Mt Mitchell Trail – 5/5/12 – 6.5 Miles
My neighbor Mark mentioned back last winter that he and his son Jason were joining a group to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2012. He knows I’m a hiker (he isn’t) and asked fora little advice. What could I say? “Go hiking – oh, and carry a heavypack.” Now, Mark has a full-time job anda wife and a dog and other interests and I know he’s not going to drive to western North Carolina every weekend to climb a mountain. He’s a very fit and strong guy (cyclist) andI’m a little skeptical that he will train for an experience that is going tocost a lot of money and that he may not complete. But I learned that Mark is also very disciplined and serious aboutcommitments, and he did train nearly every weekend at our closest little bump, Crowder's Mountain.
So what could I do to help? I took him to climb Mount Mitchell, the tallest mountain in the easternUnited States at 6,684 feet. Yeah, it’snot Kilimanjaro at 19,340 feet, but it’s as good as we got ‘round here.
The Mount Mitchell Trail from Black Mountain Campground tothe summit of Mt Mitchell is 6.5 miles. I wanted to hike up and then down, but due to the long drive to and froand other time constraints we had to make it a one-way hike. My husband Jim stepped in to help out,agreeing to drop us off at the trailhead, then drive to the parking lot at thetop and go for a bike ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway while we hiked. (It is not hard to get Jim to go for a bikeride on the Parkway.)

But…the woods were dripping but not pouring, and within 20minutes the rain gear came off and we hiked the rest of the day with intermittentclouds but no rain. Ain’t life grand?
The Mount Mitchell Trail runs concurrently with theMountains-To-Sea Trail as it climbs about 3,500 feet to the summit, some partssteeper than others but every step moving upward. Some fun stuff:
At about 1.5 miles the trail splits, but either direction isokay – it comes back together after just a quarter mile. We took the left track, also known as theHiggins Bald Trail, only to find that Higgins Bald… is not. The forest is taking it back.


Mark had no problems on this hike other than having to slowdown for me. Jim did get in a good bikeride, still a little wet and chilly, but a good day nonetheless, made better by introducing Mark to the Jack Frost Dairy Bar in Marion. If you have never had ice cream at JackFrost, get in the car right now and go there.
PS – Mark and his son Jason successfully summited MtKilimanjaro on June 24.
Thedifference between try and triumph is a little umph. ~Author Unknown
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