9th high point Mt.Mitchell,NC

view from top of Mt Mitchell

Another Mt. Mitchell view

on Deep Gap trail, that is not a level trail in front of me it is a long way down across that rock slab

at the top of the Eastern world

view from Deep Gap trail somewhere

Deep Gap trail start

Archie is about to climb down that rock slab.

On Saturday May 29, Archie and I drove to Mt.Mitchell State Park, and did the summit as a drive up (photos will be added here as soon as I get home). We wanted to get a good hike in though so decided to do the Deep Gap hike across the ridgeline of the black Mountains here. We meant to do the 4.5 mile out and back that ends at Cattail Peak but ended up hiking past that and making it around an 11 mile hike. (And a hard 11 miles that involved climbing some ropes, scrambling across slabs of rock etc). Saw some lovely vistas and it is probably about the highest hike to train on in the Eastern US with the entire length of it being over 6000 feet in altitude so we may come back for it again later this summer. The photos of us on the trail are from the same spot, he just took the one of me after he climbed to the bottom, there was quite a bit of scrambling and turning around backwards and climbing down. The two plaques are elevation plaques for two of the 4 high peaks we crossed on a ridgeline. There is one photo taken from the last peak where you can see two of the first ones we hiked over on the ridgeline.