28 September 2012

Kaymoor Trail



Distance: 8.6 miles (17.2 out-and-back)
Difficulty Rating: Moderate

Kaymoor Trail, starting from Fayette Station Road at its Wolf Creek trailhead (near Fayetteville Trail), begins mostly as an old gravel road, uphill two miles to the historic Kaymoor Mine Site. A couple miles later, the trail abandons the gravel road look for a more woodsy type of trail (with a brief clearing where kudzu has taken over), with some steep but very short ups and downs until it reaches the river access road that leads down to Cunard, close to a beautiful waterfall in Coal Run. The waterfall is not viewable from the trail, but there is a clear view of it from the road. If you're a waterfall lover, this trail will make you happy, since there are a few good ones near or on Kaymoor Trail, especially if the season is right.

The sign at the Wolf Creek trailhead says that the first couple miles to the mine site is "mostly level." I'm not sure *exactly* what that means. I mean, it's not like it's as steep as Kaymoor Miners Trail or Craig Branch Trail--if you've been running anything in the Gorge for very long, you should be able to handle it, but Big Uncle Harold would probably get a little out of breath on a few of the hills going that way. Really, it's not terrible, but I don't think I'd introduce it as "mostly level." Maybe more like "level in a few sections," or "compared to the rest of the trail, the first 2 miles is relatively level," since the trail gets a lot more hilly after crossing Kaymoor Miners. Still. Mostly level? I would say, "mostly a moderate incline."

The trail begins with a bridge over Wolf Creek, which is a truly beautiful area, as are many stream areas in the NRG. If you ever have a free day for exploring, I'd recommend checking out Wolf Creek for a while.



Very soon into the trail, there's a waterfall literally right next to the path, with a manmade rock wall that acts as some sort of dam or way to divert the water; I imagine this was set up to avoid erosion.



As I've mentioned, the first two miles contains some uphills by which I probably wouldn't have normally been too irritated had the first sign I read promised me a mostly level path. The trail also used to be an old road, so it's somewhat wide and gravelly, although the gravel sometimes is big and uneven enough to be annoying. I really hate running on gravel of any form, but it gets better as you go, I'd say. You will come across some remains of old mine buildings and mine entrances at about a mile and a half from the start, or maybe just beyond that much, then you'll cross a bridge over Butcher Branch.





Bridge over Butcher Branch
Pardon the blurriness of some of these photos. It seems my hands were extra shaky the day I ran and took these. I do have a few pictures of what I'm fairly sure is the same bridge and creek that I took back in December; I'll also display those below:




Less than a half mile from Butcher Branch is the more scenic section of abandoned mining stuff, as well as a majestic, open view of the Gorge across from Endless Wall. Kaymoor Miners Trail snakes its way about a half mile of some ultra-steep, ultra-technical trail from Kaymoor Top down to here, intersects with Kaymoor Trail, and continues down over 800 wooden steps to the bottom of the Gorge, where you can view the coke ovens. The mine site area on Kaymoor Trail is great for pictures, so here's a handful of them:








Don't stop to look around for too long, though! The run has just begun, although that is the last you'll see of the mining ruins until you come back this way (assuming you're running an out-and-back). About a half mile from here, you'll go past Craig Branch (the actual stream, not the trail--not yet). Don't expect any fancy bridge like the ones over Butcher Branch and Wolf Creek. Craig Branch flows under the trail through a piece of culvert. I took the following picture on this particular run, and, as you can see, it doesn't look too thrilling at this time of the year, especially with the trees shrubs blocking the view. However, hopping just a teensy bit off the trail, past those first trees, reveals a waterfall, which, again, doesn't look terribly amazing the day of this run.




However, if you go when the water's right, the cascading waterfall there is absolutely photogenic:






I have absolutely no idea when I took the above pictures of Craig Branch; I just had them on my computer from a run I did here a couple years ago.

About a mile from Craig Branch, you'll actually get to Craig Branch Trail, which has no actual sign denoting the meeting of these trails. There is a rock on Kaymoor Trail that is large enough that you can't move it or ride a bike over it, but small enough that you could jump over it. Just before this rock, Craig Branch Trail cuts up the mountain and back west again (I've been describing this trail as if you were running generally southeast).

I have a mighty powerful photo editing app for advanced computer generated graphics. It's called Paintbrush :P
If you would stand at that rock and turn around, you'd see the following perspective, with Craig Branch Trail on the left, going up the mountain, and Kaymoor Trail on the right, going back toward the mine site:



Immediately after you pass Craig Branch Trail and the rock I use as a landmark, the trail gets wetter, skinnier, and less gravel-roady.


Probably a quarter mile from there, you'll round a bend, and the trees will disappear into a clearing where kudzu has taken over a large part of the forest growth [I'm working on a blog post dedicated to this topic, coming soonish]. Despite the obvious destruction of the invasive plant, it really is a beautiful view; across the Gorge you see Beauty Mountain. Interestingly, from Beauty Mountain, this area looks like a massive footprint. I've guided some rappelling trips out there during my employment at Alpine Adventures, and I would often tell guests that it is the footprint of Paul Bunyan. This place is great on a clear night, since there is neither artificial light nor many trees inhibiting stargazing.





I'd mark this area as nearly the halfway point between Wolf Creek and Cunard. Take in the peculiar sight and scent of the hungry vine (unless it's winter, during which time it's usually just a big brown mess of deadness); before you know it, the forest will resume its status quo in an eery, magical, tolkienic-narnia fashion as if nothing had been awry.

Exit Kudzu Land through the magical, mystical portal...
...and Kaymoor Trail as you usually know it welcomes you back.
After this half, the trail abandons its mostly-levelness in favor of up-and-down hills that are steep but short and not enough to register on my topo map. I rather like these kind of hills, because you can build up momentum on the downhill and power uphill and really feel like a beast, as long as you don't turn your ankle on the fast descents.

The first time I'd run this trail all the way through (and as an out-and-back), I stopped for a trail snack somewhere around here, and I discovered what became an instant favorite. Before the run, I stopped at Waterstone Outdoors for some energy gels to get my body used to something that I could use for my first 50k (coming up on October 12!!!), and I saw a box of Honey Organic Stinger Waffles. I had used a Honey Stinger energy bar before, and knew it to be a good brand, so I took one couple of these for the run. They turned out to be manna from heaven. They come in 5 flavors, and I only tried the original honey and also the vanilla flavor, and the honey reigned supreme to my taste buds, although the vanilla was also delicious. I'll definitely be taking these with me to the race.

Sweet, compact, energizing, delicious mann from Heaven! It didn't last long enough for me to even take a picture of half of it.
Just a couple miles later, you'll come to a pretty random sign, since there is no trail merge/intersection or significant landmark. It's just a sign telling you the distances to the trailheads. Useful, but unexpected.


The trail continues, beautiful and green, to a very cool wooden bridge, after which I noticed the trail to seem more pine-needly (I'm inventing all sorts of adjectives today) for a little while. Changes in floral scenery always improve my mood during a run.


Again, sorry for the lack of good image clarity. Cool bridge, though, right?
Keep running along the trail. I say that, not because I think you would do otherwise, but because I can't really remember anything significant between the little bridge here and the bridge at Coal Run. Not that there's nothing significant, necessarily. I just don't remember. Once you cross the bridge over Coal Run (not the cool wooden bridge pictured above, but one more similar in appearance to the bridges over Wolf Creek and Butcher Branch), the end is in sight!

Coal Run from the bridge
The end is near!
Kaymoor Trail signpost from Cunard
This is the end of 8.6-mile Kaymoor Trail itself; however, if you want to catch another sweet-action waterfall, I wouldn't turn around quite yet. Take a left onto the road there, and you'll very soon (maybe 40 yards?) come to an area where you can see Coal Run take a significant plunge.

This is Cunard River Access Road. Take a left from the trail on to this road to get to see this:

This area is also near the Brooklyn Mine Trail, and the road goes down to the river for boater access. Popular whitewater rafting trips on the Lower New River put in at Cunard and travel down river (north, in the New's case) to Fayette Station.

So there you have it. Kaymoor Trail--some unique areas in the Gorge, fun and not excessively challenging hills, and some beautiful waterfalls make this a good, long (17.2 miles) out-and-back (unless you set up shuttle or somehow get one of the river companies to let you hitch a ride to Fayette Station Road). Have fun, run your run, and enjoy the beauty of God's Creation--it's Almost Heaven!


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