Western North Carolina got its first real blast of winter.

It reached a high of 27 deg. in Asheville and was a lot colder above 3,500 feet. I know that if you're reading this anyplace but in the South, you would probably laugh at these temperature.

"Do you hike in the winter?" is a question that Carolina Mountain Club hikers always get asked. Of course, we hike all year round. That's the beauty of living here. But I do have to pack my daypack differently.

I pull out my snow creepers. I put in an extra pair of gloves, a wool hat  and a neckwarmer in my pack.

I wear a thermal top over a short sleeve shirt - always a short sleeve shirt. You never know when it's going to hit 60 deg. by the afternoon. Then a fleece jacket and a windbreaker/rainjacket.

I'll take a thermos of tea and a lunch that's easy to eat. Sometimes we have to eat on the go and a sandwich is much easier to carry than a packet of tuna or a salad container.

You might want to check out my gear list.

What do you bring on a winter hike?

Most people regard fall in the Blue Ridge as the premier time to hike. But for me, fall is yellow jacket season. I'm highly allergic and I carry an epi pen but still I'm on high alert during fall.

Yesterday, I went on a Carolina Mountain Club hike in Pisgah National Forest.

We started at Douglas Falls outside of Barnardsville. It's not a well-traveled trail. We climbed up about 2,000 ft. to the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Several of us got stung, including me.

Though I lathered myself with insect repellant and moved at a good click, I got stung on the elbow and on the ear. I stopped to take a Benedryl tablet, which is supposed to bring down the swelling. But it still burned.

Yellow jackets make their nests in the ground. So obscure trails are more likely to harbor yellow jackets than well-pounded trails. Horse trails or old roads are the safest from yellow jackets because they can't dig in or the nests get pounded out of existence before the fall.

Still, it was a beautiful hike.

The gentians were in full bloom - see below.

Mountain ash were at their peak and the group was great.

And in my humble, amateur estimation, yellow jackets last a lot longer now.

The population may not be getting wiped out in the winter because our winters are not as cold.

So I do everything I can to mitigate yellow jackets but not hiking in the fall is not an option.

A long time ago, my husband, Lenny, asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. "To hike, of course!" So that's what we did. We scouted out a hike he's going to lead for Carolina Mountain Club next month - only 7.9 miles on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

The section from NC 151 to French Broad Overlook is gentle and well-maintained.

Still I hadn't been on a mountain trail for almost two months because of my MST project. No matter how many miles I walked on the road or beach, I was never out of breath but here I could feel the uphills. 

The flowers were outstanding - dwarf-crested irises, lady slippers, a few trilliums and a lot of blackberry cane in flower. The trail crisscrossed the Blue Ridge Parkway a couple of times, so we asked a woman to take a picture of us.

I've got a little bit of the post-hiking project blues. I'm so glad to have completed the trail but I miss the excitement and challenge of planning the next segment.

Still The Mountains-to-Sea Trail was a great experience but I'm glad to be back in the mountains.

Today Lenny and I are giving away our snowshoes. I feel it's a passing of an era, though he thinks he's just emptying out a closet.

We bought these snowshoes in the late 1970s when we decided to hike the winter Catskills 3500. It's a hiking challenge that involves hiking to 35 peaks that are over 3,500 ft. in the Catskills in New York State.

We hiked all the 35 peaks - part of the challenge is that four specific ones have to be hiked in winter. Then for another patch, we had to hike all of them in the winter. So we bought snowshoes and full, 10-point crampons. On most hikes, we carried them most of the way until the snow was deep enough to need them.

I continued to use them for winter hiking until we moved to Asheville. We knew that there was never enough snow here to warrant them but I felt that if I left the winter equipment in New Jersey, I'd never buy new snowshoes and go snowshoeing again. After ten years here I still haven't used them

But several Carolina Mountain Club members are driving to Roan Mountain in the middle of winter and snowshoeing there. Driving all that distance in the snow just doesn't appeal to me and I'm giving them away to someone who could use them.

But I feel sad. An era has passed.

Sometimes a short winter hike is all that's needed to revive the spirit or keep us moving in the cold.

Yesterday's Carolina Mountain Club hike in Pisgah National Forest promised 10 miles of moderate hiking in winter weather. Since we're close to the Winter Solstisce, the day was almost the shortest of the year. 

We were on the trail at about 9:30 A.M. but had to walk over a mile more since the Forest Service was doing construction on the road leading to the trailhead.

We walked on a road going over and around large construction equipment.

Finally on Buckhorn Gap Trail.

We headed to Twin Falls which were magnificent. Icicles dripped off the falling water. Both falls could be seen without the distraction of leaf cover. 

We found turkey and deer prints. See the turkey feet at the top of this post.

This trail has numerous creek crossings, most with bridges. But the log bridges were icy and precarious. We took it slowly. Some preferred to try their luck by rockhopping. Wet boots, even in this weather, is better than the thought of falling.

We missed a turn on our loop hike. By the time we realized it, we discussed whether we wanted to go back up, resulting in a 13 mile hike or just go down and finish much earlier. It was about 1:30 P.M.. The sun was already starting its downward slide and we were cold. So we opted for the shorter hike.

But we didn't waste our extra time. Some headed back to Asheville, probably to finish their Christmas preparations. A couple went to a restaurant.

But four us went to Kiwi Gelato in Brevard. Great gelato in a fun, friendly atmosphere.

Many people say that Fall is their favorite time of year for hiking. Temperatures are cooler (but not this year). Views are clearer than in the summer and there's more chance to see animals as they prepare for winter.

One of these creatures is yellow jackets. Unlike the bumble bee of spring that flits from flower to flower and avoids people, yellow jackets in fall seem to look for people to sting. They nest in the ground or under rocks and just wait for me to pass them on the trail.

Yesterday I got stung several times on both legs and now my right leg looks like it belongs on a small elephant. I am pulling all the stops - taking benedryl, icing and elevating my foot, and trying to stay off my feet. The area itches badly and I keep lathering myself with Hydrocortosone cream. I really need to get the swelling down as I have several days of hard MST hiking coming up.

But every incident, no matter how unpleasant, reveals some truth. I am miserable, itchy and swollen but I can't wait to get back on the trail. I'm not thinking that I should stay out of the woods in autumn.

If I had a similar incident biking, I might decide that biking was unsafe and just pack it in. Obviously, I've had years and years of hiking pleasure and just started biking again and right now it's not a pleasure.

But, hey, look on the bright side, I'm unlikely to get stung by yellow jackets biking the road.   

Is the average person taking global warming seriously?

Yesterday I went on a Carolina Mountain Club hike to Rough Creek. The meeting point was the Home Depot on the west side of town. So on the way, I stopped to get some coffee.

I parked, got out and walked into the fast food joint. You can see my car at the far end to the left.

I was served right away. In the meantime, the drive-thru line was getting longer and longer. Everyone had their engines on, waiting to give their breakfast order and then waiting to get their fast food.

Why didn't they park and get out? Is it all about the physical effort of getting out of their car and walking a few steps? People talk about organic cotton, recycling and growing their own food but they can't bother to turn off their engine and get out of their car.

Rough Creek Watershed is Canton's old watershed. Instead of selling the land to developers, they kept it and put in under conservation easement. The property has about 10 miles of biking and hiking trails.It is being protected by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

With a splint on my right hand, I led eight other eager Carolina Mountain Club hikers on a loop from the "Road to Nowhere" tunnel in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This area, though beautiful and green, shines because of its history. See this National Park Traveler piece on the background on the Road to Nowhere. Most of the folks that came on the hike were there to see the "Road to Nowhere" for themselves.

First we stopped at the signboard funded by locals which shows the bitterness that still persists. I don't know how long this board will be up.

We entered the park and drove another six miles to the tunnel. See the picture at the top of this entry. On a combination of trails, we met backpackers going or coming back from campsite #74 on Forney Creek.

The highlight for me was the visit to Woody Cemetery off Lake Shore Trail - it was a good climb. We talked about what goes on at Decoration Days. Anyone can go and you'll be treated with the utmost respect.

Toward the end of the hike, we took the Tunnel By-pass trail. The sign had been turned 90 deg. the wrong way and was confusing to the group. We tried to pull it out of the ground and turn it but we couldn't.

I plan to let the Smokies maintenance people know about it.

Pinkshell Azaleas (Azalea vaseyi) are native to only a couple of counties in North Carolina. One place to see them is on Pilot Mountain in Pisgah National Forest. The azalea bushes are globally rare but when you climb up to Pilot Mountain in early May, they're not rare at all but very abundant.

Carolina Mountain Club led a hike on the Art Loeb Trail to Pilot Mountain today. Besides the pinkshells, we saw 35 species of wildflowers -  yes, someone counted them. Included in this count were flaming azaleas (orange) and everything from violets to rue anemones. This is the time to get out there and see flowers before the weather gets too hot.

It was an easy hike with a gentle pace, a good time to try out using two hiking poles. I've been using one hiking pole for a long, long time.

But lately, I've been having serious pain in my right hand, sometimes shooting to my elbow - the result of pounding my stick into the ground too aggressively. I hoped that using two sticks would distribute the pounding.

I'm not very coordinated so I was concerned about tripping over myself but I didn't. I'm curious to see what will happen on a more challenging hike.