Art Loeb Trail

Great. Since we are starting at the Boy Scout camp, we will be out of the Shining rock wilderness by the time we make camp on Friday. We are going to try to make it to Farlow gap, but if not we will just find a spot near the Parkway to hang.

I usually don't do this, but please consider your plan carefully. The hike up from the boy scout camp is very strenuous. You're planning on completing 2+ sections of one of the harder long trails in NC in 1 day. Please keep in mind that if you get behind on your time, you might find yourself in a very confusing section of the trail near dark. The ridge line in Shining Rock is often exposed to the elements, can be very cold and windy at night, and right now, without a good water supply. You are also going to be rushing through the best part of the trail! These are the sections you'll want to stop and snap photos, talk to people, etc.

Sorry I sound like an over protective parent, but noticed in your intro on the trailhead register that you are relatively new to backpacking and couldn't help but reiterate these points.

But have a great time, its a fabulous place.

Thank you to everyone for the advice. I am back and the trip went off without a hitch! Shining Rock Wilderness was quite easy to navigate really. We ended up having a more confusing time further down the trail at unmarked junctions. But Everything went well. We hiked from Daniel Boone to Black Balsam the first day, I had a hammock and didn't want to camp in the creepy Balsam forest so I made a bivy with my tarp and slept on the bald. The second day we made it to Butter Gap and finished with a nice easy (but hard) downhill for the third day. Looking back it was a fun hike! During the hike it was brutal! Definitely a hard hike! Art Loeb was not one to take the easier way up or down a mountain! Water wasn't very scarce on the first day but between Black Balsam and Butter Gap....NO WATER ANYWHERE! Luckily we cached some water a Black Balsam and were able to fill up before we set off but we had just enough to make it that day. The only real glitch we had was me having the brilliant idea to leave my keys in my buddies car at cam Daniel Boone. Realizing Sunday morning that we now had no way of getting back to Daniel Boone to his car....That was a low point but luckily we met a really awesome guy who gave us a ride.