Climb Every Mountain Fitness Challenge Week 11

Week 11 Climb Every Mountain Fitness Challenge - Mt. Mitchell

The Spring 2017 Climb Every Mountain encourages participants to exercise an average of at least 20 minutes per day. Week 11, beginning May 14 and ending May 20, features Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi.

Part of the Black Mountain Range in Burnsville of Yancey County, Mount Mitchell offers a climate that is more similar to Canada than North Carolina. In the early 1800s, Dr. Elisha Mitchell, a science professor at the University of North Carolina, suspected that the Black Mountains were higher than Grandfather Mountain, the commonly accepted highest peak in North Carolina at the time. He worked to establish its official height, eventually losing his life after falling from a cliff above a 40-foot waterfall in the area. In 1915, Mount Mitchell became North Carolina's first state park.

Hikers will find seven trails at Mount Mitchell State Park, ranging from easy to strenuous. Visitors will find diverse plants and animals that are distinctive of the Southern Appalachian area. The peak is often covered with clouds and fog. Many of the trees near the highest elevations were destroyed by an insect pest called balsam woolly adelgid, air pollution, and acid-laden precipitation.

A National Trails Day activity scheduled for June 3, 2017 at Mount Mitchell offers visitors the opportunity to join park staff for a 2.3-mile round trip hike between Mount Mitchell and Mount Craig, the second highest peak east of the Mississippi.

Have you ever visited Mt. Mitchell? If so, what were your favorite activities?

Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you

Isaiah 54:10