From the Ocean to the Mountains

"If you're lucky enough to live in the mountains, you're lucky enough."

Last weekend was spend close to the ocean and this weekend, we decided to mix it up a bit an head to the mountains instead. Actually, we bought a LivingSocial deal for 2 nights at the Mountain Harbour Bed & Breakfast  in Roan Mountain TN.

Mountain Harbour B&B, Roan Mountain TN

Crossing a little creek to get to the B&B

We struck gold with that B&B. The setting is beautiful, the owner are super nice, the breakfast is seriously to die for and the homes a pretty and clean. The bonus of the place is, that it's popular with hikers, because it's so close to the Appalachian Trail and they also offer hostel accommodation. On both morning, we didn't only get really good food, but also great conversations with people hiking on the trail for a weekend trip or a several week long trip.

Since we were so close to the trail, we thought it was about time to finally hike a fraction of the trail.

Carvers Gap to Yellow Mountain Gap and back (10 mile round trip)

Start Point: Carvers Gap

From here to the B&B (US 19E) would have been just a little longer.

First unobstructed views were a little cloudy.

Trail is framed by rhododendron. In bloom in June.

First speck of sunlight on the mountain.

Hey there.

View from the turnaround point.

Quick break at the turnaround.

The day started out overcast and fairly cold. We decided to just hike out for 2.5 hours and then turn around. The picture above is at our turn around point, right after Yellow Mountain Gap. After that, the sun came out to play and warm us up. On top of it, the way back was more uphill and the way out, so that way we had to work a little harder too.

Sun came out to play after all.

Jane Bald

Trail snaking along the Grassy Ridge.

 Especially the views from "Jane Bald" and "Round Bald" were great on our way back, once the clouds had cleared a little.

We were really surprised by the amount of people on the trail. Sure, it was a weekend and the weather was nice and it's high season for through hikers right now, but I still just didn't expect so much traffic.

It was so much fun to discover a little of the A.T. and hopefully we'll be back to see some more soon.

The next morning, I headed out for a little out and back run from the B&B... To offset the breakfast, I was planning on eating! ;-)

After the run and the breakfast, we packed up and headed home... We still had one more item on tap.

Open Water Swim Time!!

Somebody looks excited! ;-)

Ready to head out.

The weather was beautiful and what better thing to do than cap of the weekend with a good open water swim?

I thought, I will just cruise along for a little swim, but my training buddy Stacy gave me a run for my money. I actually had to work. Stacy is doing her first Ironman in three weeks and girl got STRONG! Can't wait for her to put it all together on race day... She will do great.

Deep Creek Hiking

Hello, My name is Terry and I am a tourist. ;-) And those are the Tom Branch Falls in the background.

After our little train adventure from earlier that day, we had a some time to kill before we could go to dinner without being offered the early bird special with senior citizen discount at the restaurant.

We had a couple of options picked out (Fontana Dam, Clingmans Dome), but both just were a little too far of a drive for 3.30 in the afternoon. Instead we decided to get moving and went for a hike in the Deep Creek area (part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park), just minutes away from our cabin at the Deep Creek Tube Center and Campground.

Busting a warrior pose on a rock.

Indian Creek Falls.

Some dead trees.

A squirrel  looking for an afternoon snack.

And this is actually back on the campground, we stayed at. You can rent tubes and then enter the creek up were we hiked and then float all the way to here. Of course, tubing is not quite in season yet in April.

All in all, we got around 1.5 hours of hiking in.... Another good getaway day in the books. ;-)

On a high note... And not so high note!

This morning was my last long run before the Spinx Half Marathon this coming Saturday.

I ended up with 9 miles in 1:30 hours. Fairly speedy for me and I am very happy with the run and feel like I ended this training cycle on a high note.

 For the run, I joined a group with tons of speedy athletes and of course, I got spit out at the end of the pack which is alright, since I expected it. Until around mile 4, I still had a running partner, but after that I was on my own.... Doesn't look like it hurt the pace hmmm??? ;-)

The not so high note was the instant soreness I felt right after stopping.... I hadn't noticed it until then, but my 7 mile hike up and down Table Rock yesterday left me SORE!!! I assume, that the coming down the mountain, dragged by a 50 lbs dog has a little something to do with that.

The hike was beautiful, but I didn't take one single picture, but one of my co-worker snapped pics all the time and hopefully, I will be able to share a couple of them over the next couple of days.

We also have family from Terry's side in town over the weekend and once I sorted through those pictures, I will share some here as well.

So long! ;-)

Hiking Governor's Rock

Around here, we see wonderful fall leave foliage. It's what is everyone is talking about for weeks, it's just that beautiful. So how better to enjoy the color explosion than to go out there.

That's why we met up with some co-workers of mine to hike to the Table Rock summit in the Table Rock State Park. This is Table Rock from an viewing area in the valley:



As the title of the post already implicates, we didn't quite make it up to the top, but called it a day after reaching "Governor's Rock" about 2.3 miles into the Table Rock trail. But I jump ahead here a little.

The trail was classified as "strenuous" and for the 3.6 mile hike up to the top, they projected two to three hours. Most of the time, I feel like those classifications are pretty conservative, but they are pretty much dead on on this one.

Around 12PM we finally hit the trail behind the nature center. We had to register and everything, so they can make sure that nobody got lost on the trails in the evening. It was a beautiful day yesterday and of course the trails were packed. Especially, as long as we were on the Carrick loop which is an hour hike around the valley with some waterfalls. After we took the turn unto the Table Rock Trail, things thinned out a little, which made it easier for our group of eight adults and three dogs.

As soon as we got on the Table Rock Trail, the trail got a lot steeper. But heck, we are all in good shape and the time passed quickly with conversations and views. Half way up the trail is a little picnic shelter with a gorgeous view over to the Table Rock reservoir:



Shortly after the shelter, the trail meets with the Ridge Trail. This trail connects the two summits in the park. One of them is Pinnacle Mountain and the other said Table Rock. The trail flattened out some, since we followed the ridge line, which was a welcomed break for all of us. Just shortly before Governor's Rock, we had to start climbing again and one of the older dog ladies that were with us, had to be given a hand in a couple of sections. That was a flashback to a couple of weeks ago, when Terry had to carry Karma up the ladders at the Grandfather Mountain hike. But here is Emma's moment of weakness! ;-)



Up there on Governor's Rock, the views are just amazing. We sat down to soak it all in and to have a snack. There was a pretty colorful folk up to be seen as well. The college girls and a guy that lost his shirt, but managed to have a radio with him (he is in the background of the following pic). A guy with his son that already hike Pinnacle Mountain that morning and they were on their way up Table Rock, when we met them... By the way... The just got off the trail when we were about to leave the parking lot later on... These guys were moving. Also, we met an older gentleman who was spicing up his hike with some letterboxing.



On the rock I took a poll about who is going to join to go to the top, but it was decided that we will call it a day right there. After maybe half an hour, we started our way down again. That was a lot of pounding on the old bones, but there was certainly a pull in everyone to get down this mountain.



Once we got back to the nature center, we put the other half of our registration in the box and sat down on one of the picnic tables for a couple of minutes.

I really enjoyed the hike. The weather was great, the trails were very nice maintained (thank a boy scout) and the company was great... But next time, I want to go all the way... Maybe we'll find another weekend this year to do it, since it's just half an hour drive for us. :-)

B-Day Hiking Trip Report

Day One (Friday): Running Errands and Returning to the Scene of the "Crime"

The day started off early. We are so used to getting up early, that we even wake up early on weekends and days off. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since we had a couple of errands to run before heading out of town. I also still had to pack, because I just couldn't get myself to do it the night before. After that we headed out to our chiropractor appointment and then grabbed some breakfast. I didn't have a good backpack for hiking day trips, so we also stopped by a couple of stores and now I am the owner of a brand new Camelbak Mule. Looking at the watch, it was almost 11AM by then and we decided, that we will stop by the Hincapie Sportsware Warehouse Sale. I was hoping to go there, but we originally thought that we would be already gone by the time the Sale started. It was certainly worth it... I wanted to get some winter gear and left the store with a winter bib, winter jacket, base layer, knickers and socks. NICE! :-) So there are no excuses this winter, not to ride the bike!

By 1PM we were finally on the road to Mount Mitchell State Park. We got on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville NC and for Terry it was a trip down memory lane. Just three weeks prior, he was running exactly this piece of road as his last (glorious) leg in the Blue Ridge Relay. Now I know, where he passed who and so on and so forth. Here, we also discovered that Karma gets motion sick... This time we were able to stop in time, the next time, we wouldn't get that lucky. We followed the Blue Ridge Parkway and made a couple of stops at overlook points. At milepost 364.5 Craggy Gardens we made a longer break for taking pictures and a little bit of walking.



We saw big clouds rolling in and it got worse each mile we travelled. By the time we finally reached the Mount Mitchell State Park, the visibility was basically zero. We parked at the visitor center and decided to take the two mile trail up to the summit. Right from the get-go the trail was rough, but was also a lot of fun and interesting to hike on. When we reached the intersection to the Mountain-To-Sea-Trail (MST) we somehow lost the trail and ended up hiking straight up the mountain through the woods until we finally hit another trail. We had the choice of following the trail to the left or to the right, we chose the left and 20 minutes later ended up on a camp site. Good thing was, that we finally knew where we were again, the bad thing was, that we were walking in the wrong direction away from the summit. On the camp site we ran into a ranger and he confirmed that the signs on the Old Mount Mitchell Trail are pretty confusing and gave us the shortest way back to the visitor center. Visibility has gotten even worse in the meantime and there wasn't really a point of going up to the summit anymore. In the Mount Mitchell State Park, there are signs posted everywhere that they have frequent black bear sightings... In this context, Terry made the quote of the day: "Karma, if Mr Bear comes, you are on your own!" ;-)

On our way to the hotel in Marion NC, we rode along the Blue Ridge Parkway and then switchbacks down the mountain. I assume that this is the last 25 miles the cyclist have to do when riding the Assault of Mount Mitchell... Tons of respect for these guys!

Day Two (Saturday): BEAR! and a lot of Hiking

We started Saturday out with breakfast and then made our way to Grandfather Mountain. We have been joking before about the bear advisory signs that are posted everywhere. While driving along a four lane highway, we all of a sudden saw a black bear sprinting across the road in front of us. Fortunately so far ahead, that there was never any danger of actually hitting the bear. So my first live and in color viewing of a bear happened out of the security of the car and I am not unhappy about that. Unfortunately, the cameras were tucked away in our backpacks on the back seat of the car, so we don't even have a picture to proof it. The speed the bear was sprinting was really impressive... There goes the illusion that you would be able to outrun a bear! :-) We kept on going and soon enough hit switchbacks again up the mountain. My stomach felt queasy and so it was no surprise that Karma got sick too... This time, she was a little too fast for us. But we learned and didn't give her food before arriving at Grandfather, so the mess didn't get too bad.



At Grandfather Mountain, we made a quick pit stop at the Nature Museum and then parked the car on the Hiking Parking Lot. From there we did the short hike up to the Mile High Swinging Bridge.



The bridge was shorter than I thought it would be, but it was still impressive. The wind was blowing like crazy up there, but we made our way across and walked over to the peak. Nice views all around... Clear blue skies and everything. Unfortunately, the Grandfather Trail access from the bridge was closed and therefore we had to hike back to the parking lot and go on the Grandfather Extension Trail, that leads to the same peaks. Our plan was to hike to Calloway Peak that would have been 2.7 miles one way. The trails where beautiful, but also very crowded, which was not surprising on such a beautiful day. It was leading through rhododendron bushes which makes me think that this might be worth paying the USD 15.- entrance fee again and come back when those bushes are blooming in the spring. The dirt trail became a rock trail and we went from hiking to mountain climbing in the matter of a couple of steps. The first obstacles, we were able to easily navigate and Karma showed her mountain goat potential. Once we hit the base of McCrae, things got a little more complicated. There were steal ropes fastened to the mountain on which we had to pull ourselves up and then came the first ladder.



Terry carried Karma up that one, but then we hit the next ladder and we had to give up right there... Maybe one mile into our hike and over an hour on the trail already. We looked at a series of wooden ladders up to the peak of McCrae. These ladders where basically fastened on the side of the mountain... There was no way, we could get the dog up to the peak. There was an alternative route, but that had ladders too. So I went up to the peak while Terry stayed with Karma and then he went up while I stayed with her. At least we saw the first peak and the stunning views before heading back to the parking lot.





We left Grandfather Mountain around 3.30PM, got a late lunch on the road and then stopped again at Linville Falls for an easy hike and really beautiful views on a nice water fall and a lot of nice people along the way we chatted with. The place was even more crowded than Grandfather Mountain before, but that didn't matter because the trails where nice and wide. We spent another 1.5 hours there and walked from one viewing area to the next.



On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Eddie's Spaghettis, the best Italian place in the county per vote in 2007. The food was alright and it made me wonder how many other Italian places are in the county. Honestly, I was so hungry, I would have eaten anything. Back in the hotel, we where glad to finally lay down and rest our legs a little. Later, we actually ended up walking to the gas station across the road for some ice creme before snoozing off.

Day Three (Sunday): Gem Mining and the Return to Reality

This morning we got up, had some breakfast and then headed out to find the Lucky Strike Recreational Mining Company. In the area are tons and tons of gold and gem mining places and we saw a report on the Travel Channel previously and thought we will try our luck with some mining. It was fun and we actually found some really nice precious and semi-precious stones. While talking with the lady that was running the diner that morning, we found out that the gem mining is basically just a fun activity for the ladies and the kids. They buy the stones and prep the buckets that they sell you. So it's kind of fake panning, but at least you are guaranteed to find some stones and really, it was fun! :-) The gold mining you can do there is for real though! After our treasure hunt, we hit the road again back to Greenville.



Halfway there, we passed the sign "Saluda Historic Downtown" and we took the exit to have a look at it. I was there before several years ago and yes, it's a cute historic downtown, it's just very tiny. Already heading back, I saw the sign for Keith's Bike and Tri Shop and decided to stop since Coach Katie once mentioned that they have cheap bathing suites. We probably spend an hour in the shop, chit-chatting with Keith and looking at tons of stuff and buying some of it.

We got back to Greenville in the early afternoon, so we had time for some cleaning and a nice 5.6 mile run... Since we haven't been on our legs enough over the weekend! :-)

This was an AWESOME birthday weekend... Couldn't have asked for anything more! THANKS, TERRY!

Hiking Trip Picture Preview

We are in Marion NC right now. After four hours of hiking/ mountain climbing today, we are currently relaxing in the hotel room... Debating to get out once more to get some ice cream... Nothing is decided yet! :-)

Anyways, the travel report will need a little longer, therefore here a little picture preview.


Friday afternoon somewhere between Asheville NC and Mount Mitchell State Park. Visibility was bad then and got even worse once we started hiking up Mount Mitchell.





View up to the Mile High Bridge on top of Grandfather Mountain from the Bridge Trail Saturday morning. All day it was sunny, warm and very windy.


And we went from hiking to mountain climbing in no time. This is on our way to McCrae peak.


Self-portrait on Grandfather Mountain Trail... After the fifth try, it took both of us holding the camera to make the shot work... Go figure! ;-)




Saturday hike concluded with several great views on Linville Falls.

Sunday Afternoon Hike

First things first. I had a good race yesterday, which really surprise me since running wasn't going too well lately. The official race results are not posted yet, but my time and distance according to the Garmin was 28:21 mins over 3.16 miles. That is an 8:58 per mile average and for me, it's pretty good. The race report will follow, when the official results have been published.

After the race I stopped by the Sunshine Cycle Shop to check out the Sale that they are having. Since my birthday is coming up and my parents always want me to get something for it (with their money), I ordered myself a trainer for the bike.... Off season can come now! :-)

Other than those two things, the whole Saturday pretty much was a blur. We have been so busy to get stuff done around the house and there was so much to do... I know, not very glamorous. When we finally headed out to dinner, I didn't even know where the day went. I was in bed sleeping by 9.30 PM last night... My party girl days are definitely over and I don't even miss them!

So today, we finally saw some sunshine after it had been raining for the last couple of days. That just felt great and we wanted to make good use of it. We decided to go for a hike and since we felt adventurous ;-) we didn't choose nearby Paris Mountain State Park, but headed to Jones Gap State Park. Neither Terry nor I have ever visited this park before and we certainly were impressed right away. The facilities from what we saw where in great shape and the trail are very good maintained. The only thing that I thought needed some improvement was the trail map they publish on their official website. That one is pretty much useless. But they had a big trail map right at the visitor center that resembled this one here.

While looking at the trail map, we decided to hike up to Rainbow Falls and if we still have time (shooting for 2 hours of hiking) and felt like it, we could even go to Jones Falls. When we looked at the map, we didn't pay attention to the mileage of the trails. We started out on the Jones Gap Trail and then turn on the Rainbow Falls Trail. It got steeper right away and we still followed that creek that we started out with. As already mentioned, the trails are super duper maintained. It got continuously steeper and we had to climb over boulders and little streams crossing the trails. Over bridges, stone and wood steps and up up up the mountain. After walking for an hour we started to wonder, if this trail is ever going to end anywhere and then we finally heard the water fall. Later we found out that the Rainbow Fall Trail is 1.6 miles one way in addition to the portion that we hiked on the Jones Gap Trail. Good that we are all in shape and had our hiking shoes on... Dinner was well deserved after that one! :-) And no, we went right back to the car after getting down the mountain. Jones Falls have to wait until our next visit.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure! :-)


View from the first bridge we crossed at the beginning of the Jones Gap State Park trail system.


Steps carved out of the stone.


Steps out of stone between to big rocks... Terry and his favorite walking stick look like they are on a mission! :-)


The sprinkles of water felt good after the hike.


The top of Rainbow Falls... This view was worth the whole trip.