Hiking - Profile Trail at Grandfather Mountain, Blowing Rock, NC

 Hiking - Profile Trail at Grandfather Mountain                           6.4 miles

We left at 9:30 and the temperature was about 45°. There’s a large parking lot here and rest rooms. Once again there are signs everywhere about wearing mask and social distancing  - North Carolina is doing it right. At the beginning of this hike the trail goes down until you’re parallel with the river. It’s very pretty here and there are several waterfalls that come down toward the river. Eventually the trail starts to go up the mountain and we’re surrounded by trees and many fallen leaves. This trail has lots of rocks steps that have been placed along the trail. Finally the trail really starts to climb up the mountain in the hiking becomes harder. Now we have to navigate over exposed roots and of course the many rock steps. We eventually get to the campground which is actually a very nice campground. There are really large rocks around with places for tents in between. On a windy day those rocks would probably block the wind. Within passed a huge rock cliff that was lined with ice. About half a mile further, we got to Profile View.  From here we could look out and see North Carolina mountains in the distance and even one mountain peak in Virginia. If we turned back to where we had come from we could see the large rock folder which looks like a grandfather’s profile. I have to say that the last mile and a half of this hike was quite strenuous and as the altitude kept rising, it kept getting harder. This is an an attitude of about 5500 feet so we climbed about 1500 feet today. This is where we ended our route. Had we gone on we would’ve eventually reached some ladders and some trails with cables and steep precipices. It was hard enough so I didn’t feel like I wanted to challenge myself anymore and one of the pressures even cautioned death as a possibility - not a real enticement for me. The hike down was a joy, we’re almost a joy because it wasn’t as hard as going up. We did pass lots of people on this trail today, it’s always nice to see people outside enjoying nature. As I’m writing this blog, I’ve been comatose on her couch. This hike wore me out

North Carolina is taking the virus seriously!