Black Rock Mountain

    Our trip had come to an end on Saturday. It was a morning much like our last morning in Blairsville, very cool and foggy. I had to break out my new SERC Champion Maxxis hoodie, which seems crazy since it is about to be August.

Foggy morning

     We had planned to hit some overlooks before hiking the most popular trail in the park, but the fog made overlooks a waste of time. We hit the Tennessee Rock Trail early and got in the woods before the crowd arrived. We hiked this loop in the counter-clockwise direction. I liked this way as it saved the difficult stuff for the second half. The loop goes around the top of Black Rock Mountain with one portion climbing to the peak. This direction took us around the north side of the mountain first, staying deep in the woods for the first mile. We again saw all kinds of brightly colored mushrooms. They were everywhere! I was glad to see other hikers were just as fascinated by them as we were. Again, we took plenty of pictures, most of which I will post in the next blog.

Climbing to start off our hike

Big slug on a tree

Interesting white and yellow mushroom with a ring on the stem

     The north slope was true singletrack through ferns. You begin to climb on the west side of the mountain, working your way up gradually to the top. The peak is marked with a stone that is shaped like the state of Tennessee, hence the name of the trail. The peak is at 3,640 feet of elevation. There is a nice overlook near the stone where you can see up to 80 miles. You can view mountains in Tennessee from here. The fog had mostly cleared by the time we got there so we got a great view before descending back to the parking lot to complete the loop.

Singletrack

Tennessee Rock marks the summit

Fog drifting through the trees on top of the mountain

View from the overlook on the Tennessee Rock Trail

View in another direction

The whole view

Flowers near the end of the loop

     With the fog cleared, we hit a few overlooks before packing up the tent. My favorite was the Nantahala Overlook.

View from the Nantahala Overlook

Saw many millipedes like this during our hikes, way more than we see at home

     I had to ride the mountain before we left. I pulled out the road bike to do some exploration before starting the drive home. Most of the side roads off the mountain were deep gravel so I didn't ride them with my carbon wheels and thin tires. I ended up just roding and down the mountain. It was more than enough to smoke my legs today. The climb was 2.5 miles long and very steep. There were plenty of curves to make the climb fun and the descent even better! I had a blast the first time going down, then let it hang out a bit more the second time. I'm getting more comfortable with fast corners on descents after this week of mountain riding, but I still blew a few corners and end up in the wrong lane at one point. Luckily, there were no cars coming. About halfway up the mountain you cross over the Eastern Continental Divide at 2,607 feet.

     Here is a short video of parts of my second descent off the mountain. We were able to revive the GoPro after I dropped it in the creek at Raven Cliff Falls earlier in the week. It seems to be just fine after drying out!

Video: Descending Black Rock Mountain

     I ended my ride at one of the overlooks where Shannon was waiting. We then descended down into Clayton for lunch at the Clayton Pharmacy. It has a soda fountain in the back with that classic diner feel. They had some great burgers, shakes and fried pickles. It's just off Hwy 76 in downtown Clayton, definitely worth a stop if you are passing through.

Flower on the mountain

    What an awesome trip! We had great time exploring. There was never a dull moment. It was a good opportunity to practice for another trip out west this fall. We are trying to condense our gear and food for the trip this year so we can take a car versus having to borrow a truck again like last year. I can't believe it only rained on us once this whole week. The forecast looked awful, but we caught some great weather. It rained a lot at home while we were gone, but most of the storms never made it through the mountains. We will be back to this area in the future to finish out the plans we had made for this trip. Next time we will focus on the area a little farther east on the border between North and South Carolina. I want to ride both Pisgah National Forest and Dupont State Forest, neither of which have I been to before.

     For me, the main goal of the season is over so now I'm going to have some fun and build up for our trip to Utah in September and the end of season mountain bike races in October. I plan to again race the Snowbird Ultra Hill Climb while out in Utah, along with plenty of other big rides. I've had plenty of endurance rides lately, so now it's time to work on getting my speed back with some short, intense efforts. I'll be using Crossroads Classic, the Bells Bend Short Track Series and Gateway Cup to help me get that top-end back. Crossroads begin in less than a week, so stay tuned for more on how that goes.