Snow time
Last weekend we just had to get out. Wednesday night, a storm dumped 8" of snow on Charlotte. It was impossible to get anywhere on Thursday or Friday, so by Saturday we were getting cabin fever. We knew we had to hike, but needed to find a place that we could reach despite the snow. Just getting out of Charlotte would be enough of a challenge, without traveling primitive forest roads. We settled on an old favorite, Greybeard Mountain. It can be reached by several trails out of Montreat, which is easily accessible from the town of Black Mountain, just off the interstate.
We picked up Dave and got out of town without much trouble. We drove to Black Mountain, and met Rocky at the entrance to Montreat. He followed us to the Big Piney Ridge trailhead, where we got our gear organized. It was a sunny morning, but very cold. It was actually a relief to start up the mountain.
The Montreat area actually received less snow than Charlotte, so conditions weren't a problem. There were a few inches of snow on the ground, which was just enough to make the forest pretty without causing problems. We climbed very steeply at times, which was tricky in the slippery snow. After an hour and a half, we reached a cliff with a great view of Greybeard and surrounding peaks. Then we reached Rattlesnake Rock, with an equally impressive view of the town of Black Mountain and the South Mountains in the distance. We stopped here for an early lunch and lounged in the sun.
After lunch, Rocky headed back down. The rest of us continued up the Seven Sisters Ridge. We followed the ridge over several "sisters", which made for a roller-coaster hike. Through the woods to our left, the icy blue water of Burnette Reservoir was visible. Soon we were making our final climb up Greybeard itself. We found more snow here, and Christy fell into a thigh-deep drift. We reached the summit around mid-afternoon, and weren't disappointed. We had great views, especially of the Black Mountains to the north. The Craggy mountains provided more fine scenery to the west. To the east, numerous mountains were in view, with Mackey Mountain and Table Rock the most prominent.
We had a nice break here before heading down. We backtracked a short distance and then followed a different trail down. It led to a camping shelter, where we followed a short side trail out to Walker Knob. This provided more great views, this time to the south. It was getting late though, so we didn't linger long. We returned to the main trail and headed steeply down to a stream. Parts of this trail were icy, which made for some exciting hiking.
We crossed the stream and eventually hit the Old Toll Road. We left it after a short distance and descended to the creek once again. We followed it downstream, crossing several times. Rock hopping wasn't terribly difficult, but ice on the rocks did add to the challenge. We reached the road a little after 5pm. We had to walk another half-mile to close the loop. Then, it was on to My Father's Pizza for our traditional after-hike meal.
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