FAMILY MATTERS

20TH HIKE: PILOT MOUNTAIN

Facts

Location: Pinnacle, NC

Park: Pilot Mountain State Park

Trail: Summit Trail - 3.5 mi

Elevation: 2,421 ft

Date: 12/11/11

Adventure

And so the journey begins with a jet pack finish to fall semester 2011! Friday was a fourteen hour day of work, volunteering, and celebrating! Saturday I had my final statistics course in which we did a practice comprehensive exam followed by a presentation of my dissertation research proposal. From 9am-11am I was a student, after that an adventure seeking vagabond! Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as my foot hit the pedal and cleared way on the open road to North Carolina. My mother in her most loving way told me, "Ashley you are the craziest person I know."

The knob

I arrived in Madison, NC...aka the "big city" to visit my cousin Andrew for the weekend. I had asked Andrew if we could go hiking on my trip and he said he knew just the place. I was happy to take a back seat on planning and just enjoy the ride for my final showdown. We drove to Pilot mountain laughing and jamming out to Reggae. We ascended to the top of the mountain where Andrew informed me that we could not hike from bottom to top, but rather up, down, and around the knob at the apex. It was a bright and sunny day with low temperatures. Andrew and I began in several layers. I had a tank, thermal, flannel, sweatshirt, leggings, and sweat pants. I was expecting the worst being on top of the mountain, but not even a mile into our trek I ended up removing the sweatshirt and sweating in the flannel. Andrew was able to walk around in a T-shirt comfortably as we circled around the mountain top. Stopping to take views from the pinnacle of the land surrounding us.

We sent this photo to mom just to piss her off!

On the hike Andrew and I used the time to catch up on each other's life. As kids we were close, but by the time we were teenagers the distance between North Carolina and Massachusetts took its toll. A decade has passed before Andrew's family and mine were reunited during a magical Christmas Eve filled with drinking, laughter, and of course a Little Mermaid sing-a-long. After that Christmas Eve, Andrew and I stayed in touch through email and phone conversations and were determined to hang out again soon, we recognized many distinct similarities between us, starting with our passion for working with the "old folk" and exploring the great outdoors. We mostly told stories about "Auntie Micky" or to many of you reading this blog, GRAM! Andrew was kind and reminded me how fortunate I am to have my grandparents around, to recount our family history and continue to build memories with them. Once we got passed conversation about Gram shrinking we moved on to our favorite topic, making fun of our mother's. We spent most of the weekend discussing silly things that our mom's say to us, for example if I were to not call my mother at least once a week she would call me and say "Ash are you alive?" and I would respond, "Yeah. I picked up the phone didn't I?" We could have gone on for weeks sharing momism.

This is why I hike!

The hike was gorgeous! The views incredible! We stood on the edge and looked straight down from the cliff. We saw hawks soaring. There was still green on some of the trees. We stopped to reach our hands out and catch running water. Nature was magical and in rare form as always and intended. The incredible part of the adventure was being with my cousin and growing up with him. I value storytelling and I was happy to be carve out time in my life, to not be spread so thin and just enjoy the company of my family. A part of my family that I do not get to see everyday. I do not take that lightly and feel truly blessed to have been afforded the experience to bond!

the edge