So, last Saturday Zach and myself headed out for an overnight hiking trip. There is no easy way to get to Sunburst and we took the longer distance way but no mountain pass way up the interstate. Along the way there were some good views of Cold Mountain shrouded in clouds:
[all photos except two in this post are credited to zach. see if you can figure out which two I took]
Once at Sunburst we started up the Green Mountain trail with me and Duma in the lead even though Zach’s pack said ‘follow me’:
Green Mountain started with a serious steep climb that quite simply did not let up. I had mapped out our route on my snazzy new mapping software and knew what to expect but Zach had declined a peak at the profile. No biggie, Green was a lot of fun and we chatted our way up the mountain pausing only to soak up the views:
Even the D-Man was digging the scenery:
It was fun seeing a new side of Pisgah and we both tried to pick out the various peaks and ridges. Here I am authoritativly pointing the way we were not going:
Once on top of Green Knob we were treated with a little downhill and then a short climb up another knob before dropping once again. From there our plan was to bushwhack our way to the top of Mount Hardy. Mount Hardy is the last peak in this shot:
I had a feeling that there would be a social trail up to the 6000′+ peak and indeed there was. The briars were so thick I don’t think we would have made it otherwise. Here I am at the top trying to make sense of the weird petroglyphs while Duma smiles on:
After our Mt. Hardy detour it was on to the Mountains to Sea which meandered way too much and took way to long. The trail was nearly flat but littered in rocks and roots and it was slow going at best. There were plenty of pretty flowers along the way but they weren’t enough to make the slog much fun:
I had been planning on continuing on the Mountains to Sea after crossing 215 and then picking up Little Sam but I knew that it was going to be more of the same and happily agreed when Zach suggested taking Flat Laurel all the way. By this time we had already covered ten miles with a shitload of climbing and were both looking forward to camping along Flat Laurel where I knew there were several good campsites. As we made our way up the trail I was a little dismayed to find all of the good sites taken and after a little poking around we settled into a little site that was a little ways up a branch. I had wanted to do Sam Knob “real fast” after getting camp set up but Duma was done for the day so I used that as an excuse to just lounge around camp playing with the fire and sipping on whiskey.
Zach had gone the no stove route and brought a MRE instead. Note how he has it propped on a rock or something just as the packaging indicates:
I had my alcohol stove and had repacked some dehydrated potatoes and black beans. There are many uses for a National Geographic map of which a table cloth is one of the best:
After dinner it was a whole lot of nothing:
Did I mention Duma was done? How about I zoom in a little:
The weather was great but at 3:30 am I woke up freezing. I guess my ultralight bag isn’t quite as warm as the rating says. I put on my rain gear and another pair of socks and got a little more rest but my feet were cold all night.
I woke at seven feeling refreshed and my pack felt light so I suggested we reconsider and head up the Art Loeb and go over Black Balsam Knob and Tennet Mountain and knock off a couple of 6000′ers before breakfast. Though he said he though it was a mistake Zach agreed and up the spur we went:
The top of the balds were cold, foggy and wind swept. Several people were camped up there which didn’t look like much fun to me given the conditions. Along the way we got off the Art Loeb and ended up going down one of the worst erosion gullies on the way to Tennent:
Zach hasn’t done a lot of hiking recently and never carries a pack and his knees were bothering him and I was worried he wasn’t having fun. Self portrait:
Once at the gap he said we should bail on Tennent and I obliged. On the way down to Fork Mountain trail:
We found a trail on the right ridge and after cooking breakfast headed down the Fork Mountain trail. This stretch of trail was simply insane. Downhill and steep. Very overgrown with briars and blueberries growing five feet high. The only thing above the overgrowth and everywhere you looked there were killer views as the trail was descending a knife edge ridge line. Comparable to the Narrows on the Art Loeb. It was slow going but kicked some major ass.
We made the first gap where an old rail grade came in from the north and continued right. Zach thought perhaps we had missed the start to the official trail and were on something else but I simply do not know. The rail grade was a nice change of pace and I stumbled across some ripe blueberries which provided only a few needed calories. But nothing lasts and the trail left the rail grade and made its way up and down many knobs on the way to Birdstand Mountain. Fork Mountain is a six mile trail that feels like twenty miles. It just goes on and on and up and up and up. We were both pretty beat down by this point and just wanted it to end. The views and scenery kicked ass the whole way but I’m not surprised Zach quit taking pictures. I would have as well.
Fork Mountain was the final wilderness trail in the Pisgah District for me to walk so I had a good idea what to expect and it didn’t disappoint. The trail went from being easy to follow and gentle to hard to find and gnarly at a whim and to make matters worse the map’s placement of it was wrong by a quarter of an inch. All we could do was keep on keeping on so that is what we did. We crossed a seemingly impossible number of gaps and knobs as the trail disappeared and then reappeared but after a few hours we hit yet another old rail grade which led us the the sharp left turn that would take us back down to Sunburst. Since we were on a nice rail grade and since Zach was moving a little slower I decided to push on up to High Top with Duma.
While Zach made his way down to the truck me and Duma ran up to the top. The nice double track quickly took a right turn down to Daniel Boone and we were faced with yet more of the same technical steep singletrack that we had spent hours crossing on Fork Mountain. After fifteen minutes of climbing we reached High Top. The sight of an old fire tower where all that remains are the footings, a few boards and some broken glass. There was also a USGS marker, some weather equipment, a goecache and some kick ass views of Pisgah. I could see everywhere we had been: Green Knob, Mt. Hardy, Black Balsam, Birdstand Mtn. and all the other knobs and ridges. No camera but it didn’t matter. No snap shot can capture such a feeling. A real high top for sure.
And just like that we were running back down the trail to catch up to Zach. Duma was not impressed with me leaving a member of the pack and even though I was moving very fast he was really pushing me to go faster. I tripped and dropped his leash and he took off to catch Zach. Pinche Perro!!! I eventually caught up with both of them and we made our way on down the mountain. Duma wasn’t willing to let us get separated again and he is a hard dog to argue with so we kept going down together.
After descending 2000 vertical feet the trail abruptly ended at the river where there was a swimming hole full of the finest local wildlife. I took one look at the scene, decided I didn’t want to stick around and rock hopped my way across and back to the truck.
And just like that it was over.
