Exploring Grandfather Mountain

[97TJGUZZY]

So my brother and I had been talking about hiking grandfather mountain for a while and we finally were able to pencil in a weekend. They headed up to Old NC 105 Thursday afternoon and hung out by the fire and explored the area a bit. I had to work and then came home to do dinner and put the little one to bed then rolled out for the campsite.

I arrived around 1am, leveled the teardrop, talked a little **** with the guys and then went to bed. It was a chilly night on the ridge. We woke up to 13 degrees showing on my thermometer.

Coleman made some eggs and bacon and I eventually crawled out of my bed around 7:30 and we had breakfast then packed up for some adventure.

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[97TJGUZZY]

We made our way down old NC 105 and up to the Wilson creek area. We made a few stops to explore the river and good off.

It was a little overcast but not raining or snowing so we were happy.

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[97TJGUZZY]

We made our way through the Wilson creek area and stopped by the old abandoned mill town of Mortimer for a few ghost stories. There were plenty of trout in the deeper areas of the creek.

We wandered around the old abandoned buildings

Stopped in to say hey to the ladies at Betsy's old country store.

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[97TJGUZZY]

Made our way toward the parkway via some creative traveling.

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[97TJGUZZY]

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[97TJGUZZY]

Coleman had never been on the BRP so we took a short detour on the parkway over to the viaduct for a hike.





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[97TJGUZZY]

More pics to come


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[brianb2]

Nice report, and good looking TJ. I love Wilson's Creek. I do a lot of backpacking and it's one of my favorite areas. Good fishing as well. Thanks for sharing.


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[97TJGUZZY]

Thanks, I love that area.

Then we made our way to our next camp.

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[97TJGUZZY]

Woke up to some cold temps... all of our water froze... and my bananas froze solid

We then made our way to the mile high bridge and over to the grandfather mountain trail.

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[97TJGUZZY]

We made our way up the grandfather mountain trail. Repeatedly coming to snow and ice on the trail and signs warning that only experienced alpine hikers should continue. We evidentially felt experienced....

We were met with numerous steep ladders up the nearly vertical rock face. It's as close to mountain climbing as hiking can get.

Did I mention when we left that morning it was 9 degrees, so up here in the 40mph gusts it was very cold. But by the afternoon we had to strip some layers when we were on the backside of the mountain in the sun and out of the winds.

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[97TJGUZZY]

luckily the trail is marked in blue blazes that are on the rocks and trees. Some of the trail just climbed straight up the rock with nothing but a blue blaze painted on it like the photo above.