200 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. i7, 1912 
Camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains 
By FRANK W. BICKNELL 
Photographs by the Author. 
Y ES, we've succumbed to the wiles of your 
letters and pictures,” wrote my friend 
the lawyer, “and the Squaw and I will 
meet you as directed at Linville Falls Station 
Aug. 3, and we don’t really have to get back 
to this infernal grind before the first week in 
September. Have everything ready for the 
camp—I’m bringing an amazing stock of tackle 
and little comforts. You just lead the way, give 
us a few days to get in form, and we’ll be game 
HANGING ROCK. 
for all the mountain climbing and gorge travel¬ 
ing you can show us.” 
Four congenial spirits, tried by several 
camping trips together, two couples whom six 
weeks on the tented trail still left good friends, 
we met for this Blue Ridge Mountain tour pre¬ 
pared to absorb all its beauty and partake of 
its “classy” sport to the utmost. 
Heaving New York at 4 p. m., Linville 
Falls Station is reached at 3 p. m. next day. 
This new crossing of the Blue Ridge, built pri¬ 
marily as a coal carrier from the Virginia 
fields, has brought this glorious region, so 
aptly characterized as a human repair shop, 
closer to the outside world, from which it has 
been hidden away in undeveloped isolation. In¬ 
cidentally it has opened to the view of the 
traveler the grandest mountain views east of 
the Rockies, including Mt. Mitchell (altitude 
6711 feet), highest of peaks in Eastern America, 
and hundreds of other high mountains in all di¬ 
rections. The railway crosses the Blue Ridge 
in nineteen tunnels and several loops. It is 
now building across the Cumberland Mountains 
to connect with the railroad at Elkhorn City, 
Ky., when it will offer the Northern visitor to 
Southern climes more mountain scenery than 
he can see on any other route. 
The ascent to Linville Falls village is most 
comfortably made on muleback, while a wagon 
hauls the camp equipment up the mountain. 
This six-mile ride up the picturesque canon of 
the North Fork of the Catawba, between Lin¬ 
ville and Humpback mountains, was an appetiz¬ 
ing introduction to the rich flora, the rugged 
scenery, the pure water and invigorating atmos¬ 
phere of the Western North Carolina moun¬ 
tains. Springs on one side of the road and the 
rushing, tumbling stream on the other gave us 
refreshment and the wild music we came to 
hear. Climbing from the station 1,800 feet of 
altitude to the top of Linville (3,300 feet), we 
felt that we had made no mistake in doing that 
which the unknowing had thought so queer, 
“going south for the summer.” The fresh, cool 
air was equal in all the qualities sought by the 
city sufferer from heat and vitiated lung food 
to the Rocky Mountain article that is found only 
above 6.000 or 7,000 feet. These high altitudes 
had proved too great a stimulant for one of 
us, who was delighted to find here in the Blue 
Ridge all the benefits and none of the ills of 
the higher Rockies. 
Experience had taught us that a leisurely 
made camp is more popular with its inhabitants 
than the makeshift flung together in the dark, 
so the first night we enjoyed the hospitality 
of one of the mountain boarding houses, where 
we learned much to our advantage. Except to 
say that we went in for simplicity and that we 
found the essentials of wood and water easy to 
secure, I need not go into the details of out 
camp. We “lived off the country” and its 
delicious fresh fruits, vegetables and trout, 
b inging only a few condensed foods and re¬ 
lying on the village store for most of our 
staples. 
Making the acquaintance of our guide, get¬ 
ting a glimpse of the falls and a peep down 
it to the deep Linville River gorge, planning 
t; : best use of the two weeks we had allotted 
to this place, and our first day was gone. It 
was big with promise of things worth seeing 
and doing. First we were to take a prelimi¬ 
nary survey, get the “lay of the land,” take in 
some of the best views from the rim of the 
canon (summit of Linville Mountain) and 
harden our muscles for climbing. At frequent 
points for fifteen miles along the top of Lin¬ 
ville one looks down into the deep, rocky gorge 
of Linville River, 1,000 to 2.000 feet below, 
across to Gingereake, Hawksbill, Table Rock. 
Chimney and Short-off mountains. The stream 
seems very small from these heights and the 
huge rocks that block its way mere stepping- 
stones, but a closer acquaintance increased our 
respect for them. The high cliffs that have 
contributed the rocks that turn the river this 
way and that, have eroded and formed soil, 
fertilized by humus, till the steep, often pre¬ 
cipitous sides of the canon are covered with a 
dense growth of kalmia, rhododendrons, hem¬ 
locks and pines, besides a bewildering variety 
of deciduous trees and shrubs. This is a botan¬ 
ist’s paradise, for more different trees, shrubs 
and plants may be found here than in any other 
area of equal size in North America. Under¬ 
neath, overhead, far away and all about us we 
found the works of nature worth the attention 
and admiration of seasoned travelers. Clouds 
ENTERING BABEL TOWER GORGE. 
from the ocean bumped against the cool air of 
the mountains, and spilled their contents in half 
an hour to clear the atmosphere and reveal dis¬ 
tant mountains. A few days of this climbing 
prepared 11s for the serious business of going 
into the gorge and following the river in its 
tortous way between the mountains. We 
wanted some of the rainbow trout and the sport 
of taking them, but most of all we wanted to 
see the river, said by the United States Geo¬ 
logical Survey explorers to be “the wildest and 
most picturesque in the Appalachians.” 
The mountain people looked with skeptical 
astonishment upon our proposition to take “the 
squaws” along, but these “squaws” said they 
could do it if their fat old “bucks” could. 
Charley, our clever guide, reckoned he could 
get us all through if we would do as he said 
and give him time. The first three miles of 
the river below the falls gave us practice and 
encouragement, for though it seemed hard 
enough for us at first, Charley assured us that 
it didn’t compare in beauty with the lower 
