Grandfather Mountain

The beautiful blue ridge parkway

 
I am exhausted.  And sore.  And beyond thrilled that I was able to complete such an amazing hike and visit such a wonderful place.

Casey and I headed to Asheville for our fall break from school on Thursday night.  Unfortunately, no one else was able to join us, but we made the most of the overnight trip by touring the town on Thursday night and hiking Grandfather Mountain on Friday.  Asheville was everything that I had hoped it would be.  The character of the town was unmistakable and on every block, its eclectic personality shone through in the music of street performers, the outfits of the passers-by, and the arrangements of ornaments framed in the windows of the shops that lined the street.  Our first stop was a little book shop that had received glowing recommendations from tripadvisor.com.  Trip Advisor didn't lie.  The used book shop was a labyrinth of shelves, interrupted only by comfy old chairs with little tables in between.  The first level was a wine bar, where individuals could buy their choice of drink to bring to their table amidst the shelves.  The very best part?  The entire place was dog friendly.  Three golden retrievers on leashes greeted us as we were leaving the building.

Because we arrived later in the day, the majority of the shops were closed to all but window shopping, however a good few remained open and we were able to poke around.  A little gallery of modern art touted itself as also being pet friendly and boasted fascinating artwork on its walls.  Another shop smelled strongly of incense and provided entertaining browsing with its odd objects.  Each block held restaurants of every type and scale.  We ate at a little pizzeria place with a fun live jazz band.  A tiny central park/amphitheater rested in the center of the downtown area with chess board tables surrounding the perimeter.  The place was brimming with life of people of all ages and walks of life.  I was in love. I can't even imagine how amazing the weekends might be.  I would love to someday live nearby.

Our "cabin"

We left Asheville on Thursday night after dinner and headed to a little campground about thirty minutes outside of town.  Because there was a chance of rain, we opted for a small cabin instead of a tentsite.  Ours was hilarious.  I am fairly convinced that the owners bought a handful of children's playhouses and then rented them nightly as "playhouse cabins."  The thing was adorable.  The door was roughly three feet high, but the interior was surprisingly spacious, with sleeping room for probably 6 or so adults.  I'm glad we didn't come with any preconceived notions, as the cabin could have proved a disappointment, but as it was, I just loved the thing.

MacRae Peak

profile view of Grandfather Mountain

Our new garter snake friend

Waking up at O'dark thirty has its benefits, and ours was seeing a heavenly looking fog as we drove through sunrise to Grandfather Mountain.  We opted for a cheap trip and chose to park in a lot outside the park entrance and make the longer hike to the peaks.  The first three miles of the hike along Profile Trail were fairly average, although certainly steep and tiring.  Upon reaching the trail junction, however, the hike took on a new life.  This hike along grandfather trail quickly became one of my top all-time hikes on the East Coast.  There were ladders in areas, cables to help hikers scale rock faces, and astounding views that presented themselves at every corner.  A particularly ugly hotel marred the view on one side just a bit, but the view to the other side of the mountain was breathtaking, especially with the fall foliage.  We saw another little snake - this one a Garter snake (and much smaller than our Rat snake acquaintance from rice fields) that I also nearly stepped on.  Other than that, there was not too much wildlife spotting, but the structure of the trail made up for it.  It was definitely a strenuous 9.2 miles, but very well worth it.


And now today, as I wake up in my own bed, muscles that I didn't even know existed are aching, but I'm so thrilled that I was able to experience this gorgeous hike.  And plus - it afforded me the chance to stand on the highest point in the Blue Ridge Chain.  What a wonderful start to the weekend.

Today, I'm thrilled to head to the Roanoke Go Outside Festival and watch some dock dogs.  Life is good.

A nice little rock scramble

Me and Casey at MacRae Peak

Some Autumn views

Rice Fields

The beautiful rice fields

A few weeks back, Elena, Casey and I headed off to rice fields.  This was a momentous occasion - the final hike to still be completed on Venture Out's "Top Ten Hikes Near Virginia Tech" list.  Not that this list is anything special.  Venture Out is just a little outdoorsy shop on campus that happened to put together a list of their favorite Southwest VA hikes.  And not that it should've taken me over three years to finish the darn list.  But it did.  And on October 5th, 2013, I finally finished the darn thing.

Rice Fields again

Don't get me wrong.  I've done the Cascades at least four or five times, Kelly's Knob the same number.  Dragon's Tooth and Angel's Rest have seen me twice.  I'm a fairly frequent visitor to the Devil's Marbleyard.  But alas, I had not finished the list.

Rice field lived up to the excitement that had started to fester in me as I realized that I would actually complete this mini goal before graduation.  Though the hike up was essentially two miles of plugging up the mountain with few breaks, the two mile mark or thereabouts made for a nice change.  The trail evened out into a nice ridge trail that wove its way over fairly level ground until it opened up into a vast meadow, aptly dubbed rice field (or nearly aptly dubbed seeing as there was no rice - but I suppose the image of the meadow atop the mountain was enough to spark visions of rice fields in lands far away).  As the trail mellowed, my stride lengthened, I breathed more easily, and I quickened the pace.  And then, as I looked down at the ground in front of me I noticed something different.  My momentum carried me into the next step and I took off shrieking like an offended puppy.  The snake was about four feet long and looked particularly menacing right as I nearly stepped on the thing.

The black rat snake, after Elena poked him

Elena and Casey, safely in the back of the line, stopped where they were and laughed at me until I inched back to where I'd started.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't dislike snakes.  They're quite beautiful and in the times that I've had the chance to hold them, I've realized that they're actually pretty cool animals.  But by god, I was not prepared to almost flatten one with my foot.  We took pictures and posed with the seemingly unperturbed snake until Elena poked him with her finger at which point he decided that "fight" should beat out "flight."  I took that as my cue that it was time to continue walking.  Elena took it as hers that it was time for an epic photo shoot.  Needless to say, no one was harmed in the process - but I was slightly disheveled and the not so little rat snake had decided we were not friends.

eating questionable weeds

We made it to the fields with no more exciting incidents, although the hike in and of itself was nice.  When we arrived, I curled up on the ground with my sleeping bag as a pillow and took in the breeze.  Casey and Elena thought I was silly for bringing a sleeping bag on a day hike.  They have a point, I'd reason to admit, but when we get stuck overnight for some bizarre reason, they'll be happy that I lugged the two pounds of fabric up the mountain with me.  The views were magnificent, the fields were awesome, and I got to try my hand at eating some weird root vegetable that Elena claimed was edible.  The root of Queen Anne's Lace maybe?  I'm not dead yet, so I suppose she was right.

In other news, Sassafrass tastes like apricots.  Try it sometime.