The Black Mountains

I cobbled together this short video of a day I spent hiking in the Black Mountains of North Carolina. One trail that I had heard about for years for its relentlessly steep gradient was the infamous Woody Ridge Trail. That day in June of 2007 I decided to tackle it to see if it was as mean as its reputation.

It was.

However, coming down the trail was actually worse than going up. I had to constantly prepare myself for slipping, falling, tripping, or generally losing my balance. It is every bit as tough as I'd heard it was.

Here, then, is a brief video I took that day. Skipping, of course, the part where I missed a turn on the trail coming back and ended up about 1,000 vertical feet lower and two miles to the west of where I was supposed to have emerged from the forest.

That was all kinds of horrible, since I had run out of water. Alas, it is all part of the hobby of hiking.