Hopper Bald, Huckleberry Knob, and Stratton Mountain: June 5th, 2023

Hopper Bald

After a delightful night of sleeping at cool temperatures, I hopped up Hopper Bald originally as a means to bushwhack over to South Hopper, but I quickly decided that doing so wouldn't *actually* make me happy that day, so I went up the delightful walking trail to the bald area, which was real and had some fabulous views. A great morning hike

Huckleberry Knob

Huckleberry was the ninth-most-prominent mountain I had done up to this point, and given I knew it was a true bald at the summit, I was pretty excited to go up and see it. A delightful mile hike up and down brought me to two bald areas, with the second having a pristine, 360 degree view of the area around. It's moments like these that I'm reminded of why I do what I do, because of how much I fucking love mountains

Stratton Bald

I was going to do Stratton the day after, but I had so much free time and so little desire to bushwhack some of the other peaks on the ridge that I forced myself on up. I started at the Bells Gap pulloff and took the first mile on the dirt road, which I honestly wouldn't recommend driving even if it's open. It's not a 4wd or clearance issue, the road is just super narrow and the mud on either side could easily drag your vehicle over the edge if you're not careful. Best to bike it imo. Anyhow, the trail up to Bobs Bald was fairly nice, and Bobs Bald itself had delightful views, but the Benton Mackaye trail, which you link up with on the ridge, was poorly cleared here in June, and I was worried about a possible storm coming in and making the grass dump gallons of water into my shoes, so I bailed at the summit rather than pushing for the second peak farther along the ridge that I wanted to take a stab at. Oh well, three beautiful balds in one day, can't complain about that! Anyhow, the drive down the Tennessee side of the parkway had a delightful lookout that I spent the sunset admiring! :)