February 17, 2007
Mt. Mitchell Hike

I met up with Mohammed, Greg and Jim for a hike up to the summit of Mitchell from the Black Mountain campground. I'd never been up this way and wanted to check out the summit again. It had just snowed so picked up a pair of Yaktrax and we started up the mountain. The trail was moderately steep pretty much the entire way. I felt overdressed but the extra layers would come in handy later.

Greg and Mohammed went ahead and I didn't see them for three miles. As I climbed, more snow was evident and eventually it was everywhere. I saw a large forest jumping mouse hop across the snow. This was only the second time I'd seen one of these little beasts. Several more tracks were spotted later.

As I entered a spruce-fir forest, ice became apparent. It became plentiful as I neared Commissary ridge. On Commissary ridge, I traversed a frozen stream. The ice gave a bit but didn't break through. I caught up to Greg and Mo. We all headed up the trail toward the summit.

About a half mile up I slid, went completely airborne and wound up flat on my back. I had tempted fate too many times. It was definitely time to put on the Yaktrax. In the two minutes it took to put them on, my hands had turned to an icy concrete mix. It was much colder than it felt.

The trail climbed steeply and split. The trail to the summit was blockaded, but that didn't stop us. We made it to the summit and viewed snowy mountaintops all around us. I finally remembered to bring a camera, but with the cold, it didn't work. It said the battery was not charged despite the fact it had been fully charged the night before. Fortunately, Mohammed took plenty of shots.

The wind was fierce on the summit so we didn't stay long. The wind chill was in the -25 to -30 range so we headed for the more sheltered trail below. I had no issues traversing the ice with the Yaktrax but was still a bit leery of the downward sloping ice.

The snow disappeared at the lower elevations. I ran a good bit of the descent but hiked some as well. This was a bit more than I should have done the week before the Challenge. My legs really felt it. Most of my Mitchell training was run on gently sloping trails, with the exception of the Montreat run.

Raging Bull