Winter Star Mountain
Everything we read about the Black Mountains promised that the climb we were about to undertake would be the toughest in the eastern United States. After eleven hours in the mountains Stephen Dale and I were convinced they were right.
This climb knocked the wind out of us like no other has before. The steep trail was merciless and gave you no break whatsoever during the entire climb. What this route lacked in treacherous ledges and cliffs, it made up for with unrelenting steepness. The only thing more difficult than getting up was getting back down after dark. |
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We left the trailhead in Hamrick, North Carolina just after 9 am and traveled westbound on Colbert Ridge Trail, a rugged, narrow path that sometimes disappeared completely and left you guessing as to the exact route. The trail was sparsely traveled (we never saw a single person all day) and poorly maintained with fallen trees and debris frequently blocking the route. Scrambling over boulders and up the steep bluffs caused us to sweat profusely despite the relatively cool temperatures.
This was hard work and the trail was dangerous... not dangerous in the sense of falling off a cliff or hanging from a ledge, but chock full of difficult rock formations and demanding careful navigation of obstacles along the path. Ankles, knees and legs were at constant risk of injury and the chances of getting help or making your way down from a steep mountain with such a debility were nil. I'd hate to make this climb in snow or ice.
After several miles of tromping and more than three thousand feet of elevation gain, we finally arrived at a small clearing called Deep Gap. A look around showed that we were in a saddle between two peaks. We weren't sure of our bearings at the time, but we later learned that we were 5,700 feet high on the crest of the pass that separates Potato Hill and Cattail Peak from Winter Star Mountain. Exhausted after nearly five hours of climbing, we plopped down to eat lunch and ponder our situation. I nearly fainted when I realized that our freeze dried meal was littered with the loathsome, dreaded black bean... an offensive and utterly useless food that no sane person would knowingly ingest.
To make matters worse, the peaks that we really wanted to climb - Cattail Peak and Mt. Craig - were still two to four miles south of us. Due to the difficulty of the terrain we had not made the progress that we'd hoped. Stephen Dale scouted around while I cooked our bean-plagued lunch, returning with the news that if we turned north there was a nearby summit that looked achievable even to persons in our depleted and bean-laden condition. So following our lunch we altered our plan and turned north along Deep Gap Trail to a major summit less than a mile away.
The final approach to the summit of Winter Star Mountain is craggy and rough, but offers two excellent views of the farthest reaches of the Black Mountains to the west and south. Winter Star is one of the ten highest peaks in the eastern half of the country and is situated amid many of the most famous mountains in the southern Appalachians. We had a wonderful view of Potato Hill and Cattail Peak but it was already past 2 pm and an attempt to reach the summit of either would have forced us to descend an already treacherous trail in darkness. After a few minutes at the summit we returned the way we had come along the Colberts Ridge Trail, racing against the setting sun as it arced westward.
We came down the east side of the mountain and soon found ourselves in heavy shadows as the sun disappeared behind the southern slope of Winter Star. The trip back consumed nearly five hours and was completed in total darkness with both of us relying on our headlamps for light. We were bordering on complete exhaustion as we reached the trailhead again at around 7 pm.
Two Advils later we arrived in much better condition at Roma Pizza in Mars Hill, a small community in the western foothills of the Black Mountains, where we drowned the awful memories of black beans in the cleansing balm of a hand-tossed double pepperoni, nursed our sore knees and consoled ourselves with the fact that we had conquered the most difficult trail climb in the eastern half of the United States.
This was hard work and the trail was dangerous... not dangerous in the sense of falling off a cliff or hanging from a ledge, but chock full of difficult rock formations and demanding careful navigation of obstacles along the path. Ankles, knees and legs were at constant risk of injury and the chances of getting help or making your way down from a steep mountain with such a debility were nil. I'd hate to make this climb in snow or ice.
After several miles of tromping and more than three thousand feet of elevation gain, we finally arrived at a small clearing called Deep Gap. A look around showed that we were in a saddle between two peaks. We weren't sure of our bearings at the time, but we later learned that we were 5,700 feet high on the crest of the pass that separates Potato Hill and Cattail Peak from Winter Star Mountain. Exhausted after nearly five hours of climbing, we plopped down to eat lunch and ponder our situation. I nearly fainted when I realized that our freeze dried meal was littered with the loathsome, dreaded black bean... an offensive and utterly useless food that no sane person would knowingly ingest.
To make matters worse, the peaks that we really wanted to climb - Cattail Peak and Mt. Craig - were still two to four miles south of us. Due to the difficulty of the terrain we had not made the progress that we'd hoped. Stephen Dale scouted around while I cooked our bean-plagued lunch, returning with the news that if we turned north there was a nearby summit that looked achievable even to persons in our depleted and bean-laden condition. So following our lunch we altered our plan and turned north along Deep Gap Trail to a major summit less than a mile away.
The final approach to the summit of Winter Star Mountain is craggy and rough, but offers two excellent views of the farthest reaches of the Black Mountains to the west and south. Winter Star is one of the ten highest peaks in the eastern half of the country and is situated amid many of the most famous mountains in the southern Appalachians. We had a wonderful view of Potato Hill and Cattail Peak but it was already past 2 pm and an attempt to reach the summit of either would have forced us to descend an already treacherous trail in darkness. After a few minutes at the summit we returned the way we had come along the Colberts Ridge Trail, racing against the setting sun as it arced westward.
We came down the east side of the mountain and soon found ourselves in heavy shadows as the sun disappeared behind the southern slope of Winter Star. The trip back consumed nearly five hours and was completed in total darkness with both of us relying on our headlamps for light. We were bordering on complete exhaustion as we reached the trailhead again at around 7 pm.
Two Advils later we arrived in much better condition at Roma Pizza in Mars Hill, a small community in the western foothills of the Black Mountains, where we drowned the awful memories of black beans in the cleansing balm of a hand-tossed double pepperoni, nursed our sore knees and consoled ourselves with the fact that we had conquered the most difficult trail climb in the eastern half of the United States.