Backpacking the Great Smoky Mountains

Posted by rmorris on 1. February 2010 08:50

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“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”
-- Ed Viesturs (No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks)

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park sits on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.  The park is massive at about 500,000 acres, 95% of which is forest.  The park has over 800 miles of maintained trails with elevations ranging from 800 feet to 6,643 feet, including the Appalachian Trail (AT) running right through the park.  This park attracts more visitors annually then any other national park, because it is within a days drive of about 60% of the population of the United States.  This puts about nine million visitors a year in the park.  You would think this would make the park crowded and perhaps parts of the park at certain times of the year are crowded.  But when I was lucky enough to visit last October for a backpacking trip, we saw few people.  I’m guessing that, as with most parks, the majority of people go only at the peak of the season and even then they don’t venture far from the main roads.  

These ancient southern Appalachian mountains are some of the most beautiful in the world.  The park holds a wide diversity of animal and plant life as well as the remains of the mountain culture that was in these lands prior to the park being established.  The plant life creates a blue misty haze accounting for the name “Smoky” mountains.

For my first Smoky Mountain backpacking trip, my brother and I chose a two night hike near Fontana Dam up to Gregory Bald. Since I was flying in and my brother was driving we decided to meet at the airport and spend Friday night at a Bed & Breakfast close to the trail head.  I’m not crazy about the idea of going right from an airplane to the trail head.  This time it turned out to be a smart move staying at an Inn then hiking in the morning – mainly because when I arrived at the airport in North Carolina, my backpack didn’t. It didn’t make it onto the plane with me (probably because I checked-in 5 minutes before the plane was schedule to take off).  Continental Airlines was very good about it and offered to have the backpack delivered to me at my hotel – which they did.  The plane my pack was on was delayed by bad weather, and our B&B was way off the beaten path, but about 4:30 AM – it was delivered.  The B&B we stayed at was The Appalachian Inn in Robbinsville, NC (their web site).  I highly recommend this place! Run by Lance & Elizabeth Butler it was a very pleasant stay and the breakfast was a wonderful start to our hike.

We started our hike at Twentymile ranger station, a small outpost (no ranger there) off Lake Cheoah.  From there we walked up “Twentymile Trail” until it intersected with the “Long Hungry Ridge Trail”.  The walk through this part of the park is close to many steams and rivers, there were several crossings, some by log bridges others were small fords. We stopped at campsite #92 along that trail and had a nice relaxing evening.  Campsite #92 has no shelters, just a few spots to pitch tents and a rock fire pit.  I put my tent up not to far from a small stream that runs through that site and was able to sleep to the very nice sound of the running stream.  The campsites in the GSM park all have bear poles – tall steal flag pole type things with metal cables you can use to hoist up you food bags.  Much more convenient that having to throw up you own cord over a tree.

The next day we woke up to perfect weather and hiked up to Gregory Bald (elevation 4,949 feet).  Unfortunately on this trip I didn’t bring my camera so I’m including this video Trent put out on youtube (Trents youtube site) as well as a couple public domain photos. 

We planned on spending the night at campsite #13 which is just past the bald off the “Gregory Bald Trail” but as we got there in mid-afternoon we discovered the site was closed due to excessive bear activity. So we found ourselves hiking down the “Wolf Ridge Trail” to campsite #95.  This was an extremely nice walk and did include a few close encounters with bears (including a few bear cubs up in trees). 

The next day we walked out of the woods and went over to Fantana Dam (a site worth seeing all on it’s own) and made use of the public showers there.  The AT goes right over Fontana Dam and there are shower facilities there for the thru-hikers. I’m sure the person sitting next to me on the plane back home appreciated this as much as me!

Link to purchase map…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GSM Map

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Reading to Inspire a Hike

Posted by rmorris on 10. July 2009 11:06

Ever have some trouble getting the kids motivated for a hike?  How about your spouse?  Maybe you are married to someone that has a hard time understanding why you want to wonder around sleeping in the woods for weeks at a time?  Well, I was wondering around Campmor a few weeks ago and stumbled across this children’s book Halfway to the Sky by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.  It’s written for pre-teens (of which I have two).  It looked interesting so I picked it up.  I read it first (Sometime ago I was under the misguided impression that I could read all the books my kids read – before them to make sure they are OK.  This long ago went by the wayside since my eleven year old daughter reads about twice as fast as me and has five times more time to do it).

Halfway to the Sky is the story of a twelve year old girl, Dani how is going through a tough time.  Her older brother died of muscular dystrophy and her parents are recently divorced.  Dani runs away from home.  So that her parents don’t find her, she plans to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.  Her mother figures out where she has gone and catches up to her on her second night.  Dani is able to convince her mom to hike with her for a while.

During their hike, the experience of the trail is a catharsis for Dani and she is able to let go of her anger.  In the process Dani and her mom have bonded together.  When my daughter finished this book I could see she gained both a better understanding of how to deal with grief and anger and a much better understanding of how hiking and backpacking can free a person from the day-to-day ruts we all get stuck in.  It is always hard to put into words and explain to someone why it is we really love hiking.  This book allows the reader to get some insight into what the trail experience is like. 

The book is written for children, but after my daughters good reaction to it, my wife read it also.  Same reaction. I highly recommend it.

 

BTW: The links for the book on this page go to Amazon.com; If you by this $5.99 book via one of these links, this web site gets a 24 cent commission on the sale!  All I need to do is get about 25 people to buy this book and it will pay for the copy i purchase at Campmor!

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Ultimate Slackpacking and Hiking in the White Mountains

Posted by rmorris on 1. June 2009 07:56

I happen to live in the Northeast, the home of the Appalachian Mountain Club.  If you don’t life in this part of the county you may not have heard of it.  The AMC is an old hiking club started in 1876 and has about 90,000 members.  The organization does just phenomenal work including maintaining and running a series of ‘huts’ in the New Hampshire White Mountains.  The huts are spaced about a days hike away from each other and offer a nice place to sleep, meals and other activities.  This allows you to slackpack – even with children through some of the most beautiful mountains and wilderness.  This short video will give you an idea of how nice it can be.

 

The AMC has also added a few new blogs, one of which I feel looks very promising.  Kristen Laine is writing “Tips on getting kids outside” http://amcoutdoorskids.blogspot.com/ Take a look at it.

Tales from the Trail; Appalachian Trail journals

Posted by rmorris on 25. April 2009 10:04

Spring is finally here in full force, by now those hikers planning on a NOBO (north bound) thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail are well underway.  Some have already reached far into Virginia, others having gotten hurt or discouraged or for other reasons have left the trail.  I’ve developed a habit in recent years of checking in on their progress from time to time by reading their on-line trail journals.  These days with crack-berries and iPhones it is much easier for a hiker to update their journal.   Some hikers have their own web sites, but I tend to just check in with trailjournals.com (http://www.trailjournals.com/index.cfm). 

Just to give a small sampling, I’ve found four hikers ranging in age from 24 to 61 all with their own stories but all with the same passion for hiking the AT.  I’ll start with John, a.k.a. “nice lens” at 61 years old - as he puts it he is “well outside my comfort zone… Like most, I have been preparing and reading journals for over a year. Finally decided I had better get with the program. As I read John’s journal I found myself cheering for him.  At one point early on he was having a lot of trouble with his hip and thought he would quite – I kept hoping he wouldn’t – and he is still hiking.

Next I found a young couple hiking together with their dog; Georganna & Logan (and Corbin the dog).  These two are carrying a GPS device (spot) that transmits their location so you can follow them on a Google map if you like.  So far it sounds like they are really enjoying themselves… “the trail has been a blast...we started on springer mtn. with a bottle of whiskey and beautiful sunset. on the 21st we set out and had beautiful weather for several days! we heard coyotes howling right outside of our tent!”

Then there is “Snuggles” who started off on her solo thru-hike on March 19^th, much to the chagrin of her nervous parents!  She seems to have been born brave and with an amazing zest for adventure.  Here is a snippet from her journal…“but i didn’t make it there before sun down. so i went to look for my head lamp and i couldn’t find it. i didn’t know where Jen (from the store) had put it. i didn’t wanna take everything out in the dark just so i wouldnt leave anything behind. so... i walked in the dark. i could barely see anything, i had to use my hiking poles like a blind person so i could feel where the large rocks were and where it went up and down! i finally started hearing voices so i knew i had to be getting close. then i saw the fire! i just cut through the trees and went straight towards them and they all yelled "snuggles!!! you made it!" at this time it was 8:30pm. i had hiked 6 miles in only two hours. they couldn’t believe it! they helped me put my tent up since the shelter was full and lent me a head lamp to get settled. i wasn’t about to cook dinner at that time so i just ate a snickers bar and pop tart for dinner.”

With people like this along for the walk, no wonder we dream of being on the trail.

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Hiking with Children

Posted by rmorris on 17. April 2009 10:47

This is a beautiful April Friday afternoon in the Garden State, I decided to take a few hours off from work and go for a 5 mile hike in the woods.  This is the exact same hike I did last weekend with my kids, but this solo trek took only half the time.  That’s right - no surprise, hiking with kids takes longer.  Sometimes a lot longer.  The thing is if you want your children to grow up to love hiking, you’ve got to start sometime.  Besides, I like to be out in the wilderness with my kids.  It used to me harder, but now that my children are a bit older (10 and 7 years old) they enjoy hiking.

There are a few tricks I’ve learn that make it much easier.  The first thing is that the children must feel like they are part of the adventure, not being dragged along.  I find one of the ways to do this is the have them help in deciding where to hike, let them help plan it out.  When we actually get in the woods, let one of them lead (or at least appear to be leading by being in the front).  Whether the kids are in the front or the back, it is very important to let the smallest child set the pace.  Forget about making good time, high mileage is out.  The emphasis has to be on the good in making good time.  If the kids get worn out because daddy is pushing too hard, all you will have are tired cranky kids (and an even harder time getting them to go on the next hike).

Let the kids have fun.  That’s right you don’t have to make them have fun, Let them have fun.  A little preparation and forethought is helpful, but you really don’t have to have a hundred ideas on how to entertain the children ready to go.  It is more important to stay alert and sensitive to what the kids are experiencing.  Pickup on their ideas and turn their ideas into fun.  I’ll give you a couple of examples; Part of last weekend’s hike – about ½ mile into it included a short easy scramble up some boulders.  There was a well trodden path around the boulders, but I had hiked this same route several times alone before and was in the habit of just scrambling up the boulders – maybe 15 feet, without even thinking about it.  I did this and my 7 year old son followed right behind – absolutely delighted by this small climb!  Bingo! From now on I’ll keep my eye out for routes that involve these types of small scrambles.  I short time later the two kids start playing a game of ‘who am I’.   At first I found this a bit annoying (generally preferring some quiet) but I didn’t say anything.  I found a mile later they were happily still walking along playing ‘who am I’ (fairly quietly).

Keep an eye out for things kids are going to find interesting.  Alongside a lake in this hike we found several trees that beavers had been using to sharpen their teeth.   So we stopped for a bit and let the kids investigate.  Be flexible, just allow things to happen.  I will say though it is wise if possible to scout out the route solo first.  It’s important to know how long it is so the kids don’t get too tired.  It’s also helpful to know in advance what is up ahead – like beaver eaten trees (spontaneity is works much better when planned in advance).

I happen to find another blog that also had some interesting ideas on hiking with children you may want to check out;

http://trekaroo.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/building-up-those-hiking-legs/

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