This trip marks our 4th backpacking trip: 2 around Linville Gorge trails and 2 to Shining Rock Wilderness. Each time out our packs are getting heavier, the camping more comfortable and the hikes a lot longer. I got a hydration pack for this trip and I love that thing. It helped me conserve water without really thinking about it and I could drink without stopping to bust out the bottle, open the top, gulp it down, and push it back in the side of the pack. I love my pack:
We calculated the route - Art Loeb (3rd section) up to Deep Gap, then take the Cold Mountain to the top, come back down Cold Mountain trail, and take Art Loeb all the way back - 16.4 miles. Nope.
Day 1: Art Loeb all the way to Deep Gap, then 2 miles down the 4th section of Art Loeb in search of water and somewhere to camp away from the big groups at Deep Gap.
This section of Art Loeb is beautiful, you walk along mountaintop balds through meadows and rocks, giving you a 360 degree view of Pisgah National Forest. Within the first couple of miles we hit Black Balsam Knob and Tennet Mountain. Here's one of the few Art Loeb markers, heading up a meadow along the mountain ridges.
Tennet Mountain is the second mountain we hit on this trip, and has the best views in my opinion. At the top of the mountain is a plaque dedicated to Gaillard Stoney Tennent. I don't know much about him, but I bet he was a cool ass dude. You have to be if they name a mountain after you, right?
After Tennet Mountain, the trail continues into Shining Rock Wilderness. You walk along a ridge for a long while with limited views. But it is shady and beautiful and a very easy, welcoming walk. I have no idea where I took this picture, but I'm going to pretend it was on that part of the trail, because this is what it looks like most of the time.
So far, so good. We've done this part of the trail before. We stop at a spring that looks like a stream on the map, which is actually a few small puddles that refill themselves fast enough to filter water out of. We take a nice long lunch and coffee break. I took a picture of the stove and whatever pack of freezedried food we had, but it came out blurry because I move too much and there is no way in hell I'm carrying a tripod on top of everything else I have to bring.
So we continue on and get really confused about all of the trails that are intersecting, end up leaving all of the trails and finding the Art Loeb again. We hike and hike and hike, we hit Stairs Mountain and pass through a section of the trail called "The Narrows". We thought we hit the Narrows when we weren't actually on the Narrows. Then we got to the actual Narrows, which is just a rocky ridge that is pretty narrow and a steep climb to get up and back down. Shortly after we arrive at a place called Deep Gap, which is a big opening and a pretty popular spot to camp. Deep Gap is where the third section of the Art Loeb branches off to the fourth section and the start of the Cold Mountain trail.
We were in need of water, so we wandered down Art Loeb 4 hoping the streams on the map were true. The first one was not, the second one was but there were a bunch of people there trying to filter about 30 bottles out of a little puddle, so we went on. We're exhausted by this point, this must have been around the 7.5 or 8 mile mark of our hike. Oh lordy, pancakes. The forest was amazing here, we were walking around the inside of a ridge and the sun was blocked out by the mountain to our side and backs. The whole area had this dark and purple color, it was quite amazing. We walked another mile and a half, set up camp and finally ate some food and PASSED OUT.
Day 2 and 3 coming soon.
Seattle, infinitely better, one week.
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