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.
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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.
