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So I Conquered Mount Mitchell, I Guess

Me and a buddy headed out to the mountains of North Carolina to get away for a few days. We camped, went Whitewater rafting, and hiked Mount Mitchell. This particular blog focuses on Mount Mitchell.

I write this blog on Wednesday. My entire body is still in shambles. I still can’t tell if my back has serious problems or if it is still just sore. It hurts to move any direction. At least my arms aren’t sore.

We set our alarm for 6am Sunday Morning. When the buzz sounded, we jumped in the car headed towards the tallest mountain in the United States (east of the Mississippi River anyway). We were looking for an aggressive, but rewarding challenge. At least we got the “aggressive” part right.

We visited the Mt. Mitchell State Park headquarters thingy where we saw the 2 mile trail to the top of Mt. Mitchell. We decided that this wasn’t nearly long enough (CRUCIAL MISTAKE!). We were expecting an all day challenge. It turns out that there is a 6 mile trail (one way to the top) from Black Mountain. So we backtracked 15 minutes or so we could find the more demanding trail.

I was expecting to have a tremendous physical challenge in front of me. I was expecting to witness tremendous scenery and maybe see some things that I had never viewed before. I underestimated the physical challenge part and over estimated the view.

Things I Didn’t Expect About Mount Mitchell

  • I never really considered that a mountain hike goes essentially straight up. (This was an EXTREMELY HUGE and stupid oversight on my part) In Missouri, if you go on a hike, it goes up and it goes down….repeat. On Mount Mitchell, you hike up, up, and up. That’s it. It does this for 6 miles (in addition to the 1 mile or so you climb in elevation). Hiking uphill for 6 hours is extremely exhausting. I’d say it’s 10x more exhausting than a typical hike where you go up and you go down.
  • The entire 12 mile hike was a tremendously demoralizing affair for people who aren’t in great shape. I’ve been running most of the summer through the hills in my hometown 3 times per week, but I wasn’t even close to the shape needed to hike up an entire mountain the size of Mount Mitchell. Even if I was in great physical condition, hiking for 9 hours is still going to take it’s toll on your joints.
  • Mount Mitchell, like most of mountains in the Asheville, NC area is heavily wooded. This means the mountains look nice, pretty, and green when you view them from the outside. However, when you are hiking them, you seldom get to look out in front of you. In other words, you are in the middle of the woods the entire time. I’d say it looked exactly like any Missouri woods 99.9% of the time. So much for scenery!
  • While we read that the observation tower MIGHT be under construction, I didn’t put much thought into it. This was a little stupid too. The observation tower at the top of Mount Mitchell was closed for construction. So, the 6 hour, almost completely uphill hike just to get to the top didn’t give me the big payoff I was looking for. Instead all I got was a Gatorade from the concession stand (which had VERY friendly people working it!).

  • Even if we could have looked out the observation tower, there wouldn’t have been any point. There was a cloud. In Missouri, with an elevation of 300 feet above sea level, the clouds are above us. In North Carolina, on top of a 6,700 feet mountain, we were IN the clouds. So, even though we were on top of the Eastern United States, we could see NOTHING! If you visit Mount Mitchell, make sure to go on a clear, sunny day.

What I Would Tell Myself About Mount Mitchell

  • There is no mega payoff in the end especially on a cloudy day. There is no reason to hike 12 miles unless a person enjoys doing that sort of thing. The fact that we had already been to Max Point spoiled us in terms of scenery. Read on.
  • The 2 mile hike to the top is probably about right for people who are in so/so shape. The 6 mile version is exactly the same thing as the 2 mile version. It’s just 4 more demoralizing hours of the same stuff you were tired of seeing 10 minutes into the hike.
  • We were smart to start so early. The entire 12 mile hike took about 9 hours. If we would have left at noon, it would have been dark for the last hour or so. That would been IMPOSSIBLE and EXTREMELY dangerous!
  • There is little point to go to the top on Mount Mitchell on a cloudy day.
  • If a person is looking for a breath taking view, I’d highly recommend “Max Point”. It’s out in the boonies (not too far from Hot Springs), but worth the trip. It’s a 5,000+ ft tall mountain where the woods have been removed for farming. You can see mountains in a 360 degree circle. It’s quite amazing really. It requires a 8/10 mile hike or so to get to it, but it is very easy compared to Mount Mitchell and well worth the effort for anyone capable of getting up there.

    • Because of the mistakes I made with Mount Mitchell, it kind of put a negative cloud over my entire trip. I was most excited about hiking Mount Mitchell. It just didn’t give me the gratification I was looking for. It was kept going and going and going. There was no real sense of accomplishment. There was no feeling like “all this work payed off”. I was just EXTREMELY tired, EXTREMELY sore, and just in EXTREME amounts of pain. We would have been better off doing the 2 mile hike, going fishing, and drinking a few beers. Oh well. They say what doesn’t kill makes you stronger. I’m just waiting for that last part to kick in.

    This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 8:18 am and is filed under Whatever. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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