North Alabama Sierra Club
COLD MOUNTAIN TRIP REPORT
Location: Shining Rock Wilderness, Pisgah NF, North Carolina
Type: Backpack Rating: Strenuous Date(s): Oct 7-9, 2005
Travel time: 8.5 hours (incl. Cracker Barrel stop)
Trailhead: Daniel Boone Scout Camp (UTM 17S 327737mE 3917705mN)
In Attendance: 9
Write-up / Notable Events:
Friday evening drizzle (some would say downpour) caused five travelers to seek hotel accommodations while the remaining four hurriedly assembled tents and dove in. Everyone reconvened Saturday morning as the drizzle tapered off just in time to start the walk. After a brief chat with the camp director, we headed south, exiting the scout camp and entering the Shining Rock Wilderness. The long and steady climb began immediately and some quickly realized they had on one too many layers of clothing. On this day with several vista opportunities, we instead found ourselves staring into fog and clouds as the remnants of a tropical storm hung over eastern North Carolina and filtered west. Our post-lunch stop at the Shining Rock, a large mass of white quartz, failed to render distant views. But some of us were able to capture vibrant nearby views. A pleasantly foggy evening again prevented what would have otherwise been a remarkable sunset. Throughout the night, moisture was coaxed from the low passing clouds by the surrounding trees which then promptly passed on the droplets to our tents.
We rose Sunday morning to find the skies intermittently clear enough to see the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. Some of us ventured up to the Cold Mountain summit in hopes of catching the sunrise from one of the most revealing vistas in the Southeast. Although a layer of clouds was stacked on top of the distant mountains over which the sun officially rose, to our amazement, we witnessed multiple "sunrises" as it rose above the cloud layer one moment, only to "descend" into the clouds the next moment. This dance of cloud and sun continued for several minutes, all the while clouds surrounding our vantage point swirled about us. After returning to camp, preparing breakfast and recompiling our gear into our backpacks, we all journeyed up to the vista to take in the views and make a group photo. During the descent down out of the wilderness to our vehicles, our minds were disengaged by the memories of what we had seen.
Related Links:
** Note: The Sierra Club is not responsible for the content at the following links **
Shining Rock Wilderness / Cold Mtn Information
http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/recreation/shining_rock.pdf
http://www.northcarolinaoutdoors.com/places/mountains/shiningrock.html
http://www.hikewnc.info/trailheads/pisgah/pisgah/shining.html
http://www.hikertohiker.org/cmtn/cmindex.html
http://people.musc.edu/~mitchejm/ColdMountain.html
Views/Weather:
Last 24 Hrs Weather (look at similar elevations: 4000-6000ft)
Forecast for town nearby (generally, subtract 8-10 degrees from temperatures)
Maps:
Photos:
Newspaper Article:
A newspaper article has been written by a trip attendee who some call Alabama’s Ernest Hemingway of outdoor writing. If al.com maintained archived
articles, you could have read it here.
