Art Loeb from Camp Daniel Boone to Butter Gap to Fish Hatchery

Notes of Art Loeb Trail GPS Tracks

Map Used: National Geographic Pisgah Ranger District #780
Revised 2003
Map Datum: NAD 1927
GPS Datum: NAD27 Central


Track: Daniel Boone to Fish Hatchery
The track Camp Daniel Boone to Fish Hatchery is an actual track from a backpacking trip. It was edited to remove points due to backtracking (for water, etc.) and to remove erroneous points due to weather (rain).

The track just North of Grassy Cover follows an old logging road (or something similar) as opposed to the actual Art Loeb trail. At Grassy Cover, the track follows the trail again.

Of course, this track takes you to the Fish Hatchery. We ran out of time and had to shorten our trip.

Track: Daniel Boone to Davidson River Campground
This is the above track plus the track points to reach Davidson River campground. These points were added using Garmin’s MapSource program which shows the trail near the Davidson River Campground.

As it is, the trail takes you into the North (up river) End of the Campground and follows the river for about 1.5 to 2 miles. From experience, I know there is a (hiking) trail that goes to the Trail Head on the Down River end of the campground as opposed to the North End. However, it did not show on the MapSource map.

Mileage
The mileages on Art Loeb seem to assume straight line segments between map points. That is, the mileages seem to ignore the numerous switchbacks. Or stated in another way, these mileages are not from a measuring wheel being rolled along the trail. Besides, rolling a wheel would be impossible in many places. I suggest you use a factor of about 1.3 to 1.5 to adjust map mileages to true (or walked) mileages. Of course, this factor varies with the trail. The factor will be higher in the mountains areas and lower in the lower areas.

Difficulty
This trail is very strenuous and difficult. The section of the trail called the Narrows is very rocky and steep. At times you will be Bouldering thru the rocks. However, this section of the trail is only a mile or two long.

The Garmin MapSource Program will show a vertical profile of this track. The profile is generally correct. However, it shows a vertical section near Daniel Boone that is not correct. The grade from Daniel Boone to Deep Gap campground is steep but consistent (no vertical sections).