Cold Mountain via Art Loeb Trail Review

Getting to Cold Mountain via the Art Loeb Trail in Pisgah National Forest presented an unexpected challenge. Some less experienced backpacker friends and I planned to backpack up to Deep Gap on the Art Loeb Trail, spend the night, summit Cold Mountain, and hike back out to the Black Balsam Trailhead. According to AllTrails, this out-and-back trip covers 17.1 miles of trail.

Trail Conditions

The trail starts with a lot of climbing in wide open, un-forested wilderness. You have no canopy for shade and seem to be hiking straight up. The views do make the climb worth it.

After summiting Tennant Mountain, the trail pitches down and becomes a bit treacherous. It’s basically a washed out gully with a lot of rocks. This continues until arriving at the Shining Rock Wilderness area.

From here, the trail offers some shade and canopy, but you also begin to climb again until you reach the Shining Rock campground. We chose to take the trail around Grassy Knob, rather than over. This provided the shade and canopy, but I don’t think it was any less elevation gain.

After the Shining Rock campground, the trail gets much more challenging. First, you go over Staircase Mountain (appropriately named with a lot of rock steps going up and down). Then, you proceed to The Narrows. At times, this section of the trail barely allows you to hike thorough without brushing your pack against the foliage or fear of falling down a cliff. I’ve never hiked a trail that was so narrow. Did I mention that it’s almost all uphill, too?

From this viewpoint, the trail finally drops a bit downhill to Deep Gap – our intended camp for the night. From Deep Gap, it’s a steep 1.6 mile climb to the summit of Cold Mountain.

Trail Challenges

Something happened to me on this backpacking trip that has never happened to me, before. I did not experience any foot pain, knee pain, hip pain….really, no pain at all. My legs just quit working. They were shaky and fatigued.

We attempted to summit Cold Mountain after taking a long break at Deep Gap, hoping to eliminate the need to do it the next morning. I made it about halfway. I was spent. Two of my friends were also done. By the way, I’ve been to the Cold Mountain summit before and 4 of the 6 of us made it, this time. It’s not worth it. The views from the first section of our hike were 10X better and less taxing on the body.

So what caused this unique challenge that I encountered on this trail? I believe it was a combination of two factors.

1. I tried to keep up with our group of backpackers. Even bringing up the rear, I was averaging over 2 miles an hour. For me, this is lightning fast. I generally average about 1-1.3 mph on the Appalachian Trail. We kept up this pace to the Shining Rock campground.
2. ROCKS! So many rocks and rock steps on this trail. Not small rock steps, either. The whole 8 miles to Deep Gap presented very technical hiking trails.

A couple possible additional issues included a lack of abundant water sources and it was my first time using a bear canister, which added a ton of extra weight to my pack.

A New Plan

Woo Hoo! We made it to Deep Gap! Just one problem, now we needed to hike back to our cars the next morning. Three of us just didn’t have it in us, so we came up with an alternate plan.

From Deep Gap, you can continue on the Art Loeb Trail down to Camp Daniel Boone. It’s a short 4 mile hike that’s almost all down hill versus an 8 mile hike back to the cars….with a LOT of uphill climbs.

We split into groups of 3. The stronger, younger 3 would hike back to the cars while the weaker, older 3 would hike down to Camp Daniel Boone. Once the faster group retrieved the cars, they would come pick up the slower group at the other trailhead.

Fortunately, we found a very helpful young man that gave us a ride back to our cabin. For the record, the younger, stronger group finished the more challenging 8 mile trek back to the vehicles just 35 minutes after we finished the easy 4 mile hike to Camp Daniel Boone!

Conclusion

The physical challenges produced some mental challenges for me on this backpacking trip. One of my friends was so fatigued from the hike in that he was speaking in tongues. We were at least 4 miles from a trailhead or road and he could barely function. Fortunately, some electrolytes and food brought him back to reality. Unfortunately, we still had to get our way out of the woods.

First, we should have stayed at Deep Gap when we first arrived and not attempted to summit Cold Mountain. When you get tired on the trail, mistakes happen. You make bad choices. Our group got split up going up to Cold Mountain. We had no cell service. Only some of us had maps or GPS. It’s a bad scene all the way around. This is also when you make physical mistakes. Bad foot placement. Poor energy management. You end up twisting an ankle, falling, hitting your head, and so on. Know your limits and listen to them! Stop if you need to stop. Nothing good comes from pushing yourself too hard in the backcountry.

Second, we knew this may be a challenging trail, especially for new backpackers. We also knew about the trailhead at Camp Daniel Boone. We could have just done the shorter hike from Camp Daniel Boone or left cars at both trailheads. Leaving cars at two trailheads causes a lot more driving, but an additional safety factor that would have made the hike more enjoyable.

The trail preview on AllTrails showed a hike that had a strong initial climb and the remaining hike just along the ridge line. That’s not the reality of the trail. It was a LOT of climbing and steep downhills all the way to Deep Gap. Even looking at a topo map didn’t do the elevation changes justice. Looking back, I think you’re safer assuming the trail will be harder than it looks. If you prepare for the worst and it’s easier than expected, great! If you prepare for an easy hike and it’s harder than expected, you quickly find yourself in a troubling situation.