Citico Creek Wilderness Area

North Fork Citico Creek Trail #98 5.45
Cold Springs Gap Trail #149 3.2 Miles
South Fork Citico Creek Trail #105 8.5 Miles
Total Miles: 17.15

Trying to avoid Memorial Day crowds, we picked the Citico Creek Wilderness Area to hike in. We wanted creeks to keep cool in and it is somewhat close to the house. We have never been in this area.

After work I headed home and picked up Lora. We headed out and was on the trail a little after noon. Lots of people on the Cherohala Skyway and in Tellico. Even lots of people in the Indian Boundary area, but after a mile on the trail we had the mountains all to ourselves.

We used the trail description from "Wilderness Trails of the Cherokee National Forest" by Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock, and Haw Knob. Yes, you need trail description for all trails in the Cherokee National Forest because the trails are not blazed. There is a sign post at the trail intersections.

We parked at the #105 trailhead and hiked the .97 miles to the North Fork Citico Creek Trail. This trail follows the creek to the Cherry Log Gap of the Unicoi Mountains. It's a very pretty trail and you have many creek crossings, water falls, and cascades. We stopped at a forty foot water fall to take a break and cool down in the creek.

We took the Cold Springs Gap Trail #149 across to the South Fork Citico Creek Trail. This is an old road bed which was overgrown a bit. It cleared up a little bit when you get to the Benton MacKaye section. One section worked us over with the Stinging Nettles which burned our legs. Later, on the trail as the wildflowers and undergrowth was knee high, Lora screamed out "Jesus!" I looked up to see the glory as I myself have never seen him in person. With out seeing anything I looked down at a rabbit who had obviously never seen Jesus himself as he was looking up as well. Oh, I guess the rabbit must have scared Lora.

We hiked to the South Fork Citico Creek Trail #105. It descended quite steeply down the mountain side. I showed Lora a couple of advanced sliding moves including the hooking one leg on tree as you butt slide by it. Nothing really for an old pro.

When we got to the first flat area by the creek we made camp. It was 1.5 miles down. We got to watch the fireflies as we sat next to the campfire. The stars were out so we got to watch then all night.

We got up the next morning to another beautiful day. We had a rabbit in camp pulling up ferns and eating the roots. Lora didn't yell a name at him.

There was one place on the trail that was heavily overgrown with wild grape vines and blackberry bushes. It did have some good views here when you could see. We climbed the rest of the way down the mountain to the creek and took an afternoon swim. There were more creek crossings, waterfalls, and cascades. It is a beautiful place to hike.

After we got off the trail we explored the campground across the creek and the campground by the lake at Indian Boundary. It's a nice area. On the way out we stopped by Bald River Falls to check it out.

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Grand Canyon

Day One: 9.3 Miles
Day Two: 11.5 Miles
Day Three: 9.3 Miles
Total Miles: 30.1

Well, neither of us had been to the Grand Canyon. We did the research and planning. We got turned down twice on our permits and finally they gave us the go ahead. You basically hike when they tell you to. The first time we put in, they said that 800 other people put in the same day.

We left after work and flew out of Nashville. Our second flight out of Dallas, they waited until we were all on board to tell us that we were on a maintenance delay waiting on a part. Good ole airlines! A little late, but we made it to Phoenix Arizona. We were just talking about the cactus and Lora had said that she has never seen the old western stand up cactus other than on TV. Well, she had to wait until we got to the airport before she got to see one. They were everywhere in Phoenix. On the bus, we sat next to a guy from Phoenix. He said that the people here were alot less friendly than we were used to in Tennessee. Everyone we met was friendly.

We got in our rental car with a sweet 92 degrees outside and headed North. The further North we went the higher the elevation and cooler the temperature. We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner. A little later we stopped again. This time because one of those friendly policeman wanted to talk to me. Something about the speed I was traveling did not match that of the speed limit sign that I passed. He let me off with a friendly chat and a warning.

The last fifty miles from Williams to the Grand Canyon felt like eternity as we were waiting in anticipation of the Great View. After we went through the gate of the park and finally made it to the visitor center the sun was getting ready to set. We hurried to the rim as you cannot see the canyon until you are literally standing at the rim. WOW............WOW.........WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As far as you can see, the canyon just keeps going. There is no end or other side. It's like looking over the ocean. Then you look down. WOW! As the reality sets in, you notice that you are incredibly small and insignificant. You also wonder how the hell you are going to be able to hike down to the bottom of this mammoth hole. We scanned the cliff walls for any sign of trail. None! You could see tiny ant sized trails running down at the bottom of the canyon, but nothing on the walls. We stood in awe as the sun set down over the rim.

We found our campsite in the Manther campground and set up camp in the dark. The stars were wonderful and the night was only interrupted by the other people making noise in the campground. The next morning as soon as we saw a sign of light we were up and packed. Talk about excited and nervous. What were we going to see?

If you have a permit you can drive to the trailhead of the Hermit trail. They never gave us the code to get through the gate so we waited until a bus was coming and got the code from them. When we got to Hermits Rest, the trailhead, we met some people from North Dakota. They were actually from Minot so I got to do some reminiscing with them about the great Air Force days. They took our picture for us before we headed down the trail.

The Canyon was nothing like you would imagine. There was green everywhere with plants growing all over the rocks and flowers of every color growing everywhere. We saw a million lizards. We saw squirrels, chipmunks, Birds of ever kind, and lots of cactus of different types.

The trail dropped very steeply for the first mile then went along the canyon wall. You could only see the trail in front of you for about thirty yards tops at a time. It curved around the walls and there was a surprise around every corner. Sometimes you would catch a glimpse of it along the wall across from you or below you. You were walking anywhere from five to twenty feet from the cliffs edge as you wandered. That safety distance was steep down hill as well. The drop offs were anywhere from 500 to over 1000 foot drops. You could see the Tonto trail level of the canyon way out in front of you, but when were we going to go down?

We came to a shelter at Santa Maria Spring. It's a little hut in the side of the cliff with a trough that the spring ran into. Good resting place for the climb back out. There was one spot on the trail that I looked everywhere and we had a clear shot of the trail. I told Lora this was a good spot to use the bathroom. She got behind a bush and I was going off the side of the cliff. I looked down the cliff and a guy was looking back at me. The trail switched back under us. Oops! I told you that you couldn't see the trail.

The next major downhill drop was at the Cathedral Stairs. Steep switch backs and we dropped and dropped. Then the trail winded down to the Tonto trail. Everyone we passed were friendly to us and everyone spoke English. Up on the rim you couldn't find an American if you had too.

Finally we got a glimpse of the Colorado river. The Colorado river was in a canyon of its own. It's 950 feet down to the river off steep cliffs. If you were rafting, and we did see rafts, you would never see the whole canyon unless you did some hiking.

The next two and a half miles to Monument Creek on the Tonto trail was more like rolling hills. The heat started beating us during this section and there was no place to go for shade. We did find one spot where two rocks were leaning on each other with a shadow that we took refuge in.

The trail dropped into the creek gorge and we got to see the Monument of Monument Creek. A large stone tower that stands in the middle of the river gorge. From here it was right close to camp. There were two girls in camp already that were hiding in the shade of the canyon. There was a three seated toilet at the campground that was interesting. We set up our tent and I put my tarp over it to try to get some shade. We cleaned up in the creek which felt really good and relaxed for the evening. There was only one other group of campers that came into camp that night. The night cooled off and we got to enjoy the stars. No campfires allowed in the canyon.

The next morning we left the tent set up and hiked down to the Colorado river. It had a nice sandy beach and with the rapids right there it made waves come up on the shore. Yes, we had to get in. It was cold. It was very pretty down there at the river, like a little paradise. After we got our water fix we hiked back up to camp and then took the Tonto trail further East.

The day warmed up, but the wind kept us cooled off. Sometimes it almost blew us off the trail, but most of the time it was a gentle breeze. We headed past the Cedar Spring campsite which wasn't hitting on much and on to Salt Creek campground. The Salt Creek Gorge is beautiful and rugged. We ate lunch in that area and then hiked on to the furthest edge of the Salt Creek Gorge. We decided that this was far enough for one day and headed back to camp. On the way back we got to see some white and orange spots on the river below which were rafts.

When we got back to camp we got to relax in the gentle gail force winds. Later that evening there was another group of four that came in and camped on the other side of the campground. That night we got rain off and on all night long.

We got up the next morning and headed out. About the time that we got to Hermit trail it started to rain, but didn't rain long. It was breezy and cold on the hike out. Some of the hikers we passed were telling us about the snow and hail they had on the rim. Sure enough we got snowed on. The last mile out of the canyon we had to step it up because we could hear thunder and didn't want to get caught on the side of a cliff in a storm. After we got up to the rim it cleared up and we could look down into the canyon and see where we had hiked. We did the tourist thing and then headed back to Phoenix for the night.

The next morning we flew back to Nashville and drove home.

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Smokemont

Day One: 3.6
Bradley Fork 1.25
Chasteen Creek to Campsite #48 2.4

Day Two: 8.2
Chasteen Creek to Enloe Creek 2.0
Enloe Creek to Hyatt Ridge 3.6
Hyatt Ridge to #44 2.6

Day Three: 8.0
Hyatt Ridge to Beech Gap 0.9
Beech Gap to Balsam Mt. 5.3
Balsam Mt. to Laurel Gap shelter 1.8

Day Four: 11.7
Balsam Mt. to AT 6
AT to Pecks Corner 5.3
Hughes Ridge to Peck's shelter 0.4

Day Five: 9.1
Hughes Ridge to Bradley Fork 1.8
Bradley Fork to Smokemont 7.3

Total Miles: 40.6

Well we again went from plan A to plan B. We had a five day hike planned starting on Thursday. Wednesday on the way through Woodbury going to work, I had waves coming down the road at me in the heavy rain. The water was getting deep and the radio was saying that Rutherford County was having the worst storms. It just happens to be where I was heading to. This was only the beginning of a long day. The storms were going to get worse.

The most tornadoes to hit in one day in history......wow! After working storm damage at work I headed home the next morning. The last conversation with Lora was when I told her it was all clear on the radar. The phone wasn't working at the house that morning. Finally I got a call from her telling me she didn't know how I was going to get up the mountain as the tornado damage has blocked the way I usually come up the mountain. Four people had died less than a quarter mile from our home and damage was massive. Lora had visited the basement while this was going on, but had no idea that the tornado had hit so close and so much damage had occurred. She found out when she drove down the road to get a cell signal. I got another call from her just before I got to the mountain and the police had told her they had cleared enough road to get one car at a time up the mountain.

I got the generator running as Lora grabbed food from her Mom's and sisters houses. With no damage at home other than replanting a couple of bushes, we loaded up some saws and headed out to help the neighbors. Most of them were waiting for the insurance people. We ended up just collecting belongings from fields and bringing what ever we thought was important back to the people it belonged to. Afterwards, since we didn't have any power and it would be days before we got it back, we decided to go ahead with our hike. We took our generator and food to Lora's parents and headed to the Smokys. On the way, Lora looked at her phone and said "What? 5:30pm already?"

We registered at 8:11pm. We left out of Smokemont. We had planned on hiking the Smokemont Loop today, but since it was now dark we hiked the 3.6 miles in to campsite #48. It was a beautiful night and the stars were shining so we left off the rainfly and slept under the stars. We woke up with the splashing of water in our faces. AHHHHH it's raining. I got up, grabbed the rainfly, and deployed. The rain had stopped before I got the rainfly strapped down. Oh well.

The next morning we got up ate breakfast and headed down Chasteen Creek going towards Enloe Creek. Lots of uphill this morning. We saw a black bear just up hill from us digging at a fallen tree. He turned and looked at us, then walked up to the trail above and ran off. When I took a step forward a turkey flew off. He was about twenty feet downhill. It's going to be a good day. These are some beautiful trails.

When we got to Hyatt Ridge trail we saw four Yankees at the junction. We knew they were from the North when they didn't return our "hello's." When we got to campsite #44 there was already a tent in the premo site, so we had to set up at the group site. Campsite #44 is a pretty site with a spring flowing through it. After we set up the tent, cleaned up, and collected firewood, the two guys who had the other tent showed up. They came up from the creek and had been fishing all day. No, we didn't see any fish. Later on one other backpacker showed up. He collected water and went back down the trail. Lora and I sat by the fire and enjoyed the stars.

The next morning we hiked down the Beech Gap trail where we took a lunch break at the Straight Fork river and aired out our tent and bags. After lunch we past our first hiker of the trip as we started the steep climb up to Beech Gap. On the way up we passed three Benton Mackaye hikers that were hiking the Smoky Mountain section.

When we got to Beech Gap we took a well deserved rest in the meadow. We saw a group of seven backpackers come up that were heading to Laurel Gap shelter as well. At the shelter we ended up with ten people from North Carolina, Indiana, and Florida. Here we also made the rookie mistake of leaving our food in the shelter while all these people were around as we fetched water and cleaned up. When we got back we found that a mouse had attacked the food bags. Not too much damage luckily.

We did kick up a Grouse on the way to the spring and heard more the next morning. Our time at the shelter was spent socializing with our many backpacking brothers. One even had a guitar and played some songs for us. He didn't know "Rocky Top."

We did have fun with their "Fire Master." He broke out the old flint, shaved some off, got a spark, and was blowing like hell. In between he asked how I started one. I told him with lint and a lighter. He gave me that surprised look and ask the golden question; "You have a lighter?" After saying yes, one of his fellow hikers said that he had one too. Mystified he asked his partner why he didn't tell him this the night before. "You didn't ask!"

The next morning after saying our good byes, we hiked the easy Balsam Mt. ridge to the Appalachian Trail. We got to see some Juncos flying from their nests on the trail. Once we hit the AT we met backpackers. Three Ladies just hiking the Smoky Mountain section and eighteen thru-hikers heading to Maine. This is just on the 5.3 miles that we hiked. We enjoyed the views as always. This is what I consider the most beautiful part of the Smoky Mountains.

When we got to Pecks Corner shelter there were three hikers there already. These men were from Kentucky and one recognized the "Outcasts". He had read our hikes on the Sheltowee Trace. By dark we had ten hikers total, two of which were thru-hikers. Some of the hikers had also climbed Half Dome like Lora had. We had some wonderful conversations throughout the evening and in the morning as well. We did get a phone signal that night up by the privy that one of the hikers tip us off to. We had gotten power back the afternoon before.

After saying our goodbyes we headed down the Hughes Ridge trail and took the Bradley Fork trail back to Smokemont. Talk about a wildflower hike. These are some great trails.

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