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.

Creek hiking to a waterfall

Red River Gorge
1/12/16

Overcast day in the middle of the week, I only saw two cars parked at different trailheads and passed a group of guys that looked like they were going to ford Station Camp Creek and go hunting or camping. Basically, I had the gorge to myself for a couple of hours.

I checked out the view from Sky Bridge and followed a user path along the cliff face to an great view. It was very windy so I did not linger long.

Then off to find a creek and a waterfall.

Three views of a popular waterfall in the gorge.

Abstract rock art

This tree was covered in fungus from the ground up to about 30 feet, basically the whole tree. I can't decide which version I like best.

Same tree, different angle

 Fallen tree and fungus

Cumberland Falls

12/29 - 12/30/16

My wife and I took advantage of the grandparents in town and escaped for a night to a cabin at Cumberland Falls State Park. I took advantage of the kid free time to play with my camera, my wife choose to read and enjoy the fireplace.

The river was really high which made the falls look bigger than normal. It also meant that our hike to Eagle Falls was cut short since the last little bit was under water.

Cumberland Falls, the "Niagra of the South". The light was pretty challenging, the falls only look good in B&W.

This is a stitch of 30 individual shots merged with MS ICE. The original is ~19000 x 8000 pixels.

Unnamed falls across the river. My wife slipped in this creek on the hike to Eagle Falls.


Eagle Falls

The sunset from the cabin porch was nice, not much of a view, but the sun through the trees was pretty.

Creation Falls

Rock Bridge and Creation Falls
6/27/16

Took the kids on an "adventure", had a great time, nobody cried :)

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 (?)