Art Loeb Trail up Black Balsam Knob

In December, I took a short hike up Black Balsam Knob along the Art Loeb Trail. Black Balsam Knob is accessible off the Blue Ridge Parkway, 37 miles southwest of Asheville. Coming from Asheville along the Parkway, you turn right onto Black Balsam Knob Road. Drive 3/4 mile up the road. Trail heads off on the right. The map (from this site on the entire Art Loeb hike), shown below has the Black Balsam portion shown at the bottom. It's a quick hike, but you break the tree line halfway up, and can see for miles around at the top. Without trees at the peak, it can get very windy.

In the pictures below, shows the terrain at the base of the trail when it's still in the forest and the black balsam trees as you start your climb. Further down is the rocky trail as you start reaching the tree-less portion of the bald, and the view around.

Hiking on Ramanessin Brook Greenway

My friend from nursery school told me about this hike he really likes to take in Holmdel, NJ. It's mostly on the Ramanessin Brook Greenway Nature Trail, which on the maps appears to be part of Holmdel Park (but far from the spot where the State Cross Country course is). It was a 4 mile hike that went from the trailhead on Holmdel-Middletown Road across from the elementary school. You can park along the west side of the road. The trailhead is marked with a giant sign with the greenway's name.

The greenway along the river for the first 3/4 mile is inside the forest. It follows the river over a few footbridges, before breaking out into the open on a farm road. Follow the farm road around the field. There are some side hikes down to the river along the way, as well as an old red farmhouse. The road will turn north, cross the river, and head around a farm growing shrubbery.

After rounding the shurbbery farm, head north on the farm road for another 1/2 mile until you reach the turnaround spot, an old fallen down farmhouse. You can walk around it and check out where its kitchen, stables, and bedrooms were. There's an old chicken coop about 30 yards to the south. Walking back along the same route to the trailhead gave the total of 4 miles for the hike.

Hiking in Oconee National Forest

A couple weekends ago I went hiking in Oconee National Forest, in Central Georgia. The forest, halfway between Atlanta and Augusta is split in two, with a large part of it south of Interstate 20, and another sizable portion to the north. We had planned to go hiking in this northern part, but had trouble finding resources on where to go hiking there, apart from the short walk to Scull Shoals historic village. Due to the difficulty in finding a place to hike here, I decided to post some information on the trail we took, under the park ranger's suggestion, so that others can find it with less issues in the future.

The part of the park we hiked in is called Scull Shoals Experimental Forest. A map of the forest can be found here in PDF form, and the portion we hiked is in the most northern tip. We hiked the trail highlighted pink in the map below. It was approximately 4 miles long.















The trailhead is circled on the map above where it comes close to Forest Road 1231. It is just north of the intersection with Forest Road 1231D. The sign below, on the west side of 1231, indicates you have found the trailhead.

















The trail is lightly used, but is marked the whole way with plastic orange diamond trail blazes, and plastic green diamong trail blazes with an orange horse. On the western portions of the trail, there are many trees down across the trail, and new paths have circle around them. Be careful to find the blazes again!