Jailhouse Rock

Martin Fork Trailhead, Red River Gorge
4/5 - 4/6/18 (1 night)
2018 bag nights: 6

I parked at Martin Fork, for a Thursday, the Gorge was very crowded. The parking lot was full and cars lined the road. With Tunnel Ridge Road still closed, I headed up the Rough Trail to the Grays Arch Trailhead and then out to the end of the road. I passed a bunch of people in the first mile to the road, but then everyone disappeared, except for one couple that I passed on the road.

I hiked out to Pepe's Point enjoying the views and the perfect hiking weather and then filled up on water near Star Gap Arch.

I then headed out to Jailhouse Rock where I planned to spend the night. It had been a while since I had hiked out there and I had never planned on camping on that ridge, so I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to end up. I was hoping for sunset, stars and sunrise views, but had to settle for the sunset through the trees and stars and sunrise views.

Even looking east, the sky was very pretty after the sunset, the view made the bourbon taste better.

The clouds did not cooperate with the stars, but it was nice sitting and watching the clouds move.

The next morning was a muted sunrise, but still nice.

I had a leisurely breakfast with a second cup of coffee before breaking camp and heading towards Double Arch and then across to Auxier Ridge.

I was surprised to run into one couple out on Auxier Ridge. They gave the impression that they had never been out there before and it is not an obvious dayhike with the road closed. Later I passed a dad and kids on bikes along the road and then more dayhikers on the D Boone Trail. Another beautiful day and the Gorge was packed, but I still got my solitude for most of the trip.

Forney and Hazel Creeks (GSMNP)

Great Smoky Mountains NP
Trailhead: Tunnel at the end of Road to Nowhere

3/12 - 3/16/18 (4 nights)
2018 bag nights: 5

Day 1 miles: 6.5
Day 2 miles: 10.75
Day 3 miles: 11.25
Day 4 miles: 18
Day 5 miles: 3
Total miles: 50 miles
Campsites: 70, 82, 81, 74

My planned trip was to start at the Tunnel at the end of the "Road to Nowhere" outside of Bryson City. Then Lakeshore Trail to White Branch Trail to Forney Creek Trail and site 70 for the first night. The 2nd day was Jonas Creek Trail to Welch Ridge Trail to Hazel Creek Trail and site 82 for the 2nd night. Day 3 was Hazel Creek Trail to Lakeshore Trail and site 81 for night 3. Day 4 was Lakeshore trail to site 98 and then day 5 Lakeshore trail to my car.

So I wake up Monday morning and I find that school is cancelled because of snow and I look out my window to this.

I spent about 45 minutes shoveling 6 inches of wet heavy snow so I could get the car out of the driveway. And then I was off to North Carolina.

Driving down I got a little nervous because it was still snowing near Knoxville and it was very windy, did not look like a great day for hiking. I was especially worried that the snow would turn to rain. Thankfully, by the time I got to Bryson City, the snow had stopped and the sky was clearing up.

The tunnel at the end of the "Road to Nowhere"

The Whiteoak Branch and the Forney Creek trails are next to the respective creeks which means lots of cascading water. I love hiking with the sounds of a creek next to me.

Bridge across Forney Creek at site 70. This was a great place to sit after dinner and watch the sky get dark. The bourbon was nice as well.

The first day was easy even with a full pack, 6ish mostly flat miles (or at least flat for the Smokies). The second day was going to be a lot harder. I knew that the Hazel Creek trail was going to involve a lot of creek crossings, but I thought that the first part of the day would be dry feet and a climb up and over Welch Ridge. It turns out that the Jonas Creek Trail has 5 or 6 crossings, the first about 15 minutes after leaving camp. I had my trail runners, so I just wade through, unlike the older couple I caught up to who were taking off their boots for every crossing. So, I had cold wet feet/shoes all day long instead of just in the afternoon.

The Jonas Creek trail is great, with all the wet feet, it is probably better in the summer, but it was very pretty in the early spring. The water was very cold though.

Got up to Welch Ridge and there was still a bit of snow on the ground which made my wet feet even colder. In places the snow was 3-4 inches deep.

And then down the Hazel Creek trail and out of the snow. The Hazel Creek trail has a lot of creek crossings, but I had been here before so wasn't surprised. This is one of about 20 crossings over 4ish miles, most of them are no more than knee deep, so not hard, just cold and just as your feet start to dry out and warm up, there is another crossing.

In other parts of the trail, the creek just flows down the trail. At least it was not muddy.

Got to site 82 about 4pm and got water and firewood and just relaxed, crawled into my hammock to read a bit and slept through the night. I woke up to this and the snow was still coming down. Since I wasn't in a huge hurry, I used my hiking poles to prop up the tarp and had a leisurely breakfast and watched the snow. When it became apparent that the snow was stopping, I packed up and headed down the trail.

The lower part of the Hazel Creek Trail is an old railroad bed, so it is very easy walking with a slight decline going towards the old town of Proctor. Nice walking and the snow stopped after about an hour. The day never warmed up though and I had my fleece on the whole day.

Hazel Creek starts to build up steam as it drops lower in the valley and more side streams combine.

Glad the crossings in this part have bridges.

Lower Hazel Creek

The only "hard" part of the day was the climb over Welch Ridge on the Lakeshore Trail, not really hard, but not easy like the Hazel Creek Trail.

I detoured to check out Fairview Cemetery which is not far off the trail. While there I heard a loud plane and looked up to see a C-130 flying low over the Fontana Lake, low like below the ridge line, I couldn't move quick enough to get a photo though. Kind of cool and confirms what I thought I heard in the middle of the night on a past trip in the area.

I got to site 81 which has easy access to Fontana Lake. I had deliberately planned the trip because the last couple nights were supposed to be clear and moonless and I wanted to see stars.

You can see how low the lake is this time of year. In a couple months, all of this will be under water.

I was disappointed by the amount of skyglow. I think that the lake must reflect a lot of light. It was cold enough that I did not spend a lot of time with my camera, but the stars were very pretty.

You can just make out Orion behind the trees on the right and the bright star near the middle is Sirius.

The next day I was hoping to check out some of the old cemeteries along the Lakeshore Trail. At one point, there was an obvious side trail and this tree. I suspect that someone bent this tree to mark the trail to the cemetery.

A couple minutes from the tree was two graves. One was marked "Infant Cook" and the other "Helen Cook, daughter of HB and Mac Cook". All of the cemeteries in this area are filled with young children which makes the father in me sad.

Just off the trail is the remains of an old car. That is the rear of the car and you can see where the spare tire would have been mounted, the bolts are still there. 

Old stone wall and the remains of a chimney

I got to site 98 about 4:00 and the wind was blowing right up the lake with gusts in the 30-40 MPH range. I decided that this did not look like a nice place to relax and looking at the map realized that I was about 7 miles from site 74 at Forney Creek. I had been there before and knew that I could get to the lake shore easily to see stars. And if I hiked the 7 miles today, I would have an easy 3 mile day back to my car. So, let's see if we can still do an 18 mile day.

The last hour was hard and I was regretting my decision, but I eventually reached site 74. No one was there which sort of surprised me. I set up camp and walked out to check out the lake and then had dinner. As I was finishing up, a solo hiker appeared. He mentioned a fire, I said I was planning on being lazy, but I would gather wood for a fire while he set up camp. We chatted a bit, but I was tired from my day and turned in early to read a little bit.

I woke up to a beautiful day and headed back to the lake after breakfast.

Forney Creek flowing towards the lake. The sun was just rising above the ridge on the left.

Cool looking rock in Forney Creek. All the other are brownish and then this glowing white one.

Sunburst over Forney Creek.

After photo time, I said goodbye to the other guy and packed up and had an easy hike to the car. I was glad that it was only 3 miles because my feet were a little sore from the previous couple of days. I got back to my car after an hour and regretted that I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes. All in all, a great trip, I got a physical/mental challenge on day 2 with creeks and snow, another challenge on day 4 with 18 miles, and mostly great weather and only a couple of other people.

Empty Auxier Ridge

Auxier Ridge
Red River Gorge, Daniel Boone NF
Trailhead: Martins Fork

Dayhike 1/23/18
Backpack 2/2 - 2/3/18 (1 night)

2018 bag nights: 1

The Forest Service has closed Tunnel Ridge Road for repairs which means it takes a little effort to get out to Auxier Ridge. I decided to take advantage of the closure. I started at the Martin Fork Trailhead and took the "backdoor" up to the ridge. I first hiked north and checked out the view of Ravens Rock and then south towards the road and Auxier Ridge.

The clouds were low and grey and made for a striking looking sky, but the wind was gusting about 40 miles per hour which made it feel a lot colder than the actual temperature of low 40s. I hiked lots and did not linger for many photos.

Looking at the "backdoor" ridge, the Martin Fork trail head is to the left and the Tunnel Ridge Road to the right. 

One of the few times I have had the view of Haystack Rock all to myself.

I hiked back on the road to the Grays Arch trail head and took the D Boone Trail back to the car.

I enjoyed the solitude so much that I decided my first backpacking trip of 2018 would be Auxier Ridge. So a week and a half later I was pulling into the Martin Fork lot. The forecast was a lot colder (lows around 15), but thankfully very little wind and lots of sunshine. I was really hoping for clear skies at night so I could try out my new camera with the stars.

When I got to the lot, it was still snowing, but it stopped after about an hour. Since I had a pack and the ground was covered with snow, I decided that a scramble up a rockface was not a good idea, so I went up the D Boone trail and then out the road.

I went a little way out the Jailhouse Rock trail, but bushwacking through snow covered brush was not very fun, so I decided to stick to the official trails and headed out the Double Arch trail. First I checked out the Rocky Branch Overlook trail which was a new one for me.

I then headed for Double Arch, very weird to have this popular spot to myself.

I had never noticed this rock before, looks like a snake head

Then over to the other side of the valley and Auxier Ridge. I set up camp and then hiked back towards Courthouse Rock to cook dinner and wait for the sunset and some stars. It was just past a full moon, so I knew there would be a lot of light to make my way back to camp once the sun set.

Courthouse Rock waiting for the sunset.

It wasn't the best sunset I've seen, but it was nice. I was hopeful that the limited number of clouds boded well for stars.

It was cold waiting for the stars to come out, but it was worth it. Looking south with Orion peaking out from behind the trees.

Looking north towards Cassiopeia, I even got the Andromeda Galaxy by accident (the small smudge near the middle left)

Orion again and then time for bed.

Since the forecast called for zero chance of rain/snow, I decided to cowboy camp for the first time. I don't know that I would have been warmer in my hammock, but I was very cold in the night and ended up being wide awake at 6:45, plenty of time for a short hike to catch the sunrise.

Pano composed of 6 individual photos

Mountain ridges catching the sun

Double Arch catching the morning sun

I quickly ate breakfast after the sunrise and headed back to the car. I was really surprised as I got close to the Auxier Ridge trailhead to hear voices. It turned out to be four young guys from Cincinnati who had woke up early and drove down for the day, they said they had hiked in from the gate at the beginning of the road. I gave them some ideas for destinations and went on my way. 

I got to the Grays Arch trailhead and headed down the Rough Trail and ran into a solo woman heading up the trail and then not long later ran into three guys my age who had camped up on the ridge near Grays Arch. I passed a couple more dayhikers and when I got to the parking lot there were about 10 cars there, very different from my one car the day before. I ended up with complete solitude for the part I cared about so I was happy. Not a bad way to start 2018.

Gregory Bald

Great Smoky Mountains NP
Twentymile Station Trailhead
12/28 - 12/29/17
2017 bag nights: 32

I had a couple nights to recover from the holidays and the weather forecast looked close to perfect (sunny and 30s during the day and partly cloudy and 20s at night) in the higher elevation of the Smokies. I have wanted to check out Gregory Bald for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I started at Twentymile ranger station and headed up the Twentymile trail to the Wolf Ridge Trail and then the steep climb (about 3000 elevation gain over about 6 miles) to Parson and Gregory Bald. My goal was to set up camp and then catch the sunset on Gregory Bald, since I started hiking a little before 1pm, I did not have a lot of time.

Both the Twentymile and Wolf Ridge Trails parallel creeks which makes for nice walking when there are bridges and cold wet feet when you have to ford the creek.

As I got to about 4000 feet snow began to appear on the ground, not very much, but enough to chill my feet.

I got to Site 13 in between Parson and Gregory Balds and set up camp then headed to Gregory Bald for the sunset.

Looking down on Cades Cove

Even without many clouds it was a beautiful sunset. The stars were going to be out tonight, but so was a 1st quarter moon right in the middle of the sky.

Panorama (5 shots stitched)

Gregory Bald in the morning, sadly I could not feel my feet at this point and had to keep moving to stay warm.

A little bit of snow as the trail drops off of the Bald

My feet were cold enough that I still couldn't feel my toes. As I hiked towards the AT I decided that I would make a decision at the next intersection. If I still couldn't feel my feet after hiking more than a mile then I would drop off the ridge on the Long Hungry Ridge Trail and would think about camping at a lower site. Well I got the the Long Hungry Ridge Trail and still had frozen feet, so down I went.

The trail is an old railroad bed, pretty obvious on this long straight stretch, and makes for easy hiking.

The only problem with the trail is there are a number of fords to deal with lower down. I was able to rock hop across the first couple fords, but then I came to a couple that I had to wade through. My feet had finally warmed up, but now they were soaked. When I got to the next campsite, it was only noon and I did not have a book to read( I have the Kindle app on my phone, but I don't like to read for a long time that way). I decided that I could be at the car around 2 and home before my kids went to bed, so I kept going.

About a half mile from the trailhead is the Twentymile Cascade, not one of the best waterfalls, but nice.

This trip ended up not working the way I planned. The main problem was cold feet. I realized that I did not have bread bags for my feet which meant that once my feet got cold, I had a hard time warming them up. I also should have packed an extra pair of hiking socks. And lastly, I should have packed a book instead of just my phone to make it easier to kill time. Basically this trip failed because I did not transition from fall to winter backpacking. Oh well, lesson learned.