Two-Heel Drive, a Hiking Blog

I’ve proved beyond doubt that Grandfather Mountain is no place to hike if you’re in a hurry. I’ve established a firm 1.1 mph pace after five outings totaling about 25 miles.

Sign for the Profile Trail, seen heading north on Highway 105.

And half of that was downhill.

Profile Trail proves the point: It’s 3.5 miles to Calloway Peak with 1,900 feet of ascent — hardly formidable stats for experienced hikers. It even gets off to a very sane start: the first two miles are all uphill, but not grueling.

After that, though, it’s one boulder-hop after another for a mile and a half, culminating with three short ladder climbs at Calloway Peak. Not as hairy as the hike across the mountain’s spine I did a few weeks back, but there’s still no way to be quick about it (call me a coward but I prefer intact tibias.)

Grandfather Trail, the route across the mountain’s highest peaks, is the best in the park. Despite the intimidating ladder climbs and cable descents, it’s one of the most rewarding hikes I’ve ever done. Only downside: you pay $15 per person for the privilege of parking close to those trails (the fee preserves a priceless local treasure, but I’m a slave to anything free, hence my four visits to the free trailheads — Profile Trail off Highway 105 and the Boy Scout Trail route from the Blue Ridge Parkway).

(more…)

This is a great combo if you’re into contrasts: start out with a sane, scenic hike to the Mile High Swinging Bridge, then move on to the utterly crazy ridge route to MacRea Peak.

There’s a certain sanity to the .6-mile hike up to the bridge from the Black Rock parking area: the climb warms you up for the gale-force winds creating an eerie hum as they pass through the span. The insane part is the bridge itself: it serves no practical purpose beyond offering a shortcut to a rocky knob on the far side of an 80-foot-deep gorge.

Of course the absurdity of an unnecessary bridge makes it an irresistible tourist stop. The first law of tourism: cash mistakenly placed in a tourist’s wallet must be handed over to its rightful owner, the tourist attraction developer. Second law: the tourist must feel good about the hand-over.

This brings us to the real utility of the Mile-High Swinging Bridge: It’s very cool. Cool to walk across, cool to take pictures of your sweetheart walking across, cool to stand under and take even more pictures, cool to listen to that never-ending hum. After a half-hour at the bridge, Grandfather Mountain’s $15 entry fee feels like Deal of the Decade.
(more…)

I knew this climb would not be a picnic — three miles of trail and 2,000 feet of ascent separate Calloway Peak from the Boone Fork trailhead at mile 299.5 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Don’t let the short distance fool you: just as the Grandfather Mountain map/brochure advises, this is an all-day outing with multiple scrambles, obstacles and photo ops.

According to my GPS unit, I averaged 1.6 mph while moving, and half of that was downhill. Hey, I’ve always said I was slow, but if I have to drive 95 miles before I plant the first step, I’m not going to spend much time thinking “gee, what can I do to get this hike over with?”

One of the cool/cruel things about Grandfather Mountain is the role of luck — if fortune smiles you’ll have a hundred miles of clear skies and pleasant mountain breezes to cool your climb. If you call tails on a heads day, though, you could experience driving rain, dense fog, gale-force winds or tree-splitting thunderstorms, and that’s assuming you have enough sense to avoid the blizzards and ice storms of winter. Best advice: check the weather forecast and hope for the best. (more…)

I want you to know, all 14 of my devoted readers, that at the first sign of spring I darted west to the Real Mountains to do some Real Hiking — no more of this flat-land fakery for me, by God.

Danged if it ain’t still winter up there.

The last time I hiked at Grandfather Mountain (Dec. 6, 2009), I made it a mile or so up the Profile Trail before I concluded it was just too much like winter to be out there in my three-season gear. Yesterday we had our first unambiguously springlike forecast in the Triad — sunny, high in the mid-70s, no rain for days. The forecast for the Blue Ridge of western North Carolina was about the same, just 10 degrees colder. How bad could it be up there when it was so nice here?

The Grandfather Mountain web site warned of considerable snow on the hill, but the weather forecast was so good I had to see for myself. Well, the snow was considerable. Above 5,000 feet it was everywhere — typically over a foot deep with a thin, sharp crust that felt just fine smacking into the shin mid-posthole.
(more…)

Somebody has gotten it into their heads there ought to be winter in the Southern Appalachians. I was not consulted. I was thinking I should have had my head examined when I showed up in autumn apparel at a deep-valley trailhead on the west side of Grandfather Mountain and stepped out of the car into a wake-you-up-like-strong-coffee chill. It couldn’t have been that cold — low-30s maybe — but all those years of perfect Bay Area climate have made me a to-the-marrow weather wimp.

Grandfather Mountain in mid-October 2009 after a previous dusting of snow.

Things had nowhere to go but up after I slipped and stepped into the creek about 20 yards from the trailhead. My left foot never dried till I got back home. Hard to believe that on Nov. 16 I hiked at Mount Mitchell — tallest peak in the East — on a mid-70s day with skies so clear you could see Africa if it weren’t for that inconvenient curvature of the Earth.

In three weeks the weather went from impossibly good to simply impossible. Snowy weather all day Saturday coated Grandfather Mountain with a mere three inches of moist powder — just enough to make the challenging rocky trails at the summit break-a-leg slippery. Grandfather Mountain’s famous Mile-High Hanging Bridge was coated with ice and closed to the public, and the road to the top wasn’t opened till around 1 p.m.

I arrived at the main entrance to Grandfather Mountain about at 10:30, eager to pay my $15 and drive to to summit-area visitors center. A young woman in the front gate office told me the road to the top might be cleared and deiced by sometime after noon. I didn’t want to wait that long, so I asked her for a map and headed for the Profile Trail on the mountain’s west face.

Some background on Grandfather Mountain before I hit the trail: The highest point is at 5,946 feet. The peak is the centerpiece of a huge privately owned nature preserve; though the state of North Carolina has established Grandfather Mountain State Park, the main features of the peak (the hanging bridge, museum, animal habitats, summit-area trails) are privately managed and a $15 entrance fee pays for upkeep of the attraction.

Hikers can get enter the park free from a few backcountry trailheads — but the shortest route to the top (Daniel Boone Scout Trail) is three miles one-way with 2,000 feet of elevation gain, and the only way to it is via the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is typically closed when the weather gets snowy.

My hike started out on the other side of the hill, on the Profile Trail, accessible from State Highway 105 about 12 miles south of Boone, NC. This road might have a better chance of staying open during snowy weather, but be warned: the trailhead is at the bottom of a steep entrance lane that will be a bear to get out of if it’s coated in snow and/or ice.

Once you’re at the trailhead, you self-register (the form must be filled out in duplicate; you keep one copy and put the other in an iron ranger) and hike on. It’s 3.5 miles to the summit with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. The first couple miles are fairly tame but the last one to the top is pretty wicked, I’m told. I didn’t see much of it because I had my heart set on checking out the summit when the road opened. I hiked a little over a mile in and turned back.

Might as well start looking at some pictures.

This creek is the headwaters of the Watauga River. I managed to step into it barely five minutes in to my hike. After an hour or so I had hiked my wet sock dry, then slipped and got it all soaked once more.

These leaves full of snow conveniently cool your neck as you pass, whether you want the cooling or not.

Snow hiking reminded me of the adage to “start cold” — and this doubly true if you start out going uphill. I lit out with three layers (windbreaker, light insulating jacket, light base layer top), plus fleece gloves and a ski cap and was overheating within a half-hour. I didn’t really need anything more than my windbreaker and baselayer as long as I was heading uphill.

Speaking of wind: the Grandfather summit has recorded gusts over 100 mph; don’t forget to look for prevailing winds when you’re checking the weather forecast.

Slipping and sliding for two miles should’ve clued me in that the craggy trails at the top of Grandfather would be, shall we say, interesting with a coating of snow, but this idea didn’t enter my head till I had already driven up the road to the top and started wandering around. I did see two guys coming down from the highest points, but they looked to be young, strong and bold, three characteristics that fled my corpus long before the century turned.

I did take a few pictures, though.

Looking out toward the mountains.

A buck in the park’s animal habitat, which has deer, bears, raptors and…

Yes, mountain lions!

More mountains.

The Mile-High Swinging Bridge (great fun in those hundred-mile gusts).

Guess what: Even more mountains.

We have excellent crags in these hills.

The two highest peaks at Grandfather.

I admit this is a rather scant introduction to Grandfather Mountain, one of the top hiking locales along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Hiking alone on snowy, unfamiliar terrain had my Inner Coward practically hollering “It’s too damn cold and slick to be hiking at all, moron,” so I ended up playing it safe. It’s rather embarrassing to have an Inner Coward, but listening to it has kept me alive to date.

This is going to be one of my favorite places to hike someday — it’s only a two-hour drive (vs. three to four for some locales) and the views should be excellent when the peak isn’t fogged in.

Grandfather Mountain links:

• Grandfather.com – main web site for the attraction.
• Travelbygps.com guide to Grandfather Mountain.
• North Carolina State Parks map (PDF download).

Google map of Grandfather Mountain trailheads.

View Grandfather Mountain in a larger map