With all the snow we've gotten in the last few days, our caving trip to Worley's Cave was moved to next weekend, such a bummer.
On the up side, we've got a trip to do the Smokemont Loop planned for Valentine's Day. Depending on how early we're able to get out onto the trail, which I assume will be late because of the proximity of the trail to K-Vegas, we'll either backpack or car camp, whichever is more feasible before dark!
I can't wait to get another trail marked off and on my way to the AT :)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Old Sugarlands Trail to the cemetary
The hike we did today was a revist to the last hike I did in the Smokies, "Sandwich Loop." I had my wisdom teeth out last week and was unable to get out onto the trail, so I was looking for an easy hike this week.
Greg, an organizer in our group, set up this cemetary hike after we found the spur last week. Not much is written about this hike, as it is not on the map when you leave Old Sugarlands Trail. The hike, in total, was a short 4.5 miles.
Last time we hiked this trail, there were about 2 inches of snow on the ground, so seeing the trail dry was a totally different experience. The water was also higher due to all the rain we've had this week, and it made for a beautiful site near the begining of the trail. There is a "quarry" here of sorts. This is where they got all the stone when they paved the original roads through the park, and you can definitely still see signs that there was a settlement here. The Sugarlands area was quite popular and a thriving place to be because of the closeness to town.
As we hiked up Old Sugarlands, we came to a rare site in the park, a stone structure with mortar used between the rocks. It is rare to see architecture like this in the park, as it is usually just stacked stones. Going up this unnamed trail, which you can clearly tell is used by rangers with 4 wheel vehicles, you come to a fork in the trail at about 0.6 miles up. To the left is the cemetary and to the right you can continue going up a way to a clearing. The cemetary here is the largest I've ever seen inside the park. It was beautifully maintained, some of the headstones even being replaced by family members. We stayed here and explored for a little while before heading back down into town.
On the hike back, we passed another group of hikers from our meetup. They left out at 11:00 a.m. and we met about halfway out. The weater was just great and sunny, a far cry from the weather today.
Below is a picture taken by the organizer of group 2, Tim G.
Greg, an organizer in our group, set up this cemetary hike after we found the spur last week. Not much is written about this hike, as it is not on the map when you leave Old Sugarlands Trail. The hike, in total, was a short 4.5 miles.
Last time we hiked this trail, there were about 2 inches of snow on the ground, so seeing the trail dry was a totally different experience. The water was also higher due to all the rain we've had this week, and it made for a beautiful site near the begining of the trail. There is a "quarry" here of sorts. This is where they got all the stone when they paved the original roads through the park, and you can definitely still see signs that there was a settlement here. The Sugarlands area was quite popular and a thriving place to be because of the closeness to town.
As we hiked up Old Sugarlands, we came to a rare site in the park, a stone structure with mortar used between the rocks. It is rare to see architecture like this in the park, as it is usually just stacked stones. Going up this unnamed trail, which you can clearly tell is used by rangers with 4 wheel vehicles, you come to a fork in the trail at about 0.6 miles up. To the left is the cemetary and to the right you can continue going up a way to a clearing. The cemetary here is the largest I've ever seen inside the park. It was beautifully maintained, some of the headstones even being replaced by family members. We stayed here and explored for a little while before heading back down into town.
On the hike back, we passed another group of hikers from our meetup. They left out at 11:00 a.m. and we met about halfway out. The weater was just great and sunny, a far cry from the weather today.
Below is a picture taken by the organizer of group 2, Tim G.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The "Sandwich Loop" Trail - 1/10/10
Today our hiking group took a GORGEOUS hike in the snow. With all the snow we've had lately, I'm glad we picked a trail close to the start of the park because when we got there, all roads were CLOSED!!! At 9:45 when we pulled into Sugarland's Visitor Center, the snow had been falling and was just so light and fluffy.
Our group drove down together to the park headquarters and from there we crossed Newfound Gap Road to Old Sugarland's Trail. This in the snow was just beautiful. The snow was big and fluffy and there was about 1.5 inches total on the ground. The hike goes uphill gradually, but it made a little difficult with some asthma that flared up. I haven't had asthma symptoms in a while, but I think the combination of cold/uphill was just enough to do it. This area of the park has a lot of history. We came up upon an old grist mill and a side trail that leads about 1 mile up to a cemetary, but we choose to move on and skip this trail, as we were trying to do a 10 mile loop. We followed this trail uphill for a little while, maybe an hour or so of gradual climbing. We passed the trailheads that lead up to Leconte on this end of the park. Some really beautiful views when we got to the top of our trail. We followed this down to Cherokee Orchard Road and followed the road for a little bit. Then we came to a cabin and got onto a nature trail that lead to Twin Creek Trail. This was a fairly flat, but a bit tricky with the rocks and ice. Quite a few blow-downs on this little trail.
While we were following this, we passed by what appeared to be a convention center of some sort, and there were some other people on the trail at this point. David got in the line of fire of a child's snowball that was meant for a little sister and got pelted right in the neck!! EEEK COLD! The trail ended about 15 minutes later and we followed Cherokee Orchard Road down into Gatlinburg.
After a quick Subway lunch, we trekked through Gatlinburg up to Ski Mountain Road and got on the Gatlinburg Trail, which was also a fairly flat trail with some really great homesites. This trail was exactly 2 miles back to the cars. By this point, the sun was high in the sky and David and I were hiking slow, but definitely having fun. There were so many beautiful photos taken by members of our hiking group.
On the way back home, the bypass was open, which it was not on the way in, so we took that out. There was a gorgeous view from one of the pull offs. If you couldn't see Park Vista hotel, the view would have been just perfect. All in all, a great hike!
And here's a photo of the view from the bypass someone snapped.
Our group drove down together to the park headquarters and from there we crossed Newfound Gap Road to Old Sugarland's Trail. This in the snow was just beautiful. The snow was big and fluffy and there was about 1.5 inches total on the ground. The hike goes uphill gradually, but it made a little difficult with some asthma that flared up. I haven't had asthma symptoms in a while, but I think the combination of cold/uphill was just enough to do it. This area of the park has a lot of history. We came up upon an old grist mill and a side trail that leads about 1 mile up to a cemetary, but we choose to move on and skip this trail, as we were trying to do a 10 mile loop. We followed this trail uphill for a little while, maybe an hour or so of gradual climbing. We passed the trailheads that lead up to Leconte on this end of the park. Some really beautiful views when we got to the top of our trail. We followed this down to Cherokee Orchard Road and followed the road for a little bit. Then we came to a cabin and got onto a nature trail that lead to Twin Creek Trail. This was a fairly flat, but a bit tricky with the rocks and ice. Quite a few blow-downs on this little trail.
While we were following this, we passed by what appeared to be a convention center of some sort, and there were some other people on the trail at this point. David got in the line of fire of a child's snowball that was meant for a little sister and got pelted right in the neck!! EEEK COLD! The trail ended about 15 minutes later and we followed Cherokee Orchard Road down into Gatlinburg.
After a quick Subway lunch, we trekked through Gatlinburg up to Ski Mountain Road and got on the Gatlinburg Trail, which was also a fairly flat trail with some really great homesites. This trail was exactly 2 miles back to the cars. By this point, the sun was high in the sky and David and I were hiking slow, but definitely having fun. There were so many beautiful photos taken by members of our hiking group.
On the way back home, the bypass was open, which it was not on the way in, so we took that out. There was a gorgeous view from one of the pull offs. If you couldn't see Park Vista hotel, the view would have been just perfect. All in all, a great hike!
And here's a photo of the view from the bypass someone snapped.
Photo by Tim G.
Ijams Nature Center - 1/3/10
So to start the New Year, David was sick, so we decided to do an easy hike close to town, so we headed to Ijams Nature Center in SoKnox. I've lived in this area for many years, but I've never been there. We went with our hiking group and it was COLD!
We decided to do the Discovery Trail, which was about 2.1 miles in all. The trail had several spots where you could leave and go on a board walk, which we did. There was quite a bit of ice on the bridges, but we all made it through. I've been told that this particular pond, just a short walk into the woods, is filled with frogs and fish in the warmer months and that is is quite beautiful. The trail is downhill at this point and in just a few minutes, we were at an overlook onto the river. It was cold though, so we decided to trek on. About 5 minutes later, we came onto a part of the trail that is all over the water on decking. While on the decking we passed a cave and a geological fold, which was pretty neat. I've never seen one before. The rock pressed itself together to create a "V" shape naturally. Prety neat. About 10 minutes of more easy hiking and we came to another side trail that goes down to some old railroad tracks and is a nice little loop.
After the loop, the trail goes uphill a bit back to the main parking lot of the nature center. The visitor's center is closed in the off-season, so we didn't get to go inside. On the way back to the car, there was a trail that was not on the map, a whopping 0.1 miles. So we did that too :)
A cold day, but the hike kept us warm enough. Some of the group went on to explore a quarry trail that is a part of the nature center, but a little way down the street. Since David was still recovering from being sick, we decided to get him back somewhere that was warm. We celebrated our short little hike with some Soccer Taco. Yum!
We decided to do the Discovery Trail, which was about 2.1 miles in all. The trail had several spots where you could leave and go on a board walk, which we did. There was quite a bit of ice on the bridges, but we all made it through. I've been told that this particular pond, just a short walk into the woods, is filled with frogs and fish in the warmer months and that is is quite beautiful. The trail is downhill at this point and in just a few minutes, we were at an overlook onto the river. It was cold though, so we decided to trek on. About 5 minutes later, we came onto a part of the trail that is all over the water on decking. While on the decking we passed a cave and a geological fold, which was pretty neat. I've never seen one before. The rock pressed itself together to create a "V" shape naturally. Prety neat. About 10 minutes of more easy hiking and we came to another side trail that goes down to some old railroad tracks and is a nice little loop.
After the loop, the trail goes uphill a bit back to the main parking lot of the nature center. The visitor's center is closed in the off-season, so we didn't get to go inside. On the way back to the car, there was a trail that was not on the map, a whopping 0.1 miles. So we did that too :)
A cold day, but the hike kept us warm enough. Some of the group went on to explore a quarry trail that is a part of the nature center, but a little way down the street. Since David was still recovering from being sick, we decided to get him back somewhere that was warm. We celebrated our short little hike with some Soccer Taco. Yum!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Lead Cove/Bote Mountain/Finely Cane loop
What an experience this trip was. This is the original hike we planned on doing last weekend, but it snowed. The last time I had been on Lead Cove Trail was just before New Years' Day last year, so I was a little familiar with it. We did turn back about 1 mile in last year, as we were both tired and on vacation and didn't feel like hiking after all.
Lead Cove is deceptively steep and quite short, even though you feel like you've traveled a lot further than the 1.8 miles to the top/trailhead of Bote Mountain. Once we got up to the top though, we had some beautiful views. The sky was sunny, not a cloud in site. So far to date, this is the largest elevation I've hiked to, and I think it was just beautiful. After having some tea at the top, we headed on down Bote Mountain. This was a pretty easy trip down, a very gradual decline, but quite rocky as well. I wasn't expecting so many rocks on a trail that was originally a road. This was the road over the mountain in earlier times, and you could definitely tell by the width of the trail.
When we reached the Finely Cane trailhead, one thing was VERY noticeable... MUD. A group of horseback hikers had been through here earlier in the day, and that was VERY obvious. The last 2.8 miles from Finely Cane to the road were solid mud, some places were at least 6 inches thick. This made hiking hard, our boots heavy, and our demeanors angry. We got to the road just as the sun had set and because of a blow-down, we lost the trailhead and had to backtrack a bit. My feet were so heavy I didn't feel like I could take another step. It was just absolutely miserable.
When we finally crossed the creek to get back to the car, the last step I took in the water, my left boot went through the log I was standing on and plunged into the water. I got a boot full of icy cold water. I started sobbing. I cried so hard I could hardly breathe all the way back to the car (about 300 feet, haha!)
After this, we had a trip to the Waffle House and spent 32 bucks on food! We were starved!
All in all, I can safely say I've done Finely Cane twice. The first time was in September and the trail was dry and beautiful hiking. This time, it was an absolutely miserable trip. So glad to get that marked off the map :)
Lead Cove is deceptively steep and quite short, even though you feel like you've traveled a lot further than the 1.8 miles to the top/trailhead of Bote Mountain. Once we got up to the top though, we had some beautiful views. The sky was sunny, not a cloud in site. So far to date, this is the largest elevation I've hiked to, and I think it was just beautiful. After having some tea at the top, we headed on down Bote Mountain. This was a pretty easy trip down, a very gradual decline, but quite rocky as well. I wasn't expecting so many rocks on a trail that was originally a road. This was the road over the mountain in earlier times, and you could definitely tell by the width of the trail.
When we reached the Finely Cane trailhead, one thing was VERY noticeable... MUD. A group of horseback hikers had been through here earlier in the day, and that was VERY obvious. The last 2.8 miles from Finely Cane to the road were solid mud, some places were at least 6 inches thick. This made hiking hard, our boots heavy, and our demeanors angry. We got to the road just as the sun had set and because of a blow-down, we lost the trailhead and had to backtrack a bit. My feet were so heavy I didn't feel like I could take another step. It was just absolutely miserable.
When we finally crossed the creek to get back to the car, the last step I took in the water, my left boot went through the log I was standing on and plunged into the water. I got a boot full of icy cold water. I started sobbing. I cried so hard I could hardly breathe all the way back to the car (about 300 feet, haha!)
After this, we had a trip to the Waffle House and spent 32 bucks on food! We were starved!
All in all, I can safely say I've done Finely Cane twice. The first time was in September and the trail was dry and beautiful hiking. This time, it was an absolutely miserable trip. So glad to get that marked off the map :)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Tremont - 12/20/09
It snowed over the weekend in the park. We had planned on hiking from Lead Cove to Bote Mountain to Finley Cane, but the road was closed going past Tremont, so we decided to go up to Tremont, as there are so many trails up there. We decided on Lumber Ridge and set out!
Not too far in, all the other boot prints disappeared and we were the only ones out that day, save the coyotes, who left thier tracks all around the trail. After hiking in for about 30 minutes, we saw a manway and decided to take it, being adventerous.
The manway was absolutely primitive. The snow was probably a foot deep by the time we got through there. The trail was tough going in parts and we both slipped and slid a few times. Oh the snow was beautiful though. We finally got to the end of the manway and discovered we were pretty close to the trailhead for Spruce Flat Falls, so we decided to hike to the falls and have a warm drink at the end.
Spruce Flats is not on the GSMNP map. It is a pretty easy trail with some really tricky rocky spots, which were a lot trickier in the snow. But we made it up to the falls pretty quickly, stopping along the trail to take in the views . Thunderhead and Rocky Top were barely visible from the snow clouds and the "smoke" the mountains are so famous for. It was definitely a wonderful hike. We spent about 4 hours in the park and headed to Sonic for some greasy food.
A wonderful hike. Here's a little something seen in the park this weekend. Not our photo.
Not too far in, all the other boot prints disappeared and we were the only ones out that day, save the coyotes, who left thier tracks all around the trail. After hiking in for about 30 minutes, we saw a manway and decided to take it, being adventerous.
The manway was absolutely primitive. The snow was probably a foot deep by the time we got through there. The trail was tough going in parts and we both slipped and slid a few times. Oh the snow was beautiful though. We finally got to the end of the manway and discovered we were pretty close to the trailhead for Spruce Flat Falls, so we decided to hike to the falls and have a warm drink at the end.
Spruce Flats is not on the GSMNP map. It is a pretty easy trail with some really tricky rocky spots, which were a lot trickier in the snow. But we made it up to the falls pretty quickly, stopping along the trail to take in the views . Thunderhead and Rocky Top were barely visible from the snow clouds and the "smoke" the mountains are so famous for. It was definitely a wonderful hike. We spent about 4 hours in the park and headed to Sonic for some greasy food.
A wonderful hike. Here's a little something seen in the park this weekend. Not our photo.
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