TonyRL
06-20-2013, 22:09
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Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on a 3 day hike on the MST I want to put together for next month. I will be staying at Montreat for a week, as I have the task of driving a church youth group down to the college for a retreat/conference. I am not participating in the conference but I am planning to do some hiking/backpacking while I'm there. The thought at the moment is to get someone to drop me off somewhere convenient on the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville early one morning and set off on the MST towards Craggy Gardens. I will need an overnight camp location for that night. The next day continue in an Eastward direction and find another camp site somewhere around 128 into Mt Mitchell state park. The final day should be a hike over Pinnacle, Rocky Knob to Greybeard and back down into the Montreat valley to finish.
So my questions are:
Is this section a decent hike, one thing I read was that the MST at this point is tracking the parkway fairly close and I'm not fond of hiking right next to the road. It also veers some way off into Mt. Mitchell state park, so can I continue to Greybeard etc. without having to use the Parkway?
There is no camping along the MST here, but camping is allowed on Pisgah Nat forest land - how feasible is this, how far off the trail do you have to go to get to forest land?
Is this even the best hike to do. Should I instead head up out of Montreat over Greybeard, Rocky Knob and Pinnacle and head into Mt Mitchell state park, with the furthest destination being Mt Mitchell itself. I'm not afraid of rugged hiking. If I do this how much hiking along the Parkway would i have to do to link up trails, can I make a loop in the state park or will I have to do an out and back along the same trail? Is this reasonable for a three day outing without pushing for too long of a length of hike? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on a 3 day hike on the MST I want to put together for next month. I will be staying at Montreat for a week, as I have the task of driving a church youth group down to the college for a retreat/conference. I am not participating in the conference but I am planning to do some hiking/backpacking while I'm there. The thought at the moment is to get someone to drop me off somewhere convenient on the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville early one morning and set off on the MST towards Craggy Gardens. I will need an overnight camp location for that night. The next day continue in an Eastward direction and find another camp site somewhere around 128 into Mt Mitchell state park. The final day should be a hike over Pinnacle, Rocky Knob to Greybeard and back down into the Montreat valley to finish.
So my questions are:
Is this section a decent hike, one thing I read was that the MST at this point is tracking the parkway fairly close and I'm not fond of hiking right next to the road. It also veers some way off into Mt. Mitchell state park, so can I continue to Greybeard etc. without having to use the Parkway?
There is no camping along the MST here, but camping is allowed on Pisgah Nat forest land - how feasible is this, how far off the trail do you have to go to get to forest land?
Is this even the best hike to do. Should I instead head up out of Montreat over Greybeard, Rocky Knob and Pinnacle and head into Mt Mitchell state park, with the furthest destination being Mt Mitchell itself. I'm not afraid of rugged hiking. If I do this how much hiking along the Parkway would i have to do to link up trails, can I make a loop in the state park or will I have to do an out and back along the same trail? Is this reasonable for a three day outing without pushing for too long of a length of hike? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks