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/