Rock Climbing.

Now and again I'll consider taking a class and learning some light rock climbing. Sometimes I'll look up on the walls and see someone making their way to the top of a cliff face and it seems like something I might want to try. And then I think of Mr. Gravity and come to my senses.

So I'll continue to hike and occasionally I'll do some light scrambling...maybe top out at what they term "Class IV". But nothing more serious than that.

Stone Mountain, North Carolina. Said to be one of the easiest places around to learn rock climbing.

Joshua Tree National Park, California. Where I did some rock scrambling and boulder climbing in 2010.

Hiking to The Chimneys.

One very cool spot in Linville Gorge are the double peaks called "the Chimneys". Now, there are MANY places in the Appalachian mountains named by the locals "the Chimneys". They're all over the place. Anywhere the locals thought something looked like a chimney or more than one chimney, the name stuck. Hell...I don't even feel like counting them all just in North Carolina.

But the Chimneys in Linville Gorge a very beautiful and are a lot of fun to hike and scramble on. But even though I've been to these peaks several times, I've never climbed all the way to the top. There are any number or routes to the summit--ranging from Class III scrambling to difficult technical climbs. I had climbed about 3/4 of the way to the top in the past, but had never gotten all the way up. I wanted to bag these peaks on this trip and was ready to do so.

But...I didn't get my chance. Because several van-loads of climbing students had arrived and got to the peaks just before we did. Basically, the place was just way too crowded for me to comfortably tackle the route I wanted to use to get to the top. So, bagging the Chimneys will have to wait for next time. I plan to do it on a weekday when there is not likely to be more than a few other hiker/climbers around.

The parking lot. My truck is the third one back in the center line.

One of our first stops, looking back at Tablerock Mountain.

Andy. With a crown of Peregrine falcons.

Looking up at one of the peaks of the Chimneys. There were too many other climbers around for me to scramble to the top.

One of the groups of climbing students (this bunch was from Appalachian State in Boone).

This was the moon as it looked when we walked out the door to head to Linville Gorge.

Taming the Trails

For years the Big Butt Trail did not get much in the way of engineering attention from the National Forest Service. I used to hear stories about the scrambling you would encounter if you hiked to Point Misery and beyond. No easy Class I hiking, but Class II stuff and a little scrambling where you couldn't help but use all four limbs to advance up the trail.

But in the past few years the National Forest folk have paid good money to engineer the trail to file off the rough patches. At some of the more difficult sections they did slight re-routes and put in very stout stairs so that you can continue onward and upward without having to result to climbing up rock walls like a spider monkey.

In some ways, I'm relieved. But I always did enjoy a scrambling route now and again. That's gone from this particular trail.

These stairs are really solid!

The cliff faces and boulders that once had to be climbed hand over hand.

These staircases kick ass. Solid as they make 'em.