This hike is long and steep both up and down. The main attraction,
for us at least, on the High Falls Hike is the solitude. This
is one of the few hikes where we didn't see another
sole the entire day. At 11.7 miles and 6.5 hours that's
saying something. The descent, following one of the two
underground gas pipelines down Great North Mountain is extremely
steep. Also, as the pipeline swath is clear
cut, at least 50ft across, there isn't any cover from the sun,
so on a warm sunny day make sure you bring a hat.
Start by turning right, crossing the steam, and following the
yellow blazed trail. In 200 yards
arrive at an old bus where the
trail splits. Bear right on
the yellow blazed trail and continue uphill as it passes through
a grassy
area
and thicket
before becoming steeper and crossing a blue blazed forestry
service
road in another 0.5 miles.
Cross
the FS road and continue uphill on the yellow blazed trail
as it becomes increasingly steeper and then traversing High Falls
Ridge arriving at the main ridge line of Great North Mountain
and the orange blazed trail in another 2.0 miles
Turn left
on the orange blazed Great North Mountain Trail continuing
on the ridge line for 4.1 miles, with several great views on
both sides of the mountain, before arriving at a transmitting
tower installation. Cross the FS road and pass the closed gate
staying to the right of the installation following
the orange blazes as you turn left slightly uphill to the ridge in another
100 yards.
Steeply descend either one of the two (they parallel each
other) underground
gas pipeline clear cuts as they go directly
downhill and cross
a FS
road in 0.5
miles. Continue steeply downhill for another 0.5 miles before
the clear cut flattens out. In 0.4 miles
after the clear cut flattens out look for the blue
blazes and small
rock
pile on the left where you will cross the stream and take the blue
blazed trail.
After crossing the stream follow the blue blazed trail as it
turns uphill for a short distance before turning right and traversing
the mountain for 1.5 miles where the purple
blazed trail will enter from the right.
Turn right on the purple blazed trail as it winds
around, crossing a stream then winding through the valley crossing
another stream and in 1.5 miles arriving back at the old bus
and the yellow blazed trail. Retake the yellow
trail
downhill
for
the remaining
200 yards re-crossing the stream and arriving back at the parking
area.
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Hiker
Reviews For The Falls Ridge Hike (5 Most Recent)
About a mile from the radio tower I saw a large male bear on the trail. It was in the area of several anthills. It walked toward me, stood on its hind legs and did not display any aggression. I banged rocks and yelled, and the bear got off the trail. I decided not to continue to the pipeline, which was a good idea anyway as a thunderstorm was approaching. It will be interesting to revisit this area in a few years to see how the forest recovers from logging.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, July 16, 2011
I have gone on several strenuous hikes in around GWNF and this was by far the most difficult hike I've been on. I added a few side excursions and lost my directions and had to backtrack up the steepest part of the hike which increased the hike distance to about 16-18 miles. The toughest part was the terrain, almost the entire hike was uneven and rocky making it very difficult to keep a fast pace (Prefer to average 3-4miles/hour, but with the terrain it was down around 2miles/hr).
Hike started off nicely, but the trail quickly became a steep accent. At the bus, go right and follow the yellow blaze. About 1/3 of the way up the yellow blaze, there is a red blazed trail to the left that will take you down to a small waterfall and a great rock scrabble. I highly recommend adding this into your hike. The decent and following accent were very steep, but was well worth the time spent down near the waterfall.
On the orange blaze there is a ton of tall grass, so please beware of ticks. I also passed three massive 3-4 feet red ant mounts, so be careful not to get attacked. It was quite the scene if you disturbed the ants causing them to fly into a frenzy. There aren't many views due to tree cover, but there is a nice one about half way down the orange blaze. Once you reach the radio tower continue until you see two large clearings (they are parallel, so you can go down either one). They called this the green blaze, but there is no blaze or trail. It is a very difficult decent and of course I didn't realize I left my trail itinerary at the top until I reached the bottom, so had to backtrack up the mountain to find my directions. Of course, it's the one day I didn't have my back up and this hike was too far west for my PATC maps.
Once the decent levels out, make sure you're on the left so you can see the blue blaze trail. There are tons of blackberries and raspberries that were delicious and safe to eat. Note: There is logging operations in the area which made the hike very confusing from this point. The loggers would spray paint trees the same color as the blue blaze, making it confusing. In addition, they have cut down so many trees that the environment has completely changed. Where there used to be trees is now just open land, so I found what I thought was the purple blaze and went down the trail for a mile until it just didn't feel right. There was no purple blaze down this path. It was getting dark at this point, so instead of risking getting lost in the dark I back tracked back to the blue blazed trail which I knew led me back to the yellow blaze and back to my car.
I was out there for about 10 hours and literally did not see one person the entire time. There aren't many views, but if you truly want a challenging forest hike this is a great one to try. The small waterfall side excursion was a great addition to the hike (about 1.5 additional miles). I would recommend this hike again, but just be very careful not to get lost.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, July 09, 2011
We actually combined this hike and the Laurel Run hike by skipping the Falls Ridge trail and completing the entire 6.2 North Mountain segment, returning via the Laurel Run trail (skipping the Stack Rocks segment as well). I estimate this made the trail about 15 total miles. Since we started in the evening, we hiked the hike in reverse order, going up the gas pipeline and the over the ridge, camping at a fantastic campsite not far from the observation tower on the ridge. We were able to return to the parking lot area by 11:00 a.m. the next morning.
Really great views. I could have done without some of the road walking, but we beat the heat with some nice elevation and we look forward to returning in the winter when the views will really open up. Nice addition to the repertoire if you are looking for another hike in the area and have done Halfmoon, Big Schloss, White Rocks, etc.
By:
Elena
Rating:
Date of Hike: Sunday, May 15, 2011
Yes, Virginia there is a waterfall for Fall Ridge Trail! About halfway up the yellow trail there will be a smaller trail to the left marked with red as well as red stone markers. Just follow the red trail down to the waterfall bottom. Soon the rest of the trail will be marked for the upper part of the falls as well as a back trail that leads to the purple train that ends the Falls Ridge Trail.
By:
Lubos
Rating:
Date of Hike: Sunday, April 24, 2011
Awesome hike indeed. Did it in the opposite, clockwise direction (went up the gas line) which I think worked out much better. It's steep going up, but then the rest of the hike is gradually downhill. Plus my knees prefer steep ascent over a steep descent. The purple trail was really muddy - basically a creek bed - so bring waterproof shoes. Highly recommended, I'll definitely be coming back, possible extending the hike by walking along the ridge North Mountain trail longer. Amazing views from the ridge.
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