Ever wonder why I shave my head? Look no further than this picture.
I did Black Mountain after hitting Mount Rogers (Virginia's highpoint) earlier in the day. It's about a three hour drive from Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia to the Black Mountain, but it seemed like nothing with a new Bob Dylan double live album to accompany me. Most of the mileage was covered on four-lane highway using US 19, US Alt 58, and US 23 to Appalachia where I picked up SR 160. SR 160 is the typical mountain road: narrow, windy, and considerably steep. In fact, part of SR 160 had deteriorated so badly that one of the lanes had crumbled into the valley below and the already narrow road was reduced to one lane. During the trip, I must have passed two dozen coal trucks - I just saw a documentary on the coal industry in Kentucky. The access road to the summit is located about ten feet inside of Kentucky on SR 160. The highpoint is on land owned by the Penn Virginia Coal Company, so I signed the necessary waiver to use the mile-long access road.
The walk from the gate at the access road to the actual summit takes little more than a minute. The mountaintop is littered with broken bottles and trash as well as old rusted metal shacks. There was a warning sign that I was under surveillance. Doubtful. The lookout tower has long been abandoned - the first flight of stairs to the top of the tower had been torn off to prevent people from climbing the old tower. The weather on the highpoint was light rain with the temperature around 80. It looked like the type of place where someone would dump a body, so I took a few pictures and headed back to the state park.