We wanted to do an overnight backpacking trip and the weather was looking dicey all weekend with fairly high potential for thunderstorms. We were looking West, South, North for a place with least likelihood of storms. Everything within 4-hour drive was stuck at 50% chance of thunderstorms.
So, with the weather in mind, we decided to pick a place as close as we could. We found a trailhead to the Mountains to Sea trail near Asheville. About a 2-hour drive away. We hiked out 3-3.5 hours and stopped for lunch. It was hot and HUMID and fairly buggy. We were talking about the rest of the hike and day and figured we'd get to a campsite by 4pm. There weren't any views, so we'd be sitting around in the humidity, buggy, nor view woods until dark.
Enter talk of Mamacita's Taco Temple and the decision was easy. We'd hike back to the car and go to our favorite taco joint in Asheville and then drive home. This would give us Sunday to go to the gym, do laundry, start organizing house for move.
It turned out to be a good decision on several fronts. Biggest reason was shortly after we finished dinner, they skies opened up with a downpour and thunderstorm. Salem is really skittish about storms and I think she would have freaked out on the trail. On our hike out there we could hear some gunfire at a nearby shooting range and Salem got really scared. We had to put her on-leash because she kept trying to hide in bushes, under logs, anywhere she could find. It was sad, frustrating, funny all at the same time.
Anyway, all-in-all a pretty good day. The trail surface on this section of MTS was smooth, really great for hiking. The downsides were no views and much of the trail was close to the Blue Ridge Parkway so there was quite a bit of traffic noise at times. Wouldn't do this one again even though we enjoyed the day.
6.5 hours, about 13 miles for the day.
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