Plain old MST
Details
I've been hiking the MST for 10 years, and I alway expected it to be there--until it wasn't. It has now returned, and it's a joy. This is a section of the Shut-In between Beaver Dam Gap overlook and Mills River overlook. It's just an out and back, 6 mile total, but after a year it has never looked so good.
I scouted it Saturday, Oct. 18. Color is good! Lots of yellow, of course, and some red from the maples, dogwood, and sourwood. Plenty of peepers at the overlooks, as well as trail runners and birders tracking migrating fowl.
This section is not easy. It avoids the "walls" before Ferrin Know and Little Pisgah, but it does gains 1100 feet on the way up.
No dogs.
The Kubota in the last picture has been sitting at Mills River Overlook since the shutdown. Ain't nobody mowing--nohow, noway.