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Travelogue USA

Part 2 – Food in a winery

Continuing up Pilot Mountain

All this while, just like us walking upwards on the ledge, an elderly Japanese couple was hiking the same trail as well – they were definitely better prepared than us with hiking poles and better shoes. Initially, they asked us to go ahead because they had slowed down and didn’t want to slow us down, but after a while, we slowed down and asked them to go ahead. We must have kept exchanging places some 4 or 5 times. 


After a while, we came across a board that said rock climbing ends. After this, we faced steep stone steps – you’d think that having a clear step would help, but because of the height, it was tiring. We kept going up the flight of stairs and taking breaks periodically.

I noticed that each trail had a colour on the map – and at certain junctures, we had the same colour sticker on a tree – indicating which trail you were on and also gave you comfort in the fact that you were not lost! We finally reached a point beyond which the path seemed to go down – we thought we could scale the mountain up, but there surely was no clear path. Just then, we saw a person coming from the opposite side, and we asked, “Can we get to the top?”
He wondered if the side path went up, but we told him it was a dead end.
“You go down, and there’s a trail that takes you close,” he said, pointing to the direction from which he came. 

We went down and saw that this was the Pilot Knob trail – red colour, 0.8 miles and marked ‘moderate’. After doing a strenuous one, this one was a breeze. This is the highest part of the mountain that you can get to. The part we were walking around is the distinctive dome shape of the mountain that you see from below – since it’s pretty much rock walls up to the top filled with vegetation, there is no accessible path to take you to the peak. We did the Knob trail and headed back down to the parking lot.

A bundle of energy

We spent about 2 hours on Pilot Mountain – not a bad way to spend an afternoon, though it is better to be here early in the morning than in the peak heat and ensure you come in the right shoes – because you need to walk on rough surfaces and rocks. 
We wondered if our wedding anniversary couple would have enjoyed this trip on their day out. 
“Making them walk in the hot sun on their anniversary – they will be cursing us.”
“Instead of taking them to a beach we took them hiking!”
“Not our fault though.” That was true – another friend had made us switch plans across Saturday and Sunday and in the end he didn’t turn up for today’s trip as well!

Looking at Dileep returning from the trail carrying a tote bag, a tired walk made worse by a haggard look and matted hair, none of us wanted to ask him the question. But surprisingly, behind the dad came his little daughter bustling with energy and speeding past her dad. She seemed ready to go on another trail! The family did the grindstone trail.

Meal in the vineyard

The website said we needed to book in advance, but when we called, we only reached the voicemail where we dropped our contact info. We never got a return call, but since the place was in the neighbourhood, we headed over – it was 5:20pm when we reached Jolo Vineyards – this was recommended by a colleague for good Italian food. They had a board which said no kids allowed – on enquiring, it seemed like if it was just one kid, they may have permitted, but since there were 2 in the group, they politely said they couldn’t have kids. Not sure why the rule but we relayed the info back to our other group that was still in Pilot Mountain. 

“Can we get a table?”

The staff looked at a sheet and nodded. But we noticed they also had a wine tasting option and Kiran and Raj took up the offer – $35 per person; sort of a bar setup indoors where they serve, in ascending order of price, 7 wines – after each wine, you sip a little water to ensure the last wine’s taste is eliminated before you try the next one. From Kiran’s facial expression, we could guess his opinion of each wine. The last couple of wines are what Kiran and Raj liked.

We took a table outdoor and ordered food but started off as is our tradition with a dessert – the Key Lime cake. And that was really good – so we tried the other dessert, the Lemon Cello cake, and that too was good. We ended up doing another round of desserts again at the end! As I expected, Rakesh ordered the Pomme Frites (the French name for french fries), and we repeated that as well! The ravioli and risotto were nice – but the best dishes, we thought, were the desserts.

Only while leaving did we discover that there is a walking tour of the vineyard too – but we were running out of time and had to head back.

At night, we made a trip to Walmart at 10 pm because I wanted to buy a few items, but what ended up happening was that Rakesh went on an impulsive shopping spree and filled his cart! Eventful end to the day.

In case you are planning a trip; website with details of the mountain: https://www.pilotmountainnc.org/

Categories
Travelogue USA

Part 1 – Pilot Mountain

The temple

It was our friend Dileep’s wedding anniversary; so he wanted to start the day at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Raleigh. Today also happened to be an auspicious day, and so the place was packed with cars – so much so that there were a few black American staff having to guide vehicles to vacant spots. The staff did seem to be enjoying their work; they were on headsets swaying to the sound of music as they directed vehicles.
After prayers, we bumped into a couple more office colleagues and then saw the food stall counter inside, where we picked up food parcels – sales were brisk. We also bought a lot of stuff since others were joining us on the trip as well. 

(Note: You can click on images to see the full view)

Pilot Mountain is about a 1.5-hour drive from the city – we were in two cars. Rakesh and I were in Kiran’s car and were impressed by the navigation app that announced things like ‘obstacle on the road’, ‘speed sensor ahead’ and so on. Kiran also narrated a few sad stories of people he knew struggling in a tough job market – the market was good for folks with work experience but hard for freshers to get a breakthrough.

The best view of Pilot Mountain you get from the road – the distinct shape of the mountain. I didn’t ask Kiran to stop the car to take a shot, but Wiki has a nice image (snap above). 

Typically, things go away from the schedule when you have more people in the group. And we were really off schedule because we were in the park only at noon – not good on a sunny summer day! We stopped our car in the first parking lot within the park and read through trail details on the notice board. But then, we got a call from the other vehicle – they were in a different parking lot.

And so we headed on a 10-minute drive towards that – but there was no sign of them. All we saw was a well constructed spacious cabin toilet with a western-style toilet whose outlet just seemed to go on endlessly deep into the ground. A board near by described the trail and we saw an American family exiting the ‘Corridor trail’ with a large dog by their side. This was a 6-mile trail classified as ‘strenuous’; unlikely that our other group would have picked this one. It’s a good thing to know beforehand what trail you are getting into – the maps describe the trail route, difficulty and distance, and a colour code for the trail.

We got a call again and learnt that they had actually gone further up from where we had originally stopped. And so we went back again – from the first parking lot proceeded uphill to the second parking lot. 
“I guess we’ve done the hike in the car!” Kiran commented. 
“But we still aren’t at the top of the mountain.” The first thing that strikes you as unique about this mountain is the distinct pinnacle, and we certainly were nowhere near that.

Inspiration

In the parking lot, Kiran just took off after a round of intros. He was the fittest in our group and said, “We should start early so that we can finish early.” He was worried that we might all end up sitting on the lovely park benches, eating the food we brought and converting this trip into a family picnic! The two families in the group did stop at the benches, and since they had kids, we didn’t know if they wanted to hike. Rakesh and I followed Kiran, and off we went without knowing what trail we were on.

The crowd slowly thinned out as we progressed. 
“Look at the dedication,” Kiran said.
Ahead of us was a middle-aged lady navigating the rocky terrain with a baby sitting in a sling that went across her shoulders. A man, a boy, and a dog were part of the group that followed her. As we went on what seemed to be a downward slope, we wondered, “Are we going down to the base? How do we get to the top?”

We saw an elderly man with hiking poles struggle upwards in the opposite direction but determined to keep continuing. You feel inspired seeing fellow hikers around you. This trail that started out easy wasn’t all that easy since you have to go through some bumpy terrain – not hard, but we did wonder if the 2 families with kids would continue on this trail.


The climb

We reached a notice board where a map said we were on the ‘grindstone trail’ – 3.5 miles and tagged strenuous. But there was a detour to another trail called ‘Ledge Spring Trail’ that seemed like a shortcut (1 mile) but was tagged ‘strenuous’ as well, with an added warning that the trail was steep. No second thoughts in all of our minds – we thought steep was good since we wanted to get to the top of the mountain!

As the name said, this was like walking on a ledge on the mountain’s periphery. After a short distance, there were signs saying ‘rock climbing’, and we soon encountered small groups of rock climbers. They were trying to scale up the side of the mountain – it did seem risky but seemed like a good place for intermediate-level rock climbing – not too high, and you did have a ledge below to give you some feeling of safety.

We paused a moment to see them – the climbers had someone drop a harness from a point above the mountain for safety (so in case you did slip, you’d not crash on the ledge below; looking at the safety harness, we wondered how the harness gripped onto the rocky surface). The folks took their time – no rush with any of the safety gear and slowly made the ascent. People below suggested what the place climber could use to keep their foot or hands in – a little rock sticking out, a crevice that could barely accommodate a toe or let you sneak in a finger to help get a grip to climb up. In some places, they only had one hand and one leg on the mountain. The strength you’d need in your core to keep you balanced is insane. 

One group asked if we wanted to try it, and we politely declined.

Can you spot the rope?