Blue Ridge Country March/April 2024 - 55

JAKE BLOOD'S 3 FAVORITE HIKES
IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS
he end of the " J hook. " " There's a rockface just off the Big Butt Trail,
and you've got the entire view of the Black Mountains right there, and
you can see all of those 6,000-footers. It's just a gorgeous, breathtaking
place, with the Cane River drainage down below you. "
* Right below Celo Knob. " The Black Mountains Crest Trail starts at
about 3,000 feet and climbs up to just below the summit of Celo Knob.
You're climbing up and just as you break the ridge, the Black Mountains
are laid out for you, except this time you're at the needle, or the top of the
J and you're looking down at the spine of the Black Mountains. For me,
that's most reminiscent of being out west. "
T
* Mount Mitchell. " It is a state park and it's paved all the way up to the
summit. You have 360-degree views and they've marked it well. You have
that view that you would expect from the highest peak in the East. On a
clear day, you can see all the way to Charlotte. " -NH
pared to the rest of [the mountains] of
North Carolina. "
Blood knows just about every inch
of the trail and has singlehandedly surveyed
the whole thing for the Forest
Service, using photos, a notebook and
a distance measuring wheel to document
" everything that was wrong with
it, " from downed trees to mud puddles
where water backs up. A lot of folks
would go nuts with such a detailed assignment.
Not Blood.
" Well, I am military. I am kind of focused
on getting the stuff done the way
that it's supposed to be. "
Striking a balance between drawing
more attention to the Black Mountain
trails and conserving the wildness of the
area hasn't been easy.
" Hardly anybody knows about what's
Jake Blood:
" In the entire
eastern United
States, there are
under 50 peaks
over 6,000 feet
and we've got
16 of them here
in that 15-mile
ridgeline. "
Mountain trails.
" We've got the Forest Service here.
We've got Mount Mitchell State Park
here. We've got the Blue Ridge Parkway
here, " Blood points out. " The Appalachian
Trail goes through the northern
part of the county. The Mountains to
Sea Trail goes through the southern part.
Outdoor recreation could be a driver.
One thing that I tell everybody is: Nobody's
going to take our mountains away.
Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains
will not close up and move away. "
In 2010, he and three fellow hikers
with his ability to ask detailed questions
during the interview that they hired him
as part-time director. The job, however,
turned out to be more than " part-time, "
so a couple years later he retired-again.
He also joined the Carolina Mountain
Club, the oldest hiking and trail maintenance
club in western North Carolina. (It
turned 100 this year.)
For an avid hiker like Blood, something
was still missing, several things
actually. Two large textile factories had
closed, devastating the economy of Yancey
County and its population of fewer
than 20,000. The U.S. Forest Service
had lost funding for trail maintenance in
the Black Mountains, and publicity for
the area's outdoor recreation was scarce.
And there wasn't a group focused solely
on maintaining and promoting the Black
formed their own nonprofit, NC High
Peaks Trail Association, to preserve the
nearly 100 miles of trails in the Black
Mountains, offer monthly guided hikes
and boost public awareness of the outdoors.
Today, about 150 people, from
hands-on trail maintainers to birders and
dog lovers who welcome the chance to
hike on pooch-friendly paths, make up a
diverse membership.
Of all the tracks High Peaks maintains,
the Mount Mitchell Trail is the
best-known and most-used. " You start
down at the South Toe River at about
3,000 feet and, in just six miles, you
climb up to 6,684 feet, " Blood says. " You
go through five distinct ecozones, from
basically the deciduous leafy trees down
below up to the top where you've got the
pines. That's where the Black Mountains
got their name. They look black comnorth
of Asheville in the Black Mountains.
We want to bring in more people
to appreciate what we have here, " Blood
says. " With that also comes the responsibility
to protect the Black Mountains.
We do not want to become a place that is
overrun and has too many people coming
in. But right now, you can come up and
hike the Black Mountains and you won't
see anybody. "
These days, Blood enjoys hiking with
his wife, daughter and 5-year-old granddaughter
and seeing the forests he loves
through the little girl's eyes. Beyond the
official trails, he says, there are old railroad
grades, mica mines and plenty of
other sites to explore. For the past decade,
he has created trail maps and now provides
them for Mountain Mitchell State
Park. He also serves as chair of the Explore
Burnsville Travel & Tourism Committee,
which publishes the maps and
makes them available at the visitor center
and local campgrounds.
Despite his hard work to preserve and
promote Yancey County, Blood never
tires of bragging about the area he now
calls home. " The Great Smokies, yeah,
they've got more peaks, but they're scattered
out over how many millions of
acres? All this is right here. It's just unbelievable
the concentration that is right
here. The ruggedness of them, the way
they look, the waters that flow down from
them-I'm just baffled why it's still undiscovered. "
MARCH/APRIL
2024 55
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country March/April 2024
