Camping in Black Mountain & Tackling Mt. Mitchell

Last Christmas I bought Brandon some camping gear - a tent, sleeping bags, and few accessories.  This weekend we FINALLY put them to use!!!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to set off to Black Mountain for the night.  It's at the base of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

We wanted to get there early to set up camp so we'd have plenty of daylight to hike up Mt. Mitchell!  We had read about the trail all week long in anticipation.  It's technically about 11 and a half miles round trip.  One website describes the trail as follows:

Level of Difficulty: Most Difficult

Trail Tread Condition: Very Rough

Climb: Climbs Steeply

Intimidating....yes!  But we figured we're fit, active, pretty in shape.....we can tackle it for sure!  And so we were determined to do so!  Hahahahaha....

**Disclaimer - lots of pictures start now!  :) **

We got to this point and stopped so I could hop out to take a pic.  I pulled out our camera and realized I left the battery charging at home!!!  :(  I was SO sad!!  I could've cried!  But surprisingly, my lovely iphone and B's phone did a pretty good job capturing pics and we got some pretty good ones I think!

Made it to camp!

Intimidating!!

Oh boy...what are we getting ourselves into!?!

Oh how our enthusiasm would waver, hah.

B + M 4 eva!  <3

Such pretty colors!

Strong man!

Enjoying a protein bar and taking a breather, already feeling it in the legs!  Haha

Can't really see me, but we were finally gettin' up there and enjoying a view!

We made it!!!  SUCCESS!!!!!  Ahh the feeling of accomplishment!

The view paid off!

Handsome hubs

Ughhh....we made it to the top, but we still had to go back down!!!  Holy moly!  It took us about 4 hours, including lunch, to make it to the top!  And then another 3 to make it back down.  This hike was not for the faint of heart my friends!!  What naive hikers we were!  Haha, on the way down our legs were literally shaking.  We weren't sure we were ever gonna make it!  The black diamond hike lived up to its "most difficult" description for sure!  But we did it!!

Our awesome set up =) 

And our fire!!  We had the perfect set up - some tunes, celebratory beers, and yummy food!  We roasted some awesome wieners and delish s'mores over this baby!

We spent the rest of the night hanging out by our fire and enjoying our little adventure!  The ibuprofen kicked in so our legs weren't quite as sore.  

Whoa buddy are they sore today!!!  Haha, just a little reminder of our adventure that will probably linger for a few days!  We drove home reeking smelling of campfire and looking forward to a shower :)  In fact, somehow my phone still smells like campfire!  But all in all, it was a blast and I survived!  

I MAY or MAY NOT have walked into a tree AND/OR submerged my foot into cold spring water while trying to cross....but again, I survived!  We encountered no bears or bugs and we climbed a MOUNTAIN!!

I'd say camping was a success!