NOLICHUCKY WILD AREA
Updated 10/25/07
The NC Nolichucky Wild Area adjoins the TN Nolichucky
Wild Area,
separated only partially by Forest Service Road 130 near
the state line.
|
Taken from a 1993 Forest Service map of bear habitat,
shown in green.
The orange line is the area proposed for protection in The Wilderness Society's "NC Mountain Treasures. Red shows the old RARE II Roadless Area of 8300 acres. Gray is non-NC National Forest land. Major trails are shown as dashed lines. |
Return to Roadless Areas Page
Location: Toecane Ranger District. Mitchell and Yancey Counties, essentially the Nolichucky River gorge where it flows from NC into TN.Access: From Tn 398 and NC Cty 1323 at Indian Grave Gap on NC/TN line, W on FS logging roads to logged NE corner and center of wild area at top of gorge. No road along river, but the Clinchfield railroad line could be walked from Cty 1321 on SE side near the town of Poplar. Raft and kayak is most common gorge access.
USGS Topographic Quadrangles: Unicoi, Huntdale
Features/Description/Potential:
River gorge. This was a NC RARE II Roadless Area (08202) of 3950 acres in 1979. Adjoins, separated only partially by FS Road 132 parallelling the state line, the TN Nolichucky Wild Area of 3800 acres. Area NE of gorge in the NE end of the NC Area has been extensively cut, as shown by comparing the orange line with the red line on the map, leaving approx. 1000 acres in NC on the north side of the gorge. The cut area is enclosed by FS Road 214 (closed) which begins just S of Indian Grave Gap S off of Cty 1323, then runs S across Shinbone Creek and then W along the edge of the gorge, then N to the NC/TN border ridge about 1 mile W of Indian Grave Gap. The gorge itself, and the drainage area W of FS214, is too steep to be cut easily and is still wild area. Spiraea virginiana, a federally threatened plant, survives along the river.
The NC Mtn Treasures boundary includes the south side of the gorge, the Flattop Mountain area, which also did not qualify for the Roadless Area Inventory in 1995.
A railroad line runs along the river in the gorge, further harming Roadless designation. The best form of protection on the NC side is probably National Wild and Scenic River designation. The river is very popular with commercial rafting companies, and with kayakers. The Forest Service and US Dept. of Agriculture recommended National Wild and Scenic River designation in March of 1994..