Beginning at a parking lot at the base of Shortoff Mountain, the trail steadily climbs up to the Chilhowee quartzite escarpment rimming the entire Linville River Canyon.

Standing on Shortoff Mountain cuesta looking south toward Marion, NC. Recent forest fires have scalded the ridgetops along the southern part of the east rim.

View looking south from Hawksbill Mountain. Table Rock is on left of photo behind Hawksbill, with escarpment clearly defined rimming the canyon walls.

Spectacular northern view of gorge. Carolina rhododendron ready to burst into bloom all around me.

Beginning at a parking lot at the north terminus near Johnstown, PA, the LHHT slowly gains elevation from the Conemaugh gorge to the ridge line trail.

Laurel Hill Anticline defines this impressive NNE trending series of ridgelines along which the Laurel Mountain Hiking trail follows for 70 miles.

The LHHT passes thru Seven Springs, passing over several spectacular vistas such as this one overlooking northface slopes. Gunnar chair base can be seen in distant valley over my right shoulder.

Ohiopyle State Park is at the southern terminus of the Laurel Highlands Trail. Both rivers cut Laurel Ridge along pre-existing cross-strike discontinuities (CSDs).

Beginning at a parking lot in Greylocke, MA, the Appalachian Trail takes you north toward Vermont where it merges with and begins the Long Trail at the VT-MA border. The majority of the rocks I encountered along the trail were metamorphics, including many schists and phyllites. The southern part of the metamorphic belt is commonly known as the Green Mountain massif.

A fire tower at the summit of Glastenbury Mountain affords stunning 360-degree views of the Glastenbury Wilderness to the south, and Green Mountain National Forest to the north and east.

Many steep rockfaced cliffs were encountered requiring careful uphill or downhill manuveuring. In some cases, ladders were installed, ropes were used, or in this case, rebar steps were installed to make it possible to safely climb some of the more treacherous parts of the trail. Some days it seemed more like an obstacle course than a trail!

Nearing the north terminus of the Long Trail, Jay Peak offers some final glimpses of the conspicuous forehead and chin summits of Mt. Mansfield, 60 trail miles away in the distance.

Not far from Petersburg, WV, I parked my car along Smokehole Road and with a few days of rations, began my ascent toward Chimney Knob along the North Fork Trail. Unseasonably mild November temps on this beautiful Sunday brought out many day hikers. Arriving at Chimney Rocks, I was afforded spectacular views across the breathtaking southeast limb outcrop expression of Wills Mountain Anticline.

Perched upon the gently dipping Tuscarora ledges, I enjoyed the solitude of a chilly November evening. While boiling water for my ramen noodles, I watched the sun slowly setting behind the Allegheny Front and farther off in the distance, Spruce Knob. In the darkening sky to my left was a crescent moon and two evening stars.

Each night I was able to hand pick a campsite near the cliffs where the steady west wind could be heard and felt throughout the night. Clear skies and near zero light-pollution allowed for unparalleled stargazing. Lying in the warmth of my goose down bag, I was mesmerized by the Milky Way painting its path across the heavens above me.

The Cambro-ordovician limestone core of the eroded Wills Mountain anticline (WMA) was settled by immigrants from Germany searching for fertile farmland. The valley is bounded on the northwest by the River Knobs, the geomorphic expression of the steeply dipping leading limb of WMA. Seneca Rocks can be seen along this ridge line at Roy Gap. Northwest from these knobs, all beds become progressively younger toward the Allegheny Front, where Pennsylvanian Pottsville sandstone and its equivalents cap the Allegheny Front near Dolly Sods.

After a one hour shuttle from my car left at Table Rock State Park near Greenville, SC, I began my trek at Oconee State Park about 10am on Monday morning. My original expectation was to hike about 15 miles each day, ending after five days on the trail, back at Table Rock. I was beginning and ending in Blue Ridge metamorphic rocks, mostly schists, with some gneisses and some metasediments. Several high peaks along the way are plutonic rocks emplaced during Taconian time, and then later metamorphosed to gneiss.

Beginning the trail I was on smooth, gently graded and even footpath often following streams and rivers. I passed by beautiful rapids and waterfalls with abundant water supply and opportunity to fish for those so inclined. The trail became increasingly difficult on Day 3, leading me in and out of the steep gorges along this trek. Following two consecutive 15 mile days, I decided on the 3rd day after only 11 miles to cut back my daily miles and extent my journey to 6 days, thus allowing more time to enjoy the beauty and serenity magical place.

All along the trail were pink, deep red (vaseyi) and yellow Trillium, wild iris, and the rare but occasionally seen pink Lady’s Slipper. With so much of the bedrock fine grained metasediments and platy schists, the terrain and trail conditions remained mild, only occasionally interrupted by brief periods of steep ascents and descents into the frequent deep gorges. Narrow trails following the contours or ridge lines took me past the myriad waterfalls and turbulent streams far below me. A single misstep could send me sliding down the near vertical hillside into the abyss from which I can’t imaging how anyone would find a way to emerge.

Nearing the end of my six-day adventure through this untamed forest of deep gorges, myriad waterfalls, bridges, steep stair steps and occasional magnificent vistas, I camped on the 2nd last night at the top of Laurel Fork Falls. I set up my tent about 10 yards away from the top of this 80 foot cascade of rushing water down to the awaiting Lake Jocassee. The final two days took me up hundreds of steps along the ascent to Sassafras Mountain, the highest point in South Carolina. After passing several more breathtaking vistas, i ended my journey in the parking lot of Table Rock State Park at around noon on Saturday.

Beginning the trail at just over 5500’ elevation along Denver area’s Waterton Canyon, I was able to easily acclimate to the altitudes of the Rocky Mountains. By day three i was above 10000’ and by the end of the first week I had surpassed 12,500’ while crossing over Tenmile Range between Breckenridge and Copper Mountain. Bedrock under foot was paleoproterozoic age foliated gneiss and schist. Days later I transitioned into the pinkish-red granite of the Pike’s Peak batholith.

Each day brought with it new and exciting challenges, always delivering beautiful vistas and rewarding views of where I had been and where i was going next. After an afternoon’s resupply at Twin Lakes I decided to take the western Collegiate route, where many days were spent above treeline, trekking across alpine meadows or over rocky barren passes. Several nights I camped on grassy knolls near glacial lakes within cirques surrounded by majestic 14,000’ peaks. One such spot was Lake Ann, where I set up camp between downpours for the evening, while watching a herd of snow-white mountain goats navigating the rocky cliffs above me.

Of the 486 miles traveled on this beautiful trail, 314 miles of it follow the Continental Divide Trail along exposed ridge lines for tens of miles at a time. In addition to the spectacular views and the abundance of exposed bedrock, perhaps what amazed me the most was how few signs of civilization could be seen from the trail. Another surprise was the pervasiveness of the devastation of the old growth pine forests due to the pine bark beetle. Massive efforts to cut and thin forests have been underway for decades now, and the destruction caused by these bugs to the western forests was truly shocking.

The last 10 days or so before reaching Durango I spent trekking through the majestic San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. The bedrock here ranged from 32 Ma volcanics (andesite lava flows, ash flows and breccias) to 300 Ma sandstones and shales of the Paradox sedimentary Basin. After an incredible day of exploring the Weminuche Wilderness, the trail split sending CTD hikers south toward NM, and sending Colorado Trail hikers west toward the Elk Creek Gorge.

Proterozoic metasediment thrusted over top Cambrian age Quartzites of the Conecocheague form the bedrock at Table Rock Mountain. These older rocks of the remnant Table rock thrust sheet are surrounded by younger rocks of the Grandfather Mountain window.

Hiking the quartzite escarpment along Shortoff Mountain afforded spectacular views across the canyon to the far ridge lines. The highland trail eventually yielded to a long descent into the mouth of the Linville Gorge. Before making camp, we changed into our water shoes and crossed the cool, shallow water of the Linville River. On the other side we found a large open area for our camp for the night.

Hiking over Bald Knob’s quartzite ridges afforded spectacular views of Black Mountains to the northwest and the peaks of Table Rock and Shortoff Mountain to the east. The hike down Bald Knob was a series of long well graded switchbacks allowing for frequent views of Black Mountains and Mt Mitchell.

On the final day we began our 3684 foot vertical ascent over 6 miles to the summit of Mt Mitchell. Dense forests of Firs and Red Spruce are found here, similar to the forests of Maine. At 6684 feet, Mt Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi River.

Early on during my nine day trek through the Italian Alps known as the Dolomites I passed through several small settlements and old farm communities surrounded by the ever present back drop of the Dolomite mountains.

Following a grueling 90 minute ascent to the top of Lavinores (2462m/8077ft). I was rewarded with stunning views in all directions while settling in for a late lunch break. Most of the rocks comprising these mountains are limestones and dolomites, once part of a vast ocean basin of Triassic age about 230 million years ago. The glacially scoured valley to the west would be my destination for the night.

Beginning about 65 million years ago, the Alpine orogeny occurred as result of collisions of European and African tectonic plates. This collisional event caused thrusting and folding of the carbonate rock layers resulting in the spectacular topography present today in the Dolomites.

The dolomites are well known for their incredible steepness and towering spires of carbonate rocks jutting skyward from lush green valleys. A short 5 minute walk from the 7382 ft Rifugio Tissi perched atop one of these spires reveals the breath taking view into the valley far below.

Forty-four years ago, I set out on this same journey with these same two friends: brothers Bruce and Brad. Bruce and I have been friends since high school having hiked together in the Adirondacks and Shenandoahs during our college years. Our plan for this week was to follow in our previous footsteps to the same high peaks we had conquered so many years ago. The trails were the same but to us they seemed much more difficult than we remembered.

The Calamity Brook trail was a good introduction into the conditions that we would be faced with for the next several days. Rugged and beautiful, all of the rocks exposed here were billion year old metamorphics of the Grenville orogeny as the super continent of Rodinia was slowly being assembled. These rocks are part of the basement complex and had been covered by sedimentary rocks of the Appalachian basin for several hundred million years. Uplifting of the Adirondack dome during the late Tertiary period, roughly 20 million years ago, brought these basement rocks once again to the surface.

After crossing the Opalescent River, we began our long uphill journey toward Lake Tear of the Clouds. Following an unseasonably wet summer, all the trails near rivers and ponds were flooded, making for slow and difficult travel. During our trek along these rocky foot paths, we had the opportunity to stop for many breathtaking views into the deep, glacially scoured gorges next to the trail. For the past 2.5 million years, repeated episodes of glaciation smoothed and etched the bedrock to form deep valleys pockmarked with lakes and ponds.

After forty-four years, the three of us finally returned to the summit of Mt. Marcy. The rocks making up these mountains began as muds, silts and sands well over a billion years ago, and then through deep burial and repeated episodes of intense deformation, were transformed into a type of metamorphic rock known as anorthosite. Anorthosite is primarily composed of the mineral feldspar, with little or no quartz and only minor amounts of dark mafic minerals such as pyroxene and amphibole. Scanning the horizon in every direction, we could see evidence for the glacial scouring of these smoothly rounded peaks.

Three episodes of thrust faulting of the rocks originating from the Ocoee basin brought these metasediments to their present position in the Smokey Mountains. Beginning at some of the highest peaks in the Smokies, the Fork Ridge trail abruptly plunges 3000 vertical feet into the Deep Creek Valley over the course of the next 6 miles. Over the next 10 days of my solo trek I encountered more bears (4) than MST backpackers (2). While hiking near other popular trails such as Art Loeb or Blue Ridge Parkway loop trails, I did see other, mostly day-hikers.

The MST follows ridgelines through the Smokies and Blue Ridge mountains, passing through Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests as well as unblazed wilderness areas such as Middle Prong Wilderness. Wildlife abounds in these secluded areas creating a sense of connection with the natural ecosystem in my daily treks. Surprisingly well groomed and maintained trails with near horizontal grades over long distances were commonplace and much appreciated as I navigated my way through these majestic mountains.

Hiking all day over schist, gneiss and the occasional quartzite bedrock footpaths often required the use of stealth campsites at day end. After passing through GSMNP, designated campsites were few and far between. Several nights iI was required to carefully study the contours of the topographic maps to determine where a flat nose or gap near the trail might yield a suitably flat place to pitch my tent for the night. Only once did I experience steady rain overnight during my 10-day adventure.

Cool, breezy sunny days were followed by cold clear nights on these mile high trails. On many occasions I was treated to a full or near full moon overhead illuminating the forest for most of the night. One evening well after dark and while waiting for the moon to rise I was visited by a curious black bear foraging for acorns right outside my tent. Memories such as these will draw me back to the Blue Ridge Mountains again and again.