Trip Reports: The Black Mountain Ultra Traverse
Trip Report/ Black Mountain Ultra Traverse : Unsupported Trail Race/ By: Ultra Adventures, Inc./ Date: First Weekend In October/ Where: Burnsville, North Carolina/ Trip: 10hrs15mins (CR), 1st Place Overall/ Course Overview The Black Mountain Ultra Traverse course is a wonderful thing. A 3am start from Albert's Lodge ushers you along S outh Toe River Road for 6 miles, to enter the Mount Mitchell State Park. A sharp right onto Buncombe Horse Range Trail marks the long ascent up Mitchell. At roughly half-way to the summit, there is a water source and a momentary reprieve from climbing. A couple miles of fast running along fantastic double-track finds a hard left onto Old Mitchell Trail followed by a quick right onto Alice Camp Trail ; the first truly steep pitch on the ascent. Only a half-mile long, Alice Camp can take a solid twenty minutes before its termination at Mount Mitchell Summit Trail . Summiting Mitchell (the highest point east of the M...