Mount Mitchell Hike - October 15, 2006

One of my favorite places to hike or backpack is the Black Mountains range in western NC.  We try to get there at least once or twice a year to hike, and this year I had my our new digital camera along (You have been warned...).

Just as we have been having unusually warm weather in NC this week, we had unusually cold weather for a few days back in October.  We went up to Mount Mitchell on the coldest day that week. 

Our usual day hike is to take the Commissary Road Trail down to the creek and then the Camp Alice Trail up to the top. 

The Commissary Road follows where the old railroad used to be.  In fact, before they paved it with the gravel a few years ago, there were still ties here and there (and streams running down the center of the road when it rained so I see why they had to put the gravel down.  I still like it the other way...).  The railroad was used for logging, and then the road was used for tourism. 

A large part of the reason that we love this hike so much is that the Commissary Road goes along the side of the mountains - and this (above) is the view that you can see the entire time you're hiking.  That is, unless you get fogged in, which happens more often than in other parts of the mountains.  Mitchell tends to make its own weather.  That day, the weather was cold enough for icicles to form - not surprising in December, but unusual in mid-October.

 

 

We always sit by this stream to eat lunch, and to dangle our feet in the water.  Sensible people wouldn't do that on a day cold enough for icicles to form on the rocks.

We're not sensible.  We're Scandinavian ("Look, my foot looks like an Easter Egg - all pink below that line!").

You can see the summit of Mount Mitchell behind the trees.  Although it is the highest mountain in the U.S. east of the Mississippi, and used to be the highest mountain in the U.S. before Texas joined, it doesn't have an impressive peak.

A view down the stream with a beautiful NC October sky.

The other thing I love about the Black Mountains, besides the view, is the flora (we usually see little in the way of fauna besides an occasional bird, although we were surprised this time by a fox trotting along the road on the way up to the park).  The Fraser firs and red spruce are beautiful, and, when you're in the middle of the forest, it is so peaceful - one of my favorite places to be.  It's also much shadier, and those pictures didn't really come out.

The beginning of the Camp Alice Trail.  This part is much steeper so dear husband and daughter went back up the Commissary Road - daughter had injured her foot in ballet a few weeks previously.  Older and younger son and I took the Camp Alice Trail and met the other two at the top. 

This is the peaceful, quiet (you can't hear anything but nature for a good bit of the way up), and photo-less part of the hike.  And, because it is so steep, we get really toasty, and wish we'd worn short sleeves (you did notice the winter jackets in the first picture?).

The view from (almost) the top.  They're rebuilding the observation tower at the very top, and no one is allowed up there so this is the picture from the edge of the parking lot. 

And this is what the view is like in all directions - you feel like you're on top of the world here.

The Black Mountains from one of the Parkway overlooks.

For more on the history and flora of Mount Mitchell, you can read "The Trees of Mount Mitchell" by Alan Anderson, or get Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains:  An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America (right) by Timothy Silver (which just went on my Christmas List).

And, I can't finish without music.  Doc Watson deserves a post of his own someday, but I'll just leave you with a link to his Myspace page where you can listen to him play the "Black Mountain Rag."

Comments

[Emily]

Thanks for adding prettiness to day.

[Emily]

Oops. That was supposed to say "to MY day".

[Laurie]

What beautiful photos! I've never been to Mt. Mitchell. And thanks for the Doc Watson link. I'm listening to him right now at work.