Solo backpacking along the Art Loeb Trail, in the mountains of North Carolina, 2002
A short chronicle of several days of blissful backpacking in the beautiful North Carolina mountains. Take a trip with me, won't you, as I hike along the peaceful Art Loeb Trail.
Our first day starts off in the valleys off the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. We'll park off the Parkway and spend our first day setting a leisurely pace winding our way around the various knobs leading up into the mountains. As evening draws on a heavy fog settles in over the mountain we're hiking up. It starts to get dark early so we'll find a place to make camp and settle down for the night.
In the morning we'll retrieve our food sack hanging from a nearby tree (panthers and bears are in the area, so we don't want to go hungry) and whip up some oatmeal. We head out along a trail which cuts a path lower down from a ridgeline. The fog creates some beautiful, eerie scenes...
morning mist
As morning continues on we break out onto the top of the ridgeline we had been following. The fog has moved off the mountain top, and in the utter stillness of the morning we see a scene which takes our breath away...
on the roof of the world
Standing here for a little while longer, the sun gets warmer and starts to burn off more fog. Another ridgeline makes its appearance through the mist, and our mind wanders away dreamily with the fog..
We head down a pass and into a rhododendron thicket, where we refill our water supply (using a special filter of course) and shed some clothes, as the day is warming up nicely. Hiking further along, the trail winds out of the thicket and starts to head back up hill. Well past midday we finally make our way back up onto the ridge. Here the trail offers breathtaking, 360 views. These pictures, unfortunately, cannot show it but use your imagination and look out on either side of the trail, where the mountain sweeps down and away as if laying out the majestic scene for your soul benefit...
The trail becomes like a rollercoaster, as we head up one cap, down into a gap and then back up to the top again, with views in all directions.
At the top of one of the highest peaks we stop, shed our pack and check our map. As it turns out we are on top of Tennent Mountain, and looking about we find a capstone on a rock. We're at over 6000 feet, no wonder we're short of breath!
Tennent Mountain
Midday has turned into late afternoon, and the views from this altitude as the sun goes down are not to be missed. I simply can't resist pitching my tent on the next ridge over. We'll ignore those little warning bells that are going off in our head telling us it's probably just a little foolhardy to pitch ones tent on the edge of a 6000 foot mountain. But seeing that sun disappear over the edge of the next mountain over...well I for one am not budging!
The most incredible camping spot ever...
I try to take some pictures of the beauty unfolding before me, but they just don't come out...
Hmm..we're not really that dumb, so we'll lash our tent down to the ground really well. Those annoying little warning bells are going off again, so to shut them up we remove our bootlaces and tie our tent to the nearest pieces of scrub brush. Fanciful images of my Sierra Nevada tent sailing off the edge of the mountain around 3am with me in it start to fill my head.
...is also one of the most foolish.
After a wonderful dinner we unwind on a nearby rock. We hear some backpackers back on the trail going down the mountain. "Wow, what a spot!" someone says. "Yeah, as long as it doesn't get windy," says another.
After being all tucked in and just as that magical moment of almost-falling-asleep starts to settle in what sounds like an enormous train starts to fill our head. That train is the wind. It roars around the top of the mountain and strikes down on us like a giant fist. Wham! it slams into the tent, which shudders madly. "Ignore that..." is what I think, I don't know about you. Wham! Wham! Wham! the wind gusts pick up stronger and stronger. I get out, verify that all my tie-downs are secure, and return to my bag.
Wham, wham WHAM! the wind smashes into the tent, again and again, almost rocking me off the ground.
After tossing and turning for hours, I sit bolt upright in my tent. "This is idiocy!" I yell. "I can't get any sleep! Shutup!" It didn't occur to me that the wind really doesn't listen to raving lunatics. Maybe it does, though, as it seemed to get stronger. I check my watch. It's about 2.30am. I'm really getting annoyed; the noise is incredible.
I get out of my tent with a flashlight and try to rub the gunk out of my eyes. That's not gunk: a fog as thick as pea soup has settled in, making it impossible to see even my hand in front of my eyes. "No choice now but to wait it out," I grumble, as I get back in the tent. But about 20 minutes later I just can't take it anymore. Time to get out of here.
The only light that works in the fog is a tiny blue light I carry called a photon, which slices through it magically, lighting up at least 3 or 4 feet in front of me. I make sure that I'm able to trace my way back to the trail first before deciding to leave. Holding the light in my teeth, I break camp, in at least 50 mph wind gusts, in zero visibility, on top of a 6000 foot mountain.
I have to hold the light down near the ground so I can see the trail. After 2 or so hours of hiking like this I make it to the bottom of the mountain, my back killing me from being hunched over with 35 pounds on it. In a surreal moment, I hear voices ahead of me. As I get closer I can make out a family setting up camp just off the trail...at 4.30am? "At least I'm not the only nut," I console myself. They had lanterns hanging near them, so I see them but the only thing they see approaching is a tiny blue light hovering off the trail, through the fog and mist. As that tiny blue light gets nearer, a voice speaks to them from out the mist: "gooood morrrning," I say, in the spookiest voice I can muster, as I walk on past. I didn't know eyes could get so big.
So we conclude our little trip by sleeping at the bottom of the mountain until daybreak - a scant few minutes later - and then it's to the car and a mad drive around all the nearest towns for a stack of pancakes.
We'll enjoy one more scene off the Parkway before we head back to civilization...
The Blue Ridge Parkway..God's country.
Thanks for joining me friend!