Ivy Academy CT Wildflower Hike

Memorial Day (I didn't have to work) and Craig had to work. After canoeing this weekend, I wanted to hike. The CT State Park scheduled a Wildflower hike with Appalachia CARES AmeriCorps member Anna Schilling at the Ivy Academy in Soddy Daisy. The trail starts on the school property along the North Chick Creek. There were black raspberries ripe right beside the trail! It was getting hot at 9 am to start out, but after walking under the bridge and along the creek we entered the woods and it was a little cooler. Anna says the trail is used by the students during the week, summer too because of summer school, so it is closed to the public until after 3 pm, but open on weekends. Ivy is an Environmental Institute in partnership with TN State Parks.

Still a lot of wildflowers to see, Little Brown Jug, Trumpet honeysuckle, Skullcap, Bergamont, Basil Bee Balm, and sunflowers. The hike went to Pride Rock named for the one in The Lion King. It's a great place to view North Chick Creek. Great day to be in the woods.

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Memorial Day Paddling

We went back to Greenway Farms and this time we paddled down to the river and saw the dam and lock. Afterward we paddled a little way back up past the Farms.

The next day we went to Sale Creek after church and put in to paddle up Rock Creek and back.

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Nick's Graduation 2019

We hooked up the camper and headed North going to Nick's Graduation from law school.  We spent the first night in Pennsylvania at the Twin Bridges Campground which we stayed at the last trip to see Nick and Amy. From there we headed to Delaware Water Gap NRA to do some hiking so we would break up our second day of traveling. We hiked the Tumbling Waters trail at the Pocono Environmental Education Center which had a million red salamanders. We ate lunch at the falls which were amazing. We hiked the Dingmans Creek trail which had the Silver Thread Falls as well, and the Raymondskill Falls trail which has the upper, middle, and lower falls. Then we drove to Massachusetts and stayed at the Partridge Hollow Campground in Monson. Very friendly folks that run this place.

The next morning we headed over to Nick's and visited before heading over to the Basketball Hall of Fame where we met up with Amy and her family. That was interesting even for someone not interested in basketball. We found Pat Summit's display with all the UT Orange colors. From there we headed to lunch. After lunch we headed over to Western New England college for a tour and a reception/lecture on the Bar Exam that Nick is going to take. Sounds like two months of serious study! Then we met Nick's Dad and family for dinner. After dinner we checked out the new casino in Springfield.

Sunday morning Lora and I hiked the Munn Dike trail next to the campground and then we headed to church at the Trinity UMC which is a beautiful church. It was an inspiring service, which helped to not get lost staring at all the beauty inside the sanctuary. Then we met up with everyone for lunch. After lunch we attended the Graduation followed by the celebration dinner with delicious seafood.

Monday after we checked out of the campground, we headed back to meet everyone for a bagel breakfast before heading South. We camped at the Twin Bridges campground on the way back.

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900 miles of Smoky Mountain trails

SHE DID IT!!!! Finished the last of the all the trails in the Smoky Mountains. This last trail was hard on her. With the wildland fire which closed the trail down for quite some time, snow closing the road down, it was wonderful to actually be able to get to the trail. Thunderstorms were forecast for this hike, but the morning was hopeful. As we drove to Clingmans Dome Road it rained, and then sprinkled, then rained. We put our rain gear on at the trailhead hoping for sunshine. There was a lot of water on the trail. Didn't take long for the socks and boots to get soaked. We saw some wildflowers that looked similar to Solomon's Seal but had pink bell shaped flowers. (After checking the wildflower book, I'm sure it's Rosy Twisted Stalk, listed as rare. DIDN'T get a picture.) We looked for the man-way that used to go to the Chimney Tops and saw a path but it was too wet to try it. 4.8 miles was all Lora needed to finish her map and when the trail junction came in sight she got so excited. I got out the camera and the battery was dead! Cell phone to the rescue, filmed the happy dance. Now to print off the spreadsheet, fill out the application and send it in and wait patiently for my 900 miler sticker.........YES!



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Bledsoe Creek State Park

We got to spend the weekend with our Grandson. What a blessing! We took the camper to Bledsoe Creek State Park. This is a beautiful campground with friendly staff. We did some hiking and a lot of fishing.

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Big South Fork Camping/Hiking TTA

Joan and Tony set up a camping/hiking weekend at BSF, Bandy Creek Campground. 9 hikers/campers in 4 campsites. I got there late and the others were on a hike. I set up in the woods behind one of the campsites. It was the most level and had the right spaced trees. The first hiker back walked into the campsite I was setting up my hammock at, I didn't recognize him and asked if he was with TTA, he is, hi Jeff, I'm Lora, I thought this was Marietta's campsite. Oops.

Everyone had been at the Sunset Overlook Trail. They were ready for supper. The wind was blowing, not good for a campfire so the lucy light gave us a bright glow to sit around. Marietta had brought her own birthday cake, chocolate on chocolate from Julia's Bakery in the Boro. Yumm and Happy Birthday to Marietta! John got there just as we were getting ready to call it a night. So we stayed up later. After getting in my hammock I heard a whippowill and two owls.

Saturday morning Tony arrived, John cooked eggs and fried potatoes. We headed out to the Grand Gap Loop. It was cool to see the overlook where Craig and I said "I DO". Lots of memories on this trail. We admired the beauty of the overlooks and hiked on. My stomach was saying lunch was way overdue, but Joan wanted to eat at the next overlook. I told her there was no more overlooks, but we pressed on and came back to our exit sign where we sat down for lunch. We could have eaten in the cars that were parked 1/10th of a mile from this spot. When we got back to camp, we cleaned up a little and headed to the Visitor's Center. The Spring Planting Festival was winding down. We missed the mules plowing, and the garden planting. But we caught some of the music. John and Jeff found the food vendors. Swamp cabbage??? The rest of us found a shuttle to Lora Blevins home-site where we talked to the folks that planted the garden and gave talks on making moonshine. Lora was a man, a Baptist minister. The gardener gave us some left over tomato plants and marigolds. We walked around at the cemetery and then caught the shuttle back, going by the Oscar Blevins home-site that had some farm animals still there. The shuttle driver was nice enough to take us all the way to camp. Lazy hikers.....

Joan had made chili for our group dinner, everyone else had sides to go along with. Joe worked some magic with a dutch oven and a chimney with charcoal. Peach cobbler and it was yummy. No wind tonight, the ladies gathered firewood and I got the fire started, Joe kept it burning.  We gathered around, good conversation, jokes from John, good and bad......Beautiful sunset, peaceful night. One hiker departed in the night.

Sunday morning was warm and pretty. John baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast, he packed up and headed for the Cornbread festival. Marietta headed for home. The rest of us headed to Pogue Creek Canyon. We were searching for the elusive exit on the gravel road just past the parking lot. We drove and drove and stirred up dust. We stopped a few times asking the dune buggy riders if they knew where it was, turned on some rough road that they play on and finally gave up the road became impassible. Headed back to where we saw a sign coming from Pickett's trails. Sara called the Park office and that was where our exit road was. It had a cable across the road and no signs for Pogue, no kiosk, no trail markings. We left cars here, Sara shuttled us to the kiosk, we looked at the map on the kiosk that only shows the loop and the spur to the overlook. We hiked the right side of the loop to the overlook, saw the Upper Canyon Trail sign just before the overlook. That took us down into the canyon. This is a beautiful/rugged/awe inspiring trail. One spur led to an arch. We saw a new segment being built that was flagged and roped off. On the way out of the canyon we found another spur trail to an arch and mesa. No indication of mileage to the arch so we looked around a little and decided not today. This requires some research. We had to climb a steep roadbed to exit the area. Wondering if the State is making a new exit with some switchbacks (I hope). More research to do.

Thanks to all for a great weekend. Joan, Tony, Sara, Jennifer, Marietta, John, Joe, Jeff.

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Laurel Falls

An after work hike with Crystal, her first time to the bottom of Laurel Falls. We really enjoyed the wildflowers and the pretty Richland Creek. We met two hikers that didn't take enough water, but we didn't have any to spare. They were close to the parking lot and we were just getting started. We had a snack at the Falls, Crystal had made cornbread, and it was good. The view was perfect. She shared memories of her brother and her coming to the top of the Falls in the winter time.

We made it out in plenty of time to not get locked in. Gate closes at 7.

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Fooshee Pass Campground

After hiking a couple of days in the rain in the Smoky's, we decided to spend four days at Fooshee Pass Campground on Watt's Bar lake. The weather was great the whole time. We did some hiking, fishing, canoeing, and just plain relaxing. Life is Good!

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Ladies Spring Backpack 2019

Diane planned a week long trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, once again gathering the ladies and planning trails to mark off maps. I was planning to finish my last two trails so I can get that elusive 900 Miler sticker to put on my car. Since this was to be a celebration, Craig was allowed to attend our Ladies Easter Smokies get-together, privileged, honorary guest.

Judy met us at Cades Cove, but didn't want to hike Wet Bottoms with us, can't imagine why, it had only rained a little :) So we left one car on the road where we would exit and took the other car to the trailhead by Abrams Falls trail. Wet Bottoms earned its name, it looked like a stream. This trail is only 1 mile long, but when we ran out of trail at the creek, there was a path leading to the road. Since the creek was about 3 to 4 feet deep, no one wanted to cross so we hiked out to the road and walked to the Oliver place and went back on the trail. Hiked to the creek, turned around and hiked back to the exit. Turned a one miler into a two-three miler. Wasn't interested in swimming today.

We drove to Elkmont to camp only to find barriers at the entrance. Elmont was flooded and had been evacuated. The folks in charge told us to go to Sugarlands and wait, or go to Cades Cove to camp. We drove to a pull off where we could see the barrier, Gloria Dale pulled in. She had been at Elkmont earlier and tried to catch us before we left Cades Cove. She got there in time to see us go by, and tried to catch us before we got too far to no avail, even with flashing her lights at Nancy all the way to Elkmont. Diane chased down Judi at Sugarlands and we went back up that curvy little road thru the bear jam, again. Two campsites next to each other, 8 cars. We took over the pavilion for our fiesta fajita dinner with margaritas. Back to camp for a wonderful campfire.

Saturday, the big day for my last trail! Only the mountains conspired against that idea, SNOW on the mountain tops closed 441 and Clingmans Dome Road. So we hiked one of  Linda's trails for her map. (thru the bear jam.)  Chestnut Top Trail with lovely wildflowers. We hiked into White Oak Sink to view the gorgeous yellow lady slippers, thanks to dedicated searching. Then out on Schoolhouse Gap Trail. And back thru the bear jam. We got a fire going, and set up for dinner believing the rain to be finished. Jim, Carol and Lynelle came to join us and Carol was carrying a cake! She had it made for my celebration, cake was decorated with mountains, stream and wildflowers. We lifted glasses in celebration anyway because we had cake, champagne and Prosecco, wine and beer. And gifts from my sweet friends. And then the umbrellas popped open. What a rainbow of colors.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear. 441 would probably open later today, maybe, not Clingmans Dome. So let's go to Deep Creek. Craig, Gloria Dale, and Linda headed home. The caravan headed to NC along the Foothills Parkway and the Dragons Tail. Merciful heavens.
We arrived at Deep Creek Campground, tents popped up. Garnett went toward trails she needed there, Diane, Amy, Nancy and I headed to Cooper Creek and the trout farm. Only the trout farm says no you can't park here. You can drive down this other road and find parking area to get you to Deeplow Gap. Only we searched and searched and the only parking we found was Thomas Divide trail, too far from Deeplow to hike today.

We found a sign for Hemlock Inn, and found a beautiful place (I just needed a place to pee). Somewhere we might like to stay sometime. Gorgeous mountain views from the porch and dining room. The proprietor answered the door and showed us around. Cool place.
 
Back to the campground we went. The other ladies took off to hike, I took off for more driving. Headed to Watts Bar Lake, Fooshee Pass Campground to meet Craig. He had set up our camper there for the next three nights. I had a beautiful drive, longer thanks to the GPS which led me Southwest, not NW. Over another curvy mountain road with beautiful views of mountains. The other ladies have many trails to cover the next few days, Happy Trails!

Thanks my friends! Diane, Nancy, Gloria Dale, Garnet, Linda, Amy, Judi. Y'all are the bestest!
Thanks to my sweet husband, Jim, Carol, and Lynelle, for coming to celebrate.

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2019 Townsend Eggscursion

After having our fiberglass trailer for over a year, we finally got to make an egg rally. We headed off to the Townsend Eggscursion. As soon as we pulled in we saw eggs (fiberglass trailers). The Eggscursion was being held at the KOA. A really nice campground with lots of extras. They had a guy show us to our campsite and even backed us in. I came into the camper and Lora said that we had a water leak. It was a brown water leak which putting two and two together I came up with Sweet Tea. Our pitcher had fell over in the refrigerator and leaked out through the lower cabinet and across the floor. We spent the first part of our day cleaning floors.

Dad and Mom showed up and we started our walk around the campground.  Talk about friendly people. We visited and everyone showed off their egg. Lots of stories to tell and what they liked and didn't like about their trailer.  With just one short break we pretty much spent the day doing the walk.

At six o'clock we headed to the pavilion next to our trailer for the pot luck dinner. What a spread they put out. Thirty two in all. As I was eating, I looked over at our trailer and there was brown streaks running down the side from the refrigerator panel. So after dinner, I was back to cleaning as Lora did a second cleaning of the floor.

We got a campfire going and invited the neighbors over.  They were worried about rain coming in tonight so they started packing up after dinner.  They had a 13' Scamp. They loaded their car and loaded their car all evening long. They were still loading as we went to bed. Where did they keep all that stuff and how much does one need to camp?

Sunday morning we hooked up the camper, said goodbye to the other egg people and drove to the trailhead for Schoolhouse Gap. They made the parking spaces long enough to park a rig here.

It was  a little rainy but that didn't stop us from going to the sinks to see the wildflower show. We saw a young photographer that was so engrossed in getting a trillium to smile for him, he didn't even see us till we spoke to him. It's cool to see young people so excited about the wildflowers.

Little Brown Jugs, Toothwort, Golden Alexander, Anemone, Dwarf Ginseng, Foam flower, abundant on the first part of the trail. In the sinks we found Pennyroyal, one Showy Orchis, Columbine was blooming on the rock wall, Shooting Stars and signs on the trail side telling us to STAY ON THE TRAIL, ZOOM IN. The areas close to the cave and water fall are fenced off, a lot more so than the last time we were here.

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