Back to Black Balsam Knob, but this time with for backpacking overnight with full packs!
We went to the Black Blossom Trail up in the Blue Ridge Highway. Woke up at probably around 6 o’clock in the morning. Got a little bit of coffee going. We prepared the night before with some homemade—I don’t know what it is—some egg pastry that Darya made, and we just took those to go.
We drove all the way up from Easley, South Carolina, to basically Brevard, which is really known as the Pisgah Forest area. But, of course, our stomping grounds is The Hub, so we went to The Hub and got a breakfast shake with lots of espresso.
Anyways, I’m trying to suck down a bunch of water beforehand. We’ve got the dog in the back. So another hour drive later, we get to our destination. Start loading up the packs. Oh, by the way, I checked the packs the night before, and my pack was very heavy. I didn’t weigh it, but it was packed to the brim. We brought basic dehydrated food and some other snacks—granola bars, things like that. And then we had the pastries for breakfast the next morning.
But anyways, as soon as we loaded up the packs—they were so heavy—the first, I don’t know, half mile was brutal, and I was like, “Oh, shit, what did we get into again?” But I knew it’d be fine. After about a mile, I got warmed up. I’m ready, I’m pumped up, and I just—I don’t want it to end.
We find our first spot, and there’s, of course, three tents there already at that site. I didn’t really like it anyways. I wanted to go higher in elevation, so we kept on going and going and going. And not too far up, we met the second spot. Staked it out—looks good. We had enough privacy, yet we could go to the overlook with the rock, and we decided: pretty good spot.
Once we set up, like three-quarters, we were like, “You know what? To tell you the truth, I like this spot better,” which was probably, like, you know, just 50 feet away. We go 50 feet away, we move all of our stuff. It wasn’t that difficult.
All right, we’re good to go. We’re settled in. We put the rainfly on, we leave to go hike for a good five or six hours. We hiked over where there’s some water. We went to the summits. It was a good time.
Anyways, we get back around 6:00 p.m., and there are two people with two different tents literally right on top of us. And there are dozens of spots that are free, mind you. Apparently, we just picked a good view, I guess. But they literally just took our spot.
Okay, we decided not to get angry about it. It’s a free mountain—anybody can go—and we just decided to make the best of it. No big deal, okay?
But later on in the night, we’re about to go to bed. We were like, “Hey, you know, you’ve got some trash out, you’ve got food out.” We’ve got a bear canister, and we’re doing it the right way. And they’re like, “Oh no, we’ll take care of it.” Of course, they didn’t.
So overnight, we wake up—their trash is still out there. Luckily, there were no bears. My dog went and grabbed some of their, uh, shit-ridden toilet paper, piss-ridden toilet paper, and decided to chew on it. And they said, “Oh no, it was just dirt.” Like, no—I saw toilet paper in his mouth.
Anyways, should he be leashed? Sure. So maybe I’m partly at fault too. But really, the whole bear canister thing really irked us because we’re trying to be safe, and when you’re in a tent on top of us, at least follow the rules.
Anyways, long story short, very easy hike back. Packs are a lot lighter. We brought in way more water on the way up because we knew there was no water up there. So on the way back, we could dump most of our excess water. And, of course, I brought a few beers up there—those were gone—and our food was depleted for the most part. So going back was a lot easier, plus it’s downhill.
Anyways, long story short: it was a great overnighter, great views, highly recommend it. And I’m looking forward to going there a lot more often. It’s very, very peaceful. And the weather was great during the 94–95 degree weather here in the Greenville, South Carolina area.
