Fryingpan, Green, Chesnut, and Hardy, April 16th, 2023

Fryingpan Mountain

Fryingpan was a road walk from the gate along Blue Ridge Parkway, I had no problem walking my bike up and no problem biking down. Nice views at the top, nothing much else to report to be honest

Summit of and Fryingpan

Green Knob

Per foot hiked, this was the worst bushwhack I've ever done. I started from Pounding Mill Overlook and walked along the road about 0.1 miles to the west to get around the cliffs. Going up the slope initially wasn't too difficult, but once I got to the ridge I encountered some seriously thick vegetation that required me to take off my pack to fit myself through. I was trying to link up with the MST, but I could find nothing. Maybe I'm just exceptionally bad at finding trails, or maybe the trail is very poorly maintained, because I did find the faintest of heard paths. Regardless, after getting my photo and almost breaking down crying from all the cuts I was getting on my person, I decided to head down the other side of the ridge leading up to the overlook. Do be warned that the top of this ridge is short cliff-faces, so there's a decent chance of taking a bad fall if you're not careful. The way down was particularly steep and I looked like a physically and emotionally broken creature by the time I got back to the road - because I was. It was only the better part of an hour of hiking, but man it fucking sucked. Be prepared if you're going to approach green from this way, but my honest advice would be to suck it up, take the extra distance/elevation of the MST trail, and be a responsible adult about it - apparently something I need to do myself

Green Knob

Chestnut Bald

I went along the MST to Chestnut via Silvermine, and the trail was maintained and the hike decent, but man, people are fucking generous about what they call "Balds" down here, because this area really lacked any of the vegetation associated with balds. Anyhow, I got some nice photos at the outlook just off the trial at the col between the two

Cool rocks along and the MST on Silvermine
Chesnut (or more accurately the Silvermine col, but whatevs)

Mount Hardy

Hardy was relatively straightforward, with my approach starting from the Rough Butt Overlook and going along the MST trail to a connecting spur to the summit. Nicely maintained trails and a nice unexpected bald along it. Quite a nice hike, and definitely the best one of the day

There's a bald situated on the approach trail to the north of the peak
Trail leading to and Mount Hardy