take that art loeb.

so for fall break a couple of friends and i went on a 3 day backpacking trip to the Pisgah National Forest outside of brevard, nc. and what a 3 day trip it was. it started off well on friday afternoon. after leaving clemson we stopped in the burg to eat at the infamous wade's. i'll admit despite my skepticism, it was good, but still no lizard's thicket. we made it to pisgah by about 6:30 but this was just the beginning. the ranger station was closed, so we just took some pictures of the map and went on our merry way. we had to head back to town to get pipe tobacco and stop and dolly's ice cream parlor. bad decision #1. this little detour used up the last of our daylight, meaning that we had to do everything else, like find a campsite, set up camp, make a fire, etc, by artificial light. you'd think every person would bring a flashlight or something, but no. somehow we ended up with my headlamp and dkal's $0.50 clunker of a flashlight. needless to say we were up the river with no paddle and wearing a bookbag of rocks. somehow we found a campsite, made a fire, and got semi-settled. and of course, it decided to rain. i think if our night hadn't already been so stressful, we would have persisted, but we folded, climbed in the car, drove to the nature center down the road, and spent a long and uncomfortable night sleeping in the car. the good thing is that this was our lowest point. we woke up the next morning determined to make this backpacking trip one to remember. we headed to the ranger station, got a map and a game plan, went to walmart to get a compass, and headed to the art loeb trail, a 20 mile round trip out and back hike to the top of cold mountain. yes, the cold mountain. the weather was testy, but the rain held off for the most part, making the trip out there great. the views were unreal and the time with friends was even better. camping on top of cold mountain was awesome. good conversation by flashlight makes any situation awesome. after a good nights sleep, we made the trek back down the mountain in an hour less than it took us to get out there. that would be due to the bojangles that was awaiting us right down the road. too many great things happened to list them all, just take my word, it was the best trip i've been on in a long while. i can't wait for round two...