Orange line shows "NC Mtn Treasures" Wild Area boundary recommended for protection. Green is "SPNM", (SemiPrimitive NonMotorized) National Forest land. Brown is private land, tan is National Forest land.

Location:
    Burke and McDowell Counties, southwest of Linville Gorge

Access:
    On the E side, follow hunters' trail W 1000 ft from Kistler Highway (Cty 1238) just 2000' S of Kistler Hwy's westernmost point to the E edge of wild area at hill 2715(of the USGS topo). Just 1000' N of this trail is another, marked with an orange bullet on a tree on the E side of the Hwy, that also goes W into the wild area.  On N near Dobson Knob, from Kistler Hwy go W on FS road 106 (seasonally open) as far as you can drive, then walk to end of road and walk SE on ATV trail to Dobson Knob.  From SE, from Lake James go N on NC 1551 through private property to closed forest road, then walk to the end, bushwhack N to Pond Ridge and then climb 1000' WNW to Dobson Knob.

USGS Topographic Quadrangles: Ashford (main portion), (Little Switzerland (small W portion))

Features/Description/Potential:
    Dobson Knob is a massif with a double top at 3680', from which ridges and valleys fall off in all directions, among them Bald Knob to the S, Pond Ridge to the ESE, and the long Linville Mountain ridge to the NE along which runs FS Road 106 to access a microwave tower, plus some Crescent Land and Timber Co. (Duke Energy) property. This road deteriorates to an ATV road to the top of Dobson Knob.  The two summit knobs are connected by a road frequently used by ATV's.  View from Knobs shows lots of houses, farms, roads, railroad tracks and a rock quarry.  Three meadows are maintained as wildlife openings, tempting campsites (and therefore perhaps not so good for wildlife).  The Mountains To Sea Trail (See Alan de Hart's book, "Hiking NC's Mountains-to-Sea Trail", published in 2000) runs from a crossing ot the N. Fork of the Catawba up to the SW corner of the RA NNE and then E and NE over the knobs and along Linville Mountain ridge to the Overmountain Victory Trail (FS 308), which runs SE to the Kistler Highway.  The Overmountain Trail continues NNW from the microwave tower road down the the valley of the N. Fork of the Catawba River.  (The Overmountain Trail commemorates the march by American patriots in 1780 from VA and TN to the victory over the British at Kings Mountain on Oct. 7.)  
    There is a trail (see under "Access" above), blazed with axe marks, from the Kistler Hwy W to a 50 ft falls on Yellow Fork just above its junction with Black Fork.  These two forks meet to form Paddy Creek which flows on out to the SE corner of the wild area.  From the falls this trail runs N to intersect FS Road 106 near the microwave tower.  1000 ft S of where this trail leaves the Kistler Hwy is another shorter hunters' trail running down a small ridge to the S.  Enormous 22" dia., cored at 105 years old, almost certainly virgin forest, Table Mountain Pines, an uncommon, fire-dependent species characteristic of rocky balds, are found on the S end of this ridge.  In the vicinity of these two trails the area is quite wild and unimpacted, and hard to walk through.  Rob Messick reported Class A Old Growth in the Black Fork area.  Dobson Knob area is separated from the Linville Gorge Wilderness to the E by Kistler Memorial Highway (NC 1238).  There has been some controversy over plans by the NC DOT to pave this road.

    Further scouting is needed up Black Fork, along Pond Ridge, and S to Bald Knob.  The Central Piedmont Group has "adopted" this area.

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