Ascent of Cottrell Knob Northeast on 2015-04-23| Date: | Thursday, April 23, 2015 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Car | | Peak: | Cottrell Knob Northeast | | Location: | USA-North Carolina | | Elevation: | 2666 ft / 812 m |
Ascent Trip ReportOn US-321, 11 miles S of Blowing Rock or 5 miles N of Lenoir, I turned E on NC-268 at a Citgo station. Zero or note your odometer at this point. At mile 1.0, NC-268 turns R where Yadkin River Rd goes straight ahead. (if coming from Blowing Rock, one might use this road as a shortcut that would save about one mile of driving.) At 4.5 miles, I turned N on Buffalo Cove Rd. At 5.3 miles is a fork where I went L; the R branch is Riverside Dr which immediately crosses a 1-lane bridge. At 6.5 miles, I turned R on gravel Cove Branch Rd just after a 1-lane bridge. At 7.6 miles, I passed a house with private property signs. The road was briefly paved after this point but soon turned back to gravel. The road is narrow after this point but the surface condition is totally OK for any street legal vehicle. At 10.0 miles the road ends at a large gravel parking area with signs suggesting its use as a staging area for hunters. One of these signs shows a map of the area, but the map is rife with errors: Licklog Mtn and Winding Stairs Mtn are both misplaced. The location here is the saddle immediately N of Licklog Mtn. Two gates bar further motorized progress on any road, but both are OK for foot travel. On the L, a gated road heads northerly toward Cottrell Knob NE. On the R, a gated grass road heads SE and NE toward Gill Knob.
I parked and began hiking N on the gravel road, which descends about 120 feet and then begins climbing. After ~15 minutes, the main road begins contouring to the R around the SE side of Cottrell Knob NE where an abandoned road continues a few hundred yards straight up the south ridge to the open grassy summit with fine views. |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 386 ft / 117 m | | Extra Gain: | 120 ft / 36 m | | Round-Trip Distance: | 2.2 mi / 3.5 km | | Trailhead: | Cove Branch roadend 2520 ft / 768 m | | Route Conditions: | Road Hike, Open Country | | Ascent Statistics | | Time: | 30 Minutes | | Descent Statistics | | Time: | 25 Minutes |
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