Mount Mitchell Adventure

We've been wanting to run/hike to the top of Mount Mitchell for a long long time, and we finally got our chance this Labor Day weekend. What an amazing day for us. Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi River (elevation 6684 feet).  We planned a round trip starting from the first pull off from the Blue Ridge Parkway making this a nice 11 mile excursion for us. The temperature was perfect, and the weather varied from sun, clouds,  rain and thunder storms. 

We started off the day with a friendly warning from other hikers that there was a bear alert out (meaning lots of bear activity in the area), but that wasn't going to stop us, it didn't stop the other hikers either...

So off we went yodeling so the bears would know we were coming! ...yodel le he hoo..

There were several beautiful stream crossings

Nice views along the way.

There are even some non-technical trails.

Hold-up-wait-a-minute! Now the fun begins.

It's only one mile to the summit, but it's classified as strenuous giving the hiker an estimated hike time of one hour.   It climbs a little over 800 feet in elevation to the summit.

Off we go!

Lots of old fallen down trees that have succumbed to the brutal weather that can occur here.

Huff puff huff puff

There were times when we thought all the dead timber was going to come crashing down on us.

Half mile to go!

8 out of 10 days, Mount Mitchell is cloud covered and today was one of those days

oh well, here's the view of the west.

Clouds, clouds and more clouds.

View of the east.

We would have no idea of all the mountains out there if it wasn't for these fancy pictures.

Here's the south view.

So not much of a sightseeing view today for us. That just means we'll have to come back again another day.

This was so cool how the tree root has grown around this large rock.

Feng Shui rock pile.

Best treat of the day was being able to munch on the sweetest black berries.

And while we never saw a bear, we saw several left behind signs of them.

After our run, we drove back up to the summit to have lunch at the Mount Mitchell State Park Restaurant. We had veggie burgers and french fries :-) This was our view while dining. Figures, the clouds were breaking up by now.

We were able to relax on the back porch.

Yes sir, we will have to do this again very soon.

Before we knew it, dark clouds came rolling on in, and we made it back into our van and had listening to the rain and thunder storm.

What a great day!

E&B