Hooper Bald

TTA East TN chapter hike led by Rosemary. Two hikers were celebrating their birthday and this is Leslie's favorite hike. We met at Tellico Grain Bakery, dangerous because EVERYTHING in there looks and smells yummy. I think everyone came out with something. Mine was peach filled pastry, and a loaf of sourdough bread.
The drive up the Cherohala Skyway was beautiful. Sunshine and cool air, felt like fall. Wildflowers blooming in high elevations, purple, white and yellow. Asters all over, filmy angelica, some yellow ones I can't id. We hiked from the Hooper Bald trailhead to a retreat of some sort with cabins, covered pavilion and a nice view. We bushwhacked to the road to get to the parking lot for Huckleberry Knob. On the knob we stopped for lunch so I ate half of my pastry, mmm.

On the way back we drove the rutted bumpy gravel road to Whigg Meadow where the bird banders were working. They welcomed visitors, so we watched them remove a bird from the nets, band, weigh, and inspect everything. Leslie got to release the Meadow warbler. Added to her happy birthday.

After driving back to Tellico Plains we stopped at Iron Works Grill for a bite to eat. It was loud in there with football games on 3 or 4 screens and fans cheering. Hard to hear yourself think, but our server was great.

Both balds have historical significance.    There is writing engraved on a rock on top of Hooper Bald thought to be of Spanish origin with a date of 1615.  Also Hooper Bald was the site of a hunting lodge built about 1911.  In April 1912, a shipment of European wild hogs was delivered to the lodge.  A number of the hogs escaped from their pen and proliferated throughout the National Forests and the Smokies..  Huckleberry Knob is the site of a marked grave of Andy Sherman, one of two lumbermen who were walking from the mouth of Sycamore Creek across the mountain to Robbinsville on Dec. 11, 1899.  Both perished near the peak due to the bitter cold,   snow and fog.  Their bodies were found nine months later by a hunter. It is marked by a cross and a plaque. 


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