Mt Cammerer

Mt Cammerer
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
12/17 - 12/19/18 (2 nights)
2018 bag nights: 37

Big Creek is a great way to hike 6ish miles and gain ~1000' of elevation. I love hiking next to a raging Smokies creek

Mouse Creek Falls across Big Creek

There was a patch of smooth water that was catching the light off the trees above that I spent time trying to photograph, this was the closest I came to capturing the light.

Then up to the AT and a nice ridge walk on a gorgeous day

Mt Cammerer Fire Lookout high on the ridge

Waiting for sunset, I spent a little time reading the graffiti. I don't understand why people and especially AT thru-hikers feel the need to leave there mark everywhere they go, but all the AT shelters are covered with this crap.

Quoting Edward Abbey in graffiti seems a just a little bit wrong, especially this quote "I promise you this, we will outlive the bastards"

Troop 65 from Morgantown WV needs a little bit of Leave No Trace training.

And snapchat user ilynnstevens just plain sucks

The beautiful sunset reset my mood after the stupid graffiti

Almost full moon over the fire lookout

Amazing sunrise the next morning

Interesting group of pine cones

A couple nights in the Smokies was a great way to get ready for holiday chaos

Pickett State Park

11/21 - 11/24/18
Thanksgiving Weekend

We rented a cabin at Pickett State Park in TN for the Thanksgiving weekend. A couple hours drive and getting set up left a little bit of time for a short hike near the lake and then back for dinner.

Thanksgiving morning we woke up slow and then loaded up the car for a little bit of driving exploration and some hiking. I had never been on this side of Big South Fork so I was happy to drive and check out some of the stuff that appears on the map.

First stop was Buffalo Arch. A nice ~1 mile hike to the arch with very little change in elevation.

This cell phone photo gives an idea of the scale, this is a big arch.

And then a some driving to check out a couple small campgrounds in the area and then we went to find a waterfall I had seen online.

About a mile on the Sheltowee Trace got us to Mark Branch Falls

After that, it was time to head home for dinner.

The next day I got to do a longer hike on the Hidden Door Trail in the actual State Park. In an 8 mile loop, the trail has some great views from high up and passes a couple nice waterfalls.

Crystal Falls

Double Falls

Small falls/drops along Thompson Creek

Pickett State Park was a great place to spend a weekend and we will definitely be back.

Standing Indian Loop

11/16 - 11/18 (2 nights)
2018 bag nights: 35

I met JC and his wife and friend for a weekend of backpacking. JC and I generally try to get at least one trip together each year, but his wife had never joined us before and this was the Julia's first time backpacking. The weather forecast was close to perfect, highs around 50 and lows around freezing with basically zero chance of rain. The weather forecast was the only reason I ended up doing this since I had been fighting a chest cold/bronchitis for the last couple days.

We decided to do the Standing Indian Loop, a place where the Appalachian Trail does a kind of loop as it follows the ridge. One concern was the loop is about 25 miles, most people do it over 3 days/2 nights. We had three nights planned, but since we were driving about 5 hours we thought it would work ok.

We met about 1:00 and started hiking up the Kinsley Creek Trail towards Standing Indian Mountain. The trail parallels the creek for a bit and then starts climbing up to the Appalachian Trail and then the summit, a total climb of about 2300 feet over 5.5 miles.

We got to the summit just in time for sunset, but it was really windy and about 35 degrees, so it was hard to linger and enjoy. The combination of hiking and being sick hit me pretty hard, I cooked dinner and then was unable to eat anything. I ended up laying in my hammock for about 2 hours, then got up and drank more water and ate some gorp and talked for a bit before heading for bed and hoping to feel better in the morning.

I woke up just in time to see the sun peak over the ridge. The wind had died down and it was a beautiful morning.

I went back to the top to check out the view with my coffee. I felt a lot better and decided that I could keep hiking.

Weird piece of junk just off the trail

Today was just hiking the AT, very easy hiking without a lot of the ups and downs the AT usually has in the southeast.

We passed a couple boy scout groups and a bunch of other people which made us want to avoid camping near the shelters. We ended up hiking about 10.5 miles to Mooney Gap which set us up for an easy day hike to Pickens Nose in the morning. The views were great, I'd like to see it in the fall with the leaves changing.

Woke up the next day after coughing all night, still sick, but mostly feel fine. Today was the climb to the Albert Mountain Firetower a climb of about 1000 feet over 1.5 miles.

The last couple days, the galax leaves had been catching my eye, so I decided that I should finally take a photo.

Looking up at the firetower

View from the top of Albert Mountain

The firetower itself is in great shape, much better than some I have seen.

We had thought about camping here or nearby and catching the sunset, but it was only 1:00. After a little bit of discussion, we decided that we could be at the cars in about 2 hours and a cheeseburger and beer sounded really good. So, down the trail we went.

In retrospect there were a couple nice spots about a mile or two from the road, we should have camped there and made a beer run to the trailhead and then had an easy hike out in the morning. As it was, I had an easy drive and got home about 10:30 pm. It was nice to sleep in my own bed and see my kids in the morning.

The whole area is really pretty with a couple of nice view points, but it was way to crowded and not long enough given the drive time. I'm not sure I'll be back, but if I do return, it would be in the middle of the week to try to avoid the crowds.