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| The creek just beyond the Boone Fork parking area. |
Day two of our holiday weekend entailed a mountain expedition the likes of which we have never attempted before. It wasn't the longest hike we've been on, but it was certainly the most strenuous- and I loved it! I must have been on an adrenaline high though, because I could tell my boyfriend was giving me the "Are you insane?" look when I talked about us doing a much longer hike to the end of the Grandfather Mountain profile trail sometime. Once I was off the mountain and downing my normal amount of oxygen, I felt a little less confident that it would be a good idea, too, but it's still a goal for someday.
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| 150 calorie stack of pancakes! Om nom nom! |
First things first, we started our day by whipping up some pretty delicious coconut flour pancakes, which you can find the recipe for
here at Foodie Fiasco (a website I'm having quite a field day with currently).
The goal in mind for our day was to hike into the Grandfather Mountain trails from trailheads outside the park (thus avoiding the rather pricey ticket you need to access the park otherwise. This isn't frowned upon, fyi- they make it clear that hiking in is an option. The only drawback is there are areas you won't be allowed to access once you're in the park.)
I would have liked to hike all the way to the beginning of the profile trail, but for the day I decided that getting to Calloway Peak would suffice. Also on this hike I got to face my two greatest phobias- heights and snakes! Hooray! I am proud of how I did with the heights; maybe not so much with the snake.
We began our ascent up the Craggy Way trail, I believe it was called. It was appropriately named, for sure, and definitely the hardest trail we could have chosen for getting there. The views were worth it though!
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| This is about where we came across the snake lying to the side of the trail.... |
...the drawback is your most slithery woodland friends enjoy these sunny views as well. It took me a good minute and earned me a very annoyed boyfriend, but I finally mustered up the courage to walk by the little creature. Give me a wild mountain lion and I'll get as close as I can, but don't expect me to get within 50 feet of a two foot snake knowingly. I'm so rugged.
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| I'm also having fun with HDR toning lately, as you can see. |
The end of the Cragway trail brought us to another trailhead where the mountain environment started to change quite a bit with the increased elevation. The dirt gets darker, the ferns get thicker and greener, and everything becomes more dark, lush, and mossy. Mountain top woodlands like this are some of my favorite scenery in the area. They feel so separate from the rest of the world below, and it becomes easy to believe you've traveled much further from home than you actually have. Fantastic stress relief for when you need to feel far away from your problems.
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| Some spectacular views started popping up once we hit the top of the tree line! |
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| View from the Linn Cove Viaduct Overlook. |
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| Boyfriend embracing the clouds. They definitely provided some welcome relief to the sweatiness this hike will cause! |
Close to our destination, we came across the wreckage of a tragic plane crash that happened in 1978
(read a bit about it here). I couldn't believe how spread out the pieces were across the mountain top. Very sad and eerie, but morbidly fascinating to walk around.
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| He walked around looking for the propeller, which he wanted to take home with him if we found. Because carrying a plane propeller for 4 miles up and down a mountain would have been great fun. |
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| Welcome to Mirkwood Forest. Please stay on the trails, mind the elves, and report any sightings of SOUS (Spiders of Unusual Size) to the park services. |
Soon after exploring the wreckage, we came upon the ladders and cables I knew we would have to deal with eventually. Going up these with Charlotte in tow was easy enough, but coming back down was another story.
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| This is also where I got to deal with my second favorite crippling phobia- heights! I laid my whole body on that ladder and did not look behind me.... |
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| ....if I had looked behind me, I would have seen this. This is nice when you're not dangling over it. |
At our destination, we were lucky enough to be approached by someone carrying a Digital SLR camera who asked us to take a photo of her group, and took one of us in turn, so for once we didn't have to settle for a selfie (you'd be surprised by how terrified the average person is of using my very basic Digital SLR, so I normally don't bother asking anymore).
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| Hiked all this way and of course it's too cloudy to get the view in the photo! |
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| Fellow hikers were so amazed that our little dog made it all this way. Little dogs can do big things, too, if you let them! |
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| We did get some moments between the clouds rolling across for some excellent views. |
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| Far over the Misty Mountains... |
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Our wee picnic in the clouds at about 6,000 feet above sea level.
Sammiches were had, but were scarfed down far too quickly to be documented. I can tell you that simple turkey + provolone sammiches go up approximately 400% in deliciousness after a 3.5 mile uphill hike though. |
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Storm clouds were rolling in on our descent, but we made it out of the woods safely.
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After making our way back to the car, we ventured out to our favorite dog-friendly restaurant in Boone: Cafe Portofino, where Char was fawned over and gleefully worshiped by the locals imbibing on the porch. We couldn't resist having a hard-earned Crispin cider, too.
We haven't decided on our next hiking challenge yet, but I can't wait for it!
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