October 8, 2023
Arrival
I pulled into the trailhead along the South Toe River well before dawn. I was deep in the remote heart of the Black Mountains of North Carolina, ready to take on the state’s auspicious high point: Mount Mitchell.
The trailhead sat at 3000′ above sea level, meaning I had a whopping 3700 vertical feet of hiking to get done that day. It is a very rare summit East of the the Mississippi that requires that much vertical gain.
Then again Mount Mitchel “requires” practical no hiking at all. A paved roadway takes visitors to within spitting distance of its summit. But my personal rules for state high pointing remained the same: always hike to the summit from some reasonably low trailhead.
And so I took off from the trailhead, near the delightfully southern-sounding “Briar Bottom” campground.
The ascent
I typically pace myself to ascend roughly 1000 vertical feet per hour. And this hike was no exception. That meant roughly 3.5 hours of up. With 3.5 hours of up, you might think I’d have some eventful tales to tell of my ascent of this tallest of Carolinian summits. But I’m a bit disappointed to admit the hike was somewhat uneventful.
Mount Mitchell is not particularly rugged. There were no scrambly ledges or dramatic overlooks on my trail. And it’s densely forested from head to toe. The Southern Appalachians, while somewhat taller than their cousins in the Northeast, never break above tree line thanks to a comparatively mild climate. And so my hike mostly comprised 3.5 hours of strolling through the woods. Uphill.
That said, at one point I reached a cut in the trees for a set of power lines. And that did afford some views to the East.
Nearing the summit
It’s a bit unfair to call the ascent monotonous. Somewhere around 6000 feet, the forest began to transition from mostly eastern hardwoods to mostly evergreens. This was not quite the boreal thicket of Maine or the Adirondacks, but you could tell the weather up there was much less forgiving.
At this point I began encountering signage for nature trails wandering around the mountain’s summit. I ran into my first other hikers of the day (mostly folks parked at the top). Things were mossier and cozier up here.
The summit complex
Mount Mitchell is perhaps the third-most developed major summit in North America, after Mount Washington and Pike’s Peak. It’s the tallest point in mainland North America East of the Mississippi. It’s the apex of the Appalachians. It ranks as one of just two (maybe three) ultra-prominent peaks in the Eastern US. With all those superlatives comes a degree of fame and visitation.
And so you have a visitor center, with snacks and hot cocoa … and ample parking … and interpretive signage and rangers and flush toilets. Heavily developed is the summit that wears the crown.
Mount Mitchell
From 1789 to 1803, Mount Mitchell was the highest point in the United States. The title fell with the Louisiana Purchase, and the annexation of portions of Colorado into the country’s territories. But Mount Mitchell would never enjoy any fame from the distinction. Until the mid-1800s, Mount Washington in New Hampshire was widely believed to be the tallest peak in the Appalachians. It is in fact more prominent than Mount Mitchell, and towers thousands of feet above tree line, amidst some of the harshest weather on the planet.
Enter Elisha Mitchell, a professor at UNC, who proved the North Carolina summit rose a few hundred feet above the Granite State’s high point. But no good deed goes unpunished. Upon returning to the summit to confirm his measurement, Mitchell fell to his death on the mountain, near the aptly named Mitchell Falls.
I soaked in views from the summit observation platform. This was perhaps the sunniest day of my trip high pointing in the Southern Appalachians. But soon enough it was time to head back down.
The descent
The descent was largely uneventful. About halfway down, I took a slight variation on the route, which brought me a bit further north around a prominent ridgline. I hoped this route would sport more views. But no dice. It was a thickly carpeted mountain.
My early start meant finishing in time for a late lunch. There was plenty more beautiful Fall day to be had. And so I returned to my nearby lodging to relax and soak in the scenery. Mount Mitchell was in the books.
