16 Şubat 2013 Cumartesi

Wouldn't Take Nothin' For My Journey Now

To contact us Click HERE

Smokies SB6K Backpack Trip – Day 3 – 6/10/12 – AT/Snake DenRidge Trail – 13.1 Miles
Through the night I dozed and listened, quiet except for a raucouschorus of frogs in the wee hours.  Rainwas predicted the day before but it avoided us. According to Jeff, rain was again predicted for today beginning at 7:00a.m.  But rain or shine, this was ourlast day and I could handle whatever came. By 7:00 a.m. we were packing up and still dry. 
Raindrops began to whisper on the shelter roof at 7:30a.m.  Ah well…
Suited up for a wet day – two SB6K summits to go. 
Despite the clouds, we still had a view and some rhodosblooming on the AT
An old granddaddy rhodo- dendron bush covered in glowing lichen


From time to time I am asked which trail in the Great SmokyMountains is my favorite, and my standard answer is that I have some favoritedays hiking there due to a combination of the trail, the weather, my fellow hikers(or solo), and the events on that hike.  But…it’shard to downplay the uniqueness of the Appalachian Trail following theridgeline of the Smokies.  Every step ofit is infused with magic if you open yourself up.   NorthCarolina drops down over one shoulder and Tennessee drops down over the other.  Impressions of tens (hundreds?) of thousandsof footsteps are underneath your feet, of humans on a soul-searching walk oranimals looking for lunch.  The2-by-6-inch white rectangles painted on the trees are the same as the ones inMaryland and in Maine.  So whether thesun is shining or the rain is dripping, the AT through the Smokies is a specialplace to be. 
Rain gear doesn’t really keep you dry when it’s above 50degrees, because you sweat inside with the exertion of hiking.  But it makes you think you’re stayingdry.  And today it served anotherpurpose:  protecting us from morescratches and scrapes during our bushwhacking. The rain tapered off but the woods were saturated as we began ournext-to-last and most difficult SB6K summit, Mt. Guyot on the AT.  Jeff’s memory of Mt. Guyot was accurate:  a terrible, awful, no-good, very badbushwhack.  The half-mile slog uphill tookus a solid hour.  Even with Jeff’s GPStrack, we tried and abandoned a couple of routes near the summit because of additionaldeadfall since his last visit.  Theblackberry briars grew way overhead and we spent a lot of time stomping a paththrough (which helped a lot on the return, only a half hour). 
Slimy snails were every- where, a bumper crop, and they seemedto bother me much more than the thought of gigantic rattle- snakes.  Grabbing onto tree trunks and branches, a fewtimes I squished a little fellow and shrieked, doing a little dance of disgustas I wiped my hand on my rain pants. YUCK.
The summit of Mt. Guyot at last.  Yes, this is worth it.

The final summit of Old Black was also difficult but muchshorter, a .4-mile roundtrip.  A bitanti- climactic after Mt. Guyot, but a triumph nevertheless.  Now all we had to do was walk to my car –about two miles on the AT and then 5 miles down Snake Den Ridge Trail.  Downhill sounded great, but I knew that by trail’send my thighs would be shaking and my knees would be aching.  But hey, I just finished bagging sevenoff-trail peaks in the Smokies!  I feltgreat. 
Continuing northbound on the AT past Old Black, we kept oureyes peeled for the remains of an F-4 Phantom fighter plane that crashed intothe ridge near Inadu Knob in 1984. Fragments from the wreck are scattered around the area close to the ATintersection with Snake Den Ridge Trail. I had not seen this the last time I was here.  I don’t know how I missed it then, but it isvery obvious just off the trail to the right. Jeff guessed that some of the pieces had been collected together at thisspot.
We turned left onto Snake Den Ridge Trail and began our longdescent.  At the next intersection wesplit up.  Jeff turned onto Maddron BaldTrail so he could get in some new miles and also check out the Albright Grove Loop,a .7-mile side trail through rare old growth hardwood forest.  I continued on down Snake Den Ridge.
The smoky view from Snake Den Ridge Trail
Galax blooms lining the trail
Something big was digging around here not long ago
Can never have too many photos of rhodo- dendron up close
Crossing Inadu Creek on Snake Den Ridge Trail, I met afellow here who had backpacked in overnight carrying a huge camera and tripod
Alternate-leaved dogwood
Fun fungi

A half-mile from the end of Snake Den Ridge Trail is theWilliamson Cemetery.  Most of the graves datefrom the early 1900’s, but noteworthy is a marker dated 1982 for Ella V.Costner, a World War II POW and Poet Laureate of the Smokies. 
The day was not over when I arrived at the trailhead.  I walked through the Cosby Campground to thehiker parking area and saw my precious Honda Pilot waiting where Daniel andMike had left it, along with a note of their whereabouts today.  Turns out they were walking the same trail asJeff (Maddron Bald) but we missed them by a couple of hours.  I changed clothes, cleaned up a little, andwent in search of the Maddron Bald trailhead, going completely on memoryseveral years old.  Luckily I recognizedroad names and landmarks.  After a shortwait, Jeff stumbled up with tired, sore feet and was ready to go home.  Me too.
I knew that this weekend would be hard, hard work…and itwas.  Yet for all that physical effortand discomfort, the feeling of being on a trail was as uplifting and transformativeas always.  I don’t know if I will evergo bushwhacking again without a specific challenge goal, but I hope I can keephiking the trails forever.
Thanks, Jeff.
Wouldn’t take nothin' for myjourney now.  ~Jimmie Davis

Hiç yorum yok:

Yorum Gönder