Grandfather Mountain

Today I traveled with the Cherokee United Methodist youth--and some parents--to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. Our mission was to hike about half of the Grandfather Trail (as far as Attic Window Peak and back). The hiking is described as "very strenuous" and includes not only walking but also climbing with the help of cables and ladders. I'd never done anything like this before!

Raleigh and I got up early, not quite as early as we do for school every day but close. After showers we headed out for a quick breakfast at Bojangles and then headed toward the church to meet the rest of the folks signed up for the outing. I suddenly realized as I drove that I'd forgotten to bring a hat from home. With the ol' mop getting awfully thin on top, I knew I needed one to avoid burning. My pastor almost saved the day, but the hat he thought he had in his office turned out not to be there. (He was at the church early for the monthly second-Saturday men's breakfast, an event I reluctantly missed.) The day was actually saved by Joe G and Dennis and Marie C, who found a hat for me in the Shepherd's Storehouse, a hat that would both keep me from burning and reduce my chances of being lost or shot in the wilderness (see below).

The drive from the church to Linville, North Carolina, is surprisingly short. We reached the area in less than an hour and began the drive up and up toward the mountain.

Our first stop was at the museum and animal habitat. My favorite piece in the museum was a dendrochronological (see below) display that showed the timeline of the world around this tree as it grew. Various rings--from the center outward--were identified with events in American (and world) history, beginning almost at the center with 1729, when North Carolina became a British royal colony and ending near the outer rings with 1969, when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Outside in the habitat area were cougars and eagles and bears (oh my!) and some otters and deer.

From there we drove up a narrow road made up of a series of switchbacks to the top parking lot where the Grandfather Trail begins. First we took a trip across the mile-high swinging bridge, which is a mile high in elevation and not, as some strangers I overheard thought, a mile above the ground. It's also solidly constructed and, thankfully, swings very little. Once back over the bridge, we had our lunch and then hit the trail--not the dusty trail but the rocky trail.

In addition to what I said before, the trail is said to be "blue-blazed," which means that periodic blue paint markings on rocks and trees show the hiker the way to go. I won't try to describe the entire thing here, but I'll try to relate what was to me the scariest moment. We climbed to the foot of a rock face, somewhat like the first picture above but a steepsteepsteep slope only somewhat like the sheer cliff. A series of four ladders secured to the face of the slope--okay, it felt much more like a cliff as I climbed--takes you from the bottom to the top. The first couple of ladders rise up through the trees rooted at the base of the rock face. But as I hit the third ladder, I began to feel uneasy. A sense of space opening up at my back seemed to want to pull me off the wall. I turned, and sure enough, I was, it seemed, hanging in space. To my left the ladder moved closer and closer to an edge beyond which was nothing but air through which I could fall and tall to the teeny tiny road apparently 100 miles below on a valley floor. I put my nose to the ladder--almost through the ladder to the stone--and climbed.

Raleigh and I at MacRae Peak, up about 5,900 feet. This is after my rise up the ladders, and what you can't see is that the hat--did you notice the hat?--is drenched with cold sweat, even to the front edge of the brim.

More fun and tense moments awaited along the trail, but ultimately we made it to the Attic Window, near which we rested a while before, like Wise Men, taking a different way (mostly) back to the van. I don't know what I would've done if I'd had to "back" down those cliff ladders!

We drove down the mountain in a sprinkling of rain that had thankfully held off until the hike was over. In Newland, NC, we stopped for an early supper at Papa's Pizza, then hit the road again to arrive back at Cherokee right around six o'clock.

I'm tuckered out and heading for bed sooner rather than later this Saturday night.


dendrochronology: the science of dating events and variations in environment in former periods by comparative study of growth rings in trees and aged wood

http://www.grandfather.com/index.php

http://www.grandfather.com/nature_walks/crest_trails.php#grandfather