Pisgah State Park - Hubbard Hill

 I had one tab left on my AMC South spreadsheet that I had yet to even start. Pisgah State Park. Primarily due to its location, being a good 2 hour drive for me. I decided today was the day to begin. It's a big park, roughly 66 miles of trails! I had seen that a good portion of it was a snowmobile network, so I had hoped it would be well traveled and packed down. That was partially the case. I parked on Horseshoe Road in Chesterfield. There is a parking area and kiosk here. I wore spikes the entire day, which was fine. Snowshoes wouldn't have been overkill, but spikes did the job. Starting off down Horseshoe Road it was downhill, which I secretly swore at knowing it would be uphill back to the car! At the first intersection I stayed right onto Winchester Road. This was still well packed and groomed snowmobile trail at this point. Turning onto Hubbard Hill Trail, I began ascending and the trail was an ungroomed snowmobile trail, that had only been broken out by an ATV. This ended up being the case for almost the entire rest of the hike except for the trails that are "roads". Although not well packed down, I was grateful, as it would be have been arduous breaking trail in at least 3-4 inches of soft powder. Hubbard Hill Trail climbed steadily, bypassing the true summit. There is a spur out to a lovely overlook where I was impressed by being able to see 4 different ski areas! A sign marked shelter headed downhill and was not broken out, so I did not explore. After the scenic overlook, I continued on Hubbard Hill Trail when all of a sudden the ATV tracks stopped, the driver decided to turn back, I knew I wasn't far from the next intersection, so I continued on and figured I'd don snowshoes if the next trail wasn't broken out. It was, so I just stayed in my spikes. Baker Pond Trail meandered past what I'm assuming is Baker Pond and had some areas of frozen and not frozen mud, made messier by the ATV travel. I was able to skirt the mud for the most part. The trail started ascending again gently and I reached the end of Baker Pond Trail at Reservoir Trail. Heading to my right, I continued up and reached a short spur named signed North Round Pond which wasn't broken out. At 0.1 miles per the sign, I decided to go for it. It seemed a long 0.1 miles, and the yellow blazes were sparse. There was some orange flagging in between which seemed to randomly pass through vegetation, but I followed it and came to a nice view of the pond. Back on Reservoir Trail and shortly met with the intersection of North Ponds Trail. It was here I saw my first humans of the day, a very large group heading opposite to me. I stepped aside to let them pass and continued on until I came to Old Chesterfield Road. I had notions of also doing Lily Pond Trail but when I saw it was not really broken out, decided that could wait for another time. Old Chesterfield Road was one of the packed, groomed snowmobile trails and I ended up seeing 4 snowmobilers while on this trail. The road climbs gently back up. I passed the other end of Reservoir Trail, plus several trails not on the maps named "Habitat Lp", not sure what those are, so I wasn't about to take any of them without knowing where they went. Back at the intersection with Horseshoe Road, I did a quick out and back to finish the section of Winchester Road I needed and headed back up Horseshoe Road to the car. I found a lot of the trails had small debris that the ATV seemed to just go right over, plus several larger blowdowns that the ATV had gone around. All in all, 8 miles on a lovely bluebird day. 

Strava Activity

Kiosk at Horsehoe Road parking

Horseshoe Road from parking

Hubbard Hill vista point