GetHiking! Classic Escapes: The Other Side of Pilot Mountain

NOTE: This hike was rescheduled due to weather from March 24.

Our Classic Escapes are back in 2018, with a mix of old favorites and new hikes that have us very excited. One of those new hikes is our first of the series, a 9.3-mile assault on Pilot Mountain. This is not the Pilot Mountain you may be familiar with. Well, part of it is — the part with the great views, the passage at the base of a cliff face that's popular with climbers, the obligatory loop around mighty Jomeokee, the 2,420-foot pinnacle, the prominent protuberance visible from miles distant.

What won't be familiar will be the empty parking lot from which we'll start. For while you can wait up to half an hour for a parking spot atop Pilot Mountain on a nice day, our hike begins from the base, on the Mountain Trail off Pinnacle Hotel Road. We'll hike the base of the mountain clockwise, through mature forest with little understory until we hit the Grindstone Trail. There, we begin our true ascent which begins to pay off on the Ledge Spring Trail at the base of a cliff face that supports the best climbing routes in the Piedmont. Ledge Spring takes us to the summit, for lunch and a loop around Pilot a k a "Jomeokee" Mountain. We return via the Grindstone Trail and continue our loop on the Mountain Trail.

It's a 10-mile hike that may be a more challenging than you'd expect. It's a great early season test of your fitness level for summer's more challenging mountain hikes. You can use our Winter Experienced Hiker Training Series to make sure you've got legs by the time this hike rolls around.

This is a fee hike, which includes a guide to Pilot Mountain and this route, plus a goodie bag at the start of the hike. An appropriate piece of gear and some snackage to keep you fortified for the day ahead. Cost: $35.