NC/TN Appalachian Trail - Section 9 - Iron Mountain Gap to Indian Grave Gap

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/17/2022	12.6 miles	7 hours 2 minutes	2,487'	2.0 mph	163.6

Parking: 

• One car at Iron Mountain Gap, one car at Indian Grave Gap. Both have plenty of parking spots.

Maps:

• FarOut app (Guthook)
• Appalachian Trail Conservancy Tennessee-North Carolina Maps 1 & 2

Directions:

• Hike southbound on the AT from Iron Mountain Gap to Indian Grave Gap

It feels like we haven't been hiking much in the last 2 weeks due to the weather. After a rainy day off on Wednesday, I took a vacation day today to go hiking on the AT. I didn't do any research on the hike ahead of time other than calculating the mileage and elevation gain.

I got to Indian Grave Gap and saw a couple men with trail magic set up, so I sat down to talk to them while waiting for Glen to arrive. Then on to Indian Mountain Gap, where we saw a Konnarock Trail Crew truck! This volunteer AT trail crew spent a week last year working on the section Glen and I maintain on the AT. So grateful! We never saw them on the trail, so I guess they were working north of where we were hiking.

Our morning was foggy and wet. No rain luckily, but a bit chilly and damp. Today's hike, even though it has a lot of elevation gain, was easily doable for us. The majority of the climbs weren't steep, and there were enough level parts to get a break from climbing. We hiked up to Unaka Mountain, which Guthook mentioned has no views. But it was beautiful! Fir and spruce and moss covered the wooded summit. It reminded me of some Catskill summits, though it didn't smell like Christmas (from balsams?) like it does in the Catskills.

We continued on and found ourselves climbing to an open meadow. Surprise! A gorgeous view on top at Beauty Spot. So many mountains visible from the summit. I took out my map and compass to try to identify them, but the mountains were off my map. Then I used the peakfinder app. It showed mountains all the way out to the Smokies.

This is on my definitely must do again list, in another season.