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John Rock
Moderate to Strenuous. It's John Rock not John's Rock. John Rock is a large 3200-ft monolith of granite sticking out of the ground in Pisgah National Forest. It is due south of Looking Glass Rock, another granite monolith that is has very popular climbing wall. There are numerous trails that circumnavigate John Rock, which one you take depends on how long you want to be on the trail. The trail that I will describe takes about three days. Start in the afternoon on day one and finish by noon on day three. All trails begin and end in the parking lot of the John Rock Fish Hatchery. Our trek begins at the gates to an old logging road the crosses Cedar Rock Creek. The gate is at the Western end of the parking lot and marks the beginning of Cat Gap Trail. The trail loosely follows Cedar Creek until you get to an area known as Pickleshiemer Fields. It is a little over a half of a mile from the start. Gorgan Creek runs through the middle of Pickleshiemer Fields. Cat Gap trail, which can be hiked in a day, goes left following Cedar Creek. Our trail leads left up Grogan Creek. We spent out first night camped about a mile up the trail along Grogan Creek. There a few decent campsites, but you need to be careful of rising water. This area is prone to flash flood and if you are expecting rain, camp on the high side of the trail. The trail winds along the creek till it disappears below Low Gap. In about one half mile the trail meets up with the Art Loeb trail at Butter Gap. There is a shelter for the Art Loeb just below Butter Gap. This is a popular overnight stop and tends to be crowded during the season. At Butter Gap there is also a trail the goes over the top of Cedar Rock. It's rather a faint trail and not for the faint of heart. From Butter Gap stay on the Art Loeb as it skirts to the south of Cedar Rock. As the trail passes the eastern side of Cedar Rock there are a couple of old fire rings. The trail passes within a hundred feet of the base of Cedar Rock into Sandy. The shear wall of Cedar Rock is quite amazing to see up close. From Sandy Gap, the trail slopes gradually down to Cat Gap. At Cat Gap you intersect with the Cat Gap Trail again. You can take Cat Gap Trail either direction as they are both about the same distance and end at the same parking lot. We chose the right trail that heads to John Rock. At the southern base of John Rock there is a saddle where another spur for the Cat Gap Trail intersects. There is also a trail that leads up and over John Rock. This can be a tough climb late in the day but they view can be spectacular. We chose to continue to the right. The trail picks up Horse Cove and follows in all the way down the East End of the Fish Hatchery parking lot. If you want to check out the trails on a USGS map, you will need the PISGAH FOREST 7.5' quadrangle. This one currently not available according to the USGS web. There is a Trails Illustrated Map for Pisgah Forest ISBN 1-56695-037-6. You can always send me an e-mail and I'll send you a bitmap of the area. -Badfoot
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