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Jeremy writes "On Saturday morning Kathryn and I jumped in her truck just before dawn and began our three hour drive to the Shining Rock Wilderness area. Our intent was to hike up Shining Creek trail and make it to Cold Mountain before sunset. When we hit the trail it was a balmy 32 degrees, breezy and blue skies above. We hiked in silence for most of the morning, passing a few campsites as we made our way down the trail.

We were doing just fine, getting a good workout, but still making good enough time to hit our goal by 4 pm. But about halfway up Shining Creek trail we hit a snag…the leftovers from Hurricane Ivan…it looked like giant toddlers had been playing pick-up-sticks with 100 ft tall hardwoods. The trail was pretty much nonexistent from this point on. Mudslides had ripped huge chunks of the hillside away leaving nothing but bedrock in areas. So we did our best to make it to the top without losing too much time. So I pretty much got a great view of my boots as I followed Kathryn up.

By the time we hit the ridge we were both so worn out from crawling under/over trees and maneuvering around/over the quartz boulders that as soon as we got through eating lunch we both just sacked out for a few hours. It was a great nap…right in the sun at about 5,500 ft with a light breeze blowing every few seconds. Eventually we decided to set up camp and do a little lite hiking without all of our gear weighing us down.

We made it up to Shining Rock, took some pictures and then just hung out watching the sunset. From there on we pretty much had a quiet evening, Didn’t get too cold (around 40 degrees) and we did our best to sleep through the night – despite whatever it was that was making its way through our camp all night long.

We woke up Sunday morning with the sun shining right into our tent, made some breakfast and enjoyed a leisurely morning. We broke camp and began our descent, stopping a few times to admire the destruction of Ivan and also taking in a few waterfalls.

So we didn’t make it to Cold Mtn. but we did have a great time. Might try to do it again, but only if I can find a different trail…I hate hiking uphill; my feet just aren’t pretty enough to stare at for eight hours.

**EDITED to say that Jeremy and Kathryn emailed us some pictures, which have now been added to the Photos section. Look under Photos 2004 for the pictures from their hiking and camping adventure! **"