Mt. Mitchell, Revisited

Before I begin, let me just say that you will notice a conspicuous lack of video footage from the summit of Mt. Mitchell.  This is because we never made it to the summit, unfortunately, for reasons I will expound upon shortly.  I worry we have sacrificed what tiny fragment of hiking cred we may have had preceding this most difficult hike, but I can explain see, the packs were 40 pounds a piece, and we didn't get started until 4:30 and it was dark by the time we came upon the first campsite and the next morning the group was less than than motivated to pack the rest of our gear up the mountain and back down the vertical slope before dark.  Excuses...

So we got a late start, and were punished every step we took in the dark on this most treacherous trail.  Here is some footage from around the fire that night, as we were so exhausted after 3 hours of packing in that we failed to capture much of the way up the mountain.

We woke up on day 2 with a group of 6 other campers/hikers and made our way back down, taking a brief detour onto the Higgins Bald Trail and then meeting back up with the Mt. Mitchell Trail.  The Mt. Mitchell trailhead begins at the Black Mountain Campground.  You can find more info at this link:

http://www.hikewnc.info/besthikes/toecane-ranger-district/mount-mitchell

A word to would-be backpackers on this trail - the best bet for breaking this hike up is to do what we did not do, and take the first fork you see for the Higgins Bald Trail.  There is a small marker that has a red tag pointing up the hill to Mt. Mitchell.  At this junction, if you head to your left you will find several palatial camping spots before linking back up with the Mt. Mitchell trail.  If you proceed on the Mt. Mitchell trail however, it will be another mile of rough switchback hiking before you reach the first camp worthy spot, and it's a tight squeeze for more than a couple of tents.  It's also not exactly flat, as we found we were constantly awaking with our feet pushing through the nylon at the bottom of the tent.

Some commentary regarding the condition of the trail:

Day 2 was infinitely more enjoyable once we found a good car camping spot down the hill near the Black Mountain campground.  Black Mountain closes on November 1, so don't plan to camp there if you are doing a late fall hike like we were.  However, there are multiple GREAT spots just off the road proceeding past the campground on the right by the river.

We set up camp and enjoyed a late night of laughter (and fire puns, see below) and sore muscles before packing up the next morning and heading back to Raleigh.

Were we to do it again, here's how it would have gone:
Begin hike at 9am, hike leisurely to Higgins Bald Trail and camp night 1 off the trail
Leave our campsite up and get an early start morning 2, around 8am to the summit
Get back down by 2 or so and pack up, hike the rest of the way to the sites near Black Mountain campground
Enjoy a big meal involving grilled meat by the river