A Hike and a Movie

“This past weekend I took my 11 yo daughter up to backpack in the Shining Rock Wilderness area of North Carolina. This is an area with multiple Southern Sixers. We had planned this to be a 2 night/3 day trip for the weekend before, but a snow storm caused us to cancel. This weekend was a tight squeeze, but after the Wilmington Hammerheads (professional soccer team) game we hopped in the car and drove through the night to the parking lot at the Black Balsam trailhead on a service road accessed via the Blue Ridge Parkway above Brevard, NC. We arrived around 4:30 am. Savannah was already asleep in the back seat, and after a brief stretch of the legs in the cold, windy night I leaned the front seat back and went to sleep myself.

We awoke at 8 to a steady rain and high winds. At first I tried to convince myself that it was a passing storm and not set in for the day, but an hour later my capacity to suspend disbelief was taxed to the maximum. So, since neither of us was excited about stepping from a warm car into a driving rainstorm in 44-degree weather, we opted to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway taking in the sights from behind rainproof glass. After riding the parkway a bit the rain slowly turned to fog. Beautiful as it was to watch the fog thicken, causing the mountains to appear as if a flameless forest fire raged across the peaks spewing white smoke from the treetops, we knew that hiking along the treeless ridgeline of the Art Loeb Trail was going to be lacking in the view department.

On the way back to the trailhead we took a cool pic of the fog from inside one of the Parkway tunnels. We started hiking around 11pm and was soon exiting the trees into a dense fog that blew by us at a steady rate of 25 mph. This was the first of the many times I told Savannah to get her head out of the clouds. I am not sure at what number she thought it no longer funny, but I was still getting a kick out of it hours later. The Art Loeb Trail is less a trail than it is myriad mixing of 2’-3’ deep gullies of flowing mud and standing water. The guide books and website gurus all said to stay on the trail and not make the situation worse, but I don’t see how it could be worse. Poor Savannah with her short legs looked like she was mountain climbing at times. As we hiked up the short climb to the summit I was dismayed that the fog wasn’t getting any thinner. As we hiked across the ridges all I could think of (when not worried about my child being blown off the mountain) was how beautiful the views must be if we could only see them.

We crossed the summit of Black Balsam where I informed Savannah that she had just bagged her first Southern Sixer. I could tell she was ecstatic by the way her snarl turned into more of a frown. Just kidding, Savannah is a great little trooper, but it turned out that her nylon pants aren’t very weather proof so the inner lining was soaked along with her feet. Her Red Ledge jacket was keeping her dry from the waist up, but her bottom half was wet and cold. Looks like another gear purchase coming her way.

Anyway, we continued onward across the ridge connecting Tennent Mountain (another Southern Sixer) with Black Balsam. It was somewhere along here that Savannah threatened to jump from the ridge if I told her to get her head out of the clouds again. That girl has no sense of humor. Of course, it could have been the 50 mph gust blowing her 60 lb body 2’-3’ off the trail every so often. I have a 5-second burst of video of her hiking across the ridge with the wind howling and the clouds blowing past, her sodden hair blowing all about as she trudged quickly onward through the muck and mud. She didn’t seem to be to thrilled to have conquered her second Sixer either. I swear, there is no pleasing this kid (BTW, I hope it’s obvious that I am very proud of her. Many full grown adults wouldn’t have taken the first step that day). What did please her was when we were hiking down off Tennent Mountain we stopped for a snack and a rest. She sat next to me and just rested her head against my shoulder like she really liked me or something. That was a very nice moment.

After the break, she took off hiking while I was packing up our lunch and got a little way ahead of me. When I caught up to her I called out to her from 10’ behind. She almost jumped out of her skin she was so into her own world. We had a good laugh about that. We hiked down off the peak and soon turned onto the Graveyard Ridge Trail to loop back toward Graveyard fields. This trail is lower down the slope and looks like it might have once been a forest service road. Saturday it was just another creek. There was plenty of little waterfalls coming down the slope and running under and down the trail. There was one fun water crossing with a lovely falls.

At 1:30 we were 5 miles from the beginning of the hike when we intersected the Mountains to Sea trail. Here we were planning to set up camp and explore down into the graveyard fields area. The problem was that I had been teaching Savannah how to read and follow the map, and she correctly deduced we were only 1-½ miles from the car at that point. Being soaked to the bone from the waist down she was interested in exploring alternatives to our current plan. I told her she was in charge and could decide. She was nearly out of sight before I finished the sentence. Little did she know that the first ½ mile climbed about 400’. We huffed and puffed our way up the trail – well, ok, I huffed and puffed. About half way, because I am such a caring and doting parent, I demanded that Savannah stop and rest herself before she keeled over from being out of shape – ok, again, it was really me that needed the breather.

About ½ mile from the end of the trail we came across a nice surprise – the headwaters of the Yellowstone Prong (river for those of us not from the mountains). Before we got to it there were a few unmarked trails heading toward the top of the Upper falls down below. I may explore that some day. But the trail we were on soon turned into a series of bridges and planks taking us over a couple hundred yards of seeps and creeks that become the Yellowstone Prong below. One of the bridges went right over a slide that dropped straight down about 30 feet to begin tumbling even more over the rocks below. The fog couldn’t hide this beautiful scene.

Too make a long story short (too late) we were soon back at the car. Savannah changed into dry clothes and we drove over to Graveyard Fields where it was strangely clear of fog. Everything around it was in shrouds. I hiked down a little ways and took some pics for reconnaissance for the TT Southeast kids hike later this month. There are plenty of campsites and fire rings there. You can pretty much camp anywhere you want. The creek looks like it will be a blast to play in and the second falls is beautiful. I didn’t go much further. Didn’t want to spoil my appetite for the trip in a few weeks.

We decide to drive down to Brevard and get some pizza. On the way down Hwy 287 we saw two bears cross the road in front of us. The first was a cub that crossed about 100 yards up. When we got there he was standing up with one paw against a tree. He looked like an Ewok :). When we slowed he ran away. Too cool. Savannah told me to get the camera out in case we saw another. I told her that I doubted we would. About 200 yards later a big bear came up from the creek and ran right in front of us, nearly knocking over a motorcyclist approaching from the other direction. I know he will need to scrub that seat. I stopped in the middle of the road and we watched the bear lope up the hillside. Even cooler. Savannah said she saw a big cat take off after the bear, but I missed that.

I don’t think we need to rehash Savannah’s opinion that I should have had the camera out and ready.

After our pizza we decided to go see The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Great movie. We both loved it and plan on seeing it again with the rest of the family.

We drove back up to the Parkway after the movie so I could show Savannah all the twinkling lights below, but she fell asleep on the way up. On the parkway the fog was so thick I couldn’t see 50’ ahead of me. I pulled into the first east facing overlook and parked. I had been by here several times so I knew the view would be grand in the morning. I pulled out my sleeping bag and curled up in the passenger seat while the wind pummeled the car. We both woke up around 3:30 and the fog had broke enough to look down into the valley. The lights were very pretty. We chatted awhile then we both went back to sleep. I started the car twice that night to turn on the heat. Wish my tent came with one of those.

In the morning it was 32 degrees when we watched the sun come up. The mountains were shrouded in billowing clouds. We went back to sleep and awoke again around 9:00 am. We decided to drive the parkway up to Mt Mitchell stopping at nearly every overlook. Mt Mitchell was beautiful, but touristy. We will have to hike up there someday so we can really appreciate the view. Since the Parkway is closed just past Mitchell we returned to Asheville, had a late lunch and drove home to Wilmington.

It was a wonderful 44 hours. We drove nearly 1000 miles and only hiked about 6 miles :-). There was so much more that transpired between my daughter and I that will never come out in words. It was a great experience and I would do it again next week if the wife would let us.

I'll post the pics tonight.”

“Great, great TR hyway.”

“Dude. You win.


I hope you are able to capture more moments like that . ..

11 years old is on the narrow edge of the teen years.

Kudos to you for capturing them when you have the chance.”

“Awesome TR!

how come everyone is seeing bears, but me? I dont' get it!”

“Dang that water is gonna be cold in a few weeks.

Are you pulling a Buck on us?

" stopped in the middle of the road and we watched the bear lope up the hillside. Even cooler. Savannah said she saw a big cat take off after the bear, but I missed that."”

“nice report hyway. I am suprised your daughter didn't push you off one of the overlooks though...lol”

“Thanks for the comments people. Thought it might be too long to read LOL

ewker, she did give me a shove on one of them. caused my nads to crawl up inside me before my mind remembered the fence was there LOL.”

“Sorry the hiking part of the trip didn't pan out as expected. I thought about you Saturday morning when down here in Greenville it was black with clouds and pouring rain. I knew what it was going to be like up there. It's one thing to go hiking and then be caught in a rainstorm. It's a whole 'nother ball game to start out in one.
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Your comments about the Art Loeb Trail up to Black Balsam Knob and over to Tennent Mt. are dead nuts on. That place is being loved to death. That's the disadvantage of being so close to the Parkway. The best thing they could do right now is close off Forest Service Rd. 816. That would make most of the area too far for the average day tripper. It's either that or they are going to have to 1) close those trails, 2) fill them with gravel or 3)ignore the problem. Since the FS is broke my guess is option 3. Not good.”

“here are my pics. I didn't take many on the ridge because the clouds were soaking the camera everytime I took it out.

http://community.webshots.com/album/337166095maIeIq

I also have a short video burst, but webshots won't load it”

“good pics hyway, It's nice to see your daughter enjoys getting out with you”

“does anyone know if any of those photo sites let you put up video?”

“hyway, ask Gem. Remember she put up that video of her jumping up and down on the bed”

“I think she hosted that herself? Can't remember.

I put a video I took in some of my free webspace a year or so ago. It was small, and only took a couple of people downloading it to blow my daily bandwidth allowance, but I did it.”

“thanks for sharing, hyway, nice pics!”

“great report Hyway”

“Thanks for sharing !”

“I guess I need to break down and create a real webpage to upload stuff like videos”

“Very nice trip and TR. Those moments are the ones you will never forget, and neither will Savannah.”

“i'm glad you had a good weekend despite the weather. nice pics!”

“Thanks buddy and De mooie”