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. 

Swift Camp Creek

2/9/17
The gravel roads are still closed in the gorge. I decided that I would park at the gate on Rock Bridge Rd and just walk the 3 miles to the normal trailhead and then loop back on the Turtle Back Arch trail to the road then my car. It would be about 11 miles, but ~5 miles would be the road, so an easy hike. I figured I would be guaranteed to have the place to myself.

Got out of the car at 9:30 after dropping kids at school/daycare. The thermometer said 30 degrees, it was overcast and damp. I'm glad I went back in the house to get a hat and gloves.

It was a pleasant road walk. After less than an hour, I was at the Rock Bridge Trailhead.

View from the overlook about half way down the Rock Bridge Trail, cold and grey, it started snowing about a half hour later.

I spent a little time photographing Creation Falls.

And then headed down the Swift Camp Creek Trail. Swift Camp Creek was really running, lots of silt from the last couple days of rain. It looked like the creek was 6-8 inches higher in the very recent past. When the weather warms up, I'm coming back to do a little creek walking.

Then off to check out Pooch Falls. I knew there was a waterfall here, but I had never bothered to climb down the cliff to actually see it from below. A while back, someone posted a picture on kywilderness.com of the falls and I knew that I wanted to check it out the next time I was in the area. It is a very cool waterfall.

Then up the hill to find Turtle Back Arch. I had last been here a couple years ago and remembered the basic location. After a little bit of poking around, I found the arch. It ended up being higher up the cliff face than I remembered.

View from the top of the arch

It took a little bit of doing, but I made it to the top of the ridge and found a very obvious trail. It was very easy to follow once I was on top of the ridge. The sun had sort of appeared, so it was a very nice hike back to the road and then to my car.

Interesting tree, maybe a "Cherokee Tree"

A great 6 hours in the gorge. Once again, I did not see anyone.

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.