Was excited to put in a day of bigger miles for the Hike-a-Thon and settled on trying to finally check Mount Pugh off my list!
Camped out in the car on Mountain Loop Highway to get an “early” start on the hike which was surprisingly quiet and uneventful.
The hike up is long and steep and entirely uphill. The first half is switchbacks through the woods (love ‘em, hate ‘em, can’t hike without ‘em) before you push hard up to the pass. The highlight for me though was easily the ridge between the pass and the actual summit; I love ridges and this one was perfect in my book.
The scrambling is all very secure and there are plenty of solid hand and foot holds/ledges/steps. I saw a previous trip report that noted that “if you feel like you’re going the wrong way, you probably are” and this is super true! The main route up is pretty obviously marked with cairns, but there were a couple brief moments that I felt a little lost and sure enough, I’d gone a few yards off of the path I wanted. Trust your gut and don’t put yourself in a situation that you can’t get out of.
Lots of clouds and weird smoke/haze up top today so visibility was limited … but I guess I’ll just have to come back!
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