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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Samantha'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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