Today Talus Monkey reached the state high point for North Carolina, Mt Mitchell at 6,684'. He has never been to his home state's high point until now. The mountaineering fever never got in his blood until he began hiking in Colorado. David and I often talked about a trip back to NC to hit Mt. Mitchell and then out to the coast for some salt air and fishing.
From Winston-Salem we headed west to Marion NC to rendezvous with TM's sister, brother-in-law and mother. We struck out and traveled a fair distance along the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway to the Mt Mitchell entrance. As we began or ascent and our trusty Volvo had no problems. As we neared the top the thin air and steep grades began to slow us down. Fortunately for us the parking area appeared out of no where!
Having left the flat lands mid afternoon in 90 degree temps it did not occur to me that ascending some 6000' there would be a temperature drop of around 33 degrees. It was a... refreshing change!
We were met at the top by a huge disappointment. The peak of Mt Mitchell was closed due to construction while an artificial observation deck is being built!!! Our team would not let this dampen our spirits so we took gratuitous pictures near the summit:
The closed summit
The summit in the distance
The Black Mountains
Our Team
From left to right, OBX Fisherman, OBX's Father (a TM friend), his wife, OBX's daughter, TM's niece, TM's brother in law, TM's sister holding the picture, and TM's mother holding the Dew™ and wearing a Jihad shirt yet to be inscribe with the hallowed words.
Believe it or not but Mt Mitchell does NOT have a summit register! Come on NC, get with the program!
After this tiring expedition we loaded up and traveled a 1/2 mile back to the restaurant near the summit. We had an enjoyable dinner of NC style pulled pork BBQ, grilled trout, and fresh peach cobbler. We bid farewell to TM's family and headed back to the flatlands.
Gary
