Gregory Ridge Trail

I joined a fine group of TTA hikers, from the Sumner Trails Chapter, led by Anne Wesley for a backpack to Gregory Bald in the GSMNP. We were meeting at the Cades Cove Ranger Station coming from Nashville, Hendersonville, Monteagle and Dayton. Pulling into the Ranger Station, I watched a 6 point buck prance across the road in front of my car. Marietta was waiting in the parking lot, and the others pulled in shortly after. While Anne went inside to file our permit, we met Malcolm, Karen (the newbie backpacker), and Amy. Coming out of the Ranger Station, Anne was stopped by visitors asking questions…she did have a GSMNP shirt on. She COULD have been a Ranger…..

On the way around the Loop Road (nicely re-paved) we spotted a mama bear and cub feeding on acorns on a hillside. A little farther, traffic was stopped while 3 bear cubs played in the tree branches hanging over the road.

Finally made it to the trailhead. Malcolm passed around homemade granola bars his wife had made for the backpack. It started raining as we started up the trail. We saw a lot of huge trees on this old growth section of trail. We had 3 log bridge crossings and came to campsite 12 right by the creek. We had our choice of sites, no one else was here. We set up and inspected housing for the trip. Amy gathered firewood and started a fire. We cooked supper and enjoyed our wet firewood fire. Lights out, wow it gets dark here! More rain thru the night made me wish I had let Craig spray my tent with water repellent when he asked if it needed it. It was fine the last trip…which had been Easter weekend, no precipitation….

Got up Saturday morning to drips from the trees, and a cloud sitting on the mountain top. It’s gonna be a beautiful day! A squirrel playing in the tree tops by the creek was trying to pelt me with the remains of his breakfast. It was like little missiles raining down. I was just trying to get some water! As we climbed up the trail the sun was starting to peep thru the mist. When the beams started shining down, it was an incredible sight to see. Wow!

We got to the junction for Gregory Bald took the path to the stream to get water and take a break. When we got up to the Bald we took out our wet gear and dried it in the warm sunshine, then on to the campsite to set up. The water source at the camp is just a seep and it was so seepy, we used ziplock baggies to collect water. We carried our cooking stuff and food back up to the bald and had dinner and watched the gorgeous sunset. A big group of Florida U students were on the Bald and asked if they could share our fire at the campsite. We said sure! Met up with a Ranger carrying a rifle on the way back to camp…hog hunting. We got back to camp and watched the FU group try to keep a fire going with wet wood so they could cook their canned food: ravioli, soup, beans, baked potato. There were 15 of them -a great group of young people. Met some backpacking firefighters and a couple of other groups. The stars came out for a beautiful night.

Sunday morning light woke us up. Leisurely breakfast and pack em up and move em out.

Back to the Bald and back down the trail, which is always different in the opposite direction. We saw lots of bear scat on the way down, but no bears.

Ice cream back at the Ranger Station finished our trip.

Great group of folks, great backpack, Thanks to Anne and now Karen’s not a newbie any more!

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Dale Hollow Lake - Big Goat Island

Lora and I decided to do a canoe camping trip at Dale Hollow Lake. We made reservations for campsite #8 Big Goat Island.

It was a beautiful day for being on the lake. We put in at Willow Grove boat ramp. The first place we paddled to was our campsite to make sure we knew where it was. They mark the campsites with an orange marker that is supposed to stand out. Basically you look for an outhouse and go with that. We found our orange marker in the middle of a bush on the beach. We checked out the beach with a little swim. After that we canoed around Big Goat Island and over to the main coast by accordion bluff.

There were alot of boats out and few operators that knew nothing about the rules of boating. We even had one ski boat do a loop around us.

We explored the coast and inlets and did a lap around Geiger Island which has campsite #13 on it. We headed back to camp after that.

We set up camp and gathered firewood. We had another couple stop by in their boat asking about the campsite. They were going to spend a few days here in a couple of weeks. After a swim, we enjoyed our dinner and then walked around the island to watch the sunset. After that we got our fire going and enjoyed watching the stars and looking at the full moon reflecting off the water.

We got up the next morning and after breakfast we headed out for a day of paddling. We went to Clark Island to check out the campsite #6 then went to Graveyard island and checked out campsite #9 and hike across the island. We had a house boat speed up so that they could pass in front of us. What is up with that? From there we went to Hendricks Creek and paddled into Kentucky. We checked out campsite #12 and were heading to #11 when we stopped for lunch.

During lunch we listened to the sound of waves and jet skis and thunder.....THUNDER? A black cloud was heading toward us. We headed towards an island and then changed coarse as the closest shoreline we could get up on was on the mainland. We got caught and our tiny ship was tossed. The only thought we had was what a lighting rod we were out in the middle of the lake in an aluminum canoe. We made it to shore and set up a tarp to watch the rain pass by and calm down the old nerves.

After the storm went by and after emptying out the canoe, we paddled back to the boat ramp. After loading up the car we took another swim. It was a great weekend on a beautiful lake. We got to see ducks, geese, woodpeckers, turtles, fish, eagles, vulchers, deer on little goat island, and got to hear a screech owl and horn owl at night.

We had to stop and get us a Sonic Blast after all that paddling.

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