Montreat Trails

Montreat has a pretty nice system of trails throughout the area. We have a couple of maps and have made our way one a few of the trails. With this post I am going to try to document our exploration of the trails.

Last summer a couple of dads and boys from Cub Scouts hiked to Walker's Knob. It was a fairly ambitious hike for 5th graders, but the view from the Knob was stunning. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon, and the sky was amazingly clear. We'll have to do it again, and press on from there to Greybeard (that will take a whole day, I think).

Several weeks ago I took Briggs and Eli on the Gate Trail on a Sunday afternoon to get us all out of Libby's hair while Calvin napped. It's an easy walk straight along Montreat Road and beside the Falling Creek. We stopped when we got to the playground, though it goes just a wee bit further to the Nature Hut. Up and back is just about two miles.

More recently the whole family set off on the Lookout Trail. The first 300 yards are seemingly straight up. But at a crossroads we switched to the Trestle Trail, which as one might imagine is pretty level. We hiked around the cove to a very nice shelter. Out and back was probably three miles. I did it with Calvin in a baby backpack. Don't need to do that again soon!

Today Eli and I took the whole length of the Lookout Trail, to the Lookout Point. It was cloudy and rainy at home, but from the point, above the fog, we had a pretty good view across the valley and into Montreat, and even a bit of Black Mountain. We went a little further (and a little higher) and hopped on the East Ridge Trail. That took us over Boggs' Bunion and through a very lovely forest on the ridge. We walked about 20 yards out of our way and saw the Tollroad Trail (we'll hike that someday), but went the other way ultimately, on Buck Gap Trail (which goes straight down in our case!!) and took a breather at the same shelter mentioned above. From there it was a pretty easy jaunt back around the Trestle Trail, down the lower part of Lookout and to the parking lot. We figure it's about 5 miles. Eli needed to orienteer a 5 miler to gain rank in Scouts, so we used his compass for this one.

I keep you posted on other hike we take in the future.