“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” – Edward Abbey

Mount Mitchell: Uphill Miles to Earn Asheville Beers

By: Erin Hartz

Like many others, I live for travelling.  This past year has been quite an adjustment and I need to make sure any trip I take is extra safe and extra worth it.  So, after quarantining and driving to Florida to see my husband’s grandmother, we decided to make a weekend for ourselves exploring the outdoors of Asheville, North Carolina on the way back.

I was born in North Carolina, but the only times I’ve been to Asheville are when I was strapped to my mom’s back (likely) taking a nap while her and my dad strolled through the Biltmore and when I stopped for an evening for some incredible IPAs from their insanely good breweries.  This time was a little different: My husband and I planned to hike to the top of the highest point east of the Mississippi. 

Mount Mitchell was the inspiration for one of the nation’s first state parks and its peak stands at 6,684 feet tall.  You can drive to its top to view the surrounding area from the observation deck or climb about 6 miles over rough terrain.  We wanted to earn our beer, so we opted for the trek up to the top.

Our alarms went off a little before 6:00am and we gulped some gross hotel coffee in the car while we drove to the bottom of the mountain (about an hour from downtown Asheville).  I was bundled up and equipped with my hat, gloves, fleece-lined leggings, some cheap running shoes (terrible mistake), water, and an entire jar of Jif peanut butter.  We began our climb.

Most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, so we crunched along through rocks, tree roots, and streams for about a mile before I started shedding layers.  My heart was pumping and the air temperature in the 30s no longer felt very cold.  I heard that if we would have come a few weeks earlier, we would have seen the brilliant leaf colors, but the views through the bare trees were even better.  We stopped briefly only a couple times for water and photos because we figured we could stop as much as we wanted on the way back down.

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My husband and I tripped on the exposed tree roots and fallen leaves multiple times and made fun of ourselves as we kept tally.  I lost count somewhere after 10 but kept in good spirits until we were about a mile from the top.  I was exhausted.  But my husband encouraged me that we were almost there, and I kept going.  After 6 miles, 3,660 feet of elevation gain, 1,097 calories, and 2.5 hours, we made it.  The views were incredible, and the sense of accomplishment was even better.  We sat at the top while I ate my snacks and talked about how quickly and easily we would be able to make the climb back down.

How wrong I was.

We took the climb down a little slower and enjoyed the sights.  It felt slightly like skiing because we kept slipping on the fallen leaves, but the views were beautiful and the sun felt amazing, so it did not matter.  My knees started to get sore halfway down the hill, but we found a shortcut and I was confident we would make it back to the car before it got too bad.  However, the “shortcut” was not a shortcut, and it made the hike even longer.  Every step I took during the last mile felt like my knees were shattering.  I was hobbling, in tears, muttering expletives, and wondering why the hell I had agreed to this hike.  Once I got to the bottom of the hill and on flat land, my knee pain magically disappeared, and I wondered if it was all in my head.

After we had showered and headed out for our “earned beers,” we walked down a slight hill to the brewery.  The knee pain was back with a vengeance.  However, the next block was uphill, and the knee pain was gone.  I was so confused, but I was going to enjoy my IPA at Burial Brewing, sore knees or not.  We had planned to stay out for a few beers, but after one my husband and I looked at each other and realized we were absolutely ready for comfy clothes and bed.  The 12 miles to the top and back at Mount Mitchell had exhausted us in the best possible way.

After doing some research and speaking with some other more seasoned hikers (like Sadie), I learned that my downhill knee pain is not atypical.  As one article put, “the compressive force between the tibia and femur (your knee joint) is between 7 and 8 times your bodyweight when going downhill! So even if you weigh in at a buck fifty, when you’re heading down the mountain, your knees are absorbing the weight of a small pony – it’s no wonder they get a little sore.”  This made a lot of sense.  The fix?  Good shoes (I will never wear cheap running shoes to hike again), trekking poles (I had no idea they had a purpose), support (with a brace or kinesio tape), and muscling up (I guess I should do more squats).

I’m glad there’s a solution, because I can’t wait to do another hike like Mount Mitchell.

Indian Staircase @ Red River Gorge

When a friend asks, “Have you ever been to Red River Gorge in Kentucky?” and your answer is “No.” The next words out of your mouth need to be “Let’s go!”

After 3 months in quarantine my soul was ready for a change of pace. I had had 3 months to cook whatever I wanted, sleep in, work out, make smoothies, and oh yeah…teach 21 kindergartens online everyday! So as you can imagine, I was ready to get out of the house. Little did I realize that the following weekend would be a weekend with breathtaking views, challenging hikes and an adventure I would never forget!

When we arrived we were technically in the Cumberland District. The primitive camping sights that we had planned on camping at were located on a lake called Cave Run Lake. The less than ideal reviews on Google though had me a little nervous. When we arrived at the camp sight those reviews turned out to be very true. We were completely surrounded by Kentucky’s finest hillbillies who were car camping with loud music and women who should not be wearing bikini’s….Insert…PLAN B!!

As we had intended on a more serene camping experience we turned around and headed for Red River Gorge (where we thought we would have been camping at anyway). On our way, Sherri looked up hikes that sounded challenging and had great reviews. We decided on the Indian Staircase hike. The hike also came with plenty of warnings.

We parked at the Bison Way Trailhead and started straight up the gorge. While this was only about a 3 mile hike, it was very challenging. Many of the trails were unmarked and unkempt as we were often going up root/rock “scrambles” and getting scratched by thorny plants in the middle of the pathway. We asked each person we came across if we were going the right and almost all of them responded with “Oh the staircase is very difficult to find but you are going in the right direction!”

One of the many rock/root scrambles we hiked up (WITH a cooler I might add…talk about using teamwork! LOL).

When we finally found it, we sat at the bottom of “the Staircase” for quite some time before scrambling to the top. Some college aged boys were going up and down like it was nothing (one of them carried our cooler to the top for us! ha). Their advice was “stay low and just keep going.” When we finally got to the top my adrenaline was rushing and Sherri looked at me and said, “Look back but don’t look back.” Talk about having your breath taken away. The view was completely astounding and I felt like I was just hanging out on the side of a mountain (which, I guess, I was). When we got to the top (which was just past some stones that were more like stairs than the nearly vertical rock I had just gone up) we sat down and marveled at the view.

After such a crazy hike we decided this was much more serene and this would be the spot where we would camp. Although there were probably 8-10 other groups or individuals camping everyone was spread out and have their own private camping area. Besides the family that was just behind us playing a movie at 10pm I would say everyone was very respectful! The first night we camped in the woods. We pitched the tent, collected rocks to make a fire pit and collected dead wood for our fire. The sticks were so dry they burned very quickly. Which was fine considering we were living on beef jerky, peanut butter and crackers, trail mix, water and Truly for two days! We hadn’t brought hot dogs, hamburgers, or even worse- things for s’mores! Oh well!

We spent the night relaxing by the fire and went to bed relatively early. And once the family behind us finally turned off their Lincoln Park music and horror movie, it was totally silent except for the breeze in the trees.

After about and hour or so of waiting for my melatonin to kick in I turned around and looked at the side of the tent I was sleeping on. My heart jumped to my throat because it looked like someone was pointing their flashlight directly at our tent! I was so scared but I slowly sat up to look out the tent window….can you guess what it actually was…

The moon!!! It was SO bright! Later, even though I was still a little shook, I just kept thinking how cool it was that it was so bright that night!

When we woke up the next morning, many people had already headed out. There were some people leaving with cups of coffee in their hand. (Which I have to admit, I was a little jealous of them drinking coffee with such an amazing view…although I don’t know how they planned on getting back down the Staircase with a mug of coffee in their hand!) We basically had the place to ourselves, besides some hikers who were passing by that afternoon. It was pretty rainy for most of the day so the amount of hikers was not as many as the day before. A couple of brave people even came through in the rain! Luckily because it was a Sunday we figured no one would be camping that night. Turns out we were right.

Because we had the place to ourselves, we decided to move the tent (we literally just picked it up and moved it) to a location with more of a view…

Day 2

We spent the day relaxing and resting our sore muscles from the climb the day before. Sherri worked on some paintings, I just enjoyed the view, hiked around a little, and took 3 naps!

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As the day came to an end and the rainclouds cleared we knew we were in for a clear and beautiful night where we could actually see stars. With us being the only ones at the camp sight we could hear more and more animals. The sweetest little birds were very curious and just hung around in the trees next to our camp sight. We had to wait until at least 11pm before the stars were at their best. We heard a coyote howling in the distance which was very creepy but then we saw some shooting stars and it took our mind off of it.

When the campfire died down we decided it was finally time to turn in for the night. It seemed like Sherri fell right to sleep but I laid awake for about an hour…because I heard the world scariest sound! It sounded like a bark and a screech at the same time. I didn’t think it was a bear, but I had no idea what it was and it scared me more than the howling coyote considering it was AT our camp sight! I lay there under my blanket with my eyes closed hoping I wouldn’t hear it again. But then, I could hear something breathing right outside the tent door. You guys, I was SO scared! My heart was pounding and I just thought if I lay still it will go away. Finally, the breathing sound left and I somehow managed to fall asleep.

When we woke up in the morning, the fog so heavy you could not see across the Gorge! It was beautifully eery, but it was time to head home. We packed everything up and headed to where we thought was the correct trail. We had no intention of going DOWN the Indian Staircase and knew that the trail was actually a loop. However, remember how I said many of the trials are unmarked and unkempt? Well we were having a hard time figuring out which trail would lead us back to the Bison Way trailhead. The area on the map that looked like it was the correct way, just seemed to end in the middle of the forest. Had we not come across two girls who knew where to go, we would have taken the long way home and then would have had to walk even more down the road to the correct trailhead. Luckily there was plenty to look at on the hike back that we had not gotten to see on the way to our camp sight.

While this trip was short and sweet, it was full of adventure! And I cannot wait to go back to Red River Gorge to explore it further! I will never forget my first trip there. If you haven’t gone I highly suggest you make this your next adventure! You will truly see how small we truly are compared to the rest of this world.

Conquering the Grand Canyon 

My grandmother is a world traveler, so naturally, when the grandkids were trying to plan a 90th birthday present that she wouldn’t forget, we decided to take her to one place she had never been, but always wanted to see. Where was that one place? The beautiful Grand Canyon! While we were celebrating in TX on her actual birthday at Top Golf, my cousin Laura’s husband came up to me and said, “I have to ask you something.” I had no idea what he was going to say and the way he said it made me think he wanted to talk to me about something very serious. I was a little caught off guard. Then he said, “When we go to the Grand Canyon would you want to do a hike with me? Some people do a hike from rim to rim. Laura said that you would be the only person crazy enough to do this with me.” Ha! I was nervous but I almost immediately said “I’M IN!” (Because yes, I AM that crazy!)

January was when I committed to doing this crazy hike. October was when we would visit the Grand Canyon and complete the hike of a lifetime. I only had 10 months to prep, train, and research everything I needed to know about hiking in the Grand Canyon. Living in Indiana, there are not a ton of high altitude/stifling hot conditions to train my muscles for this hike. Especially in the winter months. So, what’s a girl to do? You find the most difficult trails possible in the good ole Hoosier State. Contrary to what outsiders believe, Indiana does have some hilly terrain. My good friend Erin went with me to Turkey Run State Park where we hiked as fast as we could in an attempt to break in my hiking boots. And, to prepare for the heat, plenty of hot yoga classes, which I was already  a huge fan of!

After reading blog after blog about hiking in the grand canyon I finally had a list of everything I needed to tackle the trail. Below were some of the most important things I had to purchase:

• day pack
• 2 liter camel back water pouch
• hiking poles
• clothing that I could layer
• lots of high protein snacks- peanut butter sandwiches, cliff bars, beef jerky, trail mix, etc.
• Nuuns
• wide brimmed hat
• hiking boots
• head lamps
• wool socks
• REALLY STYLISH convertible pants

The list went on and on. Let’s just say I was very thankful for the guidance from the REI and Rusted Moon employees! As well as suggestions from friends!

When the time came, I felt very prepared and knowledgeable about what I was going to encounter on the trail. I knew the views would be vast and beautiful. However, as we began our decent into the canyon at 5:00am my heart was beating out of my chest and I was truly feeling “all the feels”.

At 5am my wonderful mother drove us (illegally and against all the signs that said “TOUR BUSES ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT”) as close to the trailhead for the South Kaibab Trail as she could get us. So technically our hike started about .5 mile away from the actual trailhead. It was about 30 degrees and because the park has no street lamps or any type of outdoor lighting it was SO DARK! We rested out head lamps on a rock across from the trail head sign to take our first selfie.

It turns out that the North Rim was closed for the season so rather than attempt the Rim to Rim hike, we were going 7 miles down into the canyon and 11.5 miles back up to the top in the same day. As we started our decent into the Canyon my heart started to beat. The trail was so rocky that I thought for sure I was going to slide right over the edge to my untimely death. Obviously, I didn’t. We hiked for a little over an hour in pitch black with only our head lamps to guide us. When the sun finally began to come up I felt an overwhelming rush of emotions. I love the mountains and all their beauty, but there is something different about hiking down while the canyon starts to tower over you.

Before I knew it the sun was up and we could see where the trail was heading. We made it to our first big over look at a point called “Skeleton Point”. This is the point where you can first see the Colorado River! Even from where we were, which was still miles away from the river, the view was stunning. After leaving Skeleton Point it started to rain, not hard, just enough to create a beautiful rainbow! This made up for the lack of a sunrise that I had been so excited about prior to our hike! It was also at Skeleton Point that we met a fellow hiker who was actually running the trail (although Skeleton Point was his turn around point). He was from Australia and had been traveling all over the United States. He was the first of many very cool fellow hikers that we would meet along the way.

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We only spent a short time at Skeleton Point before we headed on to Bright Angel Camp Ground, where we would not be camping. Park rangers at the Grand Canyon are very firm with people who are attempting the hike that we did. In fact, there are many places along the trail where there are signs of a cartoon character on his knees and puking to try and defer hikers from making this trek. If we had been hiking in July, that probably would have been me. But in mid October, the temperature stays around the low to mid 80’s at the bottom of the canyon, making the trek much more enjoyable. We arrived a Bright Angel Camp Ground right around 11:00am, right on schedule. We crossed a hanging bridge over the river to arrive at the camp grounds. After hours of knee-pounding downhill hiking we were starving. Luckily this camp ground had real bathrooms and picnic tables where we could enjoy a quick meal while we “oohed” and “aahed” over the scenery, before making the trek back up to the top. Along with my camel back water pouch, I had packed a full Nalgene water bottle with 2 Nuuns tablets. By the time we got to the bottom, my back was killing me from the weight of all the water. I chugged the Nalgene and instantly felt better thanks to my lighter day pack! While we were eating lunch we were approached by a park ranger who told us, “Make sure after you pitch your tent that you hang up any food so that the animals don’t get into it.” “Okay, thank you!” We replied, intentionally leaving out the details that we would not be camping that evening.

We crossed back over the bridge to pick up the Bright Angel Trail to start our trek out of the canyon. Our next stop was Indian Gardens Camp Ground.  A good portion of this section of the hike was right along the Colorado River, which made for a stunning view, that gave me a very quiet sense of calm with the rushing riving to my right. As we went further and further up the trail we met another hiker. We had stopped at the same place to enjoy the view. He was an older man who was hiking for his birthday. He said he had done the same hike that we were doing 45 times before! We asked him how far we were from Indian Gardens and his reply was 30 minutes. We were relieved. We moved on with Indian Gardens in our sight. By this point my hip was hurting quite a bit and my feet were sore. Luckily I had worn my boots in enough that I did not have any blisters.

As we walked and walked 30 minutes came and went, and then another 30 minutes. We started questioning ourselves about whether or not we had taken a wrong turn. However, the trail is very well marked and therefore, it seemed unlikely that we had missed a turn. We asked another hiker how far Indian Gardens was from our current location and her response was 45 minutes. I guess when you have hiked this trail 45 times in your life, you are able to make it to Indian Gardens in much more quickly than us first-timers. All we could do was laugh at our stupidity! 

When we finally made it to Indian Gardens we sat down to eat a snack and rest. There was a natural spring that went right through the campground so we took our shoes off and soaked our feet. I had never been so happy to soak my feet in water that felt colder than ice. My socks and feet were stained red from all the red rocks that we had been hiking on the past 8 hours. I could have stayed there for the rest of the day. My mom would have been very worried if she didn’t see us come up the last switch back in the next four hours. So on we hiked. A mile or so after we left Indian Gardens was when the switch backs started. This was definitely the most challenging part of the trail. Matt and I had different hiking styles. I wanted to hike fast and make more rest stops, he wanted to go slower for longer. So we kept our own individual paces but kept each other in eye view. Every time you would go up the side of the switch back you would have the illusion that you were almost to the top. Unfortunately, you weren’t. My hip was in so much pain, but surprisingly, my knees were fine. My feet were tired and sore, but they didn’t compare to the pain in my right hip. We had no other choice than to keep going if we were going to make it out of the canyon by 5pm. 4 hours later, I hear Matt say, “There’s your mom!” “Where?!” I said looking to the very top of the canyon where tourists were looking over the ledge. He just kept saying “Right there!” and I kept saying “I don’t see her!” Until finally he said “On the switch back! Right in front of you!” I finally looked down and saw my mom’s smiling face. She had hiked down the last couple of switch backs to meet us and take some pictures and finish the hike with us! I cannot tell you how grateful I was at that moment! If I hadn’t been so tired, I probably would have started crying right then and there!

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When we finally reached the top we of course took some celebratory pictures. My mom went to get the car and Matt and I sat down and waited for her. I was in such a daze that I couldn’t believe we had actually just hiked to the bottom of the Grand freakin’ Canyon and back up in 12 hours. 18.5 miles total. It is still surreal in my mind, but I will never forget the sense of accomplishment that I felt that day.

As great as the hike was, one thing has always stuck in my mind. The amazing hikers that we met along the way and the respect that everyone in the canyon had for nature. I did not see one piece of trash while we were there, and for that, I will forever believe in the goodness of humanity! The quiet of the canyon also led us to be able to see a lot of wild life including, mule deer, mountain goats, and a scorpion (my kindergartener’s favorite picture). Apparently animal sightings on the trail are rare. Therefore, these sightings would have not been possible if people were not so respectful of the trail and park.

After our hike, the rest of our family joined us to celebrate the beauty of the Canyon with our Grandmother. While I was hobbling along the rest of the week, I would not trade this adventure for the world and there are not other people that I would have wanted to share this vacation with!