Sat, Feb 27 2010 - Summit GA's Highest Peaks: #4 - Hightower Bald (4568') (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Tony C, Scott Looper Participants: Tony C, Scott Looper, Tanja B, Pavan, Ray R, Marshall, patricia, Armin

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Write Up:
After having to reschedule this hike a few times due to weather, we ended up with a perfect day...sunny and deep blue skies with highs in the mid 40s....kept us cool on the strenuous climbs, but not too cold as to be uncomfortable.

We started at Blue Ridge Gap and after a short road walk was on the AT.  We headed north towards NC...after crossing the state line, we left the trail and the bushwhacking began.  We originally had planned to follow a contour line around the northern slopes of Rich Knob, but there was too much snow and ice, so we instead went up the southeastern ridge...not any snow there, although we did have to make it through the "rhododendron hell" to make it to the top...very doable though.

After a break on Rich, we descended down into Hightower Gap...very easy to follow the ridge as it became almost a knife's edge as we hiked up closer to Hightower.  The snow along the ridge was deep in places but also soft and not really slippery, so we continued higher and higher.   We eventually hit the weeds and briers portion of the hike and we had to fight our way through those for about a quarter of a mile before we emerged on the Hightower Bald summit, where there was still about 3 inches of snow on the ground..  It was very satisfying and a fun challenge to do some routefinding along the way, rather than just following a trail as usual.

We took a long celebratory lunch break on top of Hightower and then headed back the way we came in.  That last climb back up Rich Knob was tiring with fatigued legs, but from there, it was mostly downhill...the hike ended up being 11.4 miles and just over 4150 feet of total ascent.  The snow made it more interesting without adding added much risk.... except for the snowball fights that broke out a couple of times....pics posted soon..

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