Follow the Conifers

Mt. Mitchell for a party of 6.

The Thang:

We gathered at GSM World Headquarters at 5:30am and began our journey to Black Mountian Campground. We arrived shortly before 8am after a crazy windy drive through HWY 80 to this location. (Stroganoff, found car sickness that he recovered from after a loud thunderous belch)

We had to park an extra mile away from the start of the trail due to the construction of a much needed parking lot for this area. We had a choice to go through a trail that we were not sure of or take a long way on the road. We choose the trail with some risk and all was worked out fine. We walked through the campground and started our climb. We would climb for a while and then give Oompa some time to catch up several times and the climb did not seem to bad. We guessed we had about a mile to go so the last time we grouped together we told Def and Oompa we would meet them at the top. Turned out we had several mile to still go and it was a treacherous and hard part of the trail. We all felt that part on the way up.

Note: On the climb up it was a beautiful hike with many roots, rocks, and rough trail. The landscape changed 5 times in my count. We went from hardwood tree’s to Rhododendron’s, Pine and hardwoods, to thick forest with mossy trees, and then ended up in all pine trees.  Several spots to look out around power lines but other than those we were deep in forest most of the trail.

We made it to the top but not the very top before I suggested we walk this nice path down to the Gift shop and concession stand, this was about 100 yards down this stone path that was wide and nice. Everything was closed except the very stinky bathrooms. The walk back from the area to the very top was painful and regretted fully as we made the short climb to the top, very top. Once at the top our phones somewhat worked but not that good. Told the wife we were at the top and took pictures. She texted and I could not respond  “Is it storming there?”. I tried looking up weather maps but it did not work. It was not supposed to rain and we were only at our halfway point and my watch had showed that we had already gone 7 plus miles. At this point I said to Strogoff “Well, at least it is not raining”. So then it rained and the tempature dropped to 58 degrees and nobody was prepared for that. We took cover and the rain passed in about 5 minutes but we got a little more on the way down.

Oompa and Def arrived at the top before the rain. Oompa recovered nicely.  We began the march down the hill to get to some warmer temperatures. The sun came out and at one point for several miles Oompa was leading the bunch. I believe the path down the mountain was much longer and seemed to have more rocks and more roots than what we came up. A couple coming down the mountain behind us was approaching and coming in for the Kill which was mentioned. The pace increased and long story short Oompa was left a behind somewhat. I will make note again that this path which was the same path we came up seemed much longer coming down and much more rugged. Every time we got to just path with no roots, etc we celebrated for 30 seconds before it attacked us again. We made much better time down. We arrived at the camp below. Stroganoff went up the trail looking for Oompa, Freight and Hipaa also journeyed out. I went for the car to bring back expecting that most were done. Panic started, 35 minutes in and no sign of him. Someone made comment that he could have fallen off the mountain and be hurt. I drove up the gravel road and found Oompa walking. Freight and Hippa were 10 minutes up the trail looking for him. Oompa was told wrong information from the Camp person and he basically went an extra 1 mile out of the way off the trail on a road and then back. It took a moment but we all got back together and everyone jumped in the truck and headed back to the cars.

We were all starving, thirsty and tired. We made it to a eating place. We waited to long on food but my pizza came out first and the rest of the food seemed like it took 20 more minutes as I had to fight off 5 other guys that tried to attack my meal. Everyone else ordered burgers, but I must say they messed up because that Pizza brought joy to my life. I don’t know if it was as good as I remember but it might be the best pizza I have ever eaten. Worth the fighting.

The Moleskin:

Good times, lots of laughter and really what CSAUP is all about. These kind of outings can be 2 guys or 100 and they build  and strengthen men. The challenge was great and felt like a true accomplishment once we finished. We met another PAC from Concord on the trail as well. I look forward to the next one and the 10 after that. Great group of guys and glad I spent this time with them. Many more stories that could be told on this event. Sorry Rudolph, we kept on hearing helicopters.

Gastone