Black Mountain Crest Trail Trip July 4th weekend

“couchtater: I was wondering if that could be an emergency camping spot if we can't find a place to camp sunday night.

Gem - I am camping sunday night.

we will be hurt'n pups”

“I just got the southern sixer book tonight. Got me thinking about the July 4th trip. I was thinking of ways to bag a few more sixers on that trip. Roam, if we are not dead early monday morning, do you want to try and bad a couple more. Maybe we can bushwack Mt. Gibbs and then nail Blackstock Knob and Craggy Dome. Mt. Hallback is right next to Mt. Mitchell and maybe we can nail that when we stop on the summit on Sunday. This would get us all of the sixers in the area."”

“There is a new outdoor store in downtown Burnsville named "The Outpost" if anyone needs supplys or forgot something.”

“i knew i'd read that post and replied already, thought maybe we had a timewarp thing goin on:

"Sounds good to me, as long as the legs still work Monday morning. I'm not going very far to get where I'm going after that.

Itd be fun to knock out as many as possible."
Roam Around
11:13:02 PM
06/11/04”

“Ooch......Ouch ! !”

“2 cent addition here...there is another water source at the gap...follow the old road west down and look for the seeps on the right at about a quarter mile...ive never had a problem.”

“thanks, that sounds better”

“I've gotten water from the log road spring one time and the other time had to climb down the cliff to get it.”

“well, I am ready. I printed out my previous list, so I can start really marking them off.

I can't find my darn southern sixers book...hopefully it's somewhere in the back of the closet.

the website is actually pretty good though. Just like to read the book when I am not near a 'puter.

Boy, am I ready. Wish I could already leave next weekend.
Did we have anything planned next weekend too? I know some trip must be coming up.”

“the first day's hiking should be pretty difficult with climbing the 3500 feet to Celo Knob and then the fact that the trail is grown up from Celo Knob to Deep Gap. After reading the southern sixer book it looks as though the peaks before deep gap are off the trail a tad. It says there are side trails to them but if the BMC is grown up I can't imagine that the side trails will be clear of brush. I think that this is a peak bagging trip so for those who want to bag the peaks, we should take our packs off when the BMC gets to the side trails and then take the side trails to the respective peaks.I didn't realize that Cattail peak was off trail and is really 6600 feet. There is a sign that you come to that says Cattail peak 6583 feet and according to the book is a false peak. A side trail exists for that one too.”

“I remember that the book stated that. Dang...where is my book??....”

“yeah, this is gonna be a challenge, but it's gonna be fun!

I bet we'll sleep pretty good each night.”

“I'm going to be driving straight from work friday night. Leaving about 5pm. It will be about an 8 hour drive. Hopefully get there around 1am. I'll probably sleep somewhere near the gate to the state park.”

“which is right next to the ranger station where we are going to meet. So if anyone sees a blue honda civic and I am no where to be found, please come and wake me up. lol”

“lol, I'll prolly be getting there a little after you do.”

“you should park right next to me then. When you turn up 128 keep on going till you get to the gate next to the ranger station. There is a dirt road with a lot to the left of the gate. I plan on pulling in there to sleep.”

“sounds good Earth!



HEY GEMINI, YOU GOTS MAIL”

“Sunday night....I'm staying.”

“I think we can bag Craggy Dome amd Mt. Hallback no problem. Blackstock and Mt. Gibbs (w/ radio towers) maybe tricky but it would be cool to bag them while we are there. I plan on getting up really early Monday morning to bag the peaks.”

“anybody available?

I just pulled out my Shining Rock map and was looking at it. I had tentative plans to go somewhere else, but if someone's available I could be tempted to do Cold Mtn and some others in the Balsams.”

“Post something on this site. Most them are all from the Smokies/Carolina area and love the looking glass/cold mtn. area.

http://www.griztrax.net/gtforum/wildcountry.html”

“thanx!”

“no problem.

Hey I saw that Bigpoppa signed up for the trip. Topherac is coming from Mich and was looking for someone to tag along with from the midwest.”

“All right folks, I might, might, be coming to this. Maybe, we shall see how things develop.”

“Dude, that would be awesome if you go on this trip. You can ride down with me should you decide to go.”

“what about magaritta man? Is the concert not happening anymore?”

“we can potentially bag the following sixers:

These are along the route so no prob -

Celo Knob
Gibbs Mtn
Winterstar
Cattail Pk
Balsam Cone
Mt. Craig
Mt. Mitchell

these peaks we will also hit along the way but are not counted by the southern sixers club -

Percy's Peak
Horse Rock
Deer Mtn
Potato Hill
Big Tom

and if we're not too tired when the hike is over Sunday, we can maybe bag -

Mt. Hallback
Mt. Gibbs (different than GibbsMtn)
Blackstock Knob
Craggy Dome

peaks not counted by Southern 6ers

Potato Knob
Clingmans Pk
Patton
Cherry Mtn

Also there is a knife edge that we will get to hike on between Celo Knob and Winterstar called Lone Ridge.

awesome!!!!”

“bagging all of those is extreme wishful thinking but even if we bag any number of them it still is awesome. Just cool that we can potentially bag 11 of the mountains counted by the Southern Sixer club. Even if we don't do anymore that what is on the trail we will still have bagged 7.”

“I feel the call of Yosemite, so to pay for that I need to sell my tickets to the concert. I can go to a show in August. So that opens up July 4 weekend for me. I'll probably drive down right after I get out of work. No way I'm trying to get out of DC after 5 on a Friday.”

“It would also be great to meet Bigpoppa since he is organizing Wind-O-Roma.”

“DC traffic is the worst I have ever encountered bar none.”

“we have a good crew going on this trip. it's going to be a good time.”

“ever been thru Atlanta Earth?

DC is bad without doubt, Atlanta is probably just as bad, I think.”

“spent lots of time in Atlanta. Almost everyweekend last summer. Luckily, I didn't get stuck in the traffic. Atlanta is famous for its traffic.”

“I'll second that motion. 54 miles one way across "spagetti junction", straight through the heart of the ATL 5 days a week. Black Mtn. Campground telephone# for reservations is 828-682-6146.”

“I called the camp gound and they said you can't make reservations. They said it is first come first serve. Know anything about that?”

“Never actually stayed there, but I put dear ol'mom on that .”

“I'll call the # tomorrow and reserve some spaces.”

“What are we doing as far as shuttling back to the trailhead? I'll need to leave on Sunday when we're done.”

“FYI
"for those of you who want to car camp on Sunday July 4th night following the hike:

I called Black Mountain Campground at the base of Mt. Mitchell and the terminus of the backpack today. Camping there is first come first serve but they have alot of camp sites there. The sites are $13 per night and they allow 6 people per site, two tents and two cars per sites."
EarthNsky
12:28:02 PM
05/06/04”

“We're going to post a few cars at the trail head at Bolens Creek, Mitchell Summit parking lot and at Black Mtn campground at the end of the hike. When we are done we will shuttle everyone around.”

“glad you reposted that, I'd have forgotten to make sure I had enough cash on me!”

“we should only need two sites”

“would it be a good trip to try out my hammock for the first time? I haven't even played with it yet.

what ya think??”

“Deep Gap is a possibility for the hammock. there are a lot of trees. I've not seen what the hammocks look like yet though.”

“where is this? what state and which part of what state?

is it on the trips page?

can i go?”

“http://thebackpacker.com/trips/trip.php?id=401


I may just use my tacoma tent. Its only a little over 1 lbs...but it's so pissy... i don't like it. :(

oh well, I guess we'll see.”

“yeah man, it is in Western NC near Asheville. Not far from where the Smokies are. You would take I-40 all the way in. It's probably a pretty decent haul for you. Alot of us are coming in from faraway. I'm driving down from DC which is about 7-8 hours. It's shaping up to be a pretty good trip. It is on the trips page under Black Mountain Ball Breaker.”

“I wonder if my 40 degree bag is too much. It gets kinda cold there at night. It will probably get down into the low 40s in Deep Gap.”

“I mean my 20 degree bag.”