High Falls, Big Scaly and Standing Indian

This hike will start at the Beech Creek trail head. From there we will start by hiking up the Beech Creek trail and cross Beech creek about 1 mile into the hike.  Last month I was able to cross Beech Creek without taking off my boots but they got wet up to my ankles.  It is typically drier in July.  From there we will keep going up the trail to High Falls shown above. After the falls we continue on the Beech Creek trail to Case Knife Gap where we will take a side trip to the overlooks near the summit of Big Scaly and then follow the usual AOC route to Standing Indian by taking the steep, primitive trail to the AT. We will then take the AT to the top of Standing Indian where we will have lunch and go down the AT west to Deep Gap. From there we will take the Deep Branch Gap trail back to the road. To reach our cars we will need to walk about 20 minutes down the road.  If there are enough people to take 2 cars we can do a short shuttle and skip walking down the road.

This hike will be 14 miles long and have about 3200 feet of elevation gain.

Faster hikers can go ahead if they have done this hike before and are familiar with the area but we will stop at all the major trail intersections to regroup. There are a couple of turns people often miss so anyone that is not sure where the turns are will need to stay with the group.

This hike will probably take 7 hours but could take as long as 9 depending on the group. The drive is about 2.5 hours each way not counting the usual break on the way up or dinner on the way back.

After the hike we will stop in Clayton for dinner if enough people are interested.

NOTE:
Because this a D5 event, if you have not very recently completed some tough AOC hikes, I will be contacting you to determine your level of fitness and experience to make sure this is the right hike for you. The first several miles of this hike are a renentless uphill climb and steep in sections so you need to be in good shape.

This hike will be cancelled if the chance of thunderstorms is 50% or greater or a steady all day rain is forecast.

I prefer hiking with a small group. If this event does fill up I will not increase the group size by adding people from the waiting list unless someone that is registered drops out.

Directions to trailhead will be given at carpool (or via email if "meeting at event").

Because this a D5 event, if you have not very recently completed some tough AOC hikes, I will be contacting you to determine your level of fitness and experience to make sure this is the right hike for you. The first sevaral miles of this hike are unrelentingly uphill and steep in sections so you need to be in pretty good shape.

This hike will be cancelled if the chance of thunderstorms is 50% or greater or a steady all day rain is forecast.

I prefer hiking with a small group. If this event does fill up I will not increase the group size by adding people from the waiting list unless someone that is registered drops out.

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