My friends and I recently spent a weekend in a cabin near Asheville, NC. Our Friday night and Sunday morning were spent hanging out at the cabin, but on Saturday we had a full day of activities.

Hike Bearwallow Mountain

Bearwallow Mountain is in Gerton, which is about 20 minutes outside of Asheville. It was only a couple miles from our cabin, so easy access for us! When you get to the trailhead, there are two options, hike one mile to the top of Bearwallow Mountain, or 2.5 miles on the Trombatore Trail which is on the other side of the road. We decided to only do the Bearwallow Mountain part since we were trying to fit a lot in for one day.

The trail starts beyond an old rusty gate that you must walk around. You will gain about 500 feet in elevation over the one mile, so it isn’t an easy walk in the park. The view from the meadow at the top is amazing! You can see the mountains all around, with no trees blocking your view. We were here over the winter, but there are cows grazing in the meadow in the summer, which makes it a little different from other hikes.The grassy area at the top is big, and you can explore around and see the old fire tower that was used until the 1990s.

It had rained the day before and the trail up was a bit slippery. There is a service road that goes alongside the trail that is more direct, so we took that on the way down to avoid slipping. I definitely recommend this hike!

Wicked Weed Brewery

After everyone showered and got ready for the day, we headed into Asheville. Our first stop was the Wicked Weed Brewery. Wicked Weed has some of my favorite sour beers! It’s a large brewery with a ton of seating outside and inside. It was a beautiful day when we were there, so we sat downstairs, and all of the windows/doors were open to let the fresh air in. They also serve food here, so we got lunch in addition to a couple beers.

Green Man Brewery

From Wicked Weed, we walked to Green Man, which is only about 5 minutes away. Their beers aren’t my favorite, but I love the atmosphere. Their back balcony overlooks the beautiful mountains!

Shopping Downtown

After Green Man, the girls in our group were tired of drinking so we separated from the guys. We wandered the streets of Asheville and shopped in the cute boutiques. Keep in mind a lot of them close at 6pm!

French Broad Chocolate Lounge

Our last stop was to a chocolate lounge, which was heaven to me! I ordered a chocolate snickerdoodle cookie and hot seasalt-caramel chocolate to drink. The hot chocolate was very sweet, but I loved it. And the snickerdoodle was perfect!

We headed back to the cabin around 8 that evening and grilled burgers there. What a great day! If we’d had more time (the weather was crappy on Sunday for us), I would’ve preferred to spend the full day in Asheville Saturday and do the hike on Sunday, but we made it work!