2021/10/3 - MT. MITCHELL, POINT MISERY, LITTLE & BIG BUTTS
DIRECTOR'S CUT EXTENDED EDITION

This is the Director's Cut Extended Edition for this album, meaning I have included many photos which don't meet my typical artistic standards because they hold special memories for me. If you are looking for a shorter and higher quality collection, or if you are not a fan of spiders, visit the curated Theatrical Cut at MT. MITCHELL, POINT MISERY, LITTLE & BIG BUTTS - SPIDER FREE THEATRICAL RELEASE.

In September/October of 2021 I took a trip to Asheville, NC and walked my poor feet as much as they could take up and down the Appalachian mountains. As with all days, I planned this out with very little warning just before going to sleep the night before. And I would be a dirty, filthy liar if I said that I wasn't drawn to this trail by its name alone. It also looked like a legitimately nice path, though. I didn't give myself enough time to find a new place to watch the sunrise, so I decided to head back to Mount Mitchell, since it was in the area and I wanted too see if the actual land would be visible through the clouds this time. I was treated to a lovely pool of scattered fog with nearly neon reflections in the sky. Afterwards, I drove down to the unassuming "overlook" at Walker Knob, which actually overlooked nothing at all, but housed the Big Butt Trailhead, which you would never see if you weren't specifically trying to find it.

When my watch beeped at the first mile mark, I realised that I had gotten so distracted by photographing all the fantastic fungi that it would take me all day to reach my destination, so I reluctantly picked up the pace. As I reached the unmarked Point Misery, I recognised it only by the stairs heading steeply down, which a blog post had informed me were going to be an absolute misery on my way back. I headed down and down and back up again, finding a lovely vista at Little Butt. (Shoutout to NC High Peaks for maintaining this trail - those were some nice stairs.) To get from Little to Big Butt, I walked along the top of a ridge with the ground falling off on both sides, but with enough dense foliage that it felt quite safe. At the summit, I took the required selfies and turned around, hoping to get back to my car before the forecast rain. I drove again up Mount Mitchell for another look at the sky - somehow I could see even less than the first day, but that's what you get for standing inside a raincloud.