Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Walker Knob Overlook to Patton Knob, Segment 3, miles 55.3 to 58.3

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
8/24/2021	6.0 miles	4 hours 34 minutes	1,568'	1.3 mph	243.2

Map: Gaia GPS and Mountains-to-Sea Trail Guide

Parking: Walker Knob Overlook

Directions: Start the MST on the same side as the parking area. Pass Blackstock Knob. Go a short ways past Patton Knob (before switchbacks start). Return the same way.

I took the day off, and after dealing with house selling stuff, we headed north to hike at higher elevation in order to get cooler temperatures. We both liked this hike. It was mostly a wooded trail. This hike smelled great! It reminds me of the smell of Catskill summits (which smell like Christmas). The hiking reminded me a lot of the Catskills too. Lots of roots, rocks, and elevation gain. This hike passes Blackstock Knob, and then continues along a ridgeline. There is an occasional limited view, but not much. We just liked the plants and trees growing here. The ridgeline has tons of trees leaning ever which way, signs of prior storms in the area. We stopped and took gps readings/photos of recently downed trees to pass onto the CMC. We saw Clingman's Peak, which we learned to identify yesterday because it has towers on top. We took a side trail off of the MST, thinking that it might lead to a campsite, but it lead to a small crashed airplane.