Shining Rock Wilderness

I needed a place to document my backpacking trips, so here we are. I have an equal amount of love for technology and being (mostly) isolated in the middle of a forest - a blog makes sense.

Friday morning, I woke up to a text message. "Come over at 9". Two hours more of bedsleep. Reawake, shower, pack up, and head out. We need supplies, so we're out buying fuel and food. We don't leave until noon and we arrive at the trail around 3. No problem though, I'm recovering from a knee injury so we're doing an easy 10 mile, two nighter.

We started walking into the forest at the beginning of the third section of the Art Loeb Trail. After a short walk through the woods we entered the mountain balds. We quickly reached the first peak - Black Balsam Knob. This part is striking. We're standing on mountaintop meadows, watching clouds roll over the mountains, down the valleys, and through us. A new experience, a different view of the mountains from other hikes. We continue down the trail and reach the second peak - Tennet Mountain. Due to expected rain, we didn't bring cameras on this trip. Here's one picture of Justin taken with his ipod:


Eventually we get to Shining Rock Wilderness area, marked by an old weatherworn wooden sign. The trail goes up a little to the Grassy Cove Top peak, then follows along a wooded ridge. This mile or so stretch is the easiest part of the hike. We talk of companionship (inspired by a Fresh Air interview we heard on the drive up) and defining self, trekking through the cool and shaded forest. The trail spills out into a clearing and hits another trail. We find the "creek" marked on the map - at the moment it's a few puddles and wet rocks. One small puddle in the creek becomes our water source for the weekend. We make camp, cook dinner and drink coffee. We relax and read. We drink wine and read with headlamps in the tent. We watch spiders copulate on the tent mesh, between the tent and the rain fly. Finally we sleep.

Saturday I woke to the sound of Justin returning to the tent with all of our food and the sound of a thousand buzzing flies. I couldn't sleep anymore, so I wandered down to the creekpuddle to filter water for breakfast. Here is the morning sun, taken with my blackberry:


After eating some delicious freezedried biscuits and gravy for breakfast, we walked up to Shining Rock - the last peak of the trip. We packed up and began the trip back to the mountain balds to make a camp on a meadow a couple hundred feet below Black Balsam Knob. There was a lot of time to kill. I threw my pack down, used it as a pillow and laid on my back in a field reading Dune and staring into the mountains. After dinner it rained, the rest of the night was spent reading and sleeping. Sunday we woke up very early, packed up and walked the rest of the short trail back to the car. We had breakfast at Pisgah Inn right off of the Blue Ridge. Mmmm, coffee with cream and sugar and non freezedried foods.