We parked near the Park Office and commenced hiking clockwise with plans to cover Grassy Ridge, Mountain, Ledge Spring, Jomeokee, and Grindstone trails. Grassy Ridge was uneventful other than one questionable trail intersection. This intersection provided the first indication of inaccuracy in park maps in the NC Pocket Ranger iPhone app. Eventually we made it down to Pinnacle Hotel Road and started back up on Mountain Trail. These were simple trails. That said navigation still required some interesting interpolation between the NC Pocket Ranger maps, GPS, and printed park map. Mountain Trail was a nice hike upward. Nuts falling from the mountain chestnut oak trees enlivened the hike. The nuts, around 1" in diameter, constantly thumbed the ground around us. Discussions of squirrels and birds hurling nuts at us proved thoroughly entertaining. Eventually I did get nailed by a falling nut during a nature break. While the blow didn't particularly hurt the strike seemed to give more credence to birds and squirrels attack from above. The distraction, or motivation, made it easy to progress up the slope.
For the first 4 miles we saw only a small handfull of hikers. Falling nuts and one wasp nest seemed the extent of activity. Then we ran head long into a huge pack of hikers. We were officially near the parking area atop the mountain and the associated droves of people. After swimming through the crowd we were treated to the unexpected entertainment of droves of climbers. Every few feet along the rock face groups of rock climbers were setup with safety ropes scaling the cliffs.
There were an impressive number of climbers out on the trail. They came with packs, ropes, and hammocks for a day on the natural sheer rock faces. I made myself dizzy a few times with eyes drifting up the cliffs taking in the rock faces and climbers while progressing down the trail.
We found a shady spot with a view, breeze, and natural seats to enjoy Subway sandwiches for lunch. After consuming some calories and lightening my load I felt like a dog off the leash. I was free to fleet up the trail somewhat to the chagrin of the group. After bounding out a bit of jubilant energy I fell back into line.
Three Bears Gulley felt like a place and sign just made for Rebecca and her love of the family Ursidae.
I was disappointed to learn there was no hiking or climbing to the top of the primary dome that draws the eye from miles around. A loop trail circumnavigates the dome with great views of these even more impressive rock faces.
Many views from the trails are obscured by trees and canopy. Near the parking lot atop the mountain there are observation decks with cleared views.
From Little Pinnacle Overlook looking to the north east are, from left to right, Sauratown Mountain, Hanging Rock, and then Pilot Mountain in the foreground. There is a Sauratown trail of ~20 miles running between the parks. This might be a future training run if I can figure out the logistics.
Little Pinnacle attracts bird watchers. I like to see sharing of information.
The park is setup to enable climbing and climbing safety. There is a climber in a red helmet at the bottom of this face. Note the tiedown affixed to the top of the wall. I know little about climbing but I like the approach. Two bolts in the rock faces. No single point of redundancy. Seems like a safe and convenient tiedown.
Heading back down the park map was again less than helpful. Grindstone trail splits off far west of what is indicated by NC Pocket Ranger map. Near the summit the nut assault from above diminished. The attacks were not over though. Nuts piled up on the trail. The nuts were remarkably marble-like in the roll-out-from-under-foot sort of way. We all skated on loose nuts multiple times while navigating down the mountain.
The rock faces and climbers at Pilot Mountain were novel. There were a couple of good views. In contrast Hanging Rock provides many views and, I think, more strenuous hiking opportunities. Either way it was a great day on the trails with 2200 feet of elevation gain, 1200 calories burned, and 4 hours of hiking. This is an easy day trip from the Raleigh Durham area.
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