On Good Friday, my friend Justin Rollins texted me around 7:55 a.m.: “I’m ready to rock.”

After a stop to get more water, we headed from Spartanburg to the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike 13 miles up Black Balsam on a beautiful, clear morning.

Sunshine, clear skies, cooler temperatures, and distant mountains. Hip-hop and pop music played through the new sound system in my 2004 Jeep Rubicon as it climbed steeply up the mountain.

Justin had suggested hiking the 13-mile trail to see the view from Black Balsam in the Pisgah National Forest, which he has hiked several times. “It will take us all day,” he messaged. “It’s off the Blue Ridge Parkway. You can do it. There is a lot of elevation, but you will be good. It’s a giant loop, and the payoff is incredible. Mile 12, the best view ever. Plenty of photo ops.”

Take a hike: The easy to challenging trails to check out in the Carolinas this summer

Hiking 101

I’ve hiked local trails like Cottonwood, River Birch, and the Mary Black Rail Trail in Spartanburg. I’ve also hiked nearby trails on Crowders Mountain, Table Rock, and Caesar’s Head. Nothing prepared me for what lay ahead on Black Balsam.

Justin suggested some good waterproof trail shoes and a backpack.

I purchased a salmon-colored Osprey backpack at The Local Hiker in Spartanburg and ordered some waterproof Oboz trail shoes, which didn’t arrive in time. I filled my backpack with a water bottle, bug spray, sunscreen, extra socks, lip balm, travel-size Lysol, and wipes.

When we arrived and parked on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was a cold 54 degrees and the wind made it feel even colder.

We decided to take a first photo by the Jeep; we would take another at the top of the summit.

Unfortunately, that final photo would never happen.

Beware of bears

I wore a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, a jacket, my Old Bay Seasonings cap, thick socks, and New Balance sneakers.

Justin wore hiking pants, his colorful $30 FILA trail shoes, thick hiking socks, a couple of long-sleeved shirts, a hooded jacket, and a cap. He had a couple of pairs of sunglasses.

Justin’s backpack was loaded with trail mix, beef jerky, chocolate-covered pretzels, water bottles, and a small Fireball cinnamon whiskey bottle. We would take three swigs from that Fireball bottle along the trail. The first one went down hard, the second was easier, and the third went down like water at the end of our trek.

Justin also carried bear repellent spray and a knife, just in case we encountered trouble along the way.

Several signs along the trail warn hikers about bears.

“If you encounter a bear, make yourself big and be as loud as possible. If attacked, fight back with anything you have.” 

Justin had the knife. I had my salmon-colored backpack.

The first leg

We started our hike, and Justin told me to let him know if I wanted to stop and take photos or to rest. We had all day to make the 13-mile hike.

At one point, I looked around, and the sights were beautiful: deep blue skies and tall trees reaching to the heavens. It was calm and peaceful. Even the photographs taken with my new iPhone camera wouldn’t do it justice.

At one point, I could hear the wind climbing up the mountain. Maybe it was my imagination, or Mother Nature also had to hike to reach the top of Black Balsam.

The first few miles

For the most part, we were out there alone. So, if we heard a sound or a voice, our Spidey senses would be activated.

One of the first hikers we met along the way was a female hiker and her dog. She sensed she had passed by a bear, but her dog, unafraid of bears, didn’t make a sound.

We gathered that it might be that time of year when bears were coming out of hibernation. We were now on high bear alert.

We thought we might see the female hiker and her dog again, but we never did.

Trails come and go

Justin gave me a lot of hiking advice along the way. First, he would tell me how to position my feet when climbing the mountain. He said to dig my feet into the ground or on the side of the mountain or trek sideways down a slippery path. He also talked me through how to fall if I slipped to lessen the impact on my body. Fall backward on your butt and not forward on your hands. There were many of those near-falls but, thankfully, no accidents.

On a hike, you quickly learn that leaves can be deceiving. They are slippery, and your foot can fall straight through. Mud is also tricky. Your foot can sink deep into the mud and get stuck momentarily.

We both had many near-misses along the way — an unsteady rock or a root jutting out along the pathway could cause a near-trip, but we would keep our bearings and not fall.

The trail would often disappear, and we (Justin, for the most part) would have to figure out how to get back on track.

One of my first challenges was when the trail disappeared out of nowhere. I was stuck on the side of the mountain. To get back on the trail, we would have to shimmy across the side of the mountain.

So here I am, hugging, clinging to the side of this mountain. If I made one false move, I would slide down. I jammed my New Balance shoe into the wet, muddy side of the mountain to give me a foothold and held onto anything I could.

Justin said if I did go down, there would be a tree that would stop my fall. I didn’t want to take that chance, so I held on. I grabbed onto any stable tree branches I could find and guided my way across in almost a vertical bear crawl, and we found our path again.

In an ironic twist, my phone rang out on the side of Black Balsam, in the middle of nowhere, miles from civilization. It was The Local Hiker calling about the hiking shoes I ordered. I sure could have used those on Black Balsam.

Three streams to cross

We noticed the water was higher than expected when we reached our first stream.

This rapidly flowing waterfall fed the stream we were about to cross. Justin quickly assessed the stream and decided how best to cross it.

At one point, Justin was lifting heavy rocks and tossing them into the creek bed to determine its depth.

On his previous hikes to Black Balsam, Justin said the water levels were much lower.

He plunged into the freezing, rapidly rushing water. I wanted to see every step he took so I could put my feet down in the same spots. From the surface, the depth of the creek could be deceiving.

So, I mustered all my courage, put one foot into this ice-cold rushing water, and then my other foot, following Justin’s lead. It was cold, and the water was pushing at my legs. It was slippery, and keeping my balance was hard, so I crouched briefly. I was holding onto slippery rocks and trying to stay steady. One false move, one slip, and you could fall and hit your head on a rock or worse.

Justin reached out to help, but I didn’t want to pull him in if I slipped. So, I hugged onto the rocks, keeping my feet steady. I then lunged for the rock bed and was safe on dry ground.

We got baptized in ice-cold water three times that Good Friday.

Once, we were soaked from our knees down during a creek crossing. This time, Justin had to pull me onto the rock during the deepest part of the crossing, and I gladly accepted his help.

Justin removed his shoes and socks in this stream and waded into the ice-cold water. He even jumped over a large puddle onto a rock at another creek bed. I just stepped into the puddle to get to the other side.

After a quick photo, we were back on our way to the summit.

The hard part

After a quick stop for beef jerky, trail mix, and water for lunch, we rested in the beauty of the tall trees and the endless skies. Our picnic table and benches would be moss-covered boulders or fallen tree trunks along the way.

At this point, I still had a lot of energy, and my legs felt good.

By mid-afternoon, we were hiking upward and downward and discussing where to eat for dinner. Justin said we should get a big order of chicken wings and a large pizza at Side Street Pizza in Tryon, N.C. One-half pepperoni and one-half Deluxe.

I was getting so thirsty. My lips were chapped and puckered. I might have even been dehydrated.

On top of the world

The last part of the trek up Black Balsam is fuzzy at times. All I remember is that it was a steady climb upward. I could only imagine that we would be touching the sky when we got to the top — if we ever got to the top. That’s why I dubbed it the “Stairway to Heaven.” I will be meeting Jesus on Good Friday.

This part of the trail was called Greasy. Justin and I often joked along this path to keep our mood upbeat.

The more we climbed, the more we started calling Greasy — Greazy. We rhymed every other word we could think of to describe Greasy — freezy, breezy, and sneezy for the runny nose and snot bubbles that were forming at the end of my nose.

“Is that all you got, Greasy?” I taunted.

But Greasy kept coming back with more and more steps upward – steep, difficult, winding, punishing, twisting, never-ending, jagged steps.

That light backpack on my back kept getting heavier as the day wore on.

Black Balsam can be deceiving

To get to the top, I decided to look at the steps ahead of me and not think of that tall mountainside we had to climb.

Justin would yell back at me, “Don’t look up!” He didn’t want me to see the steep mountain we still had to climb. Too late. I had already looked up to a mountainside that reached to the heavens.

I started moving slower.

Once, Justin looked back, and I was hugging a tree. He asked if I was OK, so I said, “I need to hug this tree.”

In a way, the tree gave me a chance to catch my breath and steady myself. On the hike up that mountain, I hugged many trees.

Once, we came upon a tall, thick tree trunk that had fallen along the path. We had to climb over it. I lay on that trunk like it was one of those mattresses they advertise on TV. It felt so good to rest for a minute, but we had to keep moving. The sun was going down.

Once again, trails would disappear from us along the hike, and Justin would try to find our way back using his AllTrails app.

We needed that app to get off this trail, reach the summit, see the spectacular view, and then head back to where I parked the Jeep.

That’s when Justin’s phone battery died. We would have to rely on Justin to get us out of here using his senses and memories of past trail hikes up Black Balsam. We guessed we had 3 more miles to go. Instead, we would have to hike an additional 6 miles that day.

We decided to take our final photo now.

We also took our final swig of whiskey to mark the occasion. I also drank the last of the water from Justin’s second water bottle he had packed.

That’s when I realized my phone was dead, too.

Two dead phones. We had no way of reaching the outside world.

There would be no photo at the top of the summit either.

End to Greasy, Hello to Art Loeb

We exited onto this massive clearing when we finally reached the top of this Greasy trail.

“Is this heaven?” I was thinking but remembered seeing this clearing on the Black Balsam website.

In the distance, we could see a tent in the middle of this field and hear some voices.

Finally, humans, after all these many miles and countless hours.

Justin went over, told them where we were headed, and asked for directions to the parking lot. Were we headed in the right direction to get to the summit?

The male hiker gave us directions to the Art Loeb trail, which we thought would be the best way to reach the summit and see that spectacular view.

We found the sign for Art Loeb.

That Art Loeb trail was another steep trail with these jagged, uncomfortable, unforgiving rocks that you had to step on to climb up the other side of the mountain. I called these punishing rocks “Jagged Little Pills.”

Keeping up our dark sense of humor, I told Justin, “I would like to have a word with Mr. Art Loeb.”

According to the Hike WNC website, the 30.1-mile Art Loeb Trail is one of the state’s longer and more challenging trails. Loeb was an activist who “deeply loved these mountains.”

One hiker about a quarter up the steep Art Loeb trail advised us to return and take another much easier trail to the parking lot. He said our current path had many more chances to get lost.

Sundown was coming in about an hour. Would we make it in time?

Once we reached the beginning of the Art Loeb trail, Justin hesitated and wondered if we should try to make it to the summit. Ultimately, we took the hiker’s advice and followed the trail to the parking lot.

We met up with another hiker from North Carolina, and his AllTrails App was working. He said we were headed in the right direction and that he would walk with us.

This was no easy path, either. It was nonstop, with jagged rocks and puddles punishing the feet. It added a couple more miles to our day, and we guessed we hiked 16 miles that day.

Justin looked back at me and said, “You completed a half-marathon.”

My iPhone Health summary, before it died, recorded that we had walked 34,234 steps that day and that was before those extra 3 miles we hiked.

Although the trip was challenging, I’m glad we did it.

If Justin was tired or frustrated, he didn’t show it. The next day, I asked him about that, and he said, “Nah, LOL. I knew we would be OK.”

And one day, we’ll be back to see that spectacular view from the top of the summit.

Hiking safety tips

• Don’t hike alone. You are safest with a group.

• Leave your hiking plans with someone at home and check in frequently. Establish a time you will check in upon completion of your trip, as well as a procedure to follow if you fail to check in.

• Be wary of strangers. Be friendly, but cautious. Don’t tell strangers about your plans. Avoid people who act suspiciously, seem hostile, or are intoxicated.

• Bring a map and compass and know how to use them.

• Carry a cell phone.

• Bring extra food and water.

• Bring extra layers of synthetic clothing. Avoid cotton, which doesn’t dry quickly and can lead to hypothermia when it’s wet.

How to stay safe outdoors in WNC::Have fun, but don’t be stupid

Jose Franco is a Content Coach for the Greenville News. He can be reached at jfranco@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Hiking 16 miles of trails on Black Balsam on the Blue Ridge Parkway