macRae peak

[erial]

On July 4th my brother in law RC and myself finally decided to get to the top of Grandfather Mountain. We've been all around it over the years, but never on top. We elected to hike the Grandfather Trail which is shorter than some of the other approaches, but packs a lot of fun on the climb up. The trail starts out like any typical blue ridge trail: lotta green. But past this sign the ascent gets really interesting. There's cables to deal with and ladders and more ladders but the views make it all worthwhileone last ladder final steps to the summitrest at last and then skedaddle before the storm hits

After MacRae we continued to the nearby Attic Window Peak which also had a lot of fun obstacles along the way and then eventually we made it to the more conventional Calloway Peak. Roundtrip a little less than 6 miles. Rain held off until we were back at the trailhead although we did duck for one too close for comfort rogue lightning bolt.

[Dr. Nebz]

Cool report! Crazy looking place. Where is this? Yeah, looks like there is no "running out" of this one in a thunderstorm. Do you have to down climb all those ladders?

[erial]

Western North Carolina not far from the border with Tennessee. Grandfather Mountain is about 20 miles south of Boone and 80 miles north of Asheville.

There is an alternative class 1/class 2 trail that can be taken to avoid most of the ladders.