Short Walks

Today was really nice w/ temps in the upper 60's and clear skies! Yesterday the weather was nice as well, all things considered, yet time only allowed for a short walk on the west prong trail/loop each day. Today I bushwacked a short route off the trail that connected back with the unmarked loop. Earlier this week I walked around the middle prong in the snowfall.
Haa! That was fun, as I sat looking at a Topo at the trailhead, 6 backpackers came down the trail from #28. They stopped and we started talking. Seems they were going to walk to the road and make their way back to Elkmont where they had parked a couple of days ago. I kindly pointed out to them the difficulty with that plan. To make a long story short they waited while I took a short walk. When I returned they loaded all six of their packs and themselves into my 240 DL wagon and off to Tremont we drove. Once there 4 of them got out with the packs and I took the other 2 over to Elkmont, via Wear Valley due to the rock slide, where they got the vehicle and I assume headed back to their mates.
Interesting thing was these guys seemed relatively prepared by looking at the gear they had and clothes they were wearing but apparently did not look at the map closely enough, or were hoping for a fellow backpacker to give them a ride. They left me with the welcome to hike Michigan; from where they had driven, and they'd give me ride if they see me. Well, I thanked them and thought that may happen after Big Ben, the Sawtooths, Tetons, Glacier, Ozarks, ..... Peace

Sunday in The Park

This approx. 3 mile, excursion (RT), was taken w/ some friends. One who had walked the Middle Prong Trail, though not recently and another friend who had never been on it. They were both eager to get out on this wonderful spring day in Southern Appalachia so walk we did! And we covered much more trail than originally discussed. It was a fun walk w/ lots of sharing of views and experiences and despite the full parking area at the trail head we spent relatively little in time the presence of others.
We did speak w/ two folks who had planned on a nice night at #28, but did not plan on the cold temperatures and had brought hammocks to sleep in instead of a tent (This reminds me of Forest' walk in Chickamauga Battlefield a few months ago, Lost, 12/29/08). They said they did not sleep at all because they were so cold and had actually just gotten their stuff packed up after bivouacking along the trail and sleeping some. I hope these folks will try again!

Lynn Camp Prong 12/03/08

This approx. 6 mile walk began at the Middle Prong trail on a cold and partly cloudy day. The difficulty is easy to moderate w/ the moderate section contained in the last 2 miles. My walk began w/ snow in the woods and for the last 3 miles or so the snow was frequently covering the trail. By the time I made it to the site it was probably 6 inches deep off the trail.
I got on the trail about 2:20pm, and made the trip to #28 on the Lynn Prong Trail about 35 minutes before it got dark. Upon arrival I set up my tent, prepared my cooking stuff, and gathered some small sticks for a fire. After eating some Zatarain's chicken and rice I got a small fire going w/ the sticks I had gathered, and the help of a small fire starter. Just as the fire was getting strong the crescent moon was showing w/ Jupiter and Venus bright in the sky beside it. A friend and I were talking the other day about how fast these celestial bodies move through the night and I was reminded of this as these two planets were hard to locate mixed amongst the stars a short time later.
Tuesday night was cold! My sleeping bag is rated to zero and I was glad because it felt like the temperature dropped easily into the low 20's maybe lower, w/ the elevation gain and all the snow. As a fellow hiker had cautioned me several days before, I chose not to make an attempt for Derrick's Knob on Wednesday alone and had canceled my plans w/ the Backcountry office already. I took this picture along the walk as it reminded me of a good friends favorite childhood story.
This excursion tested my relative inexperience in these conditions and will better prepare me for my next! Peace