On top of the stairs

9/2 - 9/3/16
Bison Way Trailhead - Red River Gorge
2016 bag nights: 18

The weather forecast for Labor Day weekend was looking fantastic (clear with highs in the low 80s). I mentioned to my wife that instead of staying home this weekend and hosting a pool party, I should be taking the kids camping. She said I should go do a one night trip by myself. No problem.

I have been wanting to try a little more astrophotography and the clear night that was forecast sounded good, so it was just a matter of figuring out where to go that would give me a clear view of the sky. I decided that the Indian Staircase area in the gorge would work, my only fear was there would be a ton of people given a weekend with nice weather. The gorge was packed, but it seemed to be mostly dayhikers when I got to the trailhead after leaving work early on Friday.

Since I was only going a couple of miles, I carried Subway for dinner along with a couple beers (Two Hearted) and my chair (Alite Monarch). It was awesome sitting at the top of the staircase waiting for the sunset.

A great place to hang for the night. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shooting star from the comfort of the hammock.

It was a nice sunset, but I was hoping for a little bit more color in the clouds. In the end, I was glad the clouds weren't very spectacular since the stars probably would have sucked.

The stars were great, but I did not get many good photos because the trees were in the way. Being at the edge of the cliff line meant that I did not have a lot of room to move for a better angle. In the photo below, the light on the horizon is light pollution from (I think) Slade. I was really surprised at the amount of light coming from the Mountain Parkway area. I was also surprised how many airplanes fly over the gorge. A lot of the photos ended up with a light streak through the middle from an airplane flying through the 20 second exposure.

Pretty sure I will never camp at the top of the staircase again. Three guys came up about 11pm (I was still watching the stars) and then a couple more guys appeared around 1130 after I was in the hammock. Personally, I can't imagine wandering around a cliffline in the middle of the night, but I guess this type of behavior is why people die in the gorge every year. 

Woke up as the sky was getting lighter, decided if I was going to get any sunrise photos I needed to drag myself out of the hammock. There were basically no clouds, so it was not an "impressive" sunrise, but the mist in the valley was pretty and it was a nice view for breakfast.

A nice morning walk up on the ridge

Someone had a little too much time on their hands :)

Lots of flowers around a clearing up on the ridge

A nice view of the Indian Staircase ridge from across the valley

A couple more random photos

All in all, a pretty good way to spend approximately 20 hours. I need to do more trips like this in the future.

Dad and Daughter (and bugs) go camping

6/20 - 6/22/16
Great Smoky Mountains
Abrams Creek Trailhead
2016 bag nights: 9

My oldest (7 years) did not have any activities planned for the week since grandparents were coming at the end of the week. I generally like my kids more when we are outside vs. inside, so we decided we would go back to the Smokies again. I was originally planning on taking the middle one as well (5 years) so I was looking for short/flat trails with a creek to play for them to play in. This led me to the Abrams Creek part of the park where I had never been. Then the 5 year old decided he wanted to stay home. So another "dad and daughter" trip like last Labor Day.

The forecast was looking HOT, highs in the low 90s and the Brown Book mentions that this area is best appreciated in cooler months, but other sites I had thought about were closed because of bears. So, Abrams Creek it was.

We hiked in on the Cane Creek Trail (an old road) which was a nice start to the trip...

Checking out Abrams Creek

to the Little Bottoms Trail (there are some nice views of Abrams Creek) ...

and then hit Site 17 after about 2 hours of hiking.

This was about 3.5 miles total, but there is a slight ridge to climb on the Little Bottoms trail, no problem for me, but it worked the little legs a bit. Site 17 is large and spread out with 3 sets of bear cables and 6 or 7 fire rings. But, there was only one other group when we arrived (a dad and his 10 year old son).

We got water and set up camp and then poked around the creek a bit before it was time for an early dinner.

Around 6ish, the bugs got bad enough, we hung out in the tent for a bit hoping that they would disappear. We poked our heads out around 7 and the bugs were mostly gone, wandered over to say high to the dad and son. The dad mentioned that his son wanted to practice his fire starting skills even though it was still in the upper-80s. I said we would help gather firewood and would share a marshmallow if he would share his campfire, no surprise, he was willing to share. We talked for a couple hours and then it was time for bed.

We also discovered a new use for the bear cables.



The next morning we were going to hike to Abrams Falls for an easy dayhike. The dad and son were heading to Site 15 and our paths overlapped for about a mile.

There were some nice views where the tornado hit a couple years ago.


We took a break near a tiny waterfall that was just off the trail

We made it to Abrams Falls, we talked about all of the stupid things people do in places like that that ends up killing them (great lunch time conversation).  We actually overheard a guy telling his girlfriend about jumping off the rocks from the top of the falls when the water was higher (basically right over the big log above her head in the 2nd picture).

And then we headed back in the heat. By this time we had found a couple ticks on each of our legs, so we got in the habit of performing tick checks every 15-30 minutes. We found lots more ticks, but got them before they had started biting.

We got back to camp and I jumped in the creek to cool off while my hiking partner played with a couple small buckets at the water's edge.

This occupied her for a while and then it was time for dinner again. In the meantime, another dad and his 14 year old daughter had set up camp nearby. After dinner, we again retreated to the tent to escape the bugs. We then played some games and then ended up talking to the other party until it was time for bed. 

The next morning, my partner read while I packed up and then we headed towards the car.

One last look at Abrams Creek

A fun trip even with the bugs and the heat. We both enjoyed running into other dads with kids, something that had never happened before. The worst thing about the trip is we both came back with a ton of bug bites. I have no idea what they were, but we both ended up with them all over, almost like we were sleeping with a flea covered dog. In the end, not a big deal, but there was a lot of itching over the next couple of days.


Side pictures

Rhododendron Bud

An interesting looking bug.

Tickseed

 Playing with a millipede

Black Snakeroot (?)

Some kind of primrose (?)