After getting about 4 hours of sleep, I left Asheville, NC and traveled up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mt. Mitchell. As it was early there weren’t many people up and about however I could see that bicycling the Blue Ridge Parkway was pretty popular in the morning – as there are no shoulders on the road, I am sure the bicyclists wanted to get their miles in before the crazy drivers arrived.

Mt Mitchell (elev. 6684′) lies in the Mt. Mitchell State park in the Pisgah National Forest. It is part of the Black Mountain Range which is the tallest range in the east, having 9 peaks over 6,000′ tall. Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi river. The primary route is a drive-up and it is about a 0.1 mile round trip. Luckily I didn’t need oxygen on this one …