Gregory's Bald

Day One:
Twenty Mile Trail 0.5
Wolf Ridge Trail 5.2

Day Two:
Gregory Bald Trail 1.2
Long Hungry Ridge Trail 4.6
Twenty Mile Trail 3.1
Total: 14.6 Miles

We did a special backpack this weekend. It was a Fathers Day hike with my Dad, a TTA hike with Sara and Lora, and an a wildflower hike to Gregory's Bald to see the Azaleas. This would be a first hike for Sara and Lora to Gregory's Bald and new trails for Dad and I.

Sara met me at the firehall after work and we drove home to get Lora. We were going to take The Dragon to the trailhead, which Sara was all excited about since she had never been on it. We stopped and picked up some Subway and then headed to The Dragon. When we got on 129 Craig said Wee, Lora said Wee, and Sara said STOP! I guess it wasn't too good on the stomach.

Well anyway, we met Dad at the Twenty Mile Ranger station. The trailhead parking was FULL! We finally managed to squeeze in a spot and a hiking we went. It was a beautiful overcast day. I guess it was about a mile from the trailhead that the rain began. As we all did the poncho deployment move, a gentle gale force wind started to blow. We heard a loud crack followed by more cracking as it seemed to be getting closer. I looked up in time to watch a large branch fall onto Sara, Lora, and myself. Luckily it hit me on the head and there were no more injuries. The rain came down and on we hiked. It turned into a drizzle for most of the afternoon.

We passed a lot of wet day hikers that were coming back down from the Bald. There were a variety of trash bags, a few ponchos, some rain coats, and lots of just wet people. Day hikers that were not prepared. Imagine that.

There were a lot of wild flowers along the trail. Fire Pinks, Sundrops, Buttercups, Indian Pipe, Spiderwort, Pippissiwa, Tassle Rue, Rhododendren, Flame Azaleas: Pink, Orange, White, Red, Yellow.

As we crossed Parsons Bald, we heard a loud Squeal, a few snorts, and then we got to see three hogs heading through the brush. That will get your attention!

When we got to campsite #13, which we had reservations for, there were plenty of tents already set up. We found us a corner and made camp. By the time we set up, collected water, got fire wood, and ate dinner, it was time to light the fire. After some good visiting we gave up and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of thunder. The stars had been out all night, what is up with that? Now do you rush to pack up before the rain or do you sleep in through the rain? Well we didn't have to choose as all we got was noise. There were three deer that walked into the campsite and were hanging out by the other tents.

We packed up, ate breakfast, and then headed to the Bald. On the half mile walk to the top we walked into a cloud. So to see all the beautiful flowers we had to walk up to each bush. Needless to say the view of Cades Cove was not to be seen.

After the flower show we hiked on down the trail. Before you get to the Long Hungry Ridge Trailhead there is a side trail to Moore Spring. It is marked with a sign that says no horses beyond this point. We had never known that this was here, but found it in the trail description. So we had to check it out since we were here. It is a good strong spring. We got water here and then took the other trail from the spring that connects to the Long Hungry Ridge Trail. The trail description says that a cabin that used to stand here burned in the early 1970's. I don't remember it.

It was all down hill from here. We hiked down and took a break at campsite #92. This is a very large campsite and we explored it for a while since the description told of a three foot section of railroad track leaned against a dogwood. We never even found a dogwood.

Further down the trail we were talking about bears. Sara said that she had never seen a bear outside of Cades Cove. I told her that all she has to do is ask my Dad and he would schedule it for her. He has a track record. Sure enough on down the trail a black bear crossed the trail in front of us. All my Dad could say was "Anything else?"

We stopped at the Twenty Mile Cascades and took some pictures. After that the rain decided to kick in again. That is when Dad found that he had lost his poncho. Thinking that it was back at campsite #92 he declined the offer to hike back and get it. It quit raining right after that.

Another great hike with great company. This time on the Dragon, Sara said Wee, Craig said Wee, Lora said STOP! OH MY. We stopped on The Dragon overlook on the way back and then stopped to look at the "Tree of Shame" where they hang all the motorcycle parts of those that didn't make it safely down the Dragon.

Pictures:

Gregory's Bauld

Well, my regular hiking buddies let me down. Troy came down with some sort of illness and Greg got scared of the weather forecast and bailed out saying that it was going to be too hot. Good thing that I can count on dear old Dad. He was scheduled to hike with us as we were going to hike Big Ridge State Park which is North of Knoxville.

I called Dad and asked him to pick out a hike in the Smokeys. When I showed up he gave me an option. We could either hike out of Clingmans Dome or out of Cates Cove. I picked the Cove because it was closer. As usual Dad pick a direct route to the top of the mountain to see the Flame Azaleas, the Gregory Ridge trail . Only 5.5 miles which as with any mountain the shortest distance is straight up the side and only a 3000 ft gain. Another .5 miles to camp 13. I'm not sure if he just doesn't like me to hike with him or he really does enjoy punishing himself as well.

Anyway there was a flat spot about twenty feet long that I remember somewhere along the trail. If you want to see a bear all you have to do is ask Dad. Every time I have gone into the cove he schedules me in a sighting. We saw three cubs and we know that Mom was around somewhere. We also got to see some deer all before we even started our hike. He likes to get the wildlife sighting out of the way.

We got to the trail head and headed in the upward direction. The weather was beautiful and we had a nice breeze blowing to help us out. We passed only one group of guys on the way up.

The Park had done a controlled burn sometime earlier and as we came up to a large tree on the side of the trail that had a ribbon to keep people away we stopped to comment on the ignorance of the average person now days. As we stood there a squirrel came rolling down the side of the mountain. I mean doing a somersault all the way down. I have never seen a clumsy squirrel and was wondering how a squirrel could have a McBride trait. When he finally hit the trail just in front of us and laid out on his back, we noticed that there were actually two squirrels and they must have been wrestling. They looked at us and you could tell that they were quite embarrassed to be caught.

Belive it or not we took a couple of breaks on the way up to Gregory's Bauld. When we got there we got to take in the beautiful sight of about six bushes in bloom. Oops, a week or so too early. We did get a beautiful sight of Cates Cove and the surrounding mountains. Dad was a little hesitant to list off the names of all the peaks. I guess just shy.

When we got into camp there was one other couple camping there. We picked the sight furthest from them and set up camp. The first thing we did was ask them where they found the spring. They said that there was not much of a spring, but it was down this other trail about 300 foot. Well luckily I saw a little mud through a break in the trees as we passed the "Spring". There was mud and that was about all. The biggest puddle we found was just deep enough to cover our screen on the water filter. Every time you pumped the silt covered the screen and you had to clean it off again. So other than the leg cramps, the back aches, the bugs, the cleaning of the filters, and Poison Ivy it was a wonderful experience.

After we finally got our water we headed back to camp. Dad started the dinner and I gathered the moist wood. After dinner we entertained ourselves with the starting of the fire. After a few hours we sat back and enjoyed our flame.

We had a doe come right up to the camp fire and look across it at us. You could tell that she was not impressed and wondered off. After we hit the sack I was wakened by the Does' fawn. She had quite the interest in my hammock. Four different times I heard the approach and looked up into the face of a deer. I would politely say "Excuse me" and she would run off. Finally she must of got the hint and wondered off. They stayed in camp and were waiting patiently beside my hammock when I got up in the morning. It was a Doe with two fawns. They even posed for a picture. After Dad got up they wondered off into the woods.

We got us a good breakfast and headed off down the mountain. We passed two different pairs of girls and a couple which were friends of Dad. For some reason the trip down was faster than the trip up so we ate lunch back at the ranger station. We celebrated a good hike with a fresh ice cream cone from the visitor center.

Gregory Bauld Hike

I got to join my Dad for another great hike in the Smokey Mountains. After getting off work and driving to Dad's for another great lunch by Mom, we headed out. We dropped the van off at Abrams Creek Campground and headed to Cades Cove. Cades Cove is always a wonderful place to visit. On the backside of the Cove we took Parson Branch Road out to the Gregory Bauld Trailhead. Mom took our picture and headed out, as did we.

We hiked the 4.1 miles to campsite 13, which is a 1900-foot climb. We dropped our packs at the campsite and then hiked the other half mile 200 foot climb to the bald. All of the way up we had passed photographers with very expensive looking cameras heading back down. Everyone was excited about the flaming azaleas at the top. As you can tell by the pictures they were extraordinary this year.

At the top we had a young man approach us and said that they had been hiking for a couple of days now. He said that he was from the Nashville area, a small town named Murfreesboro. I let him know that I too was from that small town. It turned out that he and his buddy were MTSU students and worked at TGI Fridays in town.

After enjoying the views, we retreated back down to the campground and set up camp. There were about five groups camping there. After a short discussion we decided it wasn't worth trying to find firewood. We did pick up a few sticks and leaves to burn the debris left by previous campers and our own. We collected our water and had a good dinner.

A man from St. Louis came over to ask about the sunrise time. He and his girlfriend were going to catch it at the top in the morning. They were both students and had been camping a couple of nights. As it was getting dark a ranger came in with a gun complete with night scope to say that the hogs were bothering campers and he would be doing some shooting tonight. We counted three if he did good shooting.

By the time it got dark enough to light the fire Dad informed me that it was 9:00. Well we didn't need a long fire going to bed at 10. When I woke to use the bathroom, this was the quietest camp that I had ever been in. Nothing was making a noise, and I mean nothing. It was quiet enough that I thought I heard a tick fart. It struck me as very odd and was just as quiet the next time I got up. It was almost embarrassing to snore. I did anyway.

The next morning after breakfast we headed back down to Parson Branch road. When we came to the spring we saw a mother doe cleaning off a fresh young fawn. I couldn't get my camera out in time for the shot, but it was amazing to watch. It took us two hours to hike up and only one and a half to hike down. I think we took a short cut.

We crossed over Parsons road and took 7.6 miles of the Hannah Mountain Trail. This is not a very popular trail as it was more grown over, but a beautiful hike. It starts at 2800 and with a few hills drops down to 1300 feet. On this trail we passed one backpacker who is from Georgia and a student at Valdena. He caught up with us as I was taking a picture of a very large tree on the side of the trail. We visited with him a couple of times as we passed each other. We also enjoyed some blueberries, as they were ripe for the picking. There were a couple of times that we disturbed some very large animals, but never got to see them. Just heard the loud racket of them running off. Everyone we talked to on this trip said that they had seen bear. We assume that is what we heard.

We took 2.7 miles on the Rabbit Creek Trail back to Abrams Creek. As soon as we got going on this trail we disturbed another large animal. As we got to the top of the mountain there were three rangers that had been doing trail maintenance there. They had heard the animal as well and had a bear approach them earlier in the day. Dad got to throw out a few names and do some ranger talk with the men.

It was another great hike and great time with my Dad.

Pictures