Mt. Pisgah National Forest Trip
This area, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina is a wonderful place to backpack. Mountains rise above 5,000 feet and whitewater streams drop into waterfall after waterfall. Being a national forest it does not have the trail use restrictions of the national parks. You can camp anywhere you like...but if you want to be near a water source.....our favorites are Shining Rock and Sliding Rock. The trails are not marked as well as in park areas, so a compass and map are important.

we set out

On a beautiful, crisp fall day we set out for our destination, Shining Rock. We carried everything we would need for the two day journey.

along the hike

The gentle rolling hills make it easy to cover long distances. Even my daughter, who was expecting her first baby (she is the one with the light pack), enjoyed the hike. It was our son-in-law's first backpack trip and he had so much fun, he was "hooked"!

ridges

Looking five ridges over we can spot our destination, Shining Rock. The sun reflects off it's mica outcropping from miles away. Following the ridges, we were in the warm sunshine, which made the chilly fall day very pleasant ...... we won't talk about the following day's storm that turned the trail into a raging river up to our knees in some places .... however it made the trip quite an adventure!


We were all glad to relax around the campfire after dinner.

Want to know more about the Mt.Pisgah National forest? Try these links:

http://www.gorp.com/dow/southern/pisg.htm

http://www.gorp.com/gorp/resource/US_National_Forest/NC_NORTH.htm


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