HIGH WINDY
We traveled up to Black Mountain on Sunday to hike High Windy. The mountain is just southeast of Asheville on YMCA property. Christy, Dave, Saucony, and I met Bob, Laura, and Joel at McDonalds and we drove up to the conference center. I checked in at the main building, and picked up a simple trail map for 50 cents. After some brief confusion about where the trail actually started, we were on our way.
We hiked up past the amphitheater and onto an old dirt road. We followed this for the next hour, climbing gradually for the most part. We passed a storm shelter and several other trails, and even one patch of snow. We reached the ridge crest and headed east. We intersected a broad gravel road, which took us to the summit. The fire tower has been removed, but there are still fine views from the clearing at the top. The Black Mountains and Craggy Mountains provided an impressive sight to the north, with Burnette Reservoir below them. Directly below us was the town of Black Mountain. In the distance, Table Rock, Hawksbill, and Grandfather Mountain were easy to identify.
We had covered the 2 1/2 mile climb to the top in an hour and a half. We stopped for lunch, but bundled up first. At a little over 4000', High Windy isn't terribly high. But it sure was windy. It was a sunny day, but cold with a vicious wind.
After lunch, 3 guys on 4-wheelers drove up to the summit. They had come up from the south on the gravel road. They were intent on finding the remains of an airplane that had crashed nearby. We couldn't help them, and they were quickly on their way. They were the only people we saw all day.
We continued on the ridge to the northeast. After half a mile, we reached a sign that said that the trail ahead was dangerous and to proceed at our own risk. We stopped for a photo, and climbed to the summit of High Top. There were more fine views just below the summit from a cliff. The trail continued down a broken portion of the cliff before entering a steep chute. By the time I arrived, Bob was already exploring ahead. We were pretty sure the trail would loop back down to the center, but it wasn't shown on the map. I was curious, but not everyone wanted to try it. In the end, Bob and Dave took the adventurous route, while the rest of us headed back.
Bob and Dave had an exciting hike as they had to work there way down numerous ledges. They got back around 3:30 and waited in the lodge. Our hike was less eventful, though Christy and I took an alternate route for the last couple of miles. It was nice for variety if nothing else. We arrived at 4, with plenty of daylight to spare. I'm eager to go back, and to do the full loop as Bob and Dave did it.
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