Buckwheat Knob Trail (#122)
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Route map for the Buckwheat Knob Trail as tracked by the Gaia GPS app and depicted a la Google Earth...
Route map for the Buckwheat Knob Trail as tracked by the Gaia GPS app...
Club Gap (Buckwheat Knob/Avery Creek/Black Mountain/Club Gap Trails) -- 3,780'
Club Gap, seen here, marks the junction of four trails arriving from four different points on the compass. Behind in this shot is the Club Gap Trail (north). To the left (east) is the Black Mountain Trail while straight ahead (south) is the Avery Creek Trail. The Buckwheat Knob Trail heads west, or to the right, in this shot...
Buckwheat Knob Trail @ Club Gap -- 3,780'
The Buckwheat Knob Trail leaves Club Gap through thick scrub beneath high tension wires...not great...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,840'
Departing Club Gap and looking back, the Pisgah Ridge is seen to the north...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,880'
Despite being near 4,000-feet in elevation, the forest up here has a very low-elevation feel to it, with lots of low shrubs and vines...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,900'
It's barely a 200-vertical foot climb from Club Gap to the summit of Buckwheat Knob...nothing terrible at all...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,920'
Into some laurel for a bit...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,960'
The trail as it makes its final climb to the summit of Buckwheat Knob from the north...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 4,000'
Approaching the broad summit of Buckwheat Knob...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 4,009'
The summit of Buckwheat Knob is, like all the summits surrounding Avery Creek, thickly wooded...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 4,009'
A thick line of laurel hedges blocks most of the view through the trees off the north (and west) side of the summit...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 4,009'
Through the trees to the east (in the winter), Clawhammer and Black Mountains (left and right) can be clearly identified...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 4,000'
The trail as it leaves the summit of Buckwheat Knob, heading south...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,990'
The summit ridge stays pretty level, and gets noticeably narrower to the north of Buckwheat Knob...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,980'
Back through the laurel yet again...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,950'
Passing a large, ridge top campsite...one of a few along this trail...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,920'
The trail as it approaches the first of the steep drops off the south side of Buckwheat Knob...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,840'
The Buckwheat Knob Trail makes two major drops where the majority of the elevation change is found between Buckwkeat Knob and Bennett Gap. Here you're looking down the first (upper), and shorter of the two...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,750'
After the first big drop off the north side of Buckwheat, the trail quickly levels once again for a bit...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,780'
Just before the second big drop the trail climbs slightly...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,800'
The kaleidoscope of light and shadow, created by groves of rhodo and laurel, never cease to be a treat for the eyes in Pisgah on sunny days...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,760'
Beginning the second (lower) of the major drops the trail makes between Buckwheat Knob and Bennett Gap...
Buckwheat Knob Trail -- 3,650'
This section of trail is severely eroded, which is sad to see...