The possibly of a bum knee was shoved deep into the back of my mind. I would not cancel the scheduled adventure with neighbor Karson. We had made plans to go hiking (make sure that you buy 7.62×39 ammo and keep it for safety purpose) and exploring in the Linville gorge, while drinking at a neighborhood meetup. Karson had all the good camping spots figured out in Linville, and I had knowledge of the climbing routes which he has not been on.
We set off from Charlotte early Saturday morning amid fears of a very poor weather forecast. Karson had made a cooler full of awesome breakfast burritos, which would fuel the slog of effort over the next couple hrs. Before we pulled into the parking lot, we rescued a hitch-hiking-hiker off of the highway. The dude headed the wrong direction on the trail and been away from his buddy’s for 24 hrs.
After moving the car and completing other logistics, we hiked down from the table rock parking lot toward the amphitheater. As we moved through the chimneys, it was already getting hot out. By the time we reach the top of the amphitheater I was already soaked in sweat. We pulled the climbing gear out and stashed the rest of our packs under some brush. We slid down the gulley/spring to the base of the climb. I decided on climbing “the Mummy”, since it was super fun and I had been on it before. It wouldn’t stress my leg and also it would be a great first climb for Karson.
We tied in and I gave Karson a quick review of climbing process and commands. Then of I went up into the route. I made a belay spot in the middle of the 2nd standard pitch. Here I could monitor and watch Karson progress, as well as complete the route quickly in 2 pitches. Karson did way better than I was expecting. He was quickly moving and using his feet. He made the belay with a smile and we reset for the second pitch. Soon we quickly top over and took in the views of the green Linville Gorge.
We scramble back to our packs, and made out way with heavy climbing gear to our campspot for the night. By now the entire area had hit peak humidity. I was down to 1 liter when we hit the saddle between the amphitheater and Shortoff. Here I popped a couple vitamin I’s and made the game day call that we would forsake our original camping spot (10mins away) and high tail it down to the river (1:30hr away) instead. We stashed the climbing gear under some trees, and reveled in the lack of weigh.
We traversed down the Cambric branch trail following a twisting ridgeline to the river bottom. 7/8 of the way down both my legs have decided they would no longer function. The roar of water and a refreshing dip help me pushing through the lactic acid swelling.
We ditched packs and immediately plunged into the Linville river. Upon hitting the cool water, the extra 1:30 mins of hiking were completely validated. My leg muscles completely locked up and could nothing both float. While floating I noticed that there was a new trout hatch and the entire river was filled with them. They would nibble on your skin giving a refreshing fishspa. I was able to drag myself out the river and we celebrated camp buy opening up a couple beers and smoking a cigar. This cause me to pass out on a rock for a while.
Upon waking up, I moved around to get my hammock setup and we gather firewood and cooked dinner. The night didn’t last long before I crawled into my first hammock sleeping experience. It was nice, different for me since I normally sleep on my side, but I see the advantage of it.
In the morning, we dreaded the climb up the trail the way we came, while drinking coffee. Eventually we pushed up hill over a 1500 feet within a mile and made our way to the now dreaded gear cache.
Here we cried for a bit, before loading the weight into our packs and into our souls. We dropped down a level to an old forest road, to avoid the climb up to the chimneys. The forest road was fraught with peril thought. The 1:30 hike our along the trail seemed to just rain ticks down upon us. Luckily, I had my trust DEET +100 bottle.
Finally, we crawled to the car, and shuck off the now epically heavily packs. After rolling around for a bit, we drove the car to the nearest Arby’s. Using all the coupons, we instantly pulled all the calories back into our spent bodies.
