Scott's Gulf

Yellow Bluff Trail 2.2 Miles
Polly Branch Falls Trail 0.9
Jenny Branch Falls Trail 0.4
Caney Fork River Trail 3.5
Total 7 Miles

Lora was supposed to be backpacking, but it got cancelled due to weather. I was going to hike with the Plateau Chapter, but they cancelled due to weather. We decided to just go anyway and enjoy the snow.

We headed out to Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness Wildlife Management Area in Sparta. There was about an inch of snow on the ground and the temps around 25 degrees.

We parked at the Yellow Bluff Trailhead and headed North on the trail. We took some pictures from Boar Hog Gap Overlook and then headed on. The water falls were looking good. We got to see the Upper Polly Branch Falls, Jenny Branch Falls, Lower Polly Branch Falls, and Bee- Branch Falls.

We startled a few deer and got to see the Red Cardinals flying around in the snow. We stopped at Joe Holloway Rock House for a couple of pictures too.

Most of these trails are old road beds. They are very well marked at intersections and sights with metal signs. There is not a sign at the intersection of Yellow Bluff and Caney Fork pointing towards Yellow Bluff and at the end of Yellow Bluff where it turns before you hit the road, the trail fades out. I guess most people take the road back to the trailhead.

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Chilly Chili Hike

January 28
The last few days had started out at 50 degrees and got warmer thru the day. I was wondering how the Chilly part of the hike would turn out. Saturday dawned at a chilly 28 degrees and partly cloudy sky. I guess the Poteets have a lot of pull with the Man in charge of the weather. 32 hikers showed up at the trailhead for Bridal Veil Falls. I met some for the first time, and reconnected with a couple of ladies I had hiked with a while back. Hi Denise and Cathleen!

This is a really pretty trail on the grounds of the Sewanee Domain, University of the South. The trail was a little slick thanks to the heavy rain the day before. Bridal Veil Falls was beautiful, lots of water that tumbles down the bluff and then goes underground. We hiked back up the hill and around the bluff line looking into the beautiful valley below.

Back at the cars we headed to the Poteets lovely home for the Chili part of the hike. Lots of wonderful chili, cornbread, and lots of side dishes,and so many desserts..brownies, cake, breads, cookies, green fluff,.mmmmm sugar high. While we were eating Jim pointed out a hawk sitting on one of their birdfeeders, waiting for lunch I think.

Thanks to Marietta and Jim for the hike and the Southern hospitality. It sure was a beautiful day.

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Samatha's Birthday

We got to have the Grandbabies over the weekend. We celebrated Samatha's birthday and our Nephew's birthday as well. A great time was had.

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Joyce Kilmer Wilderness Area

Joyce Kilmer Memorial trail 2.0
Jenkins Meadow trail 0.9
Connector trail 0.9
Naked Ground Trail 1.6
Day one total: 5.4 Miles

Naked Ground Trail 2.7
Haoe Lead Trail 0.6
Stratton Bald Trail 7.9
Road Walk .25
Day two total: 11.45 Miles
Total Hike: 16.85 Miles

Lora and I headed to NC for the weekend. We had heard about the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness Area and wanted to check it out.

The Cherohala Skyway is worth checking out by itself. A beautiful drive with views of mountains as far as you can see. As soon as we crossed the boarder the roads were covered with packed snow and ice. We figured that we would be in snow as we were going to hike up to 5336 feet.

Our first stop was the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. There is a two mile figure eight trail which covers the biggest trees in the area. Well worth the drive. After that we went to the Jenkins Meadow Trailhead to park. We took this trail to the Naked Ground Trail.

The Naked Ground trail climbs along the Little Santeetiah Creek up to Naked Ground Gap. There are many huge trees all along this trail. We camped just after the Adamcamp Branch.

We got some flurries as we hung out around the campfire. We got to see some clear stars early in the night before the flurries. Sometime in the night we had a visitor. Not sure what critter it was. Lora said she heard clucking noises, I heard some kind of snorting noise, and something bumped our cooking pot. We didn't find any tracks in the morning.

We got on the trail and not far after that we came across the hollow yellow poplar approximately 16 feet in circumference. Yea, we had to get inside it.

The snow got deeper as we climbed and we saw coyote tracks, mouse tracks and bobcat tracks. There was one tree down that, yes, I got stuck with my turtle shell. Lora, after finally getting over the laughing fit and taking pictures, had to push down on my pack so I could get through.

The total climb on this trail was 2560 feet. The last section was 1060 feet in 1.2 miles. Now that will work those legs and lungs! We had about three inches of snow on the top and it felt like a twenty degree drop in temperature. We got in some good views and then topped off our water at the spring. It doesn't take long to filter water when you have no feeling in your hands.

We took the Haoe Lead trail to the Stratton Bald trail and up to Bob Stratton Bald. There besides all the views, we got to meet a group of hikers from UTC. They were doing two nights out. We headed back down Stratton Bald trail and dropped down off the side where we ate lunch.

On the way down we met a father and two sons that were backpacking up. On the lower half of the trail you get some wonderful views off Horse Cove Ridge. Then you cross back over to the Joyce Kilmer side for some more huge trees. The trail continues down till you get back to the road. You have a quarter mile walk back to the parking area.

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Rock Creek

January 7, 2012
Rock Creek Hike

Soddy Daisy TTA had a hike at Rock Creek scheduled for today and it's just 20 minutes from the house to the trailhead. Nine hikers showed up in the parking lot. We took 2 cars to Retro Hughes trailhead for the shuttle back. Back at the Lower trailhead, we started out with
George Bonneau leading the hike. It rained on us for a little while and two of our hikers turned back. Two more were only going for a while and then going back. So the other 5 of us hiked thru the shower and on down the trail. It was a beautiful day to be in the woods. The creeks were all flowing and the water cascading down the falls was so pretty.

We stopped for lunch at the Rock Creek bridge then hiked up out of the gorge. This is one of the prettiest sections of the Cumberland Trail. You get it all on this trail: ups, downs, rock walls, overlooks, creeks, cascades, hardwood forest, pine forest, rocky trail, pine needle covered trail, swimming holes if you want to get wet, birds singing, ice falling.......beautiful in every season.

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AT- Neels Gap to Blue Ridge Gap

Day One: Neels Gap to Whitley Gap Shelter 6.7 Miles
Parking to Neels Gap 0.5
Day Two: Whitley Gap Shelter to Blue Mt. Shelter 11.8
Low Gap Shelter 0.2 Miles
Day Three: Blue Mt. Shelter to Swag of the Blue Ridge 11.1
Tray Mt. Shelter 0.4 Miles
Day Four: Swag of the Blue Ridge to Plumorchard Gap 11.6
Deep Creek Shelter 0.6
Day Five: Plumorchard Gap to Blue Ridge Gap 1.2
Road walk 72 and down Upper Hightower Road 2.0
Total Miles: 46.1

Lora and I headed down to Georgia to Neels Gap where we left off our last AT hike. The trailhead parking is 0.5 miles before you get to Neels Gap. We had a light mist going on which turned into sleet the higher we climbed up Levelland Mountain 3900 ft. It is good to have a warm up at the beginning of the trail.

Day One:
Cowrock Mountain has a beautiful view, but no pictures due to the moisture. The views are wonderful as you descend down to Tesnatee Gap. The climb up Wildcat Mountain is tough, especially at the end of the day. There is a great view from the top as well. It was getting dark and we set up camp at the trailhead leading to Whitley Gap Shelter. The sleet and wind were both getting stronger. We cooked from the tent and ate in bed.

Day Two:
The wind blew like a Banshee according to Lora that night. We woke up to a white winter wonderland. It snowed during the night. We had breakfast in bed with the wind still blowing at gale force. We packed quickly and headed down to Hogpen Gap. We were surprised to see the amount of cars at every trailhead that we came to. Lot's of hikers out.

We saw our first person, who was packing up, on our climb out of Hogpen Gap. During our hike today there are wonderful views of the the surrounding mountains through the trees. You could see Mt. Yonah all day, which pokes up with a rock face.

We stopped at Low Gap shelter and visited with Keeps and his brother who were thru hikers coming South. We didn't even think about the Southbounders, but this is the time of year that they finish their six month hike.

From Low Gap you follow an old road bed up to Poplar Stamp Gap. We stopped and ate our lunch here. We passed another thru hiker who was hiking with Keeps and passed a message on for him. We saw another couple who were backpacking and a family group that were backpacking.

We saw a few more backpackers at Chattahoochee Gap, where the spring is actually the head waters for for the Chattahoochee River.

It felt like a twenty degree difference between the sunny side and shady side of the mountains. The snow has started melting on the sunny side. We continued the climb up Blue Mountain and stayed at the Blue Mountain Shelter. We had time to dry out the tent before we set it up and gathered firewood. There was a young couple that stopped by that were day hiking in from Unicoi Gap.

We sat by the fire and enjoyed a beautiful star filled sky.

Day Three:
The wind was blowing strong and cold when we got up. We pulled everything into the shelter and packed in there. As we ate breakfast a couple of backpackers came into camp. One had actually built the shelter that we were standing in. We finished the climb of Blue Mountain and started the long descent into Unicoi Gap.

Again there were many cars in the parking lot. From there we did the steep climb up Rocky Mountain. We met two more thru hikers that were hiking with the previous group. When we got to the top we stopped for a break. There were two young boys from Atlanta that had stayed out overnight here and froze. They found out that they were not prepared for this temperature. I had to take a picture of the fire ring here. It came up to Lora's knees. Why do people build such big fire rings? There were some great views from on top.

From Rocky Mountain you have a very long and steep decent into Indian Grave Gap. Here we met a couple of day hikers. One was from Appleton, Wisconsin, where my sister had lived. We ate lunch on our way up Tray Mountain. We met alot of people on our way up. We got to the clearing where a Cheese Factory had been located in 1840. NO cheese!

After a strenuous climb up Tray Mountain, we got some wonderful views. There were two guys and a dog hanging out at the top. We had lots of ice on the rocks during the climb. There are alot of blackberry briers all over this mountain. We saw alot of Galax growing all along this section of the trail.

We stopped at the Tray Mountain Shelter for water. There was an old man and a grandson staying here. From here we started the long descent down Tray mountain. There is a marked water source at Steeltrap Gap that is not noted on the map. The two guys and their dog from the top of the mountain were setting up camp here. We went on to Swag of the Blue Ridge to make camp.

The wood was wet and we had a cold fire. We were tired anyway and didn't stay by the fire long.

Day Four:
Kelly Knob was rough. They didn't waste any time making switchbacks here. Straight up. Good views and you could see Chatuge Lake to the East. After another deep descent we stopped at Deep Gap Shelter for some water. This is an old well built shelter that actually has windows in the loft.

We got spooked twice. Once by a Grouse and the other time by some day hikers as we were stopped for lunch at Wolf Stake Knob. They came up behind us and we never heard them till they were on us. We then spent the afternoon descending from Powell Mountain to Dicks Creek Gap. Another pile of cars here. We got out of site from the road and stopped for a nap in the sun.

There is a steep decent into and climbing out of Cowart Gap. It seemed like we climbed Buzzard Knob forever. Finally we started down to Plumorchard Gap were we spent the night. Another peaceful night by the fire with the stars shining from above.

The wind picked up that night. It woke us a couple of times hollowing through the night.

Day Five:
We got up and ate breakfast. We got our water from the spring and then headed up AS Knob. We got off the trail at Blue Ridge Gap and hiked down Forest service road 72 to meet our ride. We were early so hiked another mile down Upper Hightower Creek road to get to a phone service. We used Sam and Ron's shuttle service (samron@windstream.net) again for our ride.

Pictures:

Rock Creek Trail- Little Frog Wilderness Area

Rock Creek Trail in the Little Frog Wilderness, Cherokee National Forest.

Lora and I cancelled our backpacking plan due to the forcast for rain. We decided to do a day hike instead. We headed out to the Little Frog wilderness area. We started at the trailhead just past the Ocoee Whitewater Center on Hwy 64.

The Rock Creek trail climbs up the moutain with views the whole way. The first creek crossing is Laurel Creek. It is a small creek with a campsite just off the trail. The trail then climbs up and through a saddle. You have great views of Big Frog and other mountain chains. Then the trail drops down into the Pressley Cove where the Rock Creek passes through. Rock creek is also easily crossable.

Due to the early sunset, we turned around at Rock Creek and headed back. You could do a loop hike if you continued to the Benton McKaye trail and head South back to Hwy 64. You could either drop a car there or hike 64 back to the trailhead.

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