This was my first trip with my friend Kirk, also known as Bammacker on hammockforums.net. Kirk did most of the planning for this one. He has a friend at Mountain High outfitters who recommended this particular loop. Kirk said he had been hearing the guy recommend this loop for over a year and finally decided to take the plunge. This was the absolute COLDEST trip I've ever been on as well as the most elevation I've ever climbed in a day, and the highest elevation I've ever hiked to. We left out from Birmingham around 3:30pm on Thursday and undertook the 5.5 hour trip to the Big East Fork Trailhead in Pisgah National Forest, our starting point. We arrived around 9:30 pm or so our time, 10:30 pm EST, geared up, and headed up the trail. I didn't take any pictures that night from the dark - but on the way out I snapped a few of what we saw pulling up. These were in the daylight: I'm not sure how long we hiked the first night. It was for sure not more than an hour o...