This Saturday marked the 13th annual Mount Mitchell Challenge. Runners stampeded through Montreat while one ridge over, Scott, Uwharrie and I began a challenge of our own: the Ring Around the Watershed 50K.
Our clockwise circumnavigation of the Asheville reservoir started from la casa de B-Rex at 7:10 AM. We ran country roads for a few miles to access the quarry on the other side of the North Fork River. Here began a steep climb up the Great Craggy Mountains.
We had been gawking at the amount of snow on these mountains from far below. Now as we bushwhacked higher, we entered into a world of dense laurel thickets blanketed with three-foot snowdrifts. This was just the beginning.
It felt like a true mountaineering feat to reach the parkway. Once there, we had several miles of “road running” to access the route up Craggy Dome. The parkway was buried under massive amounts of snow. At times, the drifts approached five feet in height and resembled sand dunes.
We wondered: how long will it take before this stuff melts off? One thing was for sure, not much of it was going to melt today. Water hoses had long since frozen, a bone-chilling wind ripped through the gaps, and flurries fell. We kept slogging along without stopping.
When we reached Bullhead Gap, we took a break in the shelter of a majestic rime ice forest along the MST. The decision was made in favor of a mile roundtrip bushwhack to the summit of Craggy Dome. This was a demoralizing expedition through laurels and postholes. Somehow we made it, but it was already afternoon.
The conditions certainly did not favor venturing above 6000’ on trails let alone cross-country, so Scott and I agreed to postpone SB6K recon up Blackstock and Mt. Gibbes until a later date. The goal was now to safely escape from the arctic.
After several more miles along the parkway, we intersected the MMC course. All runners had long since passed through. We delighted in the plowed out and/or compacted condition of the toll road down to trestle. We were on track to finish before dark.
After climbing up Greybeard, we endured the frozen rollercoaster singletrack of the West Ridge Trail while keeping a constant eye out for the obscure turnoff onto a final two-mile cross-country descent to Brian’s. All three of us were ready to be done and were discussing dinner plans when a navigational crisis struck.
The spur ridge we’d taken seemed to be descending too steeply to be the correct route. We retreated to the unnamed summit from which we left the West Ridge as the sun set. I tried to recall my two-year old memories of the route. (Thanks Brian for your help). It turns out, we were right all along, just a little too far south on the ridge. But it took 40 minutes and some bonus mileage and climbing to figure all this out.
Back on course, we plodded the rest of the way without incident back to the Millennium Falcon in 11 hours and 30 minutes and then into town to refuel, imbibe and socialize with all the great runners of the Challenge at the White Horse.
Our clockwise circumnavigation of the Asheville reservoir started from la casa de B-Rex at 7:10 AM. We ran country roads for a few miles to access the quarry on the other side of the North Fork River. Here began a steep climb up the Great Craggy Mountains.
We had been gawking at the amount of snow on these mountains from far below. Now as we bushwhacked higher, we entered into a world of dense laurel thickets blanketed with three-foot snowdrifts. This was just the beginning.
It felt like a true mountaineering feat to reach the parkway. Once there, we had several miles of “road running” to access the route up Craggy Dome. The parkway was buried under massive amounts of snow. At times, the drifts approached five feet in height and resembled sand dunes.
We wondered: how long will it take before this stuff melts off? One thing was for sure, not much of it was going to melt today. Water hoses had long since frozen, a bone-chilling wind ripped through the gaps, and flurries fell. We kept slogging along without stopping.
When we reached Bullhead Gap, we took a break in the shelter of a majestic rime ice forest along the MST. The decision was made in favor of a mile roundtrip bushwhack to the summit of Craggy Dome. This was a demoralizing expedition through laurels and postholes. Somehow we made it, but it was already afternoon.
The conditions certainly did not favor venturing above 6000’ on trails let alone cross-country, so Scott and I agreed to postpone SB6K recon up Blackstock and Mt. Gibbes until a later date. The goal was now to safely escape from the arctic.
After several more miles along the parkway, we intersected the MMC course. All runners had long since passed through. We delighted in the plowed out and/or compacted condition of the toll road down to trestle. We were on track to finish before dark.
After climbing up Greybeard, we endured the frozen rollercoaster singletrack of the West Ridge Trail while keeping a constant eye out for the obscure turnoff onto a final two-mile cross-country descent to Brian’s. All three of us were ready to be done and were discussing dinner plans when a navigational crisis struck.
The spur ridge we’d taken seemed to be descending too steeply to be the correct route. We retreated to the unnamed summit from which we left the West Ridge as the sun set. I tried to recall my two-year old memories of the route. (Thanks Brian for your help). It turns out, we were right all along, just a little too far south on the ridge. But it took 40 minutes and some bonus mileage and climbing to figure all this out.
Back on course, we plodded the rest of the way without incident back to the Millennium Falcon in 11 hours and 30 minutes and then into town to refuel, imbibe and socialize with all the great runners of the Challenge at the White Horse.
Looking up into the The Craggies from near the start
Climbing above the quarry, reservoir in the background
The fun starts now...
More fun...
Uwharrie ponders a strange new world
Scott seeks relief from postholing
A tunnel along the parkway
A tunnel along the parkway
Scott along the MST before Craggy Dome
Deep snow drifts on the parkway
Impressive icicles
The descent of the West Ridge Trail
Finished by dark!
