Backpacking The Southeast: Mt Mitchell State Park Backcountry Camping Trip
By admin
They aren’t the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada, but the Appalachians are extremely beautiful, breathtaking even. These mountains, with the highest peak topping out at just 6,683-feet, are worth a visit.
I’ve talked of our love of Mt Mitchell several times and over the past 6 months, this mountain has become a second home to us. Since April, Dan’s been 5 times! I’ve been 4. It’s safe to say, we LOVE it here.
Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi and nestled on the outskirts of a tiny mountain town, Burnsville, NC.
For us, the base is a 5 hour drive from Charleston, Yet, the coolness in the air, the lack of humidity and the landscape makes it feel as if we traveled to a new world.
The hikes aren’t easy and we knew that we wanted to spend our time practicing and fine tuning our camping skills in these beautiful woods.
On Friday morning, Dan and I finished loading supplies into our packs and headed up. In true Boyle fashion, we left an hour later than we wanted and arrived at the Black Mountain Campground trailhead around 2:00.
Hiking The Mount Mitchell Trail
There is public parking directly outside of Black Mountain Campground, and for those backcountry camping, no permits are needed. We parked, changed into our hiking shoes, and by 2:15 we were walking to the Mt Mitchell Trail.
For those curious, both of us dressed in Minus33 wool tops and underwear for the entire trip. Shorts were The North Face and packs are Osprey (mine is the Ariel, Dan’s is the Aether).
The climb begins immediately, yet this time was different than our previous attempt… I felt stronger, excited and more comfortable with my pack.
The climb isn’t easy, but man, it felt so much better!
After 2.5 hours, we had climbed 4 miles and stopped to answer the question… where do we want to camp?
While pausing, we saw some gorgeous plants… anyone know what these flowers are?
Yum, blackberries!
Backcountry Camping Options
There are 3 options…
- Commissary Ridge. Straight off the trail at this point lies Commissary Ridge, where we camped on our first/failed backpacking attempt. It’s a great place, but there were other campers already set up. Plus, we had camped there before and were up for a new adventure. There are several tent sites available here.
- Mt Mitchell Summit. We considered climbing to the summit (another 1.5 miles). There, we would hope that the campground was free and tent spots available. The summit is the head park so quite a popular place.
- Buncombe Horse Trail. This is a “secret” spot we found months ago, and not a mapped out zone. It’s a bit off the grid but from our first trip, we remembered the views offered. To get there, hikers take a right onto the Buncombe Horse Trail (which is pretty flat) and go for around 2 miles before coming to the site on your right.
We choose the horse trail and walked for a solid hour to find our home for the evening.
The weather was foggy, yet we had studied the forecast and were confident we wouldn’t regret our decision of camping in such an open area (no tree cover).
Buncombe Horse Trail Campsite
How beautiful is this place?
One important thing to remember if you’re thinking about camping in the park… this is a completely open spot.
If the wind had been stronger or the weather more menacing, we would have opted for a more covered site at Commissary Ridge.
Sleep came easy and in the morning… I was left speechless.
I climbed out of the tent at 7 am and almost yelled at Dan to get out to see the views.
I felt as if we were in Heaven, dancing on top of the clouds. I have never seen anything like this outside of a plane and I was in true awe.
All was right in the world at that moment.
It was as if time stood still and my heart was filled with love and respect. Those moments don’t come easily, you know?
When they do hit, take your time, slow down and enjoy the moment. As we sipped our Via Instant Coffees and enjoyed our protein oatmeals, that’s what we did.
But finally, it was time to pack camp up and head out for a day of adventure.
The Crest Trail
At 9am, we retraced our steps for 2 miles and meet back up with the Mt Mitchell Trail to continue our upward climb.
By 11 am, we hit summit.
The views were covered by morning fog (those clouds rise fast!), but that didn’t ruin the experience.
The lookout tower was booming, and we took our time snapping pictures, eating a quick snack out of the bear canister and filling up our water bottles at the fountains. We came with purifying tablets, but when we realized that the summit had water fountains, we opted for the water we were 100% sure about.
I guess we cheated a bit, but it was smart and allowed us to hydrate all we wanted knowing that we would be coming back on our way down the mountain.
From the summit, we jumped on the Crest Trail… a must for all hikers.
There are no views like the ones you see from the tops of not just one summit but several.
We hiked to the neighboring Mt Craig (the 2nd highest peak) for lunch and photos.
#LiveYourFitness was all about appreciating our bodies this weekend and the fact they were able to allow us to experience so much, even with heavy loaded packs!
I found this walking stick about 5 minutes after leaving camp and ended up bringing it home as a souvenir. It helped me to keep up with my speed demon of a husband!
This little guy joined us for lunch…
From there we continued a bit farther to Big John.
The trails here are extremely technical and fun!
I was worried how I would be able to handle them with a loaded pack on, but luckily with the help of my walking stick, it wasn’t as scary as I imagined.
After hitting the split… one goes down the Big John Spur, the other continues the Crest Trail.
We decided to turn around and do all the technical hiking, in reverse… which meant a lot of inclines. Crazy inclines!
After 2 more miles we made it back to Mt Mitchell. Loaded up again on water and began our descent to our campsite, Higgins Bald.
Camping At Higgins Bald
Higgins Bald Trail is located about 1.5 miles up from the base of the Mt Mitchell Trail, so we had about a 4 mile hike down.
We decided to climb down as much as possible so that when morning came, we would have a short hike back to the car.
So smart. I recommend this to everyone!
Higgins Bald is clearly a highly used site, with logs set up for sitting, a great fire pit (if you know how to start a fire) and a great place for tent set-up.
Our next project is learning how to start a fire. We tried, but after awhile gave up and agreed we didn’t want our sleeping bags smelling like smoke. It was a great excuse! Haha.
I finally got Dan to let me snap a picture of him! Showing off his “adventure pants” from Patagonia. He raved about these Tenpenny pants each night he slid them on at camp.
My only recommendation?
Bring a ground tarp. The ground is covered with pine needles and sap. This tarp was so helpful at keeping our tent clean AND keeping moisture from leaking in.
We also have a smaller tarp that we placed inside. Since it was pretty impossible not to track needles in, this was also a huge help. In the morning, we simply slid the tarp out, shook it and voila, it was clean.
After 11.5 miles of hiking, dinner was delicious!
This was Good To Go’s Thai Curry. We highly recommend this brand. I kind of want to buy these to have for dinner at home! That good!
I won’t lie you guys, because this spot was more covered and felt more “foresty” than the previous spot, I had a hard time relaxing.
I barely slept, thinking every noise was a bear or other big animal. When I saw sunlight beginning to peek in, I was ecstatic!
Without the views from the previous morning, we were a bit faster to eat, drink coffee and pack up. By 7:45 am we were back on the trail and on the last leg (around 2 miles) of our adventure.
By 8:40 we were at the car. Talk about speed hiking!
Mt Mitchell Thoughts
This is a beautiful place for anyone looking to be closer to nature. There are literally dozens of trails around the base campground for all levels.
Trails are extremely well kept and marked and at no point did I feel unsafe (except for mind games at night). For those not into the idea of backcountry camping, there are plenty of cabins nearby to offer day hiking.
We definitely became more confident with our skills and are more excited than ever for Glacier National Park! Over the course of our trip, we covered almost 20 miles… not too shappy for a couple from the flat coast!