Mills River Trail Information
This is your guide to individual trails in the Mills River area. You can also see these trails on a Google map, and download the tracks into your GPS or Google Earth (GPX format).
Bear Branch
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 328
Follows the creek uphill, starting in a clearing. Travels through mostly white pine and dead hemlocks, then into hardwoods mixed hardwoods near the small stream. Crosses and then ends on FR 5001, making a loop hike possible.
Big Creek
Blaze Color: Yellow
USGS/USFS Number: 102
Follows one of the larger tributaries of the North Mills River. Steep near upper end. High elevation change.
Bradley Creek
Blaze Color: Orange
USGS/USFS Number: 351
Creekside, backcountry trail. Numerous water crossings will require wading; not passable in high water. May require pathfinding skills - trail disappears into the creek at times. Passes small dam on Bradley Creek.
Cantrell Creek
Blaze Color: Red
USGS/USFS Number: 148
Sparsely maintained. Passes old Cantrell Creek Lodge site. Trail merges with creek at times.
Connector
Fletcher Creek
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 350
Typical streamside trail for the most part, w/ cove hardwoods, hemlocks, fern gardens and log bridges. Some muddy sections but mostly dry. However passes through some open meadows rimmed with flowering dogwoods near upper end. These fields have been used to grow corn in years recently past. Follows the old Fletcher Creek Road. Note: the log bridge at the intersection with the Spencer Branch and Middle Fork trails was washed away during the storms of September, 2004.
Laurel Creek
Blaze Color: Yellow
USGS/USFS Number: 348
Follows the creek closely at lower end. Switches back & is very steep at upper end as it climbs the ridge.
Laurel Mountain
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 121
Climbs gradually from Yellow Gap Road (FR 1206) to the Buck Spring Trail. There are a few steep sections. Several unmarked trails join from either sides. You'll find mixed hardwood forests, some very large trees, rock outcroppings & even a small cave. There is little to no water during dry periods on this trail.
Laurel Mountain Connector
Short; moderately steep. Mostly mixed, high elevation hardwood forest. Rocky in places.
North Mills River
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 350
Scenic and mostly level, but many river crossings where the trail is difficult to follow. River crossings may be impassible in high water.
Pilot Rock
Blaze Color: Orange
USGS/USFS Number: 321
Climbs from Yellow Gap Road (FR 1206) up to the Buck Spring trail near Mount Pisgah on the Parkway. Many switchbacks. Block fields. Cliffs. Mid- and high-elevation mixed hardwood forests. Excellent trail.
Poundingmill
Blaze Color: Orange
USGS/USFS Number: 349
I have only hiked the portion from Hickey Fork trail to the top at Camp Creek Bald. This portion is used as a 4-wheeler trail, so it's double-tracked. It's moderately steep in places and rocky throughout. Travels along some dry ridge slopes, ridge tops, and finally above 4000' into some high-elevation coves. The trail switches back and becomes level near the top, meandering through the dense woods, which are orchard-like in places. It is heavily overgrown with grasses and blackberry vines in places. Another steep climb brings you to the intersection with the Appalachian Trail, and beyond that a moderate climb brings you to the top of Camp Creek Bald, 4844', and its conglomeration of radio towers. A small clump of spruce trees grows beside an old fire tower at the true summit, although the observation platform is closed. You can climb to the first landing on the staircase for a better view.
Riverside
Blaze Color: Yellow
USGS/USFS Number: 115
As its name implies, this trail follows the river (South Mills) and Bradley Creek, both of which you cross several times. Scenic. Expect to get wet up to your knees on this one. Impassible in high water.
South Mills River
Blaze Color: White
USGS/USFS Number: 133
This is a stream side trail along an old road bed for much of its length; pulls away from the river in one section around High Falls. Crosses the river using bridges (concrete and suspension bridges) and fords it a couple of times as well. There are some very muddy and sandy sections. Heavy horse usage. Scenic, wide river as it drops out of the Pink Beds. There were once many dense, open groves of hemlock along stretches of this trail; these are mostly dead, and almost all of the large, old, stout hemlocks growing beside the river are dead and falling into it.
Spencer Branch
Blaze Color: Yellow
USGS/USFS Number: 140
Very steep on upper end. Rocky. Precipitous trail clings to the steep sides of the cove on lower end. Middle section is typical streamside trail. Upper section is very steep and rocky.
Spencer Gap
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 600
Old roadbed. I've seen deer on this trail nearly every time I've traveled it.
Squirrel Gap
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 147
Overgrown in many places. Backcountry trail.
Trace Ridge
Blaze Color: Orange
USGS/USFS Number: 354
Follows old roadbed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Rocky; steep. Very eroded in places. Dry pine-oak forests along the nondescript ridge.
Turkey Pen Gap
Blaze Color: Blue
USGS/USFS Number: 332
Long ridgeline trail which undulates up and down over the various knobs on its summit. Very steep in places; has some issues with erosion as well. It winds onto the edge of private land in places; stay on the trail. Travels through a typical ridgeline forest with a few nice big trees; one huge sourwood on Sharpy Mtn. stood out to me in particular. Nice sedges grow in open woods in a few places. Enables a connection with trails in the Davidson River area via the Black Mtn. trail.
