Pilot Mountain Hike

Another beautiful fall day, another hike. We went back to Pilot Mountain  State Park to explore the other trail up the mountain, aptly titled “Mountain Trail.”  We hiked the “Grindstone” trail last year and really enjoyed the walk, so we decided today to try the 1000 ft climb again from the other direction. The 2.5 mi mountain trail meets up with the 2 mi ledge spring loop trail near the top, so all in all we did about 7 miles and 1000 ft  of elevation gain. If it didn’t take an hour to drive to pilot mountain, we would go more often, the trails are great.

Once again, the rock climbers were out in force. I think this is a really popular spot. This time, I snapped some pics:

Pics from the top:

Poor Cody the Bear is pretty tuckered out tonight.  He’s only about 5 years old, but seven miles with that much “up” is a lot for him now. He’s still enthusiastic, but his hips just don’t cooperate anymore. He’ll be stiff and sore for couple of days after this, even with his pain meds. I just hope we can keep bringing him for awhile yet, he loves hiking more than we do.

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