"Off trail bushwhack through Laurel from Mountains to Sea Trail. Easiest (but not easy) and quickest way is from below summit on MST then straight up. No views and difficult to tell where true summit is. " — grsmguy • Sep 8, 2019

"Summitted directly after bushwacking up to Gibbs Mountain. There is no sign from the Black Mountain Crest Trail showing the way to Celo Knob, so you have to check maps in advance and bring a GPS to help. Perfect weather. New sign at top. The geodetic survey marker is easily visible." — tlannin • Aug 31, 2019

"First mountain of the year. A beautiful but ambitious way to start the season considering our physical dormancy over the winter. We picked the coolest day of the week, and started from the Lead Cove Trail at 10am. From there, we took Bote Mountain Trail to the northbound AT, all the while soaking in the warm greens of the forest and the shimmering white treetops from the previous night’s precipitation and freezing temperatures. All trails kept a fairly steady incline throughout, with easy footing and beautiful scenery. Every trailbend brought a weather change, and nearly every wind pelted us with ice falling from branches, but it was well worth it." — gooner • Apr 15, 2019

"Stopped at Spence Field, on our way form Lead Cove Trail and to Rocky Top. Beautiful view. We met a group of AT thruhikers and took turns on photo detail so we could all get our group pictures." — gooner • Apr 15, 2019

"We took the MST to the “Trailhead” of Mount Hardy, marked by orange ribbon. The trail is pretty well defined, not as well as the MST but pretty easy to manage. Close to the summit we reached a USGS marker for “NO 2 Black MT 1933.” There is a nice campsite / sitting area in a field very close to the summit. It was a gorgeous day, and the weather was perfect. On our way back down we decided to take a side trail, marked by blue ribbon. We assumed it was to another overlook, but the trail continued down the side of the mountain. We checked the GPS and realized we were headed toward the Parkway. We hiked the rest of the way from the Parkway to 215 and back to our parking lot. " — ChrisM • Nov 7, 2018