May 3, 2015 Hardtimes at Bent Creek

It is colder in the mountains, but so clear that you can see individual trees, small cottages, layer upon pastel blue and violet layers of rolling peaks into the pale horizon.

Turn off I-26 West at exit 33 onto hwy 191 (Brevard Rd), go past the Outlet Mall, past Discount Shoes and Celebrity Hot Dogs on the right and Possum Trot Rd on the left .  Across from Beth Shalom Cemetery there will be a sign for Lake Powatan  Bent Creek National Forrest Recreational Area. turn right for 2.3 miles through little Stormy Ridge Neighborhood.  On the right is a road to Rice Pinacle Trail Head, then on the left is a very small parking lot (probably filled with cars) for the Hardtimes Trail Head,then the entrance to Lake Powatan ($2.00 per person fee).  This is part of the Pisgah Forest.

There are at least 5 trails. You can get a map at the entrance.  I take a left toward the "beach and fishing" area and a woman at Parking Lot A tells me that the trail here called Homestead goes around to the beach area of the lake and is quite beautiful.  She is right. It is a lovely trail along the edges of the lake and over bridges crossing Bent Creek, often through tunnels of rhodadenron whose new buds have not yet opened. There is indeed a beach and later I come upon Hardtimes Rd.  By instinct, I take a left there and it takes me all the way around the lake to the fishing pier and back to to the parking lot. The air is full of the sweet and fetid fragrance of eleagnes, the tiny white flowers blooming in bushes all along the banks of the lake. Wild white roses peek out from the sides of the road.

I try a second trail called "Deerfield Loop".  You find this trail by driving straight from the entrance to a parking lot which is high up over the beach area.  There is a restroom here just down the trail towards the beach. Deerfield Loop is accessed from the road from the entrance.  This trail loops around a high ridge above a tiny stream.  Indeed at the crest, there is a meadow, which must be the deer field. Soon there is the entrance to Pine Tree Trail and then below that an arrow to Small Creek.  At the arrow to Small Creek, you must take a left to complete the Deerfield loop.

The trails here are reached from one trail to another.

Besides Homestead, Deerfield and Pine Tree, there are Explorer (3 mi) and Sleepy Gap/Graggy Mountain (1 /34 mi).  There are often mountain bikers, runners and hikers along the way.  There could be a deer or a bear, but I saw none.

Deep in the forest, mountain azaleas are blooming, their orange sun colored blossoms reaching up from tall branches on spindly trunks.

Wildfires are burning somewhere in the Pisgah Forest.  Oddly, the air is still clear.

Leaving, going down the mountain, I find I am behind and then in front of a huge truck whose load is marked "explosives".
Around and back we go until I outdistance him on the Saluda Grade. There are turnoffs here for trucks that lose their brakes.

I am listening to Bob Dylan singing:  "I Threw It All Away".

I once held her in my arms
She said she would always stay
But I was cruel
I treated her like a fool
I threw it all away

Once I held mountains in the palm of my hand
And rivers that ran through every day.
I must have been mad
I never knew what I had
Until I threw it all away.

Love is all there is, it makes the world go round
Love and only love, it can't be denied.
No matter what you think about it,
You just won't be able to live without it
Take a tip from one who's tried.

So if you find someone that gives you all of her love,
Take it to your heart, don't let it stray.
For one thing that's certain
You will surely be a hurtin'
If you throw it all away.