I knew when we started this would be an ambitious hike. Hubbard Creek is locally legendary as a tough area to traverse, from terrain that forces you to cross the creek or climb in elevation to the so-called “laurel hells”, it’s easy to see why the old timers shunned this area. We journeyed seven miles up to the head of Hubbard Canyon, and along the way made stops and explored Whitman Creek, Maxwell Creek, and Buttram Gulf before heading up Basin Creek and ending at the Kinlock Shelter. As with all off trail adventures, perseverance through tough terrain in the end pays off, and we were treated to towering bluffs, waterfalls, and peacefulness not found on any established trails.
Hubbard Creek is timber rattlesnake country in the summer, and to venture up it would be lunacy. This, however, was a cold Saturday morning, the low dipping into the lower twenties. There are always inherent dangers in winter hiking, and the problem I knew we’d encounter would be water crossings. High from recent rains, we would have to rely on fallen trees or the luck of a sandbar or well placed rocks to cross three large creeks. We parked at Kinlock Falls, and started north on the left side of the creek, the ground saturated and frozen. Icicles dangled from the sheer rock side opposite where we were. With no discernable trail, we moved in and out of mountain laurels until we hit a small patch of tall hemlocks with a fire ring beneath. Soon after we decided to climb up to the bluff line instead of walking the slanted terrain, and walked through a few small shelters, miniscule compared to what we’d find later up Buttram Gulf. I found a strangely bent tree, though I’m not sure it was an indian marker tree. I wish now I’d taken note of which direction it was pointing, as we did find a shelter further upstream that’d been occupied. Just past the tree we came to the junction of Hubbard and Whitman Creeks, and you could hear the roar of Hubbard Cascades from where we were standing, but it was near impossible to get a clear view of them. With no way across, we headed upstream on Whitman, finding a shelter with old wooden boards strewn about, and a 40ft waterfall just past it. Knowingly that private property was just ahead, we crossed on a log jam against a giant boulder resting in the creek. Whitman Creek was easy hiking, but all that changed when we reached Hubbard on the opposite side.
Following a game trail, we managed to get down to the cascades for some photography, and had the water been lower, it would have been nice to cross here as well. Immediately leaving the cascades, we had to plow through mountain laurels taller than we were, and at times were walking on their branches suspended a few feet above ground before one would cave under the weight and send us crashing. In what seemed like 20 minutes to move 100 yards, we finally broke free of them, and thankfully was the last we’d see of anything that thick the entire trip. Passing a very massive boulder that appeared to be sliding into the creek, we managed to finally get back down to the creek and some smoother walking. We found a shelter carved out by the creek, with a small spring and lots of ferns and mosses. After passing the shelter, I kept hearing water rushing and realized it was coming from the opposite side of the creek! A small tributary entering Hubbard resulted in a roughly 15ft tall waterfall that we enjoyed staring at while stopping for a quick lunch. The terrain then forced us back uphill, and we passed the junction of Maxwell and Hubbard Creeks. We began looking for a way across, and there were several viable trees, but they were inaccessible due to the terrain again. We finally did make it down, and followed Maxwell Creek upstream a ways and found a three tier cascading waterfall. Soon after we had to go uphill again, as the water undercut the shear bluff with still no way of crossing. We finally encountered a logjam just past here and crossed on a tree about 10-15ft above the water. Once on the other side we explored a really neat rock overhanging the creek, and then turned our attention back downstream.
By now it was noon, and we had a long way yet to go to see what we’d come to find. After navigating more mountain laurel and some blow downs, we reached the creek junction again, and briefly looked around a small rock shelter, finding a mortar stone and an interesting fern. We picked up the pace here, following a game trail, only stopping once or twice to look at interesting rocks, like a giant boulder sitting in the middle of the creek with tall trees growing atop. We crossed an intermittent drain that was flowing well and undoubtedly promised a waterfall, but just kept going. I studied the map a bit, and decided the next drain should be the junction of Hubbard Creek and Basin Creek, and it was. We turned up it, and soon found another stream splitting off. After a little more studying, I decided the one to the right with the small rock dam that’d fallen apart must be Hubbard, so we went left up Buttram, a narrow creek most of the way. The scenery here was unimpressive for the most part, for Bankhead anyway, until we finally found one of the footbridges I’d heard about. Not far before that, I came across a carved tree with someone’s name, which at least told me we heading in the right direction. Soon after we found a bench, rock steps and another foot bridge, and the falls were visible from here. Buttram Gulf Falls is one of the nicer waterfalls I’ve seen, roughly 50-60ft high. We sat for sat for a while and took in the view, and found two smaller waterfalls. After exploring behind the falls, we set out downstream and then up a side branch to try and cross over into Hubbard, but to no avail. Tired from bushwhacking through briar, we went back out the way we came to the junction, and then moved quickly up Hubbard as we only had a few hours of light left to spare. Hubbard Creek was less than 5ft wide in some stretches, a skeleton of the image in most people’s minds. We reached a wide area where rock bluffs could be seen in the distance, and 3 or 4 small tributaries came into one. We veered to the left along the largest branch, and found Gunsight Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls I’ve seen in Bankhead. I would estimate it at 80-100ft high, and the ground around here was covered in Hepatica. What a gorgeous waterfall!
After gazing at it for a while and studying a small falls to it’s left that’s eroded sandstone into a white sandy beach of an area, complete with beautiful white pebbles from the conglomerate, we followed the ridgeline around to the next shelter. Here we found the beginning of what will be a natural bridge someday. The falls came out of the roof of the shelter itself instead of over the falls, and one could see where the rock was already beginning to separate pretty well. Still following the same bluff line, the last shelter we visited had two waterfalls, both fairly insignificant and seasonal. With only an hour of daylight left, we went as fast as Mark’s knee would allow up back to the Hubbard and Basin Creek junction. We turned upstream on Basin, looking at length for a way across the creek without getting completely soaked. Finally finding a narrow area, I hastily built a mound of rocks in a knee-deep channel that allowed us to hop across to the other side. We found the old road that I believed would have led out to near Kinlock Spring, but since I was uncertain, and knew the way to Kinlock Shelter, we went up the drainage there instead. We both needed a rest here, with daylight waning, and then it was steep climb up and out of the canyon before heading down one road and the other back to the car at Kinlock Falls.
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