Greetings all, I am fairly new to hiking but am absolutely hooked. Reading the trip reports on Summit Post is what ultimately encouraged me to take my first hike last fall, and now am going every weekend. I started at 223 pounds, down to 188 now, and am in much better shape than I have been in 20 years. I plan to be around 155 pounds by the end of July, and hopefully in good enough shape to begin mountaineering. With that in mind, I have been picking day-hikes that have decent total vertical gain, and progressing through longer and more difficult hikes.
I started in South Mountain State Park, progressed to Linville Gorge, Harper Creek and Wilson Creek areas, Black Mountain Crest trail, and both sides of Grandfather Mountain. This past weekend I hiked up the lost cove ridge trail to the Green Knob lookout tower from the Black Mountains Campground. I do not seem to have any issues from 2,000 foot vertical gain, 7-8 miles, with 25 pounds of gear, 4 hours. I am increasing my gear weight to hit about 210 pounds total weight as I lose weight, giving me a 60 pound pack when I make it to 150 pounds.
What I am hoping for advice on is what to do from here. Should I continue to find 1,500-2,000 foot vertical hikes, should I look for longer distance hikes, or should I continue to escalate into hikes with more vertical gain? A hike I have my eye on is the Colbert Creek ridge trail that goes from the Carolina Hemlocks area up to Deep Gap on the Black Mountains Crest trail. This one is 3000’+ of vertical gain, a 50% increase over what I have been doing, but is it too much too soon? Where else North of Asheville should I look for day hikes? I want to keep my drive from the Lake Norman area down to 4 hours round trip if I can.