My Second Journey on the Art Loeb
My alarm went off at 4:30 signifying the beginning of the day’s adventure – a second round on the Art Loeb Trail. This 30+ mile granite roller coaster that previously entrapped me in hypothermic rains and a series of collapsed trees that hid the trail from sight was back on my radar, but this time I wasn’t alone. I grabbed a cold shower to prepare myself for a long day of walking in the rain and then roused my partner from his slumber. My brother has never been a distance hiker, and certainly didn’t think the idea of sleeping in the rain after climbing steep mountains all day was what fun sounded like, but he did accidentally agree to doing it with me one night after a few drinks and was true enough to his word.
We set out of Camp Daniel Boone and began our long ascent out of the lower woods. I warned him of the drudgery that was those first few hours. The long hill is a nice reward following the traditional Art Loeb path out of Brevard, but we decided to try it in reverse, and that made for a rather uninteresting start. The climb maintains the same gradual uphill grade for hours with nothing but laurels on the uphill and a leaf-covered valley on the left. This section almost feels hallucinogenic in that there’s no means by which you can estimate your progress other than time and pace. There’s no iconic rocks, waterfalls, or markers. You’ll find no unique plant life or interesting habitats. It’s just and endless series of uphill turns all filled with wet ground and low-hanging shrubbery that make everything look identical. There is absolutely nothing of great interest along this section, and, as such we used these first miles to focus on getting our mindset right for the day, listening to music, and daydreaming about all the spectacular views we would find once we made it into Shining Rock territory.
Eventually we did make it out of camp territory, and we were rewarded with the beautiful sight of the sun rising over the mountains below with cloudy plumes that billowed and swelled beneath the glimmering mountaintops. It felt surreal, almost movie-like in how perfectly those massive white pillows danced at their outer edges and swirled in the lands beneath us. We enjoyed our reward for just a few minutes before continuing on.
The further we travelled into the Shining Rock Wilderness the more we truly felt free from the deep valleys where we started. We were still in the infamous green tunnel, but the massive glowing boulders that littered the trailside felt surreal and otherworldly amidst the damp greens and browns of the rest of our path thus far. These rocks were almost translucent in places, and the sun rays that broke through the branches above shimmered and danced within these massive crystals that were piled up by the hundreds. We tried to find pictures and familiar faces in the rocks just like we would with clouds when we were children, and it make the next few miles feel really good and easy.
When Shining Rock released us onto the balds, they were…well…not bald. Shrubbery had completely overcame the hillside to the extent that when we finally made it to Black Balsam, I still thought we were miles away tucked into the wilderness. The bushes and berries all hung low from all the rain and it often felt like we were more swimming through the mountain instead of hiking it.
As we rose out of the wilderness onto Black Balsam we stopped for lunch. I made a concoction more than worthy of being considered cuisine out of instant mashed potatoes, cut up salami, and extra spicy chex mix, and man did it taste good after climbing mountains all day. The clouds never let up even for an instant, and the massive panoramic views I had been using all day as a source of motivation for my brother never materialized. It really put a damper on morale, and there were no signs of the clouds moving before dusk. As such, we made it a point to continue on and dive off the parkway into the last remaining mountain range of the trail.
A few hours of bombing down the mountainside and one last hard climb led us to the shelter where we were greeted by a couple out on a much needed nature escape trip. Their gear was drenched as bad as ours, but we were all in good spirits laughing amidst each other’s discomfort. They met my brother with cheers over the hard seventeen miles he crushed on his very first day of backpacking, and he more than deserved the praise. The Art Loeb has very few “easy” miles- It’s tough. Their compliments were taken in stride as well as they could’ve been while he was falling asleep in the shelter, but I’m sure it made his night as much as it did mine.
Relaxing after a long 12 hours of hiking
We awoke to more clouds looming overhead and only one peak left amidst the entire journey. I reassured my brother that he had more than fulfilled his obligations of a backpacking trip with me, especially amidst the sub-par conditions, grueling mountain climbs, and overall lack of reward for the efforts he put forward. I told him if he wanted to turn back and climb back out to the parkway to bring our journey to a close that I’d support him and follow in suit. He seemed relieved, and in a way so was I considering Pilot Mountain would be within our first two miles of the day. The climb back onto the parkway was long and hard, but we managed well. As we summited by the Devil’s Courthouse tunnel, the clouds finally began to break apart. I cheered and urged my brother to the roadside so that I could show him the swaths of ridged mountains we’d climbed that morning and the beauty of the second-half of the Art Loeb from above. It seems we finally got our reward, and it felt really, really good.
A quick pass through the tunnel landed us on the Devil’s Courthouse parking area, where we rested, breathed out a sigh of relief, and waited in our wet clothes for a ride home. It arrived promptly after our completion of the walk, and we spent the evening eating to our heart’s content and enjoying some cold bevs, this time without any promises of adventure – and it actually felt really good to end our day together that way.
Tenant Mountain and Pilot Mountain. Our final segments of day 1.