Bloming Smokies

These blooms in the Smokies were along a walk I took a week ago along the Rich Mountain trail, and accessing this trail from Townsend and not from Cades Cove. This route is a favorite in that it's rarely crowded, provides a good physical challenge which can be modified depending on your ability at the time, and the year round beauty found along the walk. This beauty comes in the form of blooms, animals, noises of the wild and various other experiences found in only in the woods.

Rainbow Falls Trail Closures Begin May 8th

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced that a 2-year trail rehabilitation project will begin next week on the popular Rainbow Falls Trail. The trail will be closed May 8, 2017 through November 16, 2017 on Monday mornings at 7:00 a.m. through Thursday evenings at 5:30 p.m. weekly. Due to the construction process on the narrow trail, a full closure is necessary for the safety of both the crew and visitors. The trail will be fully open each week on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and on federal holidays.

The parking lot at the Rainbow Falls trailhead area will be closed May 8 through June 15, Monday through Thursday, to facilitate heavy re-construction of the trailhead area where several trails intersect. After June 15, the parking lot will be open so users can access the Old Sugarlands Trail and the Trillium Gap Trail connector trail. 

Hikers can still reach Mt. Le Conte, LeConte Lodge, and the Le Conte Shelter by using one of the other four open trails to the summit.

The Trails Forever crew will focus rehabilitation efforts on several targeted locations along the 6-mile trail to improve visitor safety and stabilize eroding trail sections. Rainbow Falls Trail is one of the most popular trails in the park leading hikers to Rainbow Falls and Mt. Le Conte. The planned work will improve overall trail safety and protect natural resources by reducing trail braiding and improving drainage to prevent further erosion. 

Trails Forever is a partnership program between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Friends of the Smokies. The Trails Forever program provides the opportunity for a highly skilled trail crew to focus reconstruction efforts on high use and high priority trails in the park including the recently restored Alum Cave Trail, Chimney Tops Trail, and Forney Ridge Trail. The program also provides a mechanism for volunteers to work alongside the trail crew on these complex trail projects to assist in making lasting improvements to preserve the trails for future generations.

For more information about trail closures, please visit https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/temproadclose.htm.

Peace Along the Trail

This walk in the woods Wednesday took me up the Rich Mtn. Trail, which is one I recommend accessing primarily from outside the park if you're doing just an in-and-out hike.  If you are in for a longer day hike with a lunch break at campsite #5, then you may want to coordinate your route with a visit to Cades Cove and begin the loop out of Cades Cove for about an 8-9ml route. And note that water is scarce in the dryer parts of the year (July-September). Thus make sure you've got an adequate supply or are ready to hunt some up around sight #5, which can be done, usually, by following the Rich Mtn. trail down a few hundred yards from the campsite.

The route I often choose involves approaching from Townsend and hiking the Rich Mtn Trail up to #5, then sometimes making the loop after a brief readjustment of footwear and drinking some water. This approach adds 4.6 miles to the loop.
Either approach to the completion of this loop should be considered moderately difficult due incline, elevation lost and gained, the distance and a lack of frequent water availability. 
Though it is one of my favorites as there is frequent wildlife encounters, lots of colors, even when they are just shades of green, and relatively few people use this trail thus, it's usually quiet.

Spring is Blooming

We had snow in the GSMNP above about 3000' a few days ago.  The same week I was walking in the woods and saw these beautiful parts of the annual growth. This deer and these blooms were happening along the West Prong trail.

White Oak Sink Restricted Use

From my friends at the GSMNP.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials will reopen the Whiteoak Sink area with limited access effective April 1 through May 15 to limit human disturbance in critical bat habitat and help hikers avoid interactions with bats. Park biologists will continue monitoring bat populations near the site as they emerge from winter hibernacula to collect population, ecological, and behavioral data that will provide resource managers information to develop a long-term protection plan. 

The Whiteoak Sink area is primarily accessed from the Schoolhouse Gap Trail between Townsend and Cades Cove. Hikers may descend into the Whiteoak Sink area, but access to the waterfall and additional areas are closed.  The closed areas are clearly marked by orange fencing or signs. Hikers may not hike beyond the restricted areas. 

“The Whiteoak Sink area provides critical wintering habitats for bats,” said Park Superintendent Cassius Cash. “We ask that everyone respect these closures in order to minimize disturbance to declining bat populations as they emerge from hibernation.”

Biologists continue to see dramatic declines in cave-dwelling bat populations in the park due to white-nose syndrome (WNS). Bat researchers from Indiana State University have been monitoring summer bat populations since 2009 and documented declines ranging from 87% for tri-colored bats to 100% for little brown bats using mist-net surveys. Historically, these species were two of the most common in the park. Since 2013, researchers surveyed primary bat caves in the park and documented a 92% decline for the endangered Indiana bat. Surveys of secondary bat caves documented an 82.7% to 94.6% overall population decline for all cave-dwelling bats.

Infected bats are marked by a white fungal growth on their noses, wings, and tail membrane. The skin irritation damages skin tissue causing the bats to wake from hibernation during winter months. Once aroused, the bats burn energy at a much faster rate depleting stored fat. With no food source available during the winter, the bats soon die. Infected bats exhibit unusual behavior including flying erratically during the day, even during winter months, and diving down toward people. They may be seen flopping around on the ground around cave openings.

The park is home to 13 species of bats including the recently discovered Gray bat, the federally endangered Indiana bat, and the federally threatened northern long-eared bat which was added to the list in February due to declines caused by WNS . Bats play a significant role in maintaining ecological balance as the primary predators of night-flying insects. Biologists estimate that an individual bat can eat between 3,000 to 6,000 insects each night including moths, beetles, and mosquitoes.  

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is cooperatively working with other parks and federal, local and state agencies across the country to protect bats and manage their habitats. In an effort to prevent the unintentional spread of WNS by people, the park closed all of its 16 caves and two mine complexes to public entry in 2009. Ongoing research in the Smokies includes monitoring bat populations in the winter during hibernation and tracking bats in the summer to determine habitat use. A plan released by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service aimed at stabilizing the dramatic decline of the Indiana bat identified hibernacula found in the Smokies as one of only 13 sites across the country identified as critical habitat for this endangered bat. Wildlife biologists have determined that giving the bats the chance to survive includes establishing protective zones surrounding critical habitat caves.

  

Humans are not susceptible to WNS because the fungus requires a cold body temperature to survive, but skin-to-skin contact with bats should be avoided due to other transmittable diseases such as rabies. Bats are the only mammal species in the park that have tested positive for rabies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the transmission of rabies virus can occur from minor, seemingly unimportant, or unrecognized bites from bats. For human safety, it is important not to touch or handle a bat. The Department of Health and Human Services recommends that individuals should seek immediate medical attention if they have had skin-to-skin exposure to a bat.

For more information about bats, please the park website at http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/caves.htm

Solar Eclipse in August

This is from my friends at the GSMNP.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, blocking at least part of the sun as viewed from some areas of the earth. During a total solar eclipse, the moon completely obscures the sun so that only the sun's corona is visible for a moment in time. On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible along a roughly 67-mile wide path across the United States from Oregon to South Carolina. For more information on the Great American Solar Eclipse, check out NASA's website .
The entire western half of Great Smoky Mountains National Park will fall under the path of totality for the eclipse, providing opportunities for viewing, weather permitting. The park is currently planning organized public viewing events at three locations in the park: Clingmans Dome; Cades Cove; and Oconaluftee.
Clingmans Dome: Clingmans Dome Trailhead parking area will be converted to a special ticketed event site for experiencing the eclipse with the assistance of experts, educational exhibits, and story tellers. Tickets will be available for purchase on a first come first serve basis through recreation.gov and are expected to go on sale March 1st. You must have a ticket to attend the event at Clingmans Dome. Clingmans Dome Road will be closed on Sunday, August 20th and Monday, August 21st to accommodate the special event.
Cades Cove and Oconaluftee: The park is currently planning to host informal staff- guided eclipse viewing sites at Cable Mill (Cades Cove) and Oconaluftee Visitor Center. There will be no charge to participate. Vehicle access to these sites, though, may be closed when parking becomes full or roads become congested.

Smokey Mountains National Park Re-opens

The GSMNP will re-open today, Friday Dec. 9th, after closing a large section of the park due to the deadly firestorm which raged from the park into nearby towns and communities a couple of weeks ago. Please read the dispatch below for details as many trails and some roads will remain Closed and the Park Service needs your cooperation in adhering to the restrictions regarding these trails and roads.  This will help ensure your safety and the firefighters who are still working to make sure the current fires are completely out.  Thank you.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will officially reopen to the public on Friday, December 9 in conjunction with the reopening of the city of Gatlinburg. Newfound Gap Road, Little River Road, and several visitor areas have been closed since the evening of Monday, November 28 due to the Chimney Tops 2 wildfire.

The National Park Service joins Gatlinburg in welcoming visitors back to the area. Newfound Gap Road, Little River Road, the Gatlinburg Bypass, and the Spur will reopen at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, December 9. Park visitor centers at Sugarlands, Oconaluftee, and Cades Cove will resume their regularly scheduled operating hours. Cherokee Orchard Road will remain closed at this time.

The following trails are closed due to wind or fire damage: Chimney Tops Trail, Road Prong Trail, Sugarland Mountain Trail from Mt Collins Shelter to Little River Road, Huskey Gap Trail, Rough Creek Trail, Old Sugarlands Trail, Twin Creeks Trail, Baskins Creek Trail, Bull Head Trail, Rainbow Falls Trail, Trillium Gap Trail, Grapeyard Ridge Trail from Campsite 32 to Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Gatlinburg Trail, Cove Mountain Trail, Sugarland Valley Nature Trail, Noah Bud Ogle Nature Trail, Cove Hardwood Nature Trail, the Sugarlands Horse Concession trails, and the quiet walkways along Newfound Gap Road.

The safety of our visitors is our primary concern and we ask that everyone explore only areas of the park that remain open and abide by trail closures.  Visitors are required to remain in their vehicles when passing through the burned areas and should not enter any burned areas by foot. Visitors are reminded that though the area has received heavy rains in recent days, firefighters are still actively establishing containment lines to ensure the fire is fully extinguished.

Motorists are reminded to carefully travel along the roadways and to allow crews safe work space.  Public Information Officers will be on site near the Gatlinburg entrance of the park and at overlooks along Newfound Gap Road to answer questions regarding the fire.

Several upcoming park events have been postponed or cancelled.  The Festival of Christmas Past, scheduled for December 10, has been cancelled.
For more information on temporary road and trail closures, please visit the park website at https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/temproadclose.htm.