Southern Loops

[butch]

I have been working on a trip to western North Carolina to explore the tunnels of the Southern Loops and Clinchfield Loops.  I added a vacation day to the MLK weekend and with my wife's blessing, took off.  I got some great advice from folks on this forum and others which I combined with a lot of map study and was able to spend a whole day finding and exploring six of the seven tunnels between Ridgecrest and Old Fort. 

Just some random thoughts on the trip:  if you want to go to the east portal of the Swannanoa Tunnel, you'll need a real good reason to make it worthwhile.  The four tunnels together off of the old US 70 walking trail offer a number of interesting angles, especially if there are several trains slotted to run.  The Inn on Mill Creek Bed & Breakfast near Jarrett's Tunnel would be a great way to bribe your wife into letting you go on the trip.  A real long train in the Andrews' Geyser area would provide some interesting photos.  The museum in the old depot in Old Fort is worth a few minutes to look through.  And if anyone knows the folks who live near Point Tunnel, hook me up.

Here are some pix.

http://home.insightbb.com/~heyref51/SouthernLoopsI.htm

And for those not familiar with the area, below is a cut-up of some topos.  The Swannanoa Tunnel is to the southwest the map and Point Tunnel is to the east of the map.

enjoy,

Butch

[JCagle]

You sure picked a cold weekend for the trip. I have been to a couple of the portals and if the trains are slotted it has the possibility to be rewarding. Did you check out any of the fire roads along the path of the loops themselves?

[butch]

It was chilly, but I ended up sweating every day.

The gravel road off of old US 70 down to the Geyser  is labeled on maps as a fire road.  Other than that, I saw some other turnoffs, but did not explore them.  The lanes down by the Loops all looked private.

ba

[E.M. Bell]

In case you cant tell, if Butch ever ask you to go out shooting with him, that means 15 miles on foot up and down hill, through creeks, scaling mighty peaks and generally laying waste to some serious shoe leather  

Nice report on a somewhat forgotten piece of the NS.  I have been all over the loops chasing the steam specials back in the day.  I only wish I had been in the mindset back then that one good shot is better than 25 bad ones when your chasing, as your photos show that a little work could net some great stuff.  I only shot Two of the tunnels in the loops, 611 Westbound at Ridgecrest and Eastbound at this tunnel...which one is this??  I remember we hiked in a bit and where standing off of a old Two lane road. 

[JCagle]

It has been several years since I have been up that way, but there is one road that goes to the top of one peak and one that goes to another. I can't remember but I think they are roads 1407 and 1408 off of mill creek road that runs past the geyser. The last time I was up that way the roads were in sort of poor shape due to heavy spring rains. Those forest service roads aren't maintained regularly, but they keep them at least somewhat passable in a 4wd, so I was wondering if the roads were any better now. The last time I was there we couldn't make it through because I was with a friend that had a small car.

[butch]

Emmett,

Your shot is coming out of the east portal of Burgin Tunnel and getting ready to go into the west portal of High Ridge Tunnel-the tunnels marked 1 & 2 on the topo map below.  Here are a couple of pix not in my report.  First is a track level shot of the portal in your photo, notice the piles adding stability to the ballast may even be the same ones.  The second photo is from near Burgin Tunnel looking towards High Ridge Tunnel.  You can see old US 70-now a walking/bike trail on the left (I imagine that is where you stood to take your picture) and then going across just above the High Ridge Tunnel portal. 

As as for the hiking, you are right.  I haven't hiked that hard since I hiked up to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park a few years ago.  And there weren't any railroads involved in that hike, but then I didn't do it for three days in a row either.