Richland Balsam Area, April 19th-20th, 2023

Steestachee Bald, April 19th

I spent the night at the trailhead and thoroughly enjoyed the view both during light and dark. The ascent to Steestachee was a gentile, open bushwhack up to the summit area. No views or anything, but the ramp is pretty forgiving and pretty brief. Do be warned that there was a lot of wasp activity near the summit, so be careful where you step and be sure not to linger long! (also maybe take an epi-pen if you have any allergies)

Richland Balsam, April 19th

The outlook was nice, and the hike up to the summit was peaceful and I had no problem doing it in my crocs (in fact, I would do the rest of the hikes this day in my crocs - go figure). No views or anything on the hike, but that's what the outlook is for!

Reinhart Knob, April 19th

I hopped over to the nearest outlook at the base of Reinhart and popped over to the summit. There was a bit of deadfall, but perhaps it's not too bad along the heard path - I just lost it easily and decided to rough it out. Gradual incline and no views, typical vegetation for a 6000footer

Rough Butt, April 19th

Starting at the MST trailhead on the northern side, the way up to rough butt is pretty decent if you stay in the woods, although the bald may be tempting for views it is filled with thorns, as always! Summit was wooded so I hopped back down to the bald for my pictures!

Pilot Mountain, April 20th

I started the hike to Pilot from the Art Loeb trailhead on the southern side of the mountain. Originally I tried to approach the trailhead using forest service roads to the east, but there's a three mile closed section leading up to the trailhead on that side. It took about an hour to drive around to the western approach, but I was able to get all the way down without any difficulties in my aging van. The trail was well maintained and there was a delightful view at the summit. After several days of feeling like I was just hopping from one peak to the next, it was nice to actually spend time actually ascending and descending a peak and feeling like I actually earned it. Don't get me wrong: it's totally valid to hike up a peak from BRP - and oftentimes the peak is still challenging from there. But there's something about just going up and down a mountain that speaks to me, and it was nice to get back to that