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MTH Packs One Cool Cat on a 1,200-Mile Hike

Reg Spittle 1 Comment
MTH and Jericho

This is Mountain Thru Hiker and his cat Jericho, whom we met on one of the USA’s most demanding trails. MTH (as he calls himself) is walking the 1,200-mile Mountains-to-Sea path across North Carolina to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks. MTH says he has walked thousands of miles on trails throughout the eastern USA, including the entire Appalachian Trail. Jericho’s favorite perch is atop his friend’s shoulders, which he climbed to one and a half years ago when he was a kitten. “I knew right then that she had chosen me,” MTH told us. Sue and I were walking a short section of the trail near the Blue Ridge Parkway on a hot and humid day when we all stopped to chat. Jericho even leaves their tent to do his business. I bet MTH has no worries about pesky mice looking for a meal.

Whitney and Mitchell: Record-Holding ‘Bookends’

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I have made it to a pair of record-holding continental USA peaks. Yesterday, I stood at the 6,684-foot summit of Mount Mitchell, the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River. In 2021, I climbed to the top of Mount Whitney, the tallest peak west of the Mississippi at 14,505 feet (disregard the number on the sign). Whitney was part of my 246-mile trek on the John Muir Trail in California. Sue and I drove most of the way to Mount Mitchell, located 4.6 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway and 19 miles northeast of Asheville, North Carolina. We managed to hike the final 300 yards from the parking lot. Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor, died in 1857 as he proved his claim that the mountain was the eastern USA’s tallest. He fell to his death from a nearby waterfall.