I decided to go scouting potential climbing areas around John Rock this afternoon. I was hoping to find a ledge of some sort that would have easy (3rd class or less) access to the top and be a good location for covering ropes skills such as rappelling with some folks from the Triangle-AR/Trailblazers Adventure Racing Club. By the time I got away from work and drove to the parking area, I only had about 90 minutes of daylight for scouting.
I started by going almost directly south and bushwhacked straight up the hill. It had rained recently and the wet leaves required the use of both hands and feet in places to get up the steep slope. Ten to fifteen minutes later I had managed to get to the base of the rock. I decided to check out the right (west) side first. It was fairly easy contouring around the mountain most of the way, but occasionally I did have to scramble and bushwhack through some thick stuff. I saw a couple of bolted climbs. They looked kinda mossy and had lichen on them. They definitely hadn’t seen too many recent ascents. One even had some old, homemade hangers on it. Cool, but scary! I saw a few possible trad routes, but everything looked runout. The eyebrows looked flaring and not very deep. It was cloudy and getting kinda dark though, so I may have missed a few possible placements while scouting from the ground.
Before it got completely dark, I was hoping to backtrack and get around to the other side. The cliff face appeared to fade out for a short distance and I was forced to go down a little bit to find a path through the thick brush. Unfortunately for me, the brush just seemed to get thicker the further I went. I haven’t been in rhodo hell this thick in a long time. I’m talking about throw-all-your-body-weight-down-the-hill-and-hope-you-break-through thick. I spent what seemed like an eternity doing this until it turned into a boulder field as well. The brush and leaves were covering big holes between the boulders, and my technique of throwing by body weight now had the potential of breaking a leg. Oh, the joys of bushwhacking in the Pisgah forest. Eventually I thought I saw the cliff reappear and could just make out a waterfall through the branches. A few more minutes of uphill bushwhacking and I managed to find a clearing near the base. The view of the waterfall was worth it.
By now, it was getting too dark to continue scouting, so I pushed, slid, fell, and fought the bush back to the fireroad at the bottom. I didn’t accomplish my goal, but found a very scenic view and had a chance to explore an area I hadn’t seen before. I guess we’ll just do the ropes stuff at Looking Glass. It’s not that much farther anyway.
