Mt. Mitchell Training Run

Preparing for a mountain half-marathon

By Brian Cary

May 4^th, 2023

Camping for a night before the summit run

I arrived to the Black Mountain campground on a bluebird day. It was a couple hours of driving from my house, so I was ready to set up camp and relaxing for the evening. There were a few campers around, but it was the last week of the winter season so I'm sure it's pretty busy now.

Anyways, once I set up camp I hiked to a waterfall that is nearby. The camp site host told me it would be a good warm-up to the Mount Mitchell hike the next day. It was pleasant and got me ready for my run the next day.

Once I woke up the next day and broke down camp, I moved my van to the hiker's parking lot and then started up the trail to the summit. Overall, it was a pretty long uphill that took me through different scenery. I ran part of it on the Mountain-to-Sea trail, which I would like to explore more sometime.