Our sixth hike of the year … March 3, 2024
After being off trail for nearly a month … we decided to go up for the day and explore the Montreat Wilderness area. The wilderness area covers 2,460 acres with over 40 miles of trails along 20 different trails. It’s a good idea to download the wilderness/trail map ahead of time because there are no “you are here” signs at trail junctions.
We park in the gravel lot just past the stone entrance gate to Montreat and take the sidewalk path up to another couple of roads to get to the start of our intended loop. We begin our loop on Stomping Knob trail … which climbs in earnest to the summit of Big Piney/Stomping Knob. We continue our way along the ridge via the West Ridge Trail … which was surprisingly technical and continued climbing up and over various minor summits on our way to Graybeard Mountain. It was windy and the clouds/fog was moving in and out of the valleys below. Along this trail on the northern side is watershed property for Asheville which is marked for no trespassing and beyond that you could see glimpses of te Blue Ridge Parkway weaving it’s way around the mountains. We finally make it to the intersection with Graybeard Trail and take it to the summit of Graybeard – where we had it to ourselves and enjoyed a quick snack. The views here look towards Craggies/Mount Mitchell. After a brief rest and realizing that I was running short on daylight – I had to make the decision to cut our intended loop short. So, as we made our way down from Graybeard – we took the side trail to Walkers Knob. This trail goes by the shelter area that’s a short ways from it’s namesake. The shelter was in pretty good shape – and pretty clean. It also had a nice fire ring area. The privy area though – it was less than desirable and the bear cable didn’t seem to be functional. After exploring the shelter area … we made our way to the summit of Walkers Knob. This was probably one of my favorite views of the day – looking southward towards Black Mountain/Montreat. After taking in the views … we got back on the Graybeard trail and took it down the mountain – along the way passing Graybeard Falls which was actually a nice little waterfall. Along some of the switchbacks, there were some muddy/wet places. As we continued down … there were 2 unbridged water crossings – we just went through the water instead of trying to attempt any sort of balancing act. Somewhere down this section … I managed to kick a rock up and into my ankle which resulted in swelling and a nagging pain the rest of the hike. We finally make it to the Graybeard trailhead – which is a pretty small parking area – but wasn’t where we’d parked. We had another 2+ miles of road
walking to return to our car. But it was a reasonably nice walk … especially as we passed Lake Susan and watched the last remaining daylight disappear from the mountains beyond. There’s a general store along the lake that looked really nice – definitely hope to check it out next time I’m up here. We also walked by the Assembly Inn – which looked really nice. We finally made it to the car – thankful I didn’t have to break out my headlamp!
Overall, this hike was really good. Great views from the ridgeline and the mountain peaks. But this is not an easy trail … I’d definitely rate it more advanced especially due to the steep elevation gain the first part of the trail (over 3600’ in 6 miles). I did have cell service most of the time. Also, there’s hardly any directions as far as how to get to the various trailheads – so definitely be prepared with a map. Overall, a great day on trail – and can’t wait to come back to see some of the other trails.
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