Cold Mountain and Pancakes, Part Two

Oh lord it has been too long since my last post and since I went to Cold Mountain. I went to Seattle with Justin last week and we spent a few days in Mt Rainier park on the Wonderland Trail, so I'll be putting up pictures from that soon.

Pancakes became the word on this trip. The goal was more aggressive than any we had undertaken before and there were times where one or the other or both of us weren't sure if we could keep going. When the trail got tough, one of us would shout out "PANCAKES" to keep the morale up. At the end of the trip, we were going to Pisgah Inn to get some nice, warm pancakes and good ass coffee - and dammit that was one luxury to look forward to and push us on.

I slept OK on night one. A bunch of dogs started howling at one point and freaked me out for a second, but I didn't get the sleep I should have. We woke up, made some biscuits and gravy (I love you Backpacker's Pantry), and packed up. After two miles back up (and I mean UP) the Art Loeb, we were back to Deep Gap. Time to hide the packs and only carry camera, water, and beef jerky to the top.

The hike to the top wasn't bad at all. I think it's about 1.5 miles. I'd bust out my map to get the exact mileage but I don't care at this point and if you're reading it you probably don't care too much either. Anyway, awesome views at the top of Cold Mountain, plus this was the peak of the trip (pun intended ha-ha-ha).




Welp, now all we have to do is walk back. The original plan had us camping near the stream/creek/puddle shortly after Shining Rock. We trekked back up to the Narrows, then up and back down Stairs Mountain, and we took a nice long break. We cooked some food and OH MY GOD we cooked a Mountain House dessert called raspberry crumble and made some coffee to go along with it. That dessert. THAT DESSERT. It was exactly what we needed after the long long hike of the past day and a half. Both of us were ready to go, we could hike for miles now. Here's what it looks like to finally rest in the woods after hiking forever and feeling exhausted:


It turns out that where we stopped was pretty close to Shining Rock, which means we ended up close to where we planned to get some water and camp. There was still plenty of daylight left, so we got some water, rested up a bit more, and started to hike for about another two miles. We found a nice spot to camp in a place that connects the Art Loeb trail to the Ivestor Gap trail.


And of course you've gotta let your socks dry out.


Goodnight Shining Rock Wilderness, I will sleep so hard tonight.


We woke up super early to take sunrise pictures from Tennet Mountain and to get to pancakes for breakfast. Good morning, Shining Rock Wilderness.




Until next time, Shining Rock Wilderness.




(By the way, the pancakes were cold when they finally brought them out, the waitress was slow and stressed out, and I only got about two cups of coffee. I still love to eat at the Pisgah Inn, though.)