THE DEEPEST INCH
Forecasts called for sunny, warm weather in Charlotte for the first weekend of February. Based on that, I expected it would be an ideal weekend to visit Mount Mitchell. It would be crisp and clear, and there would be no sign of the haze and tourists that mar the mountain in the summer. I called the ranger on Saturday. She assured me that there was no more than an inch of snow on the ground in the park.
I rode with Myron and Dorcas from Hickory. We were pleased to find the parkway open, despite Saturday's snowstorm. We reached the summit parking lot and found one car there. Everything went well with the hike until we got out of the car. We were greeted with subfreezing temperatures and a howling wind. Dorcas fought her way through the snow drifts to the weather instruments near the bathrooms. Temperatures were in the upper 20's, but the wind was blowing in excess of 30mph. Yep, just another balmy winter day on top of the highest mountain in the eastern United States.
We started down the trail, and I wiped out on a patch of ice in the first 20 yards. I stopped to put on my ice cleats, and Myron and Dorcas donned their crampons. We passed an amusing sign, encouraging visitors to leave flowers for others to enjoy. I couldn't resist a photo, depicting the sign surrounded by snow.
There was a lot more than an inch of snow. It was packed down nicely though, so it was rarely more than ankle deep. We continued on the crest trail, climbing and descending steep sections that would be rocky if they weren't buried in snow. We descended a ways, before climbing to the sunny, snow-free cliffs of Mount Craig. Here we had great views in all directions. We could look back along the crest to the tower on Mount Mitchell. To the west we could see the state line. A heavy concentration of snow tipped off the location of the ski slope at Big Bald. The balds of Roan Mountain were also easy to spot. To the north, we could identify the major peaks along the crest leading out to Celo Knob. About halfway out is Winterstar Mountain, our destination for the day.
I wanted to stay and enjoy the view, but the wind was brutal. It chased us off the peak and into the relative shelter of spruce / fir forest. We made a long, slippery descent, which would have been very exciting without crampons. We reached Big Tom gap at 11:30, which meant that we were making a mile an hour. A swift burst of mental arithmetic lead me to the conclusion that our 11 mile hike would take 11 hours. That would get us back to the car about 4 hours after dark. The trail conditions were too messy to make better time, so a change of plans was in order.
We decided to skip Winterstar and get off the crest. We hiked down the Big Tom Gap Trail, which descends the south (sunny) side of the mountain. I thought this would get us out of the snow, and it did. However, where there wasn't snow, there was mud. We slipped and slid our way down the steep trail before finally leveling off at the Buncomb Horse Trail.
We followed the horse trail back towards Steppes Gap. At one point we stopped at a meadow, which offered good views of Table Rock, Hawksbill, and Shortoff. It was too windy for lunch though, so we retreated to a sheltered area. It was along here that we passed the only other hiker we'd see all day.
After lunch we continued to follow the horse trail. Most of the time we were in the snow, except for the sunny areas. We also encountered a lot of ice. At one point, Myron dared me to walk straight across a smooth sheet of ice. I took his challenge, put my ice cleats back on, and walked right across.
We reached Commissary Ridge, but continued on the old railroad grade. We contoured around Mount Mitchell and reached the Camp Alice area. Here we took the Camp Alice trail back up into dark spruce / fir forest. The trail was steep and snow-covered. I put my ice cleats on for the third time and struggled towards the summit. At one point we joined the old Mount Mitchell trail. From there it was just a little further to the peak. We reached the top, but decided to skip the view from the tower. None of us were in a big hurry to expose ourselves to the wind again.
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