After dragging ourselves up brutal inclines, scrambling over rocky cliff, rescuing the camera from certain doom, fighting through thorns and spiderwebs, taking a wrong turn and having to claw back up the ravine, and crossing the river not once but TWICE I have to ask... Is That ALL Ya Got?! Thanks so much for watching!
Check out the itinerary I put together from this trip! Route details, resources I used to plan the trip, campsite and water source descriptions, elevation profiles, and MORE all in one neatly organized PDF. (While it isn’t a substitute for doing your own research and preparation, hopefully it will take the guess work out of planning your own trip.)
Music featured in this video: "Driving Ambition" by Ahjay Stelino, "Fields of Phosphene" by Kelly Latimore, "Twinkle Twinkle" by David Mumford, "Crypt of Stan" from Teknoaxe.com "Lovers Like Neon" by The Copycuts, "Keep Smiling" by Ahjay Stelino, "Baby Yohan" by Michael Ramir C. "The Wrong Way" by Jahzzar, "The Loss of Blood" by Ian Alex Mac, "The Pouring Rain" by MC Cullah, "Vladimir Estragon" by Jahzzar, "Ketchup" by David Mumford, "I Am A Pilgrim" by Walker Winn, and "Emotional Blockbuster 2" by Rafael Krux
Linville Gorge ITAY Loop
Hike Overview
Type of hike: loop, clockwise
Trails hiked: Spence Ridge trail, Little Table Rock trail, MST Segment 4, and Linville Gorge trail.
Time span: 3 days 2 nights
Total Mileage: 20+ (some say 20, others 22, I've even seen it listed as 24)
This was our Holy Grail! One of the best resources for hiking Linville Gorge.
It's a community-created map of the Linville Gorge Wilderness area. Best of all it's FREE! Just download it on the Avenza App and you're ready to start planning your adventure.
*If you downloaded the map prior to July 5, 2021 be sure to download the updated version on the app.
Day One
We began our roller coaster journey in Linville Gorge at the Spence Ridge trailhead. It was a little after noon, and the goal was to make it to Shortoff Mountain before dark. Ideally to a cliffside campsite, making it around a 7 mile day. Not even a whole mile in, the trail made a sharp ascent gaining about 900 ft in elevation. Talk about a seriously grueling half mile of climbing. It felt like we were getting nowhere, stopping every couple hundred feet for one (or both) of us to catch our breathe. At one point, I stopped and said "Okay! Before we get too far into this, here's your chance to take the money and run. We can turn around and call the trip off" Being the awesome husband he is and knowing how much this trip meant to me, Jordan insisted we keep going.
The trail seemed to level out once we reached the Table Rock parking area. From there we followed the MST South through The Chimneys. This was the highlight of the day! I felt like a kid on a jungle gym navigating over, through, and around the absolutely massive rock formations.
Over the next couple miles, we descended to Chimney Gap before making another (less severe) set of climbs toward Shortoff. We stopped to rest at a wooded campsite 3/4 of a mile from our goal. I knew by the way Jordan dropped his pack, he wasn't taking another step on the trail today. I still had a good bit of energy left, so I went off in search of water. Dwellers Gulp wasn't too far from our site. It only took me 30 or 40 minutes to get there, fill up, and get back. Jordan had a fire going and the tent set up when I got back.
After dinner I managed to "bake" a birthday cake over the fire. I mixed up a packet of just-add-water mug cake in a stainless-steel pot and set it over the hot coals for 8 minutes. I should have rotated the pot 4 minutes in because one side got SUPER crispy. But overall it wasn't bad! Day one in the Gorge was tough, but for every low there was a high moment shortly after. That's kind of the pattern the whole trip followed.
Day Two
The next day started out on a high note with epic views on Shortoff and a rugged detour to Unbelievable Point. The view of Lake James from the overlook was well worth the cliffside scrambling and fighting through brush it took to get there. We made a quick stop to fill up on water at Gully Pipe...and that's when my GoPro literally jumped off a cliff. I was taking it out of my hipbelt pocket when it slipped from my hand. Like a game of hot potato I tried over and over to get a good grip on the camera before it finally sailed over the edge. Thankfully, there was a slippery steep path down to the bottom I was able to follow. While there wasn't any visible damage on the outside, it didn't function quite right after.
Lake James followed us in the distance as we made a steep descent of around 1,600 ft to the Linville River and our first water crossing. I didn't know this at the time, but that two mile section of rocky downhill was doing a number on Jordan's big toes. Hiking at such a sharp angle with generic sneakers bruised his toenails so badly we were pretty sure they were going to fall off after the trip. (Jordan's note: they are still badly discolored and disfigured 6 months later)
The crossing on the Southern portion of the loop wasn't swift or deep, but the slick smooth rocks made it little tricky at some points. Thankfully, some of the rocks had a net like moss growing across the top giving my feet something to grip in between planting my next steps. Neither of us looked all that graceful making it across, but no one slipped and fell. I count that as a win!
Keeping with the roller coaster pattern we were due for a mishap/low point. We lost our way shortly after reaching the Linville Gorge trail. I don't know if the trail got rerouted or what. We realized it was the wrong way after climbing over four massive blown downs to find the path washed out on the other side. We could see the real trail rounding a bend up on the ridge. We could go back the way we came. Struggling over tree trunks. Drudging through mud. OR We could make a vertical climb up the ravine to where the real trail was. We chose the second option. Did I forget to mention it was raining and thundering through all this?
We set up camp at a site by the river and waited out the rain in our tent. The rain cleared just before sunset, turning the sky bright orange. It was such a serene and beautiful moment after an exhausting day on the trail! Jordan took a quick power nap, while I got dinner ready. Just four and a half miles left to go...
Day Three
I'll shoot straight with you. The river crossing at Spence Ridge had me shaking in my freakin' boots. While I got a lot of great advice from other hikers who had done this loop, I also got a lot of fear mongering. Mostly about the crossing and how dangerously impossible it is. So in trying to be prepared, but also take all that advice with a grain of salt, I took along a secret weapon: dollar store inflatable tubes! We jumped in to the left of the boulders where the bridge used to be and started doggy paddling across neck deep water with our goofy little floats.
I can honestly say that part was the MOST FUN I have ever had on a backpacking trip. No joke. The floats weren't 100% necessary. We could have just filled the contractor bags our packs were tied up in with air to float them across. But since I'm 5 foot nothing, and couldn't touch the bottom at some points, I felt a lot better having my tacky colored pool float for support.
All of this being said, using caution is still necessary when attempting a major water crossing like this. At the time of our hike the Linville River data was showing 88 cubic feet per second. According to LGMaps.org "Opinions vary, but crossings are generally safe at flows below 100 cfs at Devil’s Hole, 150 cfs at Spence Ridge, and 200 cfs at the MST."
Tired, scraped up, and soaking wet we made our final climb out of the Gorge. The last mile was the toughest of all. Reaching the car was such a relief. I could almost taste the victory burgers from Famous Louise's Rock House. We made one last stop at the Linville Caverns before heading home.
Final Thoughts...
Along with the Spence Ridge river crossing, I was also a little worried about the difficulty of this hike. I was told by a lot of hikers "This was the TOUGHEST hike of my life!" And these were well seasoned backpackers with 1000's of miles under their belts. One even said we probably shouldn't even attempt the trip without a group of 4 or more.
It's hard to judge a hike in terms of difficulty based off other people's opinions since everyone's experience level is different. There are also extenuating circumstances like physical strength, mental strength, and weather conditions that vary with each hiker's experience. For me the Art Loeb still goes down in history as the toughest hike I've ever done. The terrain had a lot to do with it, but the biggest contributing factor was my own negative attitude coupled with the sudden cold snap. Some of those hikers I talked to ranked the Art Loeb below Linville Gorge in terms of difficulty.
Keep in mind I backpack often, so I found the difficulty advertised by others just a tiny bit overhyped. For example, the claim that only two people couldn't successfully go at this is ridiculous. We did just fine. In fact, we passed quite a few solo hikers and backpackers along the way. (They seemed to be doing just fine too.)
But just because it didn't live up to all the dramatic danger I was warned about, doesn't mean it wasn't difficult. If you look at most descriptions of Linville Gorge from AllTrails and the Mountains to Sea website (Segment 4) you'll see they list it as hard/strenuous. There were some dang painful inclines and steep rocky declines we struggled with. My husband who is by no means an avid hiker had a pretty difficult time, so it was important for us to take frequent breaks and do lower mileage each day. Also we're pretty sure those toenails are going to fall off any day now.
UPDATE: One of the toenails has fallen off and started to grow back. The other one is looking as unsightly as ever, but still holding on...