You Are Here: Pisgah State Park

I headed back out to Pisgah State Park. This area is huge and is going to take me several trips to get it all completed, so one trip at a time! I parked at the Kilburn Trailhead and was the second car at around 9am. When I returned around 1pm, the lot was full.. but ironically I had only seen 3 people (and heard a couple others) during my entire hike. The entrance from this trailhead begins on a nice wide road and heads down to an intersection with the Kilburn Loop Trail and Town Forest Trail. I opted to do an out and back on the Town Forest Trail first. The sign states the trail is 2.5 miles long, but it's really only about 1.1 miles, so I'm not sure where they are factoring the extra miles. The trail started out flat and passed some artifacts which I had read were part of some old munitions testing sites! It then became really wet and muddy for a bit before gradually starting to ascend over a knob. At this point it dried out and was much more pleasant. On the small climb you pass a really pretty area that has some old ruins of a mill with a small cascade. At the top of the small climb you can see through the trees to Baker Pond. I went to the end which intersects with the Baker Pond Trail and Pisgah Ridge Trail before turning around and backtracking my steps. This time at the intersection with Kilburn Loop Trail, I took a left and crossed a bridge before starting a gentle climb. I saw an intersection with sign saying John Summers Trail, but couldn't see this trail marked on any maps. I started down it as my digital map showed it as a small loop connector with Kilburn Loop Trail, but it wasn't.. it continued and I realized it must be a newer trail that is not mapped yet (though was blazed and well maintained on the short section I covered. I've since read lots of reports on this loop, it seems to be a popular loop around Kilburn Pond itself). I turned around once I realized as I wasn't sure how long it was, and I already had a pretty decent day planned out. I went back to Kilburn Loop trail and continued gently uphill until it reached the intersection with a connector to Pisgah Ridge Trail. Heading right here, I stayed on Kilburn Loop Trail and did the 4.4 mile loop. This trail covered all sorts of terrain from what appeared to be an old road, to true forest with decent leaf coverage (thankfully well marked). It was really wet in some places and had a couple blowdowns you had to navigate around, but nothing crazy. At times I felt like I was a million miles away with just the birds chirping. As the trail came closer to Kilburn Pond and the hairpin turn, it sort of followed a stream and you could hear the rapids/cascades. I could see peaks of it here and there and wished the trail went a bit closer. It was here I saw my first people of the day, 2 hunters that wandered off into the woods (always throws me off a bit when I see people do that!). The bridge at the bottom of the loop has seen better days, but I got across it OK and started the return. This side climbed a little and you could see the stream with the rapids just a little more. I still wished it went closer! Eventually the trail came up alongside Kilburn Pond (and the intersection with the other end of John Summers Trail) and followed the pond around to the start of the loop. I really enjoyed this area overall, despite some of the extra muddy/wet spots. Just over 9 miles total once back at the car.

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