost somewhere in Avery Country, NC. At one point, there
was about a 5 mile stretch of road on which Ryan counted 14 Baptist churches.
We eventually got back on track an arrived at the trailhead around 12:30, sun
shining.
The complete hike was a 2.5 mile stretch along the
Appalachian Trail that traversed all three of the grassy Balds. Eager to get
out of the car, we started the hike right away, not even bothering to pack a
lunch. The first Bald, Round, was completely visible from the parking lot. The
trail climbed up the side of Round and initially became enveloped in a wet
hemlock forest, which eventually opened up for the first stunning views of the
day. We immediately knew it was worth the effort to get here. Already at 5,800
feet, we were at a much higher vantage point than we were used to in Boone, and
the views said it all.
It didn’t take long to reach the summit of Round Bald, from
which the scenic panorama of the surrounding mountains was nothing short of
spectacular. My family agreed that it reminded us a little bit of Alaska. The
air was so fresh and Baci was having a field day, literally, as he bounded
happily through the grass. From the summit of Round, we could see Jane Bald and
Grassy Ridge Bald ahead; however, Grassy Ridge Bald was engulfed in a heavy cloud.
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| On top of Round Bald |
We made our way along the A.T. down Round Bald and into
Engine Gap, which separated Round from Jane. It was here that we were surprised
by a colorful patch of flame azaleas in full bloom. We were not expecting to
see flame azaleas on this hike, as Amy and I had been when we hiked Gregory
Bald, but this element of surprise made the experience all the more exciting.
We took lots of pictures, and Ryan and I even tried one of the gall fruits that
grow on the flame azalea plants; Amy and I had confirmed that they were edible,
but only after we had seen them on Gregory Bald, so I hadn’t tried one yet. It
tasted a little bit like watermelon.
Just as we arrived at the summit of Jane Bald it started to
rain, without warning. We ran for cover under a thicket of tall rhododendron
bushes and waited for the rain to stop. To fill the time, I broke out the black
licorice I had packed from the Mast General Store. Eventually the rain
lightened and after weighing all the factors, we decided that we would hike on.
The clouds had settled in, though, and we could not see farther than 15 feet in
front of us.
We made our way down the other side of Jane Bald, ducking in
an out of rhododendron bushes in compliance with the spurts of rain that the
skies released every few minutes. We saw a person in a bright yellow raincoat
running down Grassy Ridge Bald in full speed and laughed at ourselves as we
continued that way.
It looked like the skies had cleared by the time we started
hiking up Grassy Ridge, except for the clouds that enshrouded the very top of
the Bald, which had the highest elevation of the three peaks, at 6,200 feet. We
began to see the beauty of the wildflowers and plants around us. There was an
abundance of a ripe red flower with a beautiful pattern on the inside that reminded
me of a tiger. I later learned that it was the endangered Gray’s Lilly that
only grows in a few locations and is in bloom for a very short period of time. We
were so fortunate to have come when we did for the flame azaleas and the Gray’s
Lillies-two amazing species that are hard to access at exactly the right time
in exactly the right location.
A tunnel of rhododendron, which rose higher than our heads
on both sides of the narrow trail, led us out onto the top of Grassy Ridge
Bald. It was a vast grassy meadow soaked in clouds, making for a surreal
experience. We talked to some other hikers and took a break on a large boulder.
Before we started hiking back, pockets of clouds cleared, and we were able to
get some good pictures.
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| When we first arrived on top of Grassy Ridge Bald |
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| My family in the distance, on top of Grassy Ridge Bald |
On the way back we were greeted by yet another surprise.
Hiking down Grassy Ridge we could see across to a fenced in area full of goats
grazing on the edge of Jane Bald. Although it was right beside the trail, we
(including Baci) had completely missed it when we had passed it the first time,
due to the heavy fog. I remembered one of the readings that Amy had sent me
about a goat project on Roan Mountain:
Researcher Jamey Donaldson along with students from East
Tennessee State University have “monitored plant growth both where the goats
have grazed, as well as in plots left as control, where no grazing has
occurred.” This experimental project intends to find how goats can be used to
restore “plant diversity and growth on these balds.” We observed two watchdogs,
whose names are Baxter and Bigdog according to the website. We even saw a
student measuring plant growth outside of the fenced-in area.1
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| Try to find Bigdog |
We made our way back towards the car, taking one last moment
on the top of Round Bald to glance back at Jane and Grassy Ridge. We reached
the car around 5 o’clock and drove home, completely satisfied with our day.
1 "Baatany Project -- The Goats on Roan
Mountain." Baatany Project. N.p., 2013. Web. 07 July 2013.
<http://www.baatany.org/index2.html>.
Hi Nicholas! Thanks for the terrific post. I'm planning to do this same exact same hike in two weeks with my 5.5yr old Whippet. Did Baci have any trouble with the trail? (i.e., were there any difficult scrambles over large boulders? was the trail particularly rocky & rough on his paws?) Though my dog is very active, this will be his first big hike at a high altitude and I'm not sure how he'll fare. Any advice/tips you could share would be greatly appreciated!
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