Fog Painting
Warm weather for October and clear skies early, but by 5:30am the fog rolled in … At Pisgah North TH, there were 3 cars at a dark and foggy 6:15. A small moon and Jupiter in the late morning sky showed once above the fog.
As sunrise showed above the ridge, the fog painting show started
The show had another act the next time on the summit with more sunlight and thicker fog
After the sun made it through the fog, other art works took the camera
Typically, when the valley is fog-socked, the weather is much cooler. Today, mid 40s at the bottom and mid-50s above the fog. Walking above the fog was like an art museum gallery; every where I looked, a masterpiece of sun, fog and trees. The absence of humans kept the peace all day long until a pair of red-tail Hawks screeched and danced above the meadows where spider webs held the dew past mid-morning.
The Route
Another typical Pisgah ramble staying on the east side as much as possible and avoiding the same trail in same direction – that last top section of Trail 2 is hard to avoid without too much time on that terrible gravel road. I touched the summit 4x and ended a tad over 20 miles.
Trail conditions were perfect. Just perfect. Humans were sparse and I had the summit solo 3x of the 4 … expected birds were out and the hawks at the end were wonderful.
Data Geek Cellar
- Shoes: Altra Timp 6 low mesh uppers – Currex Insole, T-Form insole pad
- Pack: Gossamer Gear Grit
- Upper Layers: Baselayer, + REI Sahara Sunshirt until 9:00
- Upper shell: none
- Trekking Poles: Gossamer Gear
- Approximate Times: 06:15-14:00
- Effort Scale: Today = 186; YTD Avg = 149; YTD Median = 171 (below average effort)
- Carbon ratio: 6.25 hours (.5 hours driving: hours outdoors 7.75); YTD = 221 hours banked
- Miles hiked YTD: 1110
- Notes:
- Headlamp for first 30 minutes – pushed the pace early
