Black Mountain's Past

A tribute to the 14th anniversary of the Swannanoa Valley Museum Rim Hikes

Wendell Begley
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
January 11, 2024

All of us on the March 20, 2010 Inaugural Swannanoa Rim Hike into the Wilds of the Catawba headwaters. Included are the 40 participants perched atop the summit of Evans Knob.: Ken Farmer, Bill Christy, Marci Spencer, Bob Orr, Tom Cannon, Alan & Cheryl Edwards, Francis Burris, Gayle Flickinger, Sharon Stenner, John Smith, Greg Kershner, Charles Jolley, III, Randy Harter, Matt Stone, George LeRoy, Edward Hay, Isbell Behrer, Arnold Behrer, Patrick Behrer, Larry Odoski, Marilyn Kaylor, Mary Standaert, Rocky Ward, Van Talmage, Lauren Yoder, Suzy Yoder, Chip Harris, Mark Sneed, Vicki Sneed, Matt Sneed, Mike Sneed, Katie Sneed, Wendell Begley, John Buckner, Joe Standaert, Van Burnette, Martha Miller, Mark Vanderoff, and Andrew King. Photo courtesy of Wendell Begley

As the Swannanoa Valley Museum Rim Guides led their final Rim Hike for 2023 we passed a milestone of sorts. At that time, we celebrated over 140 Rim Hikes, covering approximately 600 miles and guiding approximately 3,900 participants along “Eastern America’s Highest and Most Historic Skyline.” Quite a feat of story-telling, miles of smiles, some sore legs and memories lasting a life time. All in all, an incredible outdoor adventure high above the Valley floor along the sometimes trail less ridgeline of the Great Craggy, Black Mountain, Blue Ridge and Swannanoa Mountain Ranges. In the beginning (March 2010), we believed these Museum-sponsored treks and combined history talks would become a part of our Valley’s rich heritage and continue as an annual event similar to the Annual Black Mountain Marathon and Mount Mitchell Challenge. At the 14-year mark, we feel that projection has become reality!

That said, I thought I would reflect back on some of my writings regarding the Inaugural Rim Hike. In the spring of 2010 beginning, and to this day, the experiences shared along the Swannanoa Rim are as unique as the geography and fellowship we experience together. So, here goes ....

This picture was taken on the same day along the Swannanoa Rim. We are leaving the Gap which had just been christened Monie Sneed Gap in memory of our dear friend and long time supporter of The Swannanoa Valley Museum. Photo courtesy of Wendell Begley

In preparation for the very first Rim Hike in March of 2010, several of us walked back into time and experienced one of Western N.C.’s most beautiful wilderness settings. The chunk of pristine waterways and steep mountainsides can be described as harboring one of N.C.’s most spectacular backcountry waterfalls and the remnants of what was one of the South’s oldest wagon roads. Interestingly, this rugged piece of backcountry is only 2 miles southeast of downtown Black Mountain (as the crow flies) and backs up to 3,540-foot Evans Knob, which is located on the Swannanoa Rim. This part of the Swannanoa Rim is also dubbed as the Eastern Continental Divide and crest of the Blue Ridge Range.

For over 60 years, the highest headwaters of the Catawba River have been one of my favorite places to experience nature’s solitude and splendor. I started exploring the deep coves and fording its streams as a teenager in the early 1960s. Celebrated as one of the state’s largest and most historic river corridors, the area of the upper Catawba plateau backs up to the Swannanoa Rim and is abundant with wildlife and varied flora. The true remoteness of this vast wilderness is attributable to the lack of any penetrating trails, private ownership and extensive watersheds closed to the general public.

I took this picture of my friend Monie Sneed (1934-2007) on October 19, 2006. Monie was eating lunch at the bottom of Catawba Falls on the eastern slope of the Swannanoa Rim. Monie told us many stories about his trips across the Rim to the wilds of the Catawba headwaters as a young boy growing up on Camp Branch. Photo by Wendell Begley

The most spectacular natural feature of the upper Catawba headwaters is Catawba Falls (photo above). For more than a century, outdoor guides and enthusiasts have described the Falls as one of the most impressive, deep-wilderness, free falling waterfalls in Western North Carolina. Fortunately, today’s wilds of the upper Catawba remain much as they were over 250 years ago when the warring tribes of the Catawba and Cherokee competed for hunting rights.

Today, the Catawba River has the reputation as being one of N.C.’s largest and most impounded rivers. Many readers may be surprised to learn that the Catawba River actually begins as a bubbling spring on the southeastern slope of Evans Knob near the head of Camp Branch, southeast of town. Fortunately for me, the wilderness boundary and companion spring-head are only a short walk from our home at the head of Camp Branch. Much of the ridgeline along this particular section of the Eastern Continental Divide doubles as a common boundary for the Swannanoa-Catawba headwaters and adjoining watersheds of the Town of Black Mountain and Christmount Assembly.

In 2006, I took this picture of hiking companions (l-r); Roger Hibbard, Monie Sneed (1934-2007), Tom Jones (1950-2019) and John Buckner. Roger is holding what’s left of an old wagon wheel found near one of the first wagon road to enter the Swannanoa Valley from the Catawba headwaters. Photo by Wendell Begley

I have always thought it ironic that one of N.C.’s largest and most urbanized rivers has its source concealed in a pure wilderness setting near downtown Black Mountain. Years of hiking the Swannanoa Rim and upper Catawba headwaters have rewarded me with treasured memories and scores of photographs. I have included a few pictures reflective of those first two Rim Hikes in 2010 and the trackless wilds that we call “The Swannanoa Rim.” Cheers!

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Copyright: M. Wendell Begley, series 860, VE4, January 12, 2024