Day 3, Tennent Mountain to Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp

I woke up at 5:30 a.m., which was earlier than necessary. Sunrise wouldn't happen for about 90 minutes, and Polecat and I had planned to be ready to hike shortly before that time. I stayed under my warm quilt and relaxed for about 20 more minutes before I dug into my food bag for breakfast.

When I emerged from my tent at 6:30 a.m., the dawn sky was awash in rich hues of reds, violets, and yellows. These colors were spread above the darkened blues and brown of the mountains, where the sun's rays had yet to fall.

We left the top of Tennent Mountain at sunrise. The air was bitter cold, and it would be a while before the sun was high enough to make a difference in the temperature.

We hadn't gone far in our descent before we realized we made the right choice to camp on the mountaintop last night. If we kept walking instead, we would have had to pick our way steeply down in the dark on a rocky and sometimes icy footpath. The route was treacherous enough without the added trouble of fading light.

As it was, Polecat slipped once on the ice and injured his knee. It caused him pain the rest of the way down to the trailhead.

After walking for about 30 minutes, we reached a spot near Ivestor Gap that was enclosed in a thicket of rhododendrons. We could have camped here last night if we had known about it and were been willing to hike about a mile down from the top of Tennent Mountain.

Polecat said he wanted to stop and relax his aching knee while he heated water to make coffee. The low cover of rhododendrons made it a comfortable place to do that because we were protected from the breeze blowing across the gap.

After a 20-minute break, we left the rhododendron enclosure to begin a climb up Grassy Cove Top. This mountain was another of Pisgah National Forest's 6,000-foot peaks. It was also another of the many heath balds in the southeastern Appalachians.

The Art Loeb Trail didn't crest the top of this mountain but passed so near that I had to wonder why it didn't cross the peak.

I remembered hiking here once before, though I couldn't remember the year. My sons and I completed a short backpacking trip in Shining Rock Wilderness when we happened to catch some unseasonably warm weather just before Christmas.

Sunshine was starting to take off some of the chill by the time we started the climb. The sky was clear enough to allow for distant views as we rounded Grassy Cove Top. Mount Mitchell was visible on the horizon. It was nearly 45 miles away.

We continued over two slightly shorter peaks, Shining Rock Ledge and Flower Knob. Along the way, we passed an occasional backpacker going the other way.

The trail then dropped slightly to Shining Rock Gap before taking a route on the north slope of Shining Rock. This section was entirely covered in trees and rhododendrons. The footpath was mostly flat for part of this distance, which I'm sure Polecat appreciated because of his aching knee.

We soon found more proof of Shining Rock's dangers, which this time came with a sad and sobering result. A wooden cross stood at the side of the trail. On it were these words: "In Memory of Cpl. Chad R. Seger, USMC."

Seger was hiking in this part of Shining Rock Wilderness just 13 months ago. Authorities think he became lost and perhaps disoriented. An unconfirmed report says the ex-Marine fell into a deep ravine.

By 11 a.m., we reached an opening where we could see a broad valley below us. The trail's terminus at Camp Daniel Boone, a Boy Scout camp, was located somewhere at the bottom, but we still had a long way to go to get there.

First, we had to hike down to Deep Gap. The trail made a sharp left turn there at a junction with a side trail. We could have followed that trail up to Cold Mountain if we had wanted. Neither of us had an urge to go that way. Polecat's knee injury was certainly a reason for that, but we were also concerned about the time. We had arranged for my wife to pick us up at 2 p.m. and were running a little behind to get to the trailhead by then. We still had 3.8 miles to go.

There was one other reason we didn't feel any incentive to make the climb. Cold Mountain's summit was at 6,030 feet high. To get there from Deep Gap required a steep, 1,000-foot ascent in 1.4 miles.

The mountain and this area were the setting for the best-selling historical novel by Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain. The author has said he based portions of the novel on the life of his great-granduncle, who lived near this mountain.

We arrived at the trailhead 30 minutes late, but Kim wasn't there. When she pulled up at 3 p.m., she told us she intended to get there 30 minutes before our scheduled pickup time but was caught in a traffic jam and detour on Interstate 40.

We didn't mind. Today and this weekend had been a strenuous but rewarding time in a beautiful area.

There was one unfortunate outcome of this hike, however. Days later when Polecat began to realize the pain in his knee wasn't going away, he made an appointment with a doctor. That's when he learned he had a torn meniscus, a hiking souvenir no one wants.