(click on the links in the text for more photos)
(click on the links in the text for more photos)
Photos by Will Skelton, Text by Beverly Smith
Four hikers, Duane Simmons, Will Skelton, John Dunlap and I set out on what turned out to be an incredibly beautiful fall weekend of hiking one of the toughest trails in the southeast, the Black Mountain Crest Trail. The trail is located in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest beginning on Mt. Mitchell, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi at 6684'. The trail crosses over the crest of the Black Mountains, traversing a series of over 6000' peaks. The trail ends with a 3000', 5.5 mile, thigh burning drop from Celo Knob to Bowlen Creek Road.
Setting up this hike involves a long car shuttle from the Bowlen Creek trailhead outside of Burnsville, NC to Mt. Mitchell, a drive of about approximately 40 minutes. As luck would have it, Nathan Coggins from the State of Franklin Group was planning the hike with his son and several friends the same weekend and in the opposite direction that we were hiking. After several phone calls, we coordinated a car switch on Highway 80 at the Blue Ridge Parkway. We are very appreciative that Nathan and his group were willing to delay their start time to accommodate our longer travel time from Knoxville.
We left Mt. Mitchell with an optimistic plan of reaching Celo Knob the first day (only 6.5 miles). Our progress was slow. The haze was heavy and the fall colors not as intense as anticipated, but the views from the Black Mountain Crest Trail are incredible! The leaves were long gone above 3500', and we saw traces of snow along the trail from the prior week’s cold temperatures. We found entertainment on the trail through Duane’s backpack, which was a very long, narrow external frame pack that packed high instead of wide. His pack coupled with his “safari hat” amused and amazed not only us but also the hikers we passed along the trail, including one dog that caught sight of the pack, sat down and refused to move.
We hiked long into the day, finally settling on a campsite as the sun began to set. Our campsite was located on an open grassy spot around Horse Rock and faced west, providing a spectacular view of the sunset. It also proved to be a perfect area for star gazing on a crisp, clear fall night. We were 0.5 miles away from our goal of the Celo Knob trail junction, but we agreed that we could not have picked a better spot to camp. The only problem was the 1.5-mile roundtrip hike, in the dark, to get water. Will and Duane made this trek, and I was thankful to be left at camp to recover from a very long day.
On Sunday, Duane, John and I made the bushwhacking, knee crawling hike up to the summit of Celo Knob (6327'). Will who had already had this experience was wise enough to linger in camp and catch up with us on our way back to the trail junction. As we dropped in elevation on our way to Bowlen Creek Road and the car, we enjoyed a more intense display of fall colors and a few late wildflowers. We were once again thankful to Nathan and his group as we headed home without the 40-minute car shuttle.
