Black Creek Trail near Hattiesburg, MS

[CajunHiker]

My son's scout troop hike the Tuxachanie two weekends ago. The younger scouts did the 5 mile trailhead to Airey Lake and the older boys started at Airey and went to POW Lake. I did the TH to Airey Lake, trail was well marked and wet areas had foot bridges. I didn't hear of any trail issues on the Airey to POW section.

[SMSP]

Yeah, the Tux is a great trail to enjoy as an adult and to introduce kids to the world hiking and such. I have a little one and look forward to her getting out there in a few more years.

SMSP

[SMSP]

I contacted the Ranger Office in Wiggins the other day. They have new maps of The Black Creek Hiking Trail. Basically, the only difference between the new one and old one is that the route in the Wilderness Section has been update and this section alone is 10.8 miles. They offerred to mail me the new map free of charge! The new map is printed in color as well. It will get laminated as soon as I receive it.

If anyone is interested is obtaining the new map, contact them at:

De Soto National Forest Ranger Office
654 West Frontage Rd.
Wiggins, MS 39577
601-528-6160

If all goes right, I am planning to hike some of it on Labor Day Weekend, thinking a basic 2 day/1 night from Fairley Bridge Landing to Janice Landing.

SMSP

[bpitt]

So they did update the map, eh. Cool. I'll get me one. My oldest is still bugging me to take her on the trail. When it cools off, like late October or November, we plan on hiking the whole thing. I figure it will take us three days.

[SMSP]

I've been putting together some possible itineraires for one night, two night, three night and four night trips. I plan to do some single overnighters, and plan to backpack it end to end at some point.

SMSP

[Bear Cables]

The last map I got had the Wilderness area closed. Glad to hear it's reopened. I will call for a new map. I want to take a friend of mine on an introductory hike in Oct. Great place to start.

[blackwater slim]

First post on this site. I thought I would start with an update on the Black Creek Trail through the section that goes through Black Creek Wilderness. I have canoed the Creek several times fron Janice Landing down to Cypress Creek Landing and also down to Fairley Bridge Landing...an awesome experience as well.
We entered the trail on the southeastern end of the wilderness section (about 11:30 am on 12/20/10), off of Melvin Breland Road, and hiked about 3 hours total with a few leisurely stops. Fantastic trail, overly well marked, and beautiful scenery. it was amazing to my buddies and me the work the USFS folks put into clearing the dead trees etc. left from Hurricane Katrina damage (yes 5+ years later). A great job! A humorous scene as an ironic example of government work at its best, included the crossing of a flowing creek with 6 foot banks and no bridge. After a comical, but dry, barely, crossing (not including bare feet), we trudged on down the trail and within 10 minutes came to a nice wooden bridge over a perfectly dry creekbed...Well, anyway, we found a great camp sight on the banks of Black Creek, within sight of a huge sandbar, across the creek and about 40 yards upstream of a small rapids, gurgling water and all.
Watching a full moon rise over the bluff of about 25 feet above the creek was a great site. Was awake to see the lunar eclipse later also, but cloud cover prevented that. The next morning we were up and moving about 9:30 and finished the trek out at Janice landing about 1:00 pm. There were some bluffs as high as 45-50 ft above a side creek the trail meanders around. Overall, some good climbing, surprisingly for south Mississippi. I would like to go back and hike the full trail but if you are looking for a longer dayhike or a one nighter, the Black Creek Trail through the wilderness section would rival most any trail (minus mountains or seacost).
I've done the Juniper Trail in Florida, the Tuxachanie in MS and did Amicallola falls to Neels Gap on the ATback in October. Planning on going back to AT to enter at Neels Gap and make it to NC this spring.

[bpitt]

Great report.

[chili36]

Thanks for the report.

[SMSP]

First post on this site. I thought I would start with an update on the Black Creek Trail through the section that goes through Black Creek Wilderness. I have canoed the Creek several times fron Janice Landing down to Cypress Creek Landing and also down to Fairley Bridge Landing...an awesome experience as well.
We entered the trail on the southeastern end of the wilderness section (about 11:30 am on 12/20/10), off of Melvin Breland Road, and hiked about 3 hours total with a few leisurely stops. Fantastic trail, overly well marked, and beautiful scenery. it was amazing to my buddies and me the work the USFS folks put into clearing the dead trees etc. left from Hurricane Katrina damage (yes 5+ years later). A great job! A humorous scene as an ironic example of government work at its best, included the crossing of a flowing creek with 6 foot banks and no bridge. After a comical, but dry, barely, crossing (not including bare feet), we trudged on down the trail and within 10 minutes came to a nice wooden bridge over a perfectly dry creekbed...Well, anyway, we found a great camp sight on the banks of Black Creek, within sight of a huge sandbar, across the creek and about 40 yards upstream of a small rapids, gurgling water and all.
Watching a full moon rise over the bluff of about 25 feet above the creek was a great site. Was awake to see the lunar eclipse later also, but cloud cover prevented that. The next morning we were up and moving about 9:30 and finished the trek out at Janice landing about 1:00 pm. There were some bluffs as high as 45-50 ft above a side creek the trail meanders around. Overall, some good climbing, surprisingly for south Mississippi. I would like to go back and hike the full trail but if you are looking for a longer dayhike or a one nighter, the Black Creek Trail through the wilderness section would rival most any trail (minus mountains or seacost).
I've done the Juniper Trail in Florida, the Tuxachanie in MS and did Amicallola falls to Neels Gap on the ATback in October. Planning on going back to AT to enter at Neels Gap and make it to NC this spring.

Nice follow-up thanks.

How far down Melvin Breland Rd. does the trail cross it?

Did you all leave a vehicle on this road?

Wow, backpacking just the Wilderness portion for an overnighter would be sweet.

SMSP

[chili36]

We need to put together a trip for the Black Creek. We are going to Ocala in North Florida in early Feb, so the end of January or mid Feb would work best.

[blackwater slim]

The trailhead on Melvin breland Rd is about a mile off of Florida Gas Rd. There are some residences on the road not too far from trailhead...seemed it MIGHT be safe. I had a friend shuttle me back from Janice Landing where I left my truck overnight..it made it safely through the night. We hiked one way from melvin breland thru wilderness section to Hwy 29 and walked the road 1/2 mile or so to landing even though there is a parking area at the trailhead on 29.
Itching to go again soon before snake and bug weather returns.
Its great to see interest..Don't really want a herd of folks on trail when I'm out there bu its great that the interest and therefore...hopefully continued comitment to trails and hiking in the area.

[SMSP]

I'm off from work on Monday, 2/21/2011, I'm looking to do some dayhiking from Fairley Bridge Landing to Melvin Breland Rd. Thats about a 5plus to 6 mile walk in the woods. Anybody interested?

SMSP

[blackwater slim]

wish I could -weather should be good-enjoy it!

[SMSP]

Finally, I am getting to experience the Black Creek Hiking Trail (BCHT), the Black Creek (BC), a National Wild and Scenic River and the Black Creek Wilderness (BCW). Basically, they are all one in the same and share a very close existence. The BCW consists of 5,000 plus acres and is federally protected. The BCHT goes through the BCW for 10.8 miles and it’s total length (depending on which source/map one goes by) is between 38-41 miles. The BCHT is a designated National Recreational Trail. Canoeing and kayaking opportunities are abound on the BC, which offers about 41 miles, again, depending on which source/map one refers to.

This trip report consists of the 10.8 miles of the BCHT that traverses through the BCW that offers sporadic views of the BC. Our group consisted of myself and four guys that I regularly train and compete with at a local firearms range. We started from the parking lot of the General Jackson Interpretive Trail, which is just about .5 miles from the Janice Landing on Hwy. 29 in Perry County, just Northeast of Wiggins, MS. The weather forecast was near perfect. The temperature during the day was between 70-75 degrees, no rain, and a nice breeze with some wind gusts. The night temperature never got below 65 degrees. The weather was darn near perfect I tell ya!

So, the plan was to hike in at least half way or more, camp overnight, then hike on to the Melvin-Breland Rd. trailhead to be picked-up by our pre-arranged ride. Any mileage figures will be based from Janice Landing to the South towards Melvin-Breland Rd. The white diamonds (a plastic diamond card) nailed to the trees were our guide and navigational beacon. The terrain was much like the Tuxachanie Trail (TT) in Harrison/Stone Counties. The initial distinguishing difference was that the BCHT was not as wide as the TT, so that was a welcomed change. As we headed further in the BCW, I could feel the remoteness that this trail system offered. There are no mile markers on this trail, but I will refer to ‘mile marks’, being when I marked a waypoint for that mile mark on my GPS from Janice Landing. The BCHT parrelled the BC at a distance, it then turned to follow the Beaver Dam Creek (BDC) and the one mile mark was shortly after the BC and BDC intersected. Just past the one mile mark, there was an obvious side trail that I marked as a waypoint. We did not get to explore this side trail as we had much hiking to do on the BCHT, and I will come back another day to do some day hiking and see where this side trail leads. We already knew that this portion of the BCT would intersect with Hwy. 29 at a bridge. The two mile mark was just before the trail came out to the edge of Hwy. 29. This was an easy crossing as one just walks up to the highway, over the bridge and back down into the trail. On the South side of this bridge is a really nice sign to get the obligatory ‘Kodak moment’, which of course, we all did. So basically, the trail has looped around BDC at this point and is heading toward BC. Post-trip, I see that BCHT comes really close to the Florida Gas Line Rd. just behind a church, but I never saw anything that I could remember while hiking. There was nothing particular about reaching the third mile mark, but that I was really warmed-up and stoked about being in the BCW hiking the BCHT. Just before the fourth mile marker, the trail runs right along the BDC and offers some nice views along with the sounds of the water flowing in BDC. The fifth mile marker was right at where the BDC and the BC intersect and we were able to walk down to the creeks’ edge. Oh yeah, we took a break and enjoyed the scene. Somewhere between the fifth and sixth mile marks was a nice area to camp along the BC. Apparently, some other folks thought so as well. No one was there, but there was a table built out of limbs and a basket built out of vines. One of the guys referred to it out of something the Blair Witch Project. Well, moving on along, somewhere between the sixth and seventh mile marks was a major blow down on the trail that was impassable, or was not worth trying to pass, so we bush whacked around it. Thankfully, Spring had not kicked in yet and the bush whacking was minimal. Just before the seventh mile marker, we started looking for a camp site for the night. There were some nice offerings, but the bluff over BC was very high and would have made it somewhat challenging to obtain water. There was another point where the BCHT came right along the BC, so we hike on. At around eight and half miles, we found a really nice area to camp in. This location was on a high bluff overlooking BC as well, but BC also interested with Mill Creek (MC), which was also easily accessible and MC was our water source for filtering. In addition to this location being a really cool camp site location, someone had already established a fire ring.

Thanks to one of the guys that was with us, he brought two rib-eye steaks marinated in some type of Teriyaki seasoning, four potatoes and some sour cream and butter. So he made a grilling rack out of bamboo and cooked the steaks over the coals. On top of a Mountain House Meal (Beef Stew), each of us had half a rib eye steak and potato, which was a cool way to end the night. The next day was going to be a short hike out for about two miles or so. We were not in a rush to hike out because of the short distance we had to go. So, we were able to take our time in the morning as well. Because I left my GPS on just a little when we arrived at camp the afternoon before, mile maker nine and ten may not be as accurate as the other mile marks I logged. Somewhere between the ninth and tenth mile marks was a huge drainage with no crossing. This drainage was way larger than the other several bridged drainages and it was odd that there was no bridge built over it. It may very well have had a foot bridge over and may have been washed away because there were several large trees cluttered up about 30-40 feet down from it. Thankfully, those cluttered trees ended up in way that they made it possible to cross this drainage. Other wise, this would have been a difficult crossing. The remainder of BCHT at this point became rather wide and I suspect this portion may have been an old forestry road bed, but nonetheless, it was a beautiful wilderness to backpack and hike through. On both ends of the BCW portion, there were large information boards about a tenth of the mile in or so with of course, information about the BCHT and the BCW along with a ‘Visitor’s Registration’ box, which had no slips available to fill out. During this trip, the only people we encounter going the opposite were a large group of Boy Scouts from Covington, LA. I think they were Troop 193 and there were about 20 of them or so. It was nice to see them out and about. During my hikes in the De Soto National Forest, I have seen more Boy Scout Troops from Louisiana (Covington and Mandeville areas) than anywhere else. As a matter of fact, I have yet to see any from Mississippi on the trail. This was a great introduction the BCHT, BC and the BCW for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed it and yes, it was quite a challenge. I am already planning my next outing somewhere along this trail system. Not only was this a great Walk in the Woods, it was a great Night in the Wilderness.

SMSP

[blackwater slim]

Sounds like you found the same amazing things I found in reverse order. If the rest of the trail is as good as this section, it is as I said before, hard to beat (excepting mountains and/or seashore areas).

[WaitingInTheWeeds]

I'm glad you enjoyed your hike. I bet those steaks made it even better! You wouldn't happen to know the condition of the trail from Fairley Bridge landing to Melvin-Breland Rd would you? I thought about starting my 3 day hike from Fairly Bridge, hiking as far as I wanted to the first day then camping. On the second day I would hike for half the day, then turn around and hike back and make camp again. Then I would finish back where I started from on the 3rd day (since that is where my car would be).

[Sasqwatch]

I'm planning to hike Black Creek end to end in May. I haven't done an overnight trip since doing 600+ miles of the AT in 2004 so I'm really looking forward to a few days out in the woods!

[WaitingInTheWeeds]

I figured instead of starting a new thread, this would be a good place to post about my trip on the Black Creek Hiking Trail last weekend. I was initially going to go for 3 days 2 nights, but I decided to cut it short to 2 days for 2 reasons. One, my pack was waayy too heavy (as I have posted about in other threads) and the pain in my shoulders was excruciating after the 1st day. And two, I over did it a bit on the first day; both typical newbie hiker errors from which I have learned valuable lessons for my upcoming thru of the AT.

I started from the Fairly Bridge Landing campsite near Fairly Bridge Rd. The entire section from here to the Black Creek Wilderness Area is clearly part of an old logging road system considering the width of the trail. The first part of the trail was pretty mundane and mostly flat. After awhile, though, the elevation starts to change, and for someone not used to hiking (and with a heavy pack) it can be quite challenging. After a few PUDS I came to a wide sandbar along the creek where I saw the only people I would see for both days. This was a great spot to have some lunch and try out my new canister stove. I was very happy w/ the speed for cooking; it’s just too bad I'm such a slow eater as I feel like I spent more time here for lunch than I should have.

After this area there are a few more PUDS and then you come to Melvin Breland Rd. Just prior to reaching this road I managed to scare the crap outa myself by almost stepping on a snake that was sunning itself in the middle of the trail. I know they're usually harmless, but I'm still not a fan of them anyway. I backed away and it eventually slithered away. I looked it up when I got home just to see if it was poisonous, but as I figured it wasn't.

When you reach Melvin Breland Rd, you enter the Black Creek Wilderness Area. It is pretty much the same as SMSP posted earlier; fairly flat with some areas that are nicer to hike through than others. The hardest sections seemed to be in swamp areas where everything was overgrown and so there wasn't much to look at aside from a few Armadillos (which was pretty neat b/c I had never seen any live ones before). Plus, there were quite a few downed trees as well, but nothing that required any more than just stepping over them and many of them had been cleared too. I came across the same crossing as SMSP did with the missing bridge, but was able to make my way (carefully) across a using a downed tree. I also used this stream as a water source on my way back through on the second day. I figured this would be as good a time as any to get a drink w/o using the filter or chemicals since I had considered doing that on the AT anyway. It worked out just fine since I didn't get sick or anything. By doing that and listening to advice in these forums, I've lightened my load by ditching the filter for the AT.

At this point I lived up to my self-given trail name Tick-Tock b/c I foolishly decided to keep hiking even though the sun was clearly going down. I thought I would have enough time to make it to where there was a known campsite as listed on the map given to me by the forest service in Wiggins. The problem was that with all the dense growth and the fact that I wasn't really looking at the map every five seconds I sort of lost track of how far I had gone on the trail and didn't realize that I had passed the campsite without ever seeing it. The trail became overgrown again at this point and I was a little worried I might not find a suitable place to camp before the sun went down. I was hoping to find a place along the creek so I would have water in the morning, but as SMSP stated there are several places where the trail meets the creek, but it is too high above it to get down and get any water. I eventually found a place that was "good enough" and set up camp just as the sun was dipping below the horizon. After a night with some really crazy dreams (being alone in the woods will make your mind do weird things), I hiked a little ways further up the trail to see if I could get my bearings. After about 15 minutes I came to where the Beaver Dam Creek meets the Black Creek and knew exactly where I was. I wish I had gotten there the night before b/c there was a camp spot already set up and easy access to the water. Oh well....

The second day was pretty uneventful. As I said I didn't see a single soul until I reached my car back at Fairly Bridge Landing. I was soooo happy to see my car as I couldn't bear the pain in my shoulders and knees anymore. I'm very glad I went on this little excursion. Had this happened to me after stepping on the AT for the first time I might have been more inclined to quit. Even if I convinced myself to continue (which I'm sure I could have), it would have been a very rocky start until I could get to a place to trade out some gear. Now I will be much better prepared for the AT. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I feel more ready than ever.

[Sasqwatch]

Thanks for the write up! Question about the proximity of the trail to the creek. I'd like to do a bit of swimming on my hike, are there any campsites near the creek?