technicolorNH - Nov 19, 2015 12:47 am - Hasn't voted
Excellent beta here
I tried to get on top of White Hill last August via the Clyburn River Valley starting out by the golf course at 8 AM. The first part of the trek towards the gold mine ruins is easy and once you get past there you have another kilometer or so to get to the river proper. Once you get to the river and the small abandoned camp however you are in the middle of the some toughest hiking and climbing country I have ever seen. I was lucky to manage 1 kilometer per hour and my track took me from the streambed itself to high above the water on the valley walls. Thirty and forty degree wooded slopes studded with moss covered boulders were not uncommon and in some places waterfalls absolutely forced anyone out of the stream and high onto the less negotiable slopes. Finding a mere deer track could double my time for the few hundred yards they lasted. I hiked a kilometer or two past Rising Indian that was off to the south of the Clyburn River and got to a cascade on the southern slope of the river that I would have had to get around by descending 60 vertical feet back down to the stream when I called it a day at 2 PM. I knew I had come a long way but didn't want to travel back on that 'trail' at any point using a headlamp so I was back at my car by 730 PM, using the showers at a campsite just before sunset. It was amazing just how wild the area is once you get off the beaten path!
Wow, that sounds brutal for a route that seems to parallel the Franey "trail." Thanks for sharing. One of the surprising realities is White Hill is a provincial high point in a National Park - but with no apparent official motivation to maintain access. Juxtapose this with how other high points around the world tend to be magnets for hoards of people usually with an official monument marking the spot.
technicolorNH - Nov 28, 2015 10:12 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Excellent beta here
I saw how far the trail penetrated into the interior and gave it a shot but the terrain was just too harsh for a day hike. The park personnel seemed a bit perturbed that I actually wanted to go there and gave me no useful advice other than that cell phone contact would not be possible. On the plus side it was much like hiking a Catskills peak with no trail. After I got past the upper falls I am pretty sure only a couple people go that way per year, possibly I was the only one that month. I totally agree with you how strange it is that they do not promote the summit at all despite how beautiful the area is.
technicolorNH - Nov 19, 2015 12:47 am - Hasn't voted
Excellent beta hereI tried to get on top of White Hill last August via the Clyburn River Valley starting out by the golf course at 8 AM. The first part of the trek towards the gold mine ruins is easy and once you get past there you have another kilometer or so to get to the river proper. Once you get to the river and the small abandoned camp however you are in the middle of the some toughest hiking and climbing country I have ever seen. I was lucky to manage 1 kilometer per hour and my track took me from the streambed itself to high above the water on the valley walls. Thirty and forty degree wooded slopes studded with moss covered boulders were not uncommon and in some places waterfalls absolutely forced anyone out of the stream and high onto the less negotiable slopes. Finding a mere deer track could double my time for the few hundred yards they lasted. I hiked a kilometer or two past Rising Indian that was off to the south of the Clyburn River and got to a cascade on the southern slope of the river that I would have had to get around by descending 60 vertical feet back down to the stream when I called it a day at 2 PM. I knew I had come a long way but didn't want to travel back on that 'trail' at any point using a headlamp so I was back at my car by 730 PM, using the showers at a campsite just before sunset. It was amazing just how wild the area is once you get off the beaten path!
MountainHikerCO - Nov 20, 2015 6:25 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Excellent beta hereWow, that sounds brutal for a route that seems to parallel the Franey "trail." Thanks for sharing. One of the surprising realities is White Hill is a provincial high point in a National Park - but with no apparent official motivation to maintain access. Juxtapose this with how other high points around the world tend to be magnets for hoards of people usually with an official monument marking the spot.
technicolorNH - Nov 28, 2015 10:12 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Excellent beta hereI saw how far the trail penetrated into the interior and gave it a shot but the terrain was just too harsh for a day hike. The park personnel seemed a bit perturbed that I actually wanted to go there and gave me no useful advice other than that cell phone contact would not be possible. On the plus side it was much like hiking a Catskills peak with no trail. After I got past the upper falls I am pretty sure only a couple people go that way per year, possibly I was the only one that month. I totally agree with you how strange it is that they do not promote the summit at all despite how beautiful the area is.