Long Branch Trail (#116)
Read More
Route map of the Long Branch Trail as tracked by the Gaia GPS app and depicted a la Google Earth...
Route map of the Long Branch Trail as tracked by the Gaia GPS app...
Long Branch/Butter Gap Trail Junction -- 2,680'
The eastern terminus of the Long Branch Trail is here, where it meets the Butter Gap Trail. The spot is about 1/3-mile below the beautiful Grogan Creek Falls along the BGT...
Long Branch/Butter Gap Trail Junction -- 2,680'
The Long Branch Trail as it departs its eastern terminus at the Butter Gap Trail...
From its junction with the Butter Gap Trail, the Long Branch Trail begins a short ascent over the low ridge separating Grogan and Searcy Creeks...
Looking across the rhododendron-choked valley of Searcy Creek...
Long Branch Trail @ Searcy Creek -- 2,650'
The "bridge" over Searcy Creek has certainly seen better days...
If you can't tell already, you better get used to seeing rhododendron along this trail...
The trail begins to climb away from Searcy Creek now through a deep cut in the hillside under a dense canopy of rhodo...
Gaining a bit more elevation, the rhodo soon give way to a beautiful mixed pine and hardwood forest...
Every so often the trail passes the remnants of old logging roads. Stakes like this keep one headed on the correct route but, to be honest, the trail is obvious so these signs are hardly needed...
Climbing through the pines as the trail nears its intersection with F.R. 5095 from the east...
Long Branch Trail @ F.R. 5095 -- 2,860'
Suddenly breaking free of the trees, the trail arrives at the open gap where it crosses Forest Service Road 5095...
Long Branch Trail @ F.R. 5095 -- 2,860'
The Long Branch Trail cuts across the upper end of F.R. 5095. To continue heading west just continue straight ahead and you'll pick up the trail again easily...
Long Branch Trail @ F.R. 5095 -- 2,860'
The Long Branch Trail, seen as it departs west from Forest Service Road 5095...
For the next 4/10-mile the trail climbs this at-times eroded drainage, closely hemmed in by thick rhododendron...
These eroded, widely-spaced steps are more of a hindrance than a help along this stretch...
The tunnel continues...
At the top of the climb is this nice but limited (seasonal) view through the trees, in the direction of nearby Cedar Rock (4,056')...
The trail now begins its descent into the valley of Long Branch...
The route back down off the ridge is similar, from a scenery standpoint, to the climb...
Things begin to level off a bit again as the trail arrives at the floor of the valley...
As the trail nears Long Branch the ground underfoot becomes much wetter, with large areas of standing water being a common obstacle...
A forest of laurel...