Mount Mitchell

After spending an entire day waiting for new brakes for the truck, we missed the windy/cold day for climbing a mountain and instead had great weather for our ascent up the trail to Mount Mitchell.  To the high point of North Carolina!  Asheville was a good base for climbing trails up various mountains.

John getting ready to roll:

Here comes the sun:

Another nice trail, more rhododendron companions:

OK, here's a new thing!  Ice hairs growing out of the mud...what?  Looks like the water was squeezed out of the muddy ground and then frozen in tiny parallel tendrils a couple inches long.  We spent a couple minutes marveling at this phenomenon.

This we named a "Sapsicle":

Icy trail in the upper part - a good place for the micro-spikes:

He don't need no stinkin' micro-spikes:

Lots of great views, this one from the powerline cut partway up:

And the obligatory view of the briers in the powerline cut, yeah I tried it briefly but decided to stick to the trail this time:

Pretty ice formations in the creek:

Trees growing on an overhanging rock:

Check out the interesting platform on top.  The park road was closed so we had the place to ourselves that day.

More good views in all directions:

Playing around with summit poses:

You can see the set that I picked for the highpoints page here:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/northcarolina.html

The other side of the ice-covered creek:

Not far down, no more ice:

One of John's favorite trail diversions - clearing brush and trees.  He couldn't resist working on this big one lying over part of the road:

Highpoint #21!

Panthertown

Looking for places to train in the Southeast, I received a really good suggestion to check out Panthertown in southern North Carolina.  John joined me for several hours of fun - here he is checking out the map before getting going:

Hmm, a powerline cut, maybe I should train a little on that...

Looking for a "way through" the thorny plants:

Not so certain how useful this is, but it was a good reminder of some of the less-nice places we have gone orienteering:

The woods had low thorny vegetation, but it was easier than the powerline (especially with orienteering gaiters - or jeans).

Lower down near the creek we found a jungle of rhododendron and some really neat trails through it:

Reminded us of hiking in Hawaii!

The waterfalls were pretty:

John heading over for a better look:

Or maybe some sunshine:

Excellent!

Another good day in the woods.

South Carolina high point

First off, I have to rave about the Keowee-Toxaway State Park and our beautiful RV site on the top of the hill overlooking the woods and down to the lake.  It's a lovely spot, very quiet, with nice trails to run on.  The beautiful weather was a big bonus.

From there it was a short drive to the highest spot in South Carolina, Sassafras Mountain.  I was ready for a bit longer hike but let's not get crazy about it (yet), so we parked partway up the road to the top and took the Foothills Trail for 2.5 miles up.  Nice trail!  It would be neat to try traveling more of its 77 miles sometime.  Along with another warm sunny day and a leg that was cooperating, we were happy campers.

Taking the Big Dog (shirt) up the mountain:

Awesome trail:

John taking his stick for a walk through the rhododendrons:

Rock hat:

At the top!

More highpoint photos:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/southcarolina.html

One of the photos that didn't make the webpage:

Yoga on a rock:

Checking out the map for the Foothills Trail:

Two feet in South Carolina, two in North Carolina, near the top of the mountain:

John cleared a lot of little twigs and couldn't help himself with one big one:

Riding a log (slowly...):

Take that, log!

Thank you John!

One last view of the beautiful trail:

A well-deserved rest for John  :)