Showing posts with label backpacking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label backpacking. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Kayak on Laurel River Lake

Craigs Creek boat ramp
2/24 - 2/26/17
2017 bag nights: 3
Animals: 4 wild turkeys, assorted other birds, heard coyotes at night

Dropped off the kids at school and then headed south to Laurel River Lake. I got to the Craigs Creek ramp about 10 and was surprised to see 5 or 6 empty trailers (in the end, I never felt like the lake was crowded, just the occasional boat in the distance). I figured since it was Friday everyone but me would be a work. I quickly inflated the kayak and loaded up and hit the water. And ran right into a 20 MPH headwind. It was a beautiful day, but hard work.

I worked my way east following/exploring all the inlets, sometimes into the wind, but mostly had the wind at my back or in the "shadow" of the ridge so I did not notice it.

One of the inlets had a pretty good headwind going south, but then I turned back to the north and with the wind at my back, I decided to relax a bit. That beer was delicious. I could get used to kayaking.

I passed a couple nice campsites early in the day, but wanted to keep exploring. I also passed a couple of pretty trashed campsites that made me sad. I could have filled my whole kayak multiple times with all the garbage I saw. Around 4pm I found a nice flat area at the end of what looked to be an old road and decided it would make a nice campsite.

This is looking west down the long inlet from the same location as the above picture.

There was a pretty cool cliff line above the campsite that was pretty easy to get up to, I spent a little bit of time exploring before it got dark.




And then it was time for the sunset. I was hopeful that I would get the best of both worlds, the clouds would stay on the horizon and give me a nice sunset. And with the clouds on the horizon, I would have clear skies for stars. The sunset was a good one.


A 30 second exposure with my ND10 filter.




After dinner, I crossed my fingers and waited for the stars to come out. Orion in the middle with a hint of clouds


Looking towards the west and the remnants of the sunset and Venus. Mars is the sort of bright star about 10 o'clock from Venus at the end of the tree branch.


After enjoying the view for a bit, I climbed into my hammock and quickly fell asleep. I was awakened around midnight by massive gusts of wind pushing the tarp into the side of the hammock. And then the thunder and lightning became apparent in the distance. I laid there for a bit wondering if the tarp was going to get blown away and decided that I should take the opportunity to retie down the tarp and make it a little more weather proof. I was very glad I did. The rain started just as I was finishing and I scrambled back into bed. It ended up being the worst storm I have ever been out in, it reminded me of SW FL summer thunderstorms, lots of wind and rain and thunder and lightning. I was very glad to be low down and not on top of a mountain with all of the lightning. Thankfully, it never got closer than about a half mile. After about an hour, the storm passed and I fell back asleep.

The next morning was nice, but pretty windy. I climbed back up the old road/trail to get a signal and see what the weather looked like. The wind was going to be about 20 MPH until 5-6 PM, so there was no point in hoping it would die in the next hour or so.

I packed up and hit the water and almost immediately regretted my decision. I had about a mile to go and straight into the wind. It was blowing hard enough to cause some whitecaps. And then I got to the end of the inlet and the full force of the wind hit. I had planned on kayaking more to the east, but was worried that I would have a really long last day to get off the water. In addition, as I turned perpendicular to the wind, I began to worry that I was going to capsize. I decided to make a run for the White Oak Boat-in Campground. I figured that I could at least get out of the kayak and I knew that there was a gated road and a hiking trail to occupy me. Hopefully the wind would die down in the early afternoon and I could get back on the water for a couple hours.

I explored the campground a bit. It is spread out on a couple "fingers" that stick out into the lake, so walking the whole campground was about a mile or so. There was an inlet that still had submerged trees sticking out of the water, kind of surprising that they have lasted ~40 years.


I then hiked up the road towards the hiking trail. I was surprised to see a patch of daffodils on the side of the road. I suspect it used to be a homesite before the National Forest took over.

The trail follows a neat cliffline, but I did not any really nice photos.


Then I followed the road back to the kayak to see what the water looked like. It ended up being a perfect day for a hike. I probably covered about 5 miles and I had a beer waiting for me when I got back.

It was still really windy so I decided to make camp and hope for better weather in the morning.

The sunset was not as nice as the night before, but I can't complain.



The stars were good again, but I was too tired/cold to stay up long.

I woke up the next morning to bright sun, the temperature was right about 30 and there was no wind. I had a second cup of coffee and read my book and then packed up and hit the water. It was a very good day for paddling.

I only had a couple miles to go and was back at the boat ramp by 12. I could have done without the wind, but it was a great trip. 

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Mt. Leconte

Alum Cave Trailhead Great Smoky Mountains
1/26 - 1/27/17
2017 bag nights: 1
Animals: 1 bear on top of Leconte, 4 deer on Rainbow Falls trail

I did not sleep well the night before, so I was up around 5:30 and on the road by 6:15 and at the trailhead around 10:00, basically I had a whole day of hiking ahead of me and what was looking to be a beautiful day.

The Alum Cave Trail parallels a typical Smokies creek for the first mile or so. It was a beautiful day, a little bit of clouds and temperatures right about 40. Great hiking weather.


Alum Cave was pretty neat, but very hard to capture in a photo.

The clouds started getting a little thicker as I climbed. By about 5000 feet, I was into the clouds and the long views were gone. It was still a good hiking day, but not what I was hoping for.


As I got higher, the trees were covered in frost.



The upper part of the trail has a lot of seeps, it was obvious why there is a recommendation for traction devices in the winter. The next day, parts of the trail were like an ice skating rink.

I got to the shelter around 2 and decided to hang my pack and head down to see Twin Falls on the Trillium Gap Trail. It was a good hike, but the falls were hard to photograph. They are more like a really long cascade that is impossible to capture in one photo.




I got back to the summit around 4:30 and a couple guys had shown up. I knew I wasn't going to be alone since the were 3 other shelter reservations, ended up one of their friends bailed, so it was the two of them and me. Nice guys, one had traveled all over the world, so interesting to talk to.

It was too early for dinner (about 5:00) so I went for a walk towards the lodge. I saw a bear moving behind one of the cabins, but he did not see me and he moved into the trees too quickly for me to get a photo.

Back to the shelter for dinner and conversation. The guys both snored and for some reason were up and moving around a little before 6, not a very good nights sleep. But, I was mostly warm even though the NWS said the low was 12 degrees.

The summit was still buried in clouds, so there was nothing much to see. I got excited for a minute near sunrise when I could see some stars, so I grabbed my camera and headed over to the Cliff Tops trail for a sunrise. Alas, the clouds came back. It was a nice little morning hike, but no views. The whole reason for the trip was views, and I was looking forward to the Boulevard Trail which supposedly is great, but with the clouds, I wasn't going to see anything. So, I decided to head back down the Alum Cave Trail to my car and then maybe do a little day hiking.





I had lots of fun photographing the creek on the way back down.




I passed tons of dayhikers which surprised me given the weather. Most of them looked completely unprepared for winter hiking. I had two women ask about going to the summit and when I described the elevation and the ice, they decided they would just hike to Alum Cave.

I got to my car about 1 and had lunch and then decided to check out Rainbow Falls. I hoped the weather would scare away most of the dayhikers. I then headed up the Rainbow Falls Trail. Once again, I was happy to have the tripod.

Burned tree from the recent Chimney Tops fire. The lower part of the trail definitely got hit by the fire.

I saw a couple of groups of people coming down the trail, but I basically had Rainbow Falls all to myself.

Smaller waterfall below Rainbow Falls.

And then back to the car and the drive home. Good trip, I just wish the clouds had cooperated.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Deep Creek to Clingman's Dome

Deep Creek Trailhead
12/18 - 12/20/16
2016 bag nights: 28

One last trip for 2016 and one last moment of peace and quiet before the holiday madness begins. This was sort of a spur of the moment trip. I had been looking at the calendar and realized that I could probably squeeze in a couple nights backpacking, so I looked at the Smokies map and thought of all the places I wanted to check out when there were less people around. Mt Leconte sounded good except for the shelter part, but I figured that if the weather was nasty, a shelter might be more comfortable than a hammock and tarp. I decided that I would do a loop past Rainbow falls to Leconte and then continue towards the AT for a second night and then back to Leconte for a third night. And then the Chimney Tops fire spread and all the lower trails got closed off. I was still going to do the trip but a little differently, but as it got closer, the weather forecast improved and I could see the shelters filling up with reservations. The night before I was going to leave, there were 8 reservations for the Leconte shelter, no way I am sleeping with that many people, so I had to find somewhere else.

I had a vague idea of starting at Deep Creek and hiking up to the AT. My impression is the Deep Creek area is swimming with people in the summer time, so winter seemed like a good time to check out the area. None of the campsites in the area had any reservations, so I could stay basically where I wanted. I got reservations for 3 nights and figured that I would see how I felt each day and let that determine where I camped.

I got to the trailhead around 3 on Sunday and there were a couple cars in the lot. I passed a couple dayhikers within the first 10 minutes and then no one else on actual trails for the rest of the trip.

My first stop was a short detour to Juney Whank Falls and then down the Deep Creek Trail.


Across Deep Creek is Tom Branch Falls.

The first 1.5 miles are an old road bed, very easy walking

And then it transitions to a more "normal" trail. It is easy to see the weather in the next two pictures. The rain had stopped about 2 o'clock, but the clouds were very low and dark and everything was soaked.


I think this is a coyote print.

I got to site 59 about 5 and decided that would be a good place for the night, it was already getting dark with the sun behind the thick clouds and below the ridgeline. It was cold and damp, so I quickly set up camp and had dinner and was reading in the hammock by 7.

Woke up the next day and it was foggy and damp, like being in a cloud. The forecast for Leconte was sunny and 40's so I hoped the clouds would break with enough time in the sun. Since I was heading up to the ridge and the AT, I spent some time looking at the map and trying to figure out where I would be able to get water. I ended up filling up with about 5 liters (enough to get me through breakfast the next day since I was planning on a dry campsite). It turns out the Pole Road Creek trail has a lot of water crossings so I could have saved myself a little bit of work by filling up later.


More hiking in the clouds.


This tree had more burls than I had ever seen on one tree.


A "Cherokee" tree?

Not long after turning onto the Noland Divide trail, I broke out above the clouds. It was nice seeing sunshine and the temperature rose from mid-30s to mid-40s. A great day to be hiking.


I hit the road to Clingman's Dome after a couple hours of hiking and headed up hill towards the mountain peak. The road is supposed to close on December 1st, but I had seen mention that the park was keeping it open a little longer. I assumed it was closed by now, but I saw a total of 4 cars coming down the road. I was feeling a little annoyed since the whole reason for a trip like this was to avoid tourists in cars. I was having a vision of a full parking lot, but once I got to the top, no one was there.


It is easy to see all the clouds I hiked through.

The view from the parking lot is pretty amazing.


But the view from the UFO/observation tower on top of Clingman's Dome is even better. You can just make out the shadow from the tower in the middle of the photo. At this point, I had climbed about 4000 feet and covered about 9 miles with about 10 pounds of water. I was feeling a little tired at this point. I ended up running into two groups of guys that had hiked up the AT and were going to hike back down the road. Never saw anyone else for the rest of the trip.


I then headed towards Andrews Bald to check out the sunset. It turns out that the Forney Ridge Trail has plenty of water and I could have carried 2 liters and been fine. I'm not sure how much of the water was because of the recent rains.








You can just make out Venus in the upper left of this photo, not bad for a cell phone.

The sunrise was pretty cool as well.







One last view and then down the trail.

I have always liked the ice crystals that grow out of the ground, but I can never get a good photo.


I headed back down the road to the Fork Ridge Trail enjoying the occasional view through the trees.


No photos of the Fork Ridge Trail, but I really liked hiking it. It would probably suck going up hill though. After about 5 miles, the Fork Ridge Trail intersects with the Deep Creek Trail. The Nat Geo map shows a bridge there. Unfortunately, there was no bridge. It is far enough up hill that Deep Creek is fordable, but the water was deep enough to come up to mid-thigh. I did not get a picture of that crossing, but there are a couple more smaller creeks that kept my feet/shoes cold and wet. It was about this point that I started thinking of doing a really long day and getting off the trail vs one more night. I knew I would never get my shoes dry and they would be frozen solid in the morning. My knee was bothering me and so was the other ankle. I was pretty sure I would not be doing the extra hiking like I had planned for the last day. So, I decided to head to the car. It was 2 o'clock and I had about 10 more miles to go.


Parts of the Deep Creek Trail are right next to the water. The trail is basically a narrow ledge above the creek. It was a neat trail to hike, but I'll bet it is a muddy wet mess in the spring.


One last look up the creek before I made my decision to definitely hike to my car.


I ended up getting to my car a little before 6 as it was getting dark. Ended up doing about 21 miles and about 5000 feet down. I changed and then got a burger in Bryson City and then the 4.5 hour drive home. By the time I got to Knoxville (about 9) I was already regretting my decision to hike out. In retrospect, I was not thinking clearly and the creek crossings mentally tired me out and led to bad decision making. The weather was perfect and I should have stayed one more night even if I had just hiked straight out the next morning. Ultimately, I need to do a better job sitting still and relaxing, but that is something I wrestle with on every solo backpacking trip.