Greene County High Point Trip Report
Gravel Knob
Date: April 21, 2002
Author: Bob Packard
Did this referring to Ron Tagliapietra's Sept 1999 report. Ron has written many excellent and accurate trip reports,
but this is not one of them. We drove to Devils Fork Gap and parked.
Walked the AT southbound to near Gravel Knob and did the short bushwhack to the summit (4,840+ ft).
On the way we passed the grave site for David and William Shelton and Millard Haire (1850-1863). At the top
we found a spike in a rock where the Big Butt BM was expected to be as well as NC Geodetic Survey triangles.
On the way back we climbed Green Ridge Knob (4840+) in NC, which is a true summit using the 300-foot
rule and which Ron in his report mistook for Gravel Knob. He had mentioned the start off the AT as the
place where AT first reached the ridge line, a wide ATV trail going off to the right (if you are heading northbound),
with yellow blazes. Ron had also confused Gravel Knob with Big Rocks (BM). Note that the
distance from Gravel Knob (Big Butt BM) to Big Butt (Big Rocks BM) is 0.45 mile, while the distance from
Green Ridge Knob to Gravel Knob is 1.15 miles. This is the "about a mile" which Ron mentions in his report.
The interesting thing is that Ron was probably at Gravel Knob on his first trip on June 12, 1999 and
he talked himself out of it.
Trip statistics: 6.75 hours, 13 miles, 2400 feet of elevation gain.