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.

Slik Tripod review

I recently got a Slik Mini II (amazon link) because I wanted something with a little more flexibility that the Joby Gorrila pod (amazon link), but still not too heavy. I've never had a "fancy" tripod, so I have no idea how this compares. Someone on http://backcountrypost.com/ mentioned doing a gear review, so here goes.

The Joby is ~$50 and the Slik is ~$80. And 14oz vs 28oz, I wish I had just bought the Slik and skipped the Joby.

I'm pretty happy with the stability of the Slik, but I never extended the center column. I'm not sure how well it would work with a heavier camera or a longer lens, but the price and weight make it a pretty good deal for my setup. The only thing that gives me pause is the locking mechanism for the legs, they are plastic and seemed a little "fragile" when the temperature was in the 20s. Hopefully, they will hold up.

A couple photos for comparison.
The camera is a Nikon D5100 with a 18-105 lens that weighs 36.45 oz. The ball head is solid enough that portrait mode photos were no problem, landscape mode was very stable.

The chair is a "normal" dining room chair to give an idea about height. Without any legs extended, the Slik is very compact and easy to fit in the side pocket of my pack.

With the legs completely extended

With the center column extended as well.

The legs have 3 positions (angles), this is the most extreme.

Middle position of the legs.

Steepest angle of the legs.

Douglas Trail

Douglas Trail
Red River Gorge
1/19/17

After last week's hike to the waterfall, I decided to hike the Douglas Trail and see if I could find some good "trickles" in the creeks to photograph. I also wanted to experiment with my new neutral density filter for some long-exposure photos. I ended up being happier with the small things vs. the water but I still had a good time.

I can't decide which version I like better.

Rock face at the Wall of Denial

A couple creek trickles

Upper Red River (30 second exposure)

Looking up Clifty Creek

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.