OUR WEEKEND ADVENTURES

Sugarloaf Mountain

2011-12-27T17:53:00.001-05:00

Our first real outing here in the Old Line State was to Sugarloaf Mountain. The "mountain" is all of 1,282 feet. As puny as that may sound, it still makes for nice views. Anything you read about Sugarloaf is likely to say the same thing: despite its relatively low elevation as a "mountain", Sugarloaf dominates the horizon. It's surrounded by flat terrain of 300 to 400 feet.

If you're out looking for a rugged outdoor experience, somewhere to test your mountaineering and orienteering skills, this is not the place. But it is perfect for family outings. The various trail lengths do allow you to choose from a range of experiences. There is a trail that skirts the base of the mountain, where you can really work up some miles and enjoy relative solitude. If you want to head for the peak to take in some views, it's only about a 200 foot gain from the parking lot, and less than a mile. The views from the peak are nothing to laughed at.

Aside from the trails and views, the mountain also has some significant history. Unfortunately, our trip came on a weekday afternoon when I got home from work, so we didn't have ample time to explore the man-made attractions. There is a mansion and some other buildings.

When we arrived, we forgot to grab a map, so we had some issues finding the trail we wanted. Initially we headed down the trail the skirts the peak, thinking that eventually it would lead us to the top. After a few minutes we backtracked and found the green-blazed trail that was to take us to the top.

Even while hiking on the red-blazed trail, there were still some nice rock out-croppings that offered decent views, and it was enough to keep Gabriel entertained.

The green-blazed trail to the top was well maintained. Purists would say a little too well-maintained. It was paved with flagstone, and when the elevation kicked in, there were stone-carved steps with a rail. For this occasion, I was okay with the manicured walk-way. Laura was about 7 months pregnant and Gabriel benefited from the improved footing.

The exposed rock "cliffs" up toward the peak were, in their own way, impressive. When we went up there were some rock jocks using the boulders as a training spot. Gabriel was impressed.

We got to the top with enough daylight to have a snack and soak in the views. Again, even with the low elevation, the views were impressive. We were a little past time for peak fall colors, and high winds had knocked most of the leaves off the trees. It was still great scenery. In the end, Sugarloaf Mountain gets a thumbs-up from me. Young families in the area should put this one on their shortlist

Old Dominion

2011-06-07T15:08:00.021-04:00

100 Miles. It has a bit of a new meaning to me now. before last weekend, 100 miles meant about an hour and a half of driving. Or maybe a full weeks worth of heavy hiking. It meant a "century" when it comes to road biking, something a lot of bikers work hard to accomplish.

I hike. A lot. My two longest hiking adventures were the Foothills Trail, and the GA section of the Bartram Trail. The totals for those hikes combined is about 85 miles, or 7 days of hiking. I could drive to the University of Georgia from my home in Augusta, an hour-and-45-minute car ride, in 97 miles. you could drive the entire D.C. Beltway 1.5 times and not get 100 miles in. You could go from the Washington Mall, to downtown Baltimore and back in less than 100 miles! You see the point. 100 miles is a long way.

On June 4th, 68 brave souls put their toes on the starting line and bowed for prayer. It was 4 a.m. on the fairgrounds of the small town of Woodstock, VA. As soon as "Amen" was spoken, a gun fired into the air, and all 68 runners set out to take on a 100-mile course undulating through the Shenandoah Valley. Oh yeah, they only had 24 hours to do it. This was my second time playing the role of support crew for one of Greg's ultra-marathons. A few years ago I showed up to witness his first attempt at running the JFK 50-miler. 50 miles is so hard for someone like me to comprehend. Greg finished that race in a pretty impressive time. He crossed the line in just under 9 hours. 9 hours of running is something that I simply cannot wrap my head around.... 100!? 24 hours!?

Well, I could spell out all the details of the race in a line-by-line account of our 26-hour day. In reality, it can be summed up briefly. As race crew, we met Greg at 10 different designated locations throughout the race course. We made sure he had anything and everything he needed. And we tried to be sure he didn't sit down for too long. We did that 10 times. There was very little difference between each of the stops. I guess the most glaring difference was the fact that fewer and fewer runners were coming in and out of the rest stops as the day went on.

23 hours and 9 minutes after Greg started the race, he crossed the finish line. I'm still amazed. Being friends with Greg means being able to put up with, and dish out, a whole lot of smack talking. Its kinda the modus communique of our group of amigos. Unfortunately, when your friend runs 100 freakin' miles in one day, you have no choice but to succumb to the reality that he is the man (for a week or two, at least). So, just this once (and any other time he runs 50 or more miles), I'll admit it: "Greg, you just blew my mind. You're the man."

Black Mountain Crest Trail

2011-05-28T13:47:00.045-04:00

This one is certainly worth a blog entry. A friend of mine at work has been interested in going on a hike with me for a while now. I would throw out some ideas from time to time, but nothing ever caught his attention. That was, until I asked him what he thought about climbing the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi. His ears perked up, and before long we had hashed out a plan. I was hoping to make a nice loop, maybe including nearby Mt. Craig and Big Tom Mountain. But once Brian heard me mention "the hardest hike in the east" he insisted we tackle it. This was his first backpacking trip ever. I told him I had sufficient gear for the two of us, and that we could go pretty light. However, in a statement he would come to regret later, he insisted that I load him up. I believe the quote was, "I really want this to kick my a--." Can do sir! Lucky for me, this meant my pack was plenty light. Even after packing my full rain regalia, I had everything in the 35-liter pack I usually reserve for day hikes. I would guess it was under 30 pounds. Brian;s pack was probably between 40-45. Let me add that Brian is in very good shape. Last September he completed the Air Force marathon with a respectable time and went on to do well in an Air Force Special Forces selection school. Normally I would never subject a first time hiker to a trail like this, or to a pack 50% heavier than my own. If anyone could handle it though, Brian could.

Our plan was to start at the Bowlens Creek trailhead just outside of Burnsville, NC. Everything we read about this hike said it was an insanely grueling and very technical hike. I have read plenty of trail reviews like this before, and none of them panned out. My most recent memory was of the Rim-of-the-Gap trail in SC. This was supposed to be for the most experienced hikers... not so much. It was a great hike, but the "technical" aspects were laughable. With that in mind, I didn't expect us to have too much trouble.

After some difficulty finding the trailhead, we finally started up the ridge. We were joined for the first few miles by a pair of "bear dogs". We found out later that the black bear population around the Black Mountains has been booming the last few years. Bear dogs are just hound dogs that local hunters equip with radio collars and set them out. The dogs will run the bears for a few days, tree them, and wait. The hunters then use the collars to track the dogs, and therefore, the bears. These two followed us for quite a while. The owner finally met up with us at one of our stops.

The first few miles of the hike lead me to believe all the trail reports were once again slightly over-blown. Don't get me wrong, the climb up Celo Knob (the first high point on the ridge) was grueling, but not any more than any other mountain climb. It was the typical Southern Appalachian hike: an old logging road that was slowly being reclaimed, with rhododendron lining the edges. The old growth hardwoods we hiked through were a bit of a change, though. Old growth hardwood is hard to come by in this area, since so much of it was logged in the early 19th century.

(these are new growth trees. According to the topo, this was an old heli pad)

Eventually the scenery started to change as we started to close in on 5,000 feet. The old growth turned into hemlock stands, and we finally hit the switchbacks taking us away from Bowlens Creek. We had switched back over to the west side of the ridge, and as the sun started to go down, we could just barely glimpse some of the other peaks coming into view in the distance.

We took one final water stop before making our final push up Celo Knob. We were starting to feel the burn of the 3,000+ foot climb in our calves and thighs. Luckily we hit a water source close to the peak, meaning fetching water from our campsite wouldn't be near the task we originally thought.

We pushed up and finally gained the ridge. To the north (our left), the valley was filled with clouds. Those clouds, while not masking Celo Knob, were rolling over the ridge just a few hundred yards from where we were. To the west (straight ahead of us), The sun was getting ready to drop below the distant peaks. We decided to drop our packs and enjoy it for a while.

After taking in the views for a while, we finally started to consider our evening accomodations. We began looking around but the camping spot we read about on Celo Knob was nowhere to be found.

Feeling a bit of haste due to the quickly disappearing sunlight, we reluctantly loaded the packs and continued across the ridge in search of flat and clear ground. We were getting lucky as far as the clouds go; they weren't intruding on our remaining daylight hours. We couldn't say the same for the ridgelines in the distance.

We were scooting along the ridge and came to the open space on top of Horse Rock, just past the junction with Woody Ridge Trail. So we finally found some open and flat terrain, but this terrain was a little too open. The few trees that were there only had branches on the east side of their trunks, reminding passers-by that this spot sees plenty of high winds. We finally spotted a small clump of cedars and set up the tent.

We made a weak attempt at starting a fire, then had some dinner. Not wasting too much time, we climbed into our sleeping bags. Joining us on this hike was my dog, Austin. He does really well on the trail. He doesn't usually get too over-excited at the sight of other hikers, he is very athletic, and just the right size: not so big he's a burden, but not so small you have to worry about every rock-hop. The only bad part about bringing him is that he gets cold pretty easily. But he made himself a nice spot between our bags and slept pretty well.

Come to think of it, we all slept pretty well. The least desirably portion of any hike for me is the sleeping. I almost always sleep terribly on the trail. This night however, I slept pretty well. Brian, about 2.8 seconds after laying his head down, was out cold. And lucky for us, that wind that I was so afraid of never picked up. Other than a couple of crazy night hikers that passed our tent at about midnight, we slept uninterupted.

The next morning, after Brian rolled out of his bag, I asked him what the view was like. There as a slight pause, then a flurry of adjectives and expletives. The clouds that were covering the ridge the night before had cleared out. At the same time, fog had gathered between some of the distant ridges, turning the mountain tops into islands in the sky. That, combined with the way the sun was raking across the grassy knob around our campsite, made for one heck of a sunrise.

With the clouds gone, we got our first glimpse of ridgeline as it stretched out towards Mt. Mitchell. Feeling anxious to get going, we packed up pretty quickly and broke camp right at 9:00 a.m.

Our first obstacle of the day was Gibbs Mountain. The views just kept coming. We weren't making much progress because we kept stopping to take pictures. These views were as good as any I have ever seen and since I toted my dSLR up to the ridge, I was going to take advantage. Looking back, I'm really glad we did. I fully expected to get better views the closer to Mt. Mitchell we got but that just was not the case. It was exactly opposite. Horse Rock and Celo Knob were pretty much the high water mark for breath-taking views. Don't get me wrong, all the views on this hike are awesome but at the north end of the ridge, they are more panoramic and more frequent.

After Gibbs Mountain, we began to lose a lot of altitude along the trail. We pulled out that the map to size up our location. We were getting ready to take on Winter Star Mountain. Let me slow down here and add a little extra emphasis for any readers who may plan on tackling this hike in the future: you WILL be exhausted after hiking Winter Star!

Although Winter Star is not any higher than most of the other peaks on the ridge (in fact, it is shorter at just over 6200 feet), this is where the trail really gets technical. The rocks get bigger, the climbs are steeper, and the descent to Deep Gap on the south side of the peak is knee-busting. You will, however, enjoy some amazing views from the summit.

Deep Gap is a very fitting name for what follows after Winter Star. The entire stretch from Celo Knob to Mt. Mitchell is near or above 6,000 ft., with the exception of Deep Gap. When we reached the bottom of the gap, we dropped our packs and had lunch. We also needed to refill our water bottles here. Colbert Ridge Trail, a popular approach trail for folks trying to reach Mt. Mitchell, comes in from the east. We knew there was a creek about a half mile down that trail, but we didn't feel like losing another 500 or so feet. According to the topo map we got at the Appalachian Ranger Station in Burnsville, there was a stream exactly opposite the gap from Colbert Ridge Trail, and less than half the distance away. With that in mind we started bushwhacking down the west side of the ridge.

About 20 minutes later we returned to our packs with no water, just a little more burning in the thighs. We found an unmarked road going to who knows where, but no water. We decided that maybe we could make it to Big Tom, where the map showed water right by a small connector trail.

We pushed off, and quickly ran into a hiker coming the opposite direction. We asked him about the water sitation on Big Tom, and he laughed. "There's no water there, or anywhere, until you get to Mt. Mitchell State Park." We looked at each other dejectedly, then looked back at the man, who said, "I can show you guys a spot up here on Colbert Ridge Trail."

We went back to Deep Gap and followed the old man to a big rock with a tiny trickle underneath it (old man being a relative term. He probably was no more than 45 years old, but for a hike like this one, that's as old a man as you'll see out here). It took a while to fill the bottles with such a light trickle. In that short period of time we got an earful of Pacific Crest and Appalachian Trail hiking stories. "You guys gotta get out there and do that while you're still young. You GOT to. You can't do it when you get old like me. I finished the AT with an 80-year-old man, but guys like that are far and few between." The best line came when I asked him which was better (knowing that almost any hiker that has done both says its no comparison- PCT hands down). "Well, the PCT has so much diveristy and the scenery is amazing, but there's no sex. No girls hike the PCT, and when you do run into one, they look at you like you're a nasty hippie hiker dude." Brian and I laughed.

Now with our almost two hour lunch break behind us, we finally pushed on towards Big Tom. This is where the hike really started to drain us. The views were becoming more scarce. Our solitude was gone. Once you pass Deep Gap, you're in range of all the dayhikers doing out-and-backs from Mt. Mitchell. Some of them were as polite as you could hope for. Others had blood-thirsty dogs with them and skull tattoos.

It was somewhere between the rope climbs up and down Big Tom and the rock scrambles on Balsam Cone that we officially hit the wall. Our original plan was to reach Mt. Mitchell some time between 4 and 5, take some time to buy souveniers, then turn around and head back to Deep Gap. That was going to give us all day Sunday to make it the 7 miles back to the car at Bowlens Creek. After making the ups and downs of Big Tom Mountain, Balsam Cone, and then Mount Craig, there was simply no way we could turn around and do it again that same evening.

We finally reached Mt. Mitchell State Park at about 5:30. The wind had officially left our sails and at this point we were looking for a bailout. Being the first clear weekend of the season for the park, it was packed. We couldn't get a campsite there. Our next idea was just to get a ride back to the car. This fell through when the rangers told us any shuttle service required 48 hour advanced notice. Our last hope was a taxi. Asheville isn't too far, so maybe we could get one without breaking the bank. The young ranger, a naturalist actually, said he called the company and it would be around $200. We sank into the park bench not knowing that the heck we were going to do. Apparently our sad state was obvious to the ranger, and he somewhat reluctantly offered to give us a ride. "Oh man, thanks! Dinner, gas, whatever you want, it's on us!"

So we waited around for a few minutes while he finished up. We loaded into his Subaru and headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway. After taking some turns at NASCAR speed, we finally got our first views of the entire ridge we had just hiked. "Yeah, I've tried to hike it a couple of times, but I never even made it up Celo Knob. It's a tough one. I really don't know many people that have hiked it from Bowlens Creek. Most people start from Mt. Mitchell and go down." Hearing him say that gave me a big shot of confidence, even though I wasn't entirely confident I would survive his car ride down the winding mountain road back to Burnsville.

Being back at the car was such a relief. It felt like we had been on the ridge for a week and a half, not a day and a half. We didn't complete our itenerary but we did complete the trail. I told Brian he set the bar awefully high for himself, in more ways than one. He would likely never find a more challenging hike. He would also be hard pressed to find that many views from one trail. After all, it is literally the highest ridge in the east. Another great aspect of this trail is the plant diversity. The diversity gets overshadowed by all the amazing views but it's as good as anywthing I've seen. Even the Great Smoky Mountains National Park didn't offer this much diversity. We saw old growth hardwoods, open grassy knobs, evergreen stands with huge hemlocks, and greenery so vivid you'd think you were hiking in Olympia National Park.

Brian was sore and beat, but I think the highs outweighed the lows for him. It won't be too long before we're back on the trail. Something with a little less elevation though.

Downtown ATL... at least we tried

2011-02-24T10:28:00.007-05:00

For my hordes of followers, don't worry, I know the last two posts have been about trips to cities. We haven't lost sight of the wilderness though. Winter weather isn't quite gone yet, so before we take our first spring backpacking trip, we're gonna give the weather time to warm up a little bit more. In the meantime, we decided to give Atlanta a try. I've been to Atlanta a handful of times, but those trips all revolved around a single event; a Braves game, a basketball game, my triathlon two years ago, a stop at R.E.I. on the way to the mountains. This time we decided to spend a couple of days being tourists.

We got there Saturday afternoon and after checking in at the hotel we headed down the street to R.E.I. to see about getting Laura a new bicycle. Last year we went to Wal-Mart and spent bare minimum money on mountain bikes for each of us to use to ride around town on, but in the case of her bike, we got what we paid for. The brakes didn't work, the gears were terrible, it just wasn't a good fit. With Christmas and tax-return money still in her pocket, she decided to make the investment in a nice hybrid from R.E.I. Two hours later, after settling on a nice Cannondale, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a biking trip in downtown on Sunday.

Gabriel woke us up late that night with his stomach bug. We got him back to sleep after cleaning up the mess, and luckily he slept in Sunday morning. When I woke up, however, the stomach bug had claimed a new victim. Laura had been up hugging the toilet during the night. I slept right through it. So she was officially out for our downtown trip. This meant I had to get Gabriel, my bicycle, and a backpack with a day's worth of diapers, wipes and food, onto the MARTA, which I was completely unfamilar with, all by myself.

I succeeded for the most part, but the beginning was a struggle. Gabriel was fully aware that he was riding on a train and loved it, so at least there were no screaming baby fits for that part. We enjoyed our ride around Atlanta's Piedmont Park, and stopped at a few playgrounds along the way. We rode over to a little Mexican grill for some tacos and called it a day.

When we got back, Laura was still feeling down, but the extra rest helped out. That night we had even more Mexican food at Uncle Julio's. This was far and away the best Mexican food I have had outside of Texas. Every single thing was delicious, from the rice to the chicken enchiladas.

Monday was Zoo Day. We headed over to the south side of Atlanta after checking out of the hotel. The zoo was absolutely packed. Even with the crowds, it was still a nice experience. The weather was spot on. Nothing about this zoo was particularly amazing, although the gorilla exhibit was quite impressive. They had more than a dozen gorillas roaming a really large, wide-open space. As with the Greenville Zoo last week, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

After the zoo we headed home. It didn't exactly go the way we planned, but we still had a great time. It's hard to call any weekend where I get to spend 2 hours at R.E.I a disappointment.

Downtown Greenville

2011-02-18T21:41:00.020-05:00

Greenville, SC. If you live within 3 hours of this city, and have never been, you're missing out. Here's my recommendation: Pick either a spring or fall weekend, when the high won't exceed 85. Pack up your favorite picnic meal. If you have a bicycle, load it up, and head downtown to Reedy Falls Park. The bike trails take you through a network of connected parks from Reedy Falls all the way over to the Greenville Zoo and beyond. You can even link up with the Swamp Rabbit Trail and pedal over to Traveler's Rest, if you're looking to experience something a little more rural (if you do take this option, be sure and stop by Sun Rift Outfitters. It's an awesome outfitter store locally owned and operated). To really appreciate it, take some time and look up this history of Reedy Falls Park AFTER you go. The "before & after" stories will amaze you!

Usually when we are in Greenville, we are spending a night or two at the Dennis House, using it as a basecamp for hiking trips. This time, we made it a point to go hang out and NOT hit the trails. All of our visits usually end with a quick trip to the park in town. Everytime we go we end up wishing we had spent more time in town. So that's exactly what we did this weekend. After church, we swung by Greenville Tech and picked up Yosry, the Egyptian exchange student the Dennis's are hosting, and headed to Reedy Falls Park downtown to meet up with Pat and Jack, some local friends of theirs. The weather was perfect: low 70s, a light breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. We snacked on some sandwiches and spent a couple hours just lounging. The place was actually quite crowded with families enjoying 2011's first true spring-like weekend. I think this only added to the atmosphere. Kids were running around having a great time with other kids they had never met while the parents kicked back.

Gabriel found some other kids to play with, and ran around non-stop for about 3 hours. Finally, at around 4, we packed up and headed back to the Dennis House so Gabriel could take his nap. I treated our hosts to a steak dinner for Valentine's day, and we ended the day watching "Date Night". The next morning we woke up and headed off for the zoo. Now, Greenville Zoo isn't exactly going to knock your socks off, but its a charming little zoo nonetheless. It's also not going to hurt your wallet as much as other zoos might. $6 for adults seems pretty fair, considering Zoo Atlanta runs you $21.99. There are a series of playgrounds just outside tailored to kids of all age groups. And as mentioned before, it's connected with all the other Greenville parks with a nicely maintained bike path.

I could list out all the major attractions, but I'll just post the pictures. Not pictured, but worth mentioning, is a decent reptile/amphibian exhibit, and an alligator/alligator turtle exhibit. There was a special little surprise for us waiting right at one of the first exhibits. One of the monkeys had just had a baby in January, and the newborn was clinging to her swinging around in the cage.

(As you can tell, some animals warmed up to the camera a little more than others)

And after a big scare where I thought I lost my wallet, we packed up hit the road. A quick stop at Chipotle to spend a Christmas gift card that had been burning a hole in my wallet, and the trip was complete. If you're looking for a family friendly city in the Southeast, trust me, Greenville will not disappoint you.

Another Smokies Hit!

2010-11-03T00:24:00.015-04:00

Can you do an over-nighter in a back-country shelter in the Smokies in October? Sort of. As a part of David's pre-departure checklist (he and Holly are getting ready to move out to the West Coast), we were going to tackle Mt. LeConte via Alum Cave Trail. The plan was to go up, stay the night in the shelter on top of the mountain, then hike down the next day via the Boulevard Trail and the AT. I knew it was going to be hectic. Alum Cave and Mt. LeConte are two of the Smokies' biggest attractions. October, outside of the summer rush, is the busiest time of the year for the park. All of the "leafers" come rushing in to see the changing colors, and of course, LeConte is usually high on their list of sites to see.

We gave the reservations office a call, and sure enough, they had handed out the last permit for Mt. LeConte a few weeks ago. We made a decision to go anyway, and see if we couldn't get away with squeezing into the shelter anyway, on the hopes that someone with a reservation wouldn't show up. After we arrived at the trailhead, that idea quickly went out the window. The parking at the trailhead was comparable to Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve. It was packed. We knew there was no way we would squeeze into the shelter. On top of that, the hike up the mountain would probably be like standing in a line at an amusement park.

With that in mind, and after some deliberation we.... well, we couldn't really come up with anything. Our options looked pretty bleak. With a quick stop at R.E.I. on the way up, we were already running about an hour and a half late. We considered just doing a day hike, and maybe staying at a hotel, but even a day hike would have us competing with the setting sun. We decided to head down to the visitors center and talk with a ranger.

Traffic was pretty much bumper to bumper, but that didn't put too much or a damper on the scenery around us. When we got to the visitors center, it was insanely busy. We made our way to the reservations office, and I asked if there was anywhere in the entire park where we could get a permit. Luckily, there was ONE shelter left that had exactly four spots left. We snatched 'em up, and hit the road.

The hike started at Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park. This is the KING of tourist traps in the park. The "trail" that leads to the top is an asphalt-paved walkway about the width of a one-lane road. You walk right past a gift shop before reaching a huge, hideous, spaceship-looking observation tower. The Appalachian Trail, which is where we were headed, passes right by the tower. The crowds were obnoxious. I get emotionally torn in situations like these. In one sense, I'm always happy to see people getting out and enjoying the fresh air in some way. Walking up a paved trail to a concrete observation tower certainly beats setting at home all weekend watching TV. The sad part is that, most of those folks think that this is the ultimate outdoor experience. At this particular location, the sad irony of that is highlighted even more because the pinnacle of American outdoor experiences, the Appalachian Trail, passes right through here. If any one of those tourist would walk in either direction on the AT, they would be rewarded with the same amazing views they got from the observation tower, only without bumping elbows with hordes of people.

It was slightly entertaining walking up the paved "trail" on the way to the AT. Some people were pointing saying, "Look! professional hikers!". A couple of guys were asking all about our trip and where we were going and what we were going to eat, and what we were going to do if we saw a bear. It was almost a celebrity moment. We were adding to their tourist experience, allowing them a chance to see "real hikers".

We got to the AT junction and made a left (south). Our destination was the Siler's Bald shelter. It didn't take long before we were smacked in the grill with awesome panorama. David was really looking forward to get out on the Boulevard Trail, mainly because of what I told him about my hike there in April 2009 (See blog post). I told him about the ridge hike and its awesome views. We thought we were going to miss out on that, but the AT lived up to the accolades.

It was a 4.6 mile hike down a ridge that runs from Fontana Dam, up to Clingman's Dome. With the exception of about a one mile stint through a stand of evergreens, the entire hike had exposed views of either the Tennessee, or North Carolina side of the park, and in some places, both. The North Carolina side was filled with ridge after ridge of Smokey Mountain glory. You can also see slivers of Fontana Leak snaking around the base of some of the ridges. The Tennessee side, while still quite breath-taking, is still pretty epic. The mountains flatten out into the flat plains of the mid-west, and you can see the sprawl of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge below. Being so high up, you can even see the curviture of the Earth.

At 2.2 miles we came to Double Spring Shelter. This shelter had obviously recently been renovated. it looked extremely cozy. Even at 5:00, it was already filling up. We would find out on our hike out, that Double Spring Shelter hosted 14 guests that night, two more than its capacity allows. A couple of guys had hiked in a hand saw, and were cutting up some hearty firewood and getting a nice fire going in the built in fireplace. We had a quick snack and kept on trucking. Aside from breath-taking views, the hike in was pretty un-eventful. We ran into a big fresh pile of bear evidence about a mile from the shelter, but no actual sightings. Best of all, when we got to the shelter, we found out we were sharing with a father and son, and that was it. No big crowds.

We got settled in. Matt, the youngster we were sharing the shelter with, had already gather up some firewood, so I got to work on that immediately. We prepped some food and spent the rest of the night literally laying on the ground staring up at the stars. Night time was extremely windy, but we stayed north of freezing temperatures. The shelter's trail log was filled with horror stories about the mice (as is the case with almost all AT shelters), but we didn't have any issues.

The next morning we lounged around, taking our time getting packed up. We waved off Ron and Matt. About an hour later we departed, too. Usually the return hike, when doing an out-and-back route, is kinda lame. This time, the views were still just as grand. We caught up to Matt and Ron at the Double Spring Shelter, and had lunch. Shortly after that, the crowds started picking up again, and before you knew it we were back at the paved trail. We went up and had a peek from on top of the observation tower. The wind and the crowds made it a less than desirable experience. We loaded up and headed home, stopping at Texas Roadhouse in Asheville to top it all off. ...NEXT!

Table Rock... again!

2010-10-20T16:53:00.022-04:00

This month last year, David and I braved some nasty weather and hiked up Table Rock . When we got to the top (well, near the top, actually), the clouds parted long enough for us to take in some amazing fall scenery. It's certainly the best mountaintop scenery I've enjoyed on the east coast.

This time around, we went up about a week ahead of the leaves changing, so the fall colors weren't quite there, but neither was the fall rain. We also brought along some company. David's wife, Holly, made her second Table Rock climb and I was lucky enough to be accompanied by the entire family. By "entire," I mean my wife, Laura, and 16-month-old Gabriel.

We drove straight from Augusta to Table Rock State Park, arriving around 3:30, an hour behind schedule, which is customary when traveling with David, and ended up not actually getting on the trail until around a quarter to four. The issue with the later time was that Gabriel would be approaching bedtime before we could make it down off the mountain and we had no idea how he would handle being stuck in a baby carrier while his eyes got heavy. Of course, we also had no idea how he would enjoy being stuck in a baby carrier for the hike up the mountain either.

As has been the case on all our other outdoor adventures with the little man, he was perfect. When he gets outdoors, his wheels stop turning quite as fast, he calms down, his eyes get big, and you can tell his little mind is just taking in all the scenery around him. This trip was no different.

About an hour into the hike, we stopped at a large boulder beside the trail to take in some water and let Gabriel stretch his legs. David hopped up on the boulder to find a seat and the little toot headed up after him. This was a solid granite faced boulder that had a very steep grade, but he got about half-way up the 6 to 7-foot face before realizing that he was climbing on his own. Crazy little kid!! David's mom always jokes with me that because I introduced David to backpacking, I am also responsible for his rock-climbing hobby (which I completely refuse any responsibility for). Now I tell her that her son taught MY son how to rock climb, so we're even.

We loaded back up and headed up the trail. After about a half hour we came to the gazebo that marks the approximate half-way point. Near the gazebo is an exposed rock face that you can safely walk out on, giving you your first hint of Table Rock scenery.

Already running a little behind schedule, we didn't spend too much resting. With just another couple of minutes climbing, we would be at Governor's Rock. This is the place that David and I had to stop last time due to time and weather constraints. I was looking forward to going back and letting Laura and Gabriel experience the views, although the colors weren't quite popping yet.

We plopped down and let Gabriel run around and much as safety would allow. We took some pictures, drank some water, and snacked on some trail food. Again, we were in quite a race with the sunset so we didn't hang around long because I was anxious to make it all the way out to the nose of Table Rock.

After hitting the trail again, we crossed paths with a four foot rat snake. It was quickly making its way across the trail. If nothing else, it was fun to see David's fear of snakes manifest itself for a quick second. We kept moving and after crossing the official summit of Table Rock, we came to what they call "the nose."

The extra effort was certainly worth it. The views of the lake below and the landscape stretching out into the South Carolina Low Country was awesome. But again, as our race against the setting sun continued, we had to pack up fast and make a hasty retreat down the mountain.

We headed down at a much faster pace, but it was obvious we were not going to make it down before the sun set on us, so we divvied out the headlamps and anxiously awaited Gabriel's fussiness from riding in the carrier at night. Come to find out, as long as he had a handful of crackers, he was as happy as could be riding on my back. He never got fussy. He never wanted down. He was enjoying every second of the hike. The last 15-20 minutes of the hike were with headlamps on, hiking in the dark. Still, Gabriel didn't make a peep. At this time of day he would normally be having a bottle of milk while getting rocked in preparation for bedtime. He was just as content holding on to a handful of crackers hiking through the night!

We made it back to Hotel Dennis and, as always, enjoyed a weekend spending time with the entire Dennis family (despite Texas losing to Oklahoma the following Saturday). Now, Gabriel has added a second patch to his lil' pack! He'll be out of room for patches before you know it!

Our Little Camper

2010-06-26T10:53:00.010-04:00

It was with a little apprehension on my part, and a little more apprehension on Laura's part, that we decided to take our little man on his first ever overnight camping trip. A year ago this month, when he was only a month old, we rented a cabin in Oconee County. We had a great time doing a lot of short hikes and seeing the sights. (You can see the blog post for some of the pictures we got.)

This time it would be out in the elements. We weren't doing any backpacking, so there would be all the comforts of Oconee State Park right outside our vestibule. On the drive up, we kept thinking of all the worst-case scenarios. What if it gets too busy, and the park is too loud for him to sleep? What if birds or other things wake him up in the middle of the night and his screaming wakes up everyone else? What if he gets too hot or too cold at night? Well, everything went absolutely perfect.

When we are home, Gabriel loves being outside. It's pretty much a sure-fire way to calm him down if he gets grumpy...just take him outside. It was much the same when we got to the campground. First, we stopped by Chau-Ram County Park just north of Westminster, SC. Ramsey Falls is located here, with tons of picnicking areas located above it. Ramsey Creek then flows down into the Chauga River. On the river there are nice hiking trails, and a really scenic suspension footbridge. Below the bridge the river has a nice little island sandbar that is perfect for kids to play on.

As great as the park was for playing in the water, the campground left a lot to be desired. The sites were packed in on a tight pretty tight loop on a steep hillside. They seemed to be well put together, but just a little too close for our liking, not to mention the place was already pretty full and it wasn't even noon. So after we got all our playing out of the way, we decided to head on over to Oconee State Park. We spent a little time over at their really busy, but really neat swimming area. It was closing in less than an hour, so we really didn't have much time. But we let the little guy ruin another diaper and take a dip.

After that we went and settled into our campsite. The later it got, the more nervous we were about how Gabriel would handle going to bed out in the woods. We had his pack n' play set up in the tent, so it was at least a bed he was used to, just in a less familiar setting. Laura headed to the bathouse for a shower, and I rocked Gabriel in the hammock. It was no time at all before he was out cold, much to my surprise. I got him over to his bed and he was fast asleep. Even as the rangers drove by on the gravel road (which was only about 20 feet from the tent) there was no peep out of him. We had some hot dogs, played some cards, then headed to bed ourselves. Judging by energy levels in the morning, it appeared that the rookie camper slept better than anyone else.

The next day, we headed back to the park office, bought the little guy a t-shirt to remember his first camping trip with, and got checked out. We decided then to head down to the Walhalla State Fish Hatchery. If you are ever in Oconee County doing some camping with the family, be sure not to pass this place up. It's free, and any young fishermen in the group are sure to love it. Our only danger here was keeping Gabriel out of the trout tanks. We spent a few minutes here before finally packing up and heading back home.

Now that the first one is out of the way, this opens the door for many, many more camping trips. They'll take on a different look than the camping trips we have gotten used to. No hours of hiking to riverside seclusion. We'll be camping car side in local parks with campsites that have power outlets and water spouts, but at least we will be outside. We'll have to save the primitive camping for a time when Gabriel's feet get big enough for hiking boots.

1 Down- 98 to go!

2010-06-17T10:41:00.019-04:00

The countdown is on!!! the first trail has officially been marked off the list.

RIM OF THE GAP TRAIL

This was my selection for South Carolina. It is located in Caeser's Head State Park in the upstate area, of course. The BACKPACKER Nation selection (Raven Cliff Falls Loop) is also located in this state park. David and I have been out to this park a couple of times. Although my experience within the boundries of state parks is limited, I haven't been to one in the south east that has a better trail system than this one. If you throw in the very closely neighboring Table Rock State Park, I think its the hands-down winner. I've decided that my blog should be more photo's and less words, so I won't get into too much detail about the trip.

The Rim of the Gap trail is considered very technical, and gets a lot of mixed reviews from local hikers. A lot of people love its difficulty for two reasons. First, they love that it scares off most day hikers, keeing the trail traffic low. Second, they just love the challenges it offers. But some people hate it for that same reason. Rarely does anyone argue the scenery though. I can say that I was blown away by the trail. We were on a strict time limit to be back in Greenville for dinner, but I blew that because, for the first mile of the trail, there was waterfall after waterfall, and huge exposed granite faces. You could tell that during the winter months, views of Jones Gap below would be stunning. Even in full foliage we got some pretty awesome vistas. This trail was certainly no let down. Simply put, it was jaw-dropping.

For more information on Rim of the Gap, and other Caeser's Head trails, check out their website.

This is the overlook platform that is located a short walk from the Caeser's head visitor's center. Its an awesome place with amazing views of neighboring mountains, including Table Rock.

This is one of many small trickling waterfalls cascading over exposed granite faces. There are probably close to a dozen in the first mile of this trail.

....and again.

and again...

.and again. There were tons of opportunies for great pictures, but I had already slowed us down substantially with all the picture taking.

This is just one of many "technicalities" you have to maneuver while on the trail. I felt they were well maintained and as safe as they could be.

This shot gives you a little perspective on how the trail was truly skirting the rim of Jones Gap

More granite and running water.

The hardest thing was trying to get a good picture that showed just how big and imposing these granite faces where.

One of the reasons I thought this hike was the perfect SC hike was, after negotiating the trail as if skirted the upper rim of jones gap, for the last section, like walking into a new geographical region, you were back on typical Carolina terrain; an old logging road converted into trail. This was where the spine of the ridge flattened out, heading into Jones Gap State Park

There were well-placed man-made objects to help with the difficult terrain throughout the trail, but this one gave me a laugh. David had been talking about this "cable repel" for about an hour before we got to it, really making it sound like a dangerous undertaking. It, infact, was nothing of the sort.

And just when I thought the hike couldn't get any better, it did. The Rim-of-the-Gap trail ends at Jones Gap State Park. This park and Caeser's Head State Park share the same trail system, but have visitors' centers located at opposite ends. This entire area is called the Mountain Bridge Wilderness. Its an absolute must for any hiker looking to spend some time in the Souch Carolina portion of the Appalachian foothills.

At this point, the trail brings you down to the park visitor's center, and the Middle Saluda River. Again, if it wasn't for our time crunch, I could have spent every hour of daylight taking pictures of the scenes at this park. But we were running well behind schedule at this point. Without much delay, we filled up our water bottles, and used the Jones Gap trail, along with a couple of small connectors at the opposite end, to make our way back to the car.

The picturesque park office at Jones Gap, which is open from 11 a.m. to noon... seriously.

The Jones Gap Trail follows the Middle Saluda up the valley floor. After about an hour, you come to the very short spur trail for Jones Gap Falls. It's a really nice waterfall cascading about 65-70 feet, I would guess. The only frustrating thing about this waterfall was, no matter where I took the picture from, the waterfall came out looking like it was maybe 20 feet tall.

More Jones Gap Falls.

At this point in our trek, I really put the camera away for the most part, because we were all but sprinting back up the trail. The humidity from a passing storm system was really thick, and we were in a hurry! But the valley floor was really awesome. The trail was in great condition, following an old logging road grade along the banks of the river.

This is towards the end of our hike, where the trail finally left the river, and headed back up the valley wall to meet up with the connector trail.

(I have no idea what kind of flower this is)

This ones the last footbridge, over a small stream as it dropped into the Saluda River

We finally met up with the connector that took us from the Jones Gap Trail back to the parking lot. (And we made it in record time!)

And we're back. We both talked on the way home how we wish we would have gotten to the trailhead about 4 hours earlier, so we could have really taken our time on the hike. Even with the time crunch, it was one of the better day hikes I have done. As far as South Carolina goes, this is as goos as it gets. I think the readers of BACKPACKER avoided voting for this trail because of the technical portions. I would agree that, even as an experienced hiker, you shouldn't go this one alone (and thats coming from someone that does most of his hiking alone). Be sure to find a trail partner before you try and tackle this one. And, while I am sure the views of the gap are way better during the winter, it there is any risk of ice, stay away from this trail. But if the conditions are ripe, this trail is worth the undertaking.

Well, the competition is underway, and its out of the gates with a bang! I've debated exactly which trail to get started with. Being that I currently reside in Georgia, I thought maybe the two GA trails would be the most fitting start. I also considered started in North Carolina, in the Smokies, one of our nations true hiking Meccas. But now that its done, its hard to imagine a better start than this one. The bar has been set, and its high!

Eddie vs. BACKPACKER nation!

2010-06-06T06:15:00.002-04:00

So here’s my newest plan. The blog post before this one was my state-by-state all star list. I took a few boring days at work and compiled a list of what I thought would be great hikes, bikes, or paddles, in each of the 50 states, one for each state. Before I go any further, I have to say that there was no exact scientific formula employed here. In some states, I purposefully went away from premier areas, and opted for lesser known locations. For example, the obvious choice for the state of Tennessee would be one of the many excellent trails located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Instead, I listed a trail located in a pocket wilderness. I had already highlighted the Smokies for my North Carolina hike, and, as great as the park is, didn’t want to double-dip. And of course, in some states, I did in fact try to highlight key areas. In California, it has to be Yosemite, just as it has to be Yellowstone for Wyoming, and the Sawtooths for Idaho. I used trails.com for 90% of my research, backing up my decisions with other various online sources and hiker reviews. A majority of the Midwest states didn’t have much to offer on trails.com, so I had to search long and wide for lesser known internet sources. Some of those states surprised me. I figured surely that Oklahoma would have a decent showing, but indeed they didn’t. An eye-catching activity in Kansas and Nebraska was almost non-existent. None the less, after about a week the list was finished, and all-in-all I felt pretty satisfied with the results.

And then it hit me! I remembered a little over a year ago getting an issue of BACKPACKER Magazine that highlighted a state by state list of favorite hikes, as voted on by subscribers. I had to do some digging to find the old issue, but alas there it was. Now, the way this worked was, BACKPACKER posted online polls for its readers to vote for what they considered to be the best hike in each state. You can tell their results were completely unedited and printed “as-is”. Rhode Island’s hike was a .13 mile walk up a gravel road to the state’s high point, which rises to a not-so-jaw-dropping 812 feet. And better yet, Delaware’s insert in the magazine simply reads “sorry Delaware, your state’s best hike is in Virginia.” WHAT!? Virginia and Delaware don’t even share a border! If anything, I certainly appreciated the editor’s attempt to print a raw list of favorite state hikes, but in some cases, I was not impressed.

Now, when I first got back in touch with this issue of BACKPACKER, I was originally planning to scrap my list, and start checking of hikes from theirs. But after being, for lack of a better word, un-flattered by their results, I decided to up the ante! I was going to go head to head with BACKPACKER nation! I decided to put the lists side by side, try to hike all 100 trails (oh wait, 99. Sorry Delaware), and see who comes out on top. Let’s see who can pick a better trail. I understand that my critics out there will say that, right out of the gates, my system is flawed. “Surely you will pick your hike over the BACKPACKER readers’! You know the kinds of hikes you like. Not to mention you will be more likely to rate the hike from your list higher for the sake of preserving your own credibility.” In the words of Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!” My response to these two comments would this: 1. On my list, I have every kind of hike imaginable; from peaks, to valleys, to short day hikes to over-nighters. I also added a handful of bicycling and paddling trips into the mix! Anyone that hikes with me, or reads the blog, knows that I love a good waterfall hike, but I know when a good summit or vista hike has beaten out a waterfall hike. 2. I’m not interested in making my list beat out the BACKPACKER nation list. I am really just using this as a neat excuse to get Laura to let me do more hiking! I have nothing invested in my list. Whichever list loses in this friendly competition, one thing is for sure, I STILL WIN!
Let the games begin.

The List(s)

2010-05-08T02:25:00.006-04:00

... because Laura wanted me to put the lists up, too.

Eddie’s Adventure Bucket List

I. LONG HIKES.
1. JOHN MUIR TRAIL
a. DETAILS: THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL STARTS IN YOSEMITE VALLEY AND TRAVELS 215 MILES TO MOUNT WHITNEY. PERMITS ARE REQUIRED, AND THE RECOMMENDED TIME FOR THE HIKE IS BETWEEN THREE WEEKS AND ONE MONTH. (JOHNMUIRTRAIL.ORG)
2. THE GRAND CANYON
a. THERE IS NO INDIVIDUAL “GRAND CANYON” TRAIL, BUT THERE ARE OVER 300 MILES OF TRAILS WITHIN THE GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK.
3. COLORADO TRAIL
a. DETAILS: THE COLORADO TRAIL IS LISTED AS BEING 500 MILES FROM DENVER TO DURANGO. REPORTS SAY IT TAKES FROM FOUR TO SIX WEEKS TO COMPLETE. (COLORADOTRAIL.ORG)

II. PEAKS.
1. MOUNT WHITNEY
a. DETAILS: PERMIT REQUIRED. PER MOUNT WHITNEY TRAIL; FROM THE BASE CAMP, WHICH IS AT 12,039 IT IS 4.7 MILES TO THE 14,491 FOOT PEAK. THE PERMIT IS FOR A DAY HIKE ONLY. 50 PERMITS A DAY ARE GIVEN. CAN BE RESERVED BY MAIL.

III. RIVER TRIPS.
1. COLORADO RIVER
a. COMMERCIAL TRIPS ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. EVERYTHING FROM 3-18 DAYS. LOOKS LIKE TRIPS LASTING ABOUT 5 DAYS ARE ABOUT $3K.
b. THERE ARE ALSO NON-COMMERCIAL PERMITS THAT ARE GIVEN OUT BY THE NPS ON A WEIGHTED LOTTERY SYSTEM. THESE TRIPS ALSO VARY IN LENGTH.

IV. NATURAL SITES.
1. MT. McKINLEY
2. YOSEMITE FALLS
3. BIG BEND NAT’L PARK
4. OLD FAITHFUL
5. CRATER LAKE
6. THE BADLANDS
7. NORTHERN LIGHTS

V. COASTAL HIKES.
1. (COASTAL MAINE)
2. HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
3. CALIFORNIA’S LOST COAST

VI. INTERNATIONAL.
1. ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT
2. PERU
3. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
4. BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
5. ANGEL FALLS, VENEZUELA
6. BRAZIL
7. NEW ZEALAND

VII. MISCELLANEOUS.
1. HORSEBACK CAMPING IN THE ROCKIES
2. DOG SLEDDING IN ALASKA/CANADA
3. PADDLE THE FLORIDA KEYS

....and the state-by-state list...

ALABAMA:
Rice Creek/Mound Island: This canoe trip is a loop around Aikin Island in Southern Alabama. It also passes Mound Island, a Nat’l Historic Landmark of ceremonial Indian mounds. Total distance is 11.5 miles. Guidebook puts it at a 7 hour trip.
ALASKA:
Denali National Park: Denali Nat’l Park does not have established trails or backcountry campsites. You are free to roam the area on your own.
ARIZONA:
North Kaibab Trail: This trails starts on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The total out and back distance is 28 miles. The trail head is at 8300 ft. and the low point is at 2500 feet. Many people elect to hike out to the South Rim, which is less strenuous, for a rim-to-rim hike.
ARKANSAS:
Eagle Rock Loop Trail: The trail is 26.8 miles long, the longest loop hike in the state. The loop actually encompasses a series of trails, and has multiple access points. The trail rating is moderate to difficult.
CALIFORNIA:
The Panorama Trail: Located in Yosemite Nat’l Park, the trail starts at Glacier Point. It is 10.4 mile out and back, but there plenty of options to extend the hike throughout the valley. The hike is rated Moderate.
COLORADO:
Conundrum Creek Trail: This is a 19.8 mile hike to the Conundrum Creek hot springs. This includes a short additional hike up to Triangle Pass. There is an option to return via East Maroon Creek. Approx. 4000 feet of elevation gain. This trail is rated Moderate and Strenuous for the climb after the springs
CONNECTICUT:
Fishers Island Sound/ Mystic Seaport to Stonington: This paddle is 12.5 as laid out in the guidebook. It loops deep into the harbor, and passes several islands outside the port. The guide book warns of boat traffic.
DELAWARE:
Southern Delaware Heritage Challenge: This is a 115 Mile bicycling loop located in southern Delaware. It is said to be easy in rating. It meanders through some nice rural landscapes and through historic small towns. Starts and ends in Bridgeville at the RAPA factory.
FLORIDA:
Hells Bay Canoe Trail: Launch 8 miles north of the main office. There are 3 options to extend this trip, giving you the choice of 6,8, or 14.5 hours round trip. Permits required for backcountry camping.
GEORGIA:
Appalachian Trail Approach: Amicalola Falls State Park to Springer Mountain. Distance is 7.4 miles one-way, with about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. {Consider either a point-to-point, or loop hike}
HAWAII:
The Kalalau Trail: Located on Oahu, this trail is 22 miles long and includes amazing cliffs, waterfalls, beaches, and rain forests. There is camping available along the way. It has a rating of difficult.
IDAHO:
Grand Saw Tooth’s Loop: This 63 mile loop hike gives you the grandest views of Idaho’s Saw Tooth Mountain Range. The guide points out that there are several chances to shorten to hike if necessary.
ILLINOIS:
Chicago River Paddle: This is an 8 mile round trip paddle up the Chicago River that meanders through downtown Chicago. It is considered the best urban paddling in the country. It is rated beginner.
INDIANA:
Beach Trail: This trail is located in Indiana Dunes State Park, just outside of Gary. It is a 7-loop up the coast and over coastal sand dunes. It is rated strenuous, but there is only 200 ft of elevation gain.
IOWA:
Maquoketa Caves State Park: This park has numerous caves, more than any other state park in Iowa. It also has a trail system that links all the caves together.
KANSAS:
Lewis & Clark Bike Trail: This bike ride follows the path of the Lewis & Clark expedition for 75 miles, from Weston, Missouri, to Falls City, Nebraska. Only about 36 miles of the trip are actually in Kansas.
KENTUCKY:
Courthouse Rock and Double Arch Trail: Highlights of this trial include a double arch carved into a cliff, and an office-building sized rock. The trial is a 6.1 mile loop. Nearest town is Slade, KY.
LOUISIANA:
Grand Isle State Park: Multiple options for paddling into the Gulf of Mexico. The state park is located at the end of HWY1.
MAINE:
Mount Katahdin via the Knife’s Edge: Considered to be one of the best day hikes in the East. It’s a loop hike that gains about 4000 ft, and covers almost 10 miles. It is located in Baxter State Park.
MARYLAND:
Appalachian Trail, Harper’s Ferry to Pen Mar County Park: This is the entire MD section of the AT. Considered moderate, only because of the length. Easy elevation. Approx. 40 miles.
MASSACHUSETTS:
Cape Cod National Seashore: Cape Cod National Seashore offers numerous hiking and bicycling trails.
MICHIGAN:
McCargoe Grove to Rock Harbor: Located on Isle Royale Nat’l Park, which is an Island off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This hike requires a ferry reservation. It is 15.6 miles round trip.
MINNESOTA:
Clearwater Lake Loop: Consider the most scenic of Minnesota’s BWCAW. The total loop is 35 miles and is said to take 7-8 days, depending on wind.
MISSISSIPPI:
Vicksburg National Battlefield Park: Bicycling is a great option for view this historic landmark. Audio and GPS tours are available.
MISSOURI:
Taum Sauk Mountain Trail: 3 miles in Taum Sauk Mt. State Park. It also takes you past Missouri’s longest waterfall. Elevation gain is minimal. The trail is rated easy to moderate.
MONTANA:
Avalanche Lake Trail: This 3-mile trail is located in Glacier Nat’l Park. It has relatively easy grade, but expect crowds. Consider adding additional Lake McDonald area trails.
NEBRASKA:
Lewis and Clark Trail: (See Missouri)
NEVADA:
Tahoe Rim Trail. Spooner Summit to Kingsbury Grade: This is a 13-mile segment of the TRT that offers awesome views of Lake Tahoe. The elevation gain is 1500 ft, and the trail is rated moderately difficult.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Mount Washington Trail: This is a 17 mile strenuous trail. Trying this in winter is obnoxious. Remember, Mt. Washington has some of the worst weather in the world. There is an observatory at the top. There is almost 4500 ft of elevation gain.
NEW JERSEY:
Island Beach State Park: This is a 16.2-mile bike ride on New Jersey’s Island Beach State Park. They are a set of barrier islands on New Jersey’s shore, said to be the prettiest part of the entire NJ shore.
NEW YORK:
Hunter Mountain Trail: This is a hefty 7.2-mile trail up to the Catskill’s 2nd highest peak. Beautiful creeks and views all along the way. Consider a return hike via Devil’s Path trail. Rating is strenuous.
NORTH CAROLINA:
Big Creek to Mt. Sterling: This would be a multi trail hike. Big Creek Trail is an easy 10 miles. Swallow Fork trail will connect you to Mount Sterling. AT could be a connector instead of Swallow Fork Trail.
NORTH DAKOTA:
White Butte: This isn’t a hike, bike, or paddle. Not much offering in ND. The location is on private property, but is still open for visiting with permission and a $20 donation. Be there at sunset!
OHIO:
Magical Pelee Island: This is a 33.5 mile bike ride through the historic island located in Lake Erie. You have to get there by ferry.
OKLAHOMA:
Quartz Mountain Nature Park, Wichita Mountains State Park: This area is not well published, but there are numerous scenic short trails to mountain tops for sweeping vistas. See park offices for trail maps and more info.
OREGON:
Crater Lake’s Rim Drive: It is only open in the summer, leaving all other season for hikers, snowshoe-ers, and cyclists. The road is 33 miles, following the crater rim.
PENNSYLVANIA:
Rickett’s Glen State Park: “Simply put, the best hike in Pennsylvania.” This state park is loaded with waterfalls, about 3 every mile of hiking. And there are more than 7 miles of hiking trails in the park.
RHODE ISLAND:
Bristol Harbor to Prudence Island: This is a 13 mile paddling launching from Independence Park at Bristol Harbor, and circling Prudence Island. You do cross a large shipping lane on the way. Consider going between October and April for seals.
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Rim-of-the-Gap Trail: This trail skirts Jones Gap, located in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness area. The trail starts in Caeser's Head State Park and lead down to Jones Gap State Park. Return via Jones Gap Trail. Trail is rated very strenuous and is extremely technical.
SOUTH DAKOTA:
The Badlands National Park: Although there is no long trail in the park, there are a few short, scenic trails offering views of the rock formations. Consider the 5 mile Castle Trail, the longest in the park.
TENNESSEE:
Virgin Falls Trail: This is a 9 mile round trip hike. There are many small falls and caves along the way. At the waterfall, there is a primitive campsite. Best hike outside of the Smokies.
TEXAS:
Guadalupe Peak Trail: Located in Guadalupe Mountains Nat’l Park. The trail is 8.4 total miles, starts at 5900 feet, and peaks at 8700 feet. The trail is rated difficult, and can be done as a day hike.
UTAH:
Arches National Park Trails: This little national park offers 18.5 miles of trail. The park recently added 3,000 acres of Lost Springs Canyon.
VERMONT:
Moose Mountain Trail: This is a series highlighted by Backpacker.com. It is about 9 total miles, counting a spur trail. Amazing views.
VIRGINIA:
Old Rag Mountain: This is considered one of Shenandoah Nat’l Park’s premier attractions. There is no one trial to the top of the mountain, so no exact distances are given. The park says to allow for 7-8 hours. Primitive camping is allowed on a very limited basis on Old Rag.
WASHINGTON:
Central Alpine Lakes Loop: This is a section of the PCT. It is a 35 mile loop that incorporates some of the local trails. You will gain over 4,000 feet. There is an option to do a 75 mile point to point on the PCT in this area, requiring a shuttle.
WEST VIRGINIA:
Waterfalls of New River Gorge & Greenbrier Valley: This description is from Kevin Adams, same author of the NC Waterfall and Photography book. A host of waterfalls are detailed in the famous New River Gorge, and other notable falls from the Greenbrier Valley area are listed.
WISCONSIN:
Deer County Classic: This is a 79 mile ride, with the option to add 25 and 43 more miles. It circles the Green Bay peninsula, starting in Sturgeon Bay. It is considered to by Wisconsin’s version of Cape Cod. There are numerous historical buildings and lighthouses, coupled with awesome views of the lake and bay.
WYOMING:
Yellowstone National Park: There are just too many things to see in this park for me to list one hike. Among those must sees are; Old Faithful, The Hoodoos, the sulfur pools, the famous waterfalls, the bison, the elk, and the wolves. If a trail is on the list, consider Observation Peak.

Bucket List & All Star List

2010-05-07T03:01:00.003-04:00

Sorry, no pictures this time. So there I was sitting at my work computer on a very slow night, trying to think of something to do. Then I started thinking about hiking. Then I started thinking about all the hikes I wanna do some day. BAM! I'll make a bucket list. I thought it would take me all night. There are so many hikes out there I just gotta do before I kick the bucket. Well, after about 30 minutes I was done. This is in part because of two things: one, there are certain hikes that are always on my mind, so those got jotted down in no time (i.e. the Grand Canyon, John Muir Trail), and two, all the other ones that I read about in Backpacker Magazine or elsewhere on the internet were fleeting my mind.

So with that done, I decided to get a little more creative. I decided to make a list of all 50 states, then list one, and ONLY one, hike in each state that I would like to do. Now, some states simply don't offer any decent hiking, so I decided that other outdoor activities qualified. For example, in a lot of the coastal states, I have paddling trips, and in some of the flatter mid-west states I have bike trips. I tried to mix it up a bit. Now, it's not necessarily meant to be the "best" hike in each state, just a good one. Some states were nearly impossible to narrow down to one hike, like California and Washington, and some states were nearly impossible to find anything in at all, like Kansas and Nebraska. But, alas, the list is done.

I'd love to get some input from other folks on what they think would be a good addition to either of these lists. If you know of an awesome trail in Wisconsin (or paddle or bike ride), let me know and I will take it into consideration. Now, if I can knock out about five of these trips a year, it should only take me a mere ten years to finish the list. I'll keep you posted!

Trick or Treat!?

2009-11-01T18:28:00.004-05:00

Life has been pretty busy lately, and I haven't gotten out much at all. A new baby and a new house have kept me pretty occupied. Well, I was sitting in a training class with Dennis and we decided that, as long as permission was granted by Laura, we would head up to Greenville, South Carolina, for a couple of days. We got up to Caesar's Head State Park at around noon, and the weather was pretty miserable. The above picture is from an awesome overlook located near the park's visitor center. Usually you can see clean past Greenville from here, which is located about 20 miles to the south. But not today. Nothing but FOG! and lots of it.

We sat around for a bit hoping it would open up, but it never did. From there we decided to go ahead and try some hiking anyway, so we headed for Raven Cliff Fall's Overlook.

Luckily, the valley this waterfall was located in was kinda protected from the fog. That meant we got some pretty good views. We spent a while just chilling at the little gazebo there, taking pictures and soaking up all the fall colors.

It was hard to leave, but we finally did. We had to cut our return route short because we took too much time at the overlook (but who can blame us?). So we hiked back to the car and headed back into town to the Dennis residence. We were welcomed warmly as always. After some awesome lasagna and a good movie, we hit the hay, hoping the weather would get better for our trek over to Table Rock State Park the next morning.

We woke up and the weather was terrible. Absolutely terrible. The fog was still thick, and the weather people were telling us it was only going to get worse. We debated our course of action over pumpkin pancakes and almost elected to just stay at home. Dennis decided that since we had our rain gear, we should go anyway and at least get some exercise in.

With that in mind, we loaded up and headed to Table Rock. On the way there it went from thick fog to thicker fog to drizzle to heavy rain. At this point our Halloween was turning out to be more trick than treat. We sat in the parking lot at the trailhead and came close to just turning around. A little reluctant, we donned the rain gear and headed up. Halfway up the mountain we came to a little gazebo-type thing that usually offers amazing views of the valley below. The rain had finally stopped, but the fog was still there in full force. We hydrated and munched on Clif Bars and debated whether or not to head back down, when finally there was small slither of an opening in the fog. We hung around for another 15 minutes, and sure enough the clouds finally rolled back and showed us the view.

We sat there a while enjoying the momentary break in fog before it finally rolled back in and covered everything. The rain was still stopped, so we decided to continue climbing. Dennis had been up the mountain before and said that the views (if the fog would allow) only got better. We passed a hiker coming down and he said the fog had rolled back in and covered everything. We pressed on anyway.

When we got to the top, we were greeted with some of the best views I've ever seen on any trail anywhere. Here's the proof....

It started out as a trick but ended up being quite the treat. The fall colors mixed with the fog rolling in and out really made it a unique setting. It was the type of scenery that is hard to catch. We happen to be up on the mountain for the only two-hour period the fog relented for 48 hours. Can't wait to get back up there!!!

Airman Leadership School...

2009-09-04T21:21:00.006-04:00

It's been a little bit of an awakening. Not life changing or anything like that. ALS is a school they send you to in the Air Force to prepare you to be a supervisor. You usually don't get tasked with it until you are in line to get promoted to Staff Sergeant, but lucky me, that's not the case. I get to be a supervisor without getting a raise! This is completely outside of my usual blogging spectrum, but it's the reason I haven't gotten a chance to put up any good posts lately, so I thought I would let the world (or the one or two persons that read my blog) about some of the things that are going on.

I'm going to talk politics briefly, simply because it has come up so much at ALS. While having an intelligent political discussion with a fellow Airman, he mentioned that one of the things he didn't like about the Obama administration is all these new "czar" positions. The same guy, not 15 minutes later said that the main reason he wasn't happy with the big stimulus bill was because there wasn't enough oversight. For a guy as smart as he is, I found it petty and laughable that I actually had to say out loud that the new czars are put in place to oversee some of the companies, sectors, etc., that are receiving money from the stimulus. Then he told me the Fed had nothing to do with the government. I was done with the conversation at that point.

The first weekend at the school I got a chance to get a closer look at Congaree National Park. (I had driven through there before, but didn't spend any time there. I also didn't think it was an actual National Park, but all the signs said so, so I'm going with it). I hate to say that anything in the great out-of-doors is a disappointment, but this was pretty weak. The four hour hike only had two highlights, really, one of which had nothing to do with nature. The first highlight brought me up close and personal with a feral hog. I was just walking down the trail. He didn't see me, I didn't see him. Before I knew it I was right on top of him. Luckily he wasn't in the mood for a confrontation, so he snorted and rumbled off into the woods. Later, I ran into a guy with an obvious European accent. He asked me if it was always this hot. It was low 90s and very humid. I told him normally it was a few degrees warmer. He had just arrived in the country from Holland and was staying in Columbia to take some classes at South Carolina University. We ran into each other again later down the trail (a pretty flat and uneventful trail at that), and ended up sitting and talking for a while. He came back to Shaw AFB with me to watch the UFC Pay Per View fight with me and some of the other guys.

The fight, and pretty much everything else over the period of the next month was a little disappointing. Luckily this 5 week class is coming to an end. There have been a few good things to come out of this. I realized that I need to get the lead out when it comes to getting my degree done. And I need to do whatever it is I gotta do to get that fourth stripe.

When I do come back from this class, things are going to be a lot different. Laura and I are in the process of closing on a house right now. I also found out that the shop that I have worked in for the last three years got completely dismantled, so I will be going back to a different job. That little rascal of ours is growing like a weed, so life at home is going to be different as well! Not to mention that the day after I graduate from this course I will be having my fourth knee surgery... FOURTH!!!

Hopefully recovery will be short and we can get back on the trails. By that time the little guy should be big enough to fit into his seat in the backpack. We'll keep you posted.

North Carolina Venture

2009-07-19T07:54:00.013-04:00

We spend a ton of time in Oconee County, South Carolina, hunting waterfalls. There is one road sign located just outside Oconee State Park. It says, "Cashiers 12". I see it all the time. Every time I see it I think about how I really need to make my way up the road that last 12 miles into North Carolina. The problem is, the drive is already near three hours AND there is always plenty in Oconee County to keep me in South Carolina. WELL! Last weekend I finally made it into Transylvania County, North Carolina. It is considered the Waterfall Capital of the World. There are tons of books that have been written about all the waterfalls. Depending on what you consider an actual waterfall, some say there are more than a couple thousand located just in this county.

We started the day with this trail located just next to the road. Silver Run Falls is just inside the border on Hwy 107 before you get to Cashiers. Now, Laura and I did some North Carolina waterfall hikes back in March, and I was just a little disappointed. It wasn't the waterfalls, but the trails. We didn't do to many hikes, but the ones we did, the trails were like wide gravel roads. The parking areas were huge, and there were marquee signs letting you know where to find them. Overall, the accessibility had been taken just a little too far. Well, Silver Run Falls was the same way. A big sign on the road made it nearly impossible to miss. The path (not trail, but path) was like a cart path at a golf course. Nonetheless, the waterfall was very nice. It was early on a Thursday, so there really wasn't much of a crowd. I did run into an Asian family leaving just as I arrived, equipped with elders and infants (again, accessibility is nice, but at some point it can be too much).

After that I made my way up to Cashiers. It's a one red light town. Very, very nice though. There were lots of really nice shops and little family restaurants. I popped into Subway and grabbed some brunch, then headed and headed east on Hwy 64 to find Horsepasture River. My guide/photography book said something about a potential new state park. Sure enough, I found the entrance to a brand-new Gorges State Park. Unfortunately, that made all the trail guides in the book obsolete. There were no park rangers, but a trail kiosk gave some good infomation. Rainbow Falls was supposed to be my final destination, but with the new trails, I was a little mixed up. I spent the first hour or so, and the first few miles, trying to figure out where everything was. Eventually I made my way down and caught my first glimpses of the famous Horsepasture River.

I finally concluded that this was Drift Falls. It took me about thirty minutes of sitting there reading the book. I also concluded that I was on the right trail, but with the new State Park, I was hiking it backwards from what the guidebook had suggested. So I knew I wasn't far from Rainbow Falls. Rainbow Falls is one of North Carolina's greatest. Kevin Adams, the author and photographer from my guide book, says that he couldn't possibly point out a single favorite, but that every time someone asks him, this one comes to mind. And that's saying something coming from a guy who has personally written trail guides for thousands of waterfalls in North Carolina alone. Needless to say, I was anxious to see it. When I reached the falls, I stood for a while just taking it in. It was quickly apparent that just one picture wouldn't work, so here are a few. Hopefully you can get an idea of the size and power of this waterfall. It was really something to take in.

Take a close look at that last photo. You may notice someone jumping off the ledge on the lower left hand portion of the cliff face. It may be kinda hard to gain perspective from this picture. The ledge was about 35 feet from the water. These guys had to work pretty hard just to get to the ledge. Three of the four plunged in feet first. One guy took much more time. It looked like maybe he was too nervous to jump. The other three started egging him on. Finally, they started counting down from three in unison. Finally, at one, the guy takes a two step running start and leaves the ledge. He then tucks his knees, pulls his head back, and starts to do a gainer (a back flip where you leave the platform facing forward rather than backward). CRAZY! After enjoying this view for a couple of hours, I headed back down stream to try and find Windy Falls.

As I headed back to a junction in the trail, the batteries on my GPS died. With this new developement, I thought it best to go all the way back to the truck and head up the road to get new batteries. On the way back I hiked a ways with some locals that told me Windy Falls is impossible to see. They have been hiking the area for 15 years, and they said in the last 2 or 3 years the trail is nearly impassible. Combining that bit of info with the fact that I was still trying to use the guidebook in reverse, I didn't think the chances of me finding the waterfall was very good. I gave it a shot anyway. We headed down a trail in the general direction of where the waterfall was. Shortly, we came to a forest road. We followed that for a while until I saw what looked like an old trail diving into the thicker woods to the right in the direction of the river. So after following this trail for about 2 miles (and losing about 1000 feet in elevation), we came to the waterfall.

The guidebook warned me. "This hike may not be worth the effort, as getting a view of the waterfall is completely and utterly impossible." I'd read that about waterfalls before, and it was almost never true. That usually meant that it was a dangerous area, and the author didn't want to be responsible for putting someone in danger. Well, this time he was right. The waterfall is huge, and falls at the opening of a nice little valley. As it plunges, it kinda snakes around a HUGE boulder in a thin sluice. All this combined, it really is impossible to view. It's hard to explain (the author said the same thing) but many people have tried and tried, and it just isn't in the cards. But I did get some neat shots from the surrounding area.

After that I was quite exhausted. There was a trail for one more waterfall in the park, but I was zapped. I knew there was one more roadside waterfall that wouldn't take much energy. So we loaded back up and headed down Hwy 281 back towards South Carolina. Just before crossing the state line we got to the trail head for a nice little falls called John's Jump. It was like 100 yards through thick rhododendron and mountain laurel, but a nice waterfall nonetheless.

And with that we called it a day. Not a bad day at all really. There is so much to explore in this one North Carolina county. Can't wait to get back up there.

Gabriel's First Adventure

2009-07-03T08:59:00.037-04:00

What's the best cure for Cabin Fever? A cabin in Upstate South Carolina! We made a last minute decision to rent a cabin from this place just up HI-28 from Walhalla. They were located right in the middle of the area we usually go hiking in. I knew I couldn't get away with tent camping at this stage in the game, and these were the cheapest cabins around.

You've probably seen rustic looking cabins in the mountains, with wooden beams and vaulted ceilings. Those same cabins were probably decked out with all the amenities of a resort hotel. Well these cabins weren't that type of rustic. They were truly rustic. One room, measuring about 20'x 15', with a separate bathroom in the corner. A nice little, and I do mean little, front porch for sipping your morning coffee. The inside had a small kitchenette. There was no oven, but it had a small Weber grill outside and a two burner stove inside, one of which didn't work. It came equipped with a massive 13 inch T.V. and VCR, straight out of 1993. The decorations on the wall were enough to make any flea market vendor blush. Everything was clean, including the bathroom that looked like it belonged in a mobile home. But it was still quite charming, and made for a nostalgic weekend of watching old VHS's after a day in the mountains.

The first day I got up early and loaded up the dogs and headed just up the road to Oconee State Park. There was a waterfall there that I hadn't seen yet. I've pretty much wiped the map clean in this area of waterfalls, but this was one I hadn't made it out to yet. We started out at about 10 a.m. For a while it looked like we were going to have the trail to ourselves. One of the reasons I had avoided this hike in the past was because it was in the State Park, which usually means plenty of R.V. campers and busy trails. About halfway through the trail we ran into our first trail sharer. No big deal. But he suddenly started yelling ahead somewhat frantically to someone else. "ANOTHER DOG! ANOTHER DOG!... TWO! TWO MORE DOGS!" I asked him if he would feel better if I put them on the leash. I thought maybe the person ahead had a bad fear of dogs or something. Nope. It was a problem I've ran into before. It seems to happen a lot more often in this part of the country than places out west or further north. They had two dogs with them, OFF the leash, who were meat-eaters. They were the type of dog that was trained to be out for blood. I will never understand this. They obviously knew their dogs don't get along with other living things, so why bring them to a state park, to a trail in the woods. When you take a dog to the woods, their instincts are enhanced because of the environment. If they are hunting dogs, they're really going to put their nose to the ground and get to sniffing. If they are protective dogs, they are going to be even more protective because of the new surroundings. So people take these overly aggressive dogs into the trails, and they are trying to tear everything apart. It drives me nuts.

Anyhow! We rushed past, after getting their two dogs off of Austin and Star. At this point we started moving as fast as we could because I knew we wouldn't have much peaceful time at the waterfall alone before the man-killers showed up and wrecked it.

The site was one of mixed emotions. The base of the waterfall had been wrecked by runoff. I knew it had to be sometime recent, because none of this wreckage was evident in any of the pictures I had seen in the past. It took some scrambling around to get the camera set up. The waterfall itself was nice, but before I really had a chance to relax and soak it all in, our group of man-killers showed up to crash the fun. I was in the process of testing out my new remote shutter. It allowed me to set the camera up at the base, then climb up the slippery base of the falls to get a good shot of me and the dogs up high on the waterfall. Sure enough the other group with their two dogs showed up and precisely the worst time, right when I was high on the waterfall, unable to get down to my camera gear in a timely manner. I scrambled down quickly to get my stuff all put back up when I heard Austin crying from up on the waterfall's rock face. I had attached their leashes, to make it easier to pull them away if a fight ensued, and his leash got hung on some rocks. So as I headed back up, Star got entangled with one of the other dogs back down at the base. It obviously made for a less than enjoyable trail experience. I think we may go back to this waterfall again sometime in the future. The whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and I wasn't exactly able to enjoy my surroundings.

Again, sorry for the poor picture quality.

We headed back to the cabin. The rest of the day we just drove around the mountains enjoying the views. We went down to the cabin office and checked out some old movies for the VCR and Big Screen. We grilled some K-Bobs and watched Young Guns!

The next morning... or afternoon, whichever it was when we pulled ourselves out of bed, we spent some more time just driving around checking out the sights. We originally were going to hike up to a lookout tower, but when we got to the trailhead a park ranger told us that it was gated up and locked. After that we headed to the trailhead for Licklog and Pig Pen Falls. It was supposed to be a short hike, but it was one I hadn't gotten around to doing till now. When we got to the trailhead Laura told me all she had was flip-flops. That, combined with Gabriel's sudden spurt of grumpiness, I decided to call it off. I told Laura I didn't feel comfortable with her carrying him down the trail in flip-flops, especially with him being all fussy. She told me she agreed, and said I could go down myself to see if I could find the waterfall.

The trail was short, and full of excellent camping spots. There was a nice tumbling stream that followed about 50 feet below trail the whole way. After walking through the first campsite, the creek and the trail meet and stay side by side the rest of the way. Not long after that we heard some real turbulence, but the creek at that was well hidden (even though it was next to the trail) by some extremely thick Mountain Laurel and Rosebay Rhododendron. I bushwhacked to get through it and found this small but powerful sluice. There was really no way to get a good wide angle shot that would have done the scene justice.

We made it back out to the trail and headed down just a few yards to find one of the falls. Now will be a good time to mention that I left all my guide books back home for this trip, so I felt extremely lost and out of touch the entire time. I knew that Licklog Falls and Pigpen Falls was somewhere on this trail. Also, this was my first trip with a new camera. The new camera took great shots of everything except waterfalls. I really wasn't happy with what I was getting on the slow shutter speed.

The scene here was really nice though. Directly behind where I was standing to take this picture was a really nice flat camping area. I didn't realize it, but the last leg (or first leg, depending on which way you hike it) of the Foothills Trail comes right near here. Also, at this spot, the Chatooga River Trail comes through. There's a nice wooden footbridge crosses the stream just to the right. I wanted to explore it a little, but with the wife and baby waiting back at the trailhead, I didn't want to take too much time.

After reading the guide book once we got back home, I came to the conclusion that this was Pig Pen Falls. We continued downstream to arrive at the stream's junction with the Chatooga River. It came surprisingly quick, and was punctuated by the stream making a scenic 40-foot plunge into the river.

Again, a less that stellar shot that doesn't do the whole scene any sort of justice. So I checked this one out after getting back home, and come to find out this is "Lower" Licklog Falls. I had no idea. That obviously means that there is an "Upper" Licklog Falls somewhere that I missed.

We did spend a few minutes just taking this all in. There's just something about the Chatooga River that leaves me in a little bit of awe every time I arrive at it on the trail. Its really had to describe. If you are headed to Upstate South Carolina and are looking for one thing to do, this would be my recommendation. Find a few spots on the Chatooga River to go exploring. Even with Laura and Gabriel waiting for me back at the car, I still had to slow down and enjoy the dogs playing and the waters tumbling.

Next, we decided to use the last few moments of daylight to run on over to Whitewater Falls. This goliath of the South East is located just feet across the South Carolina border into North Carolina. It really depends on who you ask as to how tall this one is. Just downstream from it is Lower Whitewater Falls. A lot of people in the area add these two together and call it the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi River. I think that's a bit of a stretch since they are separated by a good half mile, maybe more. The river does do a good bit of tumbling, which I got to see when I did the Foothills Trail with Greg this time last year. I won't even go as far to post a height for this one, since so many people have so many different numbers for it. Just know that its huge; even bigger than it looks in any of these pictures.

With that, we headed back up the trail to car. We made our way back to our cozy cabin, put some good grub on, and settled in for another great showing on the 13 inch!

Our only goal for Day 3 was to get down to the Walhalla State Fish Hatchery. We tried to pay it a visit the day before, but got there just after the doors were closed. So we pulled up, got the baby all strapped into his little carrying harness and headed in. There were people carrying fishing poles walking around everywhere. The hatchery is located on a stream. It was probably once a river, but the water usage of the hatchery makes it appear more stream-like. It's still a really pleasant setting. The hatchery itself was a bit of a surprise. Basically, it was just a series of holding pools, rectangular in shape, that had a steady current flowing through them. They were lined up, five or six long, in about four rows. It seems like they were set up in the middle of like a Walmart parking lot. Nothing special, just a large lot, leveled out, then paved. It's got a chain-link fence surrounding it, and you just walk through a simple gate right up to the holding tanks; no entry fee or anything involved. The place you enter starts you at a tank with small trout, and as you walk, they get bigger and bigger. The last few tanks had trout larger than I thought they ever got. Those fish had to be close to 10 pounds. It was pretty impressive.

After that we headed up the road to try and tackle the Bee Cove Falls series. I knew this one was pretty hard to find, so getting there without double checking my guide book (remember, I left it at home) was going to be pretty tough. We found what I thought was the proper Forest Road. We drove down it as far as we could to a fallen tree. At that point me and the dogs hopped out, leaving Laura and Gabriel in the Jeep. The road was easily followed, but after a couple miles, I had gone well past the point I had marked on the GPS signifying a break from the trail for a descent down to the creek. There was no sign of a side trail, but there was sign of some fresh bear activity. Fresh enough that I would venture to say it heard us coming down the road and scrammed (thank goodness!).

We made it back up to the car and headed down the road. I wanted to try and get to the trailhead of Lower Whitewater Falls. We went right past this beauty while we were on the Foothills Trail and missed it. I had been in the area several times with this one on my to-do list, but for some reason never made it to the trail. Again, I was flying a little blind without the guide book, but I thought I could at least find the trail head. Well, I was wrong. It wasn't where I thought it was, and I wasn't in the mood to spend the rest of the day searching for it without the luxury of my book. But now we were real close to Station Cove Falls. I had visited this one before, but it was when the water levels were so low there was nothing falling over the rocks. The hike was extremely short, less than 30 minutes, and it was a great spectacle flowing at full force.

After that excellent end to our 3rd day in the Upstate, we headed back toward the cabin. We stopped at a produce stand and got some fresh peaches, homemade jams and pickled okra to add to our evening meal. We enjoyed our last night in that little ol' cabin, and headed to bed.

We woke up slowly again Saturday morning. Took our time getting all packed up. At first we figured we would just pack up, check out, maybe grab a bite to eat in Walhwalla and head home. Last minute, as we pulled out, I decided to head on over to a roadside waterfall. Mainly, I wanted to give the new camera another try on another waterfall. I was hoping it would change my opinion. We got to the waterfall. I made the three minute hike down to Reedy Falls while Laura stayed in the car with the babe. It was going to be a quick visit.

I snapped a few more photos, and as goes the story of this trip, wasn't really very happy with any of them. I got back to the car and told Laura it was a really short hike, so she said she wanted to go down and see it. So we loaded up the baby and headed down to the waterfall again. We stopped at a little footbridge to take some family photos.

After a few hundred more pictures here, we headed down the rest of the way to the waterfall. I tried to get another good family shot at the base, but it just wasn't working out. I did get a really good one of Laura and the little man though. It's probably my favorite picture.

After that fun photo shoot, we headed over to Brasstown for one last bit of fun before heading home. I figured it would also be a good final test for the camera to see if I could fix the settings. Brasstown Falls is such a picture perfect waterfall, I knew it would be a good test. Brasstown, just in case you have missed my other posts on this great little nugget, is a series of four really great waterfalls. All four falls are located within about a quarter mile of each other, which is less than half a mile from the trail head. So that makes it a great place for families. The unfortunate part is, its accessibility brings out a lot of crowds that couldn't care less about leaving no trace behind. Often times we have been here there was trash on every inch of the trail.

Anyhow, I headed upstream to Little Brasstown Falls. We actually had been out to the Brasstown Series a number of times before we realized that this little jewel was just a few hundred yards upstream.

After that, the next one in the series is the Brasstown Cascade. Its a really nice tumble of about 45-55 feet. Its not great for photography, but its a really pretty site in person.

The third is the real beauty. Brasstown Falls (or Brasstown Veil) is literally about 20 feet downstream from the cascade. If you are standing at the base of the cascade, you can turn and easily look over the edge of the top of the veil. The trail to get to the base gets a little more tricky here, and the nature of the spray makes the rocks a serious hazard. I got to the bottom and got set up, and of course the pictures just did NOT come out like I was hoping. At that point I was feeling a little weak, so I skipped the fourth falls. It's a sluice, again starting only a few feet from the waterfall upstream. There was a pretty good crowd swimming in the pool at its base, so I knew taking good pictures wasn't going to happen anyway.

All in all I'd say it was a heck of a weekend. It's only a shame that Gabriel is too young to remember this one when he gets older! I know he'll have many more in his future though! Can't wait...

Life's Newest (and Greatest) Adventure

2009-07-03T08:36:00.007-04:00

Gabriel has arrived! Anyone watching the little "Baby Due Date Countdown" on our blog saw it tick down to May 18th. Well, May 18th came and went and still there was no baby! On the night of the 25th we went for Laura to get induced. Everything happened faster than anyone (including the doctors and nurses) expected. By 10 a.m. on the 26th of May our little bundle was here! I'll spare you the details of a pretty long and drawn out delivery. Since then we have had the typical sleepless nights (Laura more so than me) and trash bag loads of dirty diapers. I've been a little lazy in getting around to making the post. I'm just now getting good at typing and working the bouncer with my foot to keep the little man happy. Here are some of his first pictures!!

A Day In Pictures

2009-05-09T09:30:00.017-04:00

I talked Laura into a day trip to Upper South Carolina. No camping, she didn't have to hike down all the trails, and there would be Arby's. So off we went.

We started with Yellow Branch Trail. The trailhead has a nice little picnic area with a big gazebo type thing that has a little fireplace and everything. So Laura grabbed a book and settled in there while I headed down the trail to the waterfall. Traffic was light. I only passed one other couple. They had a dog that looked just like a wolf, pitch black hair with black eyes. He was standing at the top of a crest in the hill, just staring down. I didn't know he was there and when my head popped up and saw this animal looking down at me, for a minute I thought my trip was about to take a turn for the worse. Then I noticed his collar and tags. Phew. The dogs sniffed each other, I said hi and bye to the couple and we continued on. The waterfall was awesome. It's a very unique waterfall with the way it cascades down in many directions, somewhat evenly over this cliff face. I came here a while back with Dennis and Evan and it looked like someone had turned the water off. (see below picture).

After that, we loaded up the dogs and headed over to the Stumphouse Tunnel area and Isaqueena Falls. Again, one of the nice areas that South Carolina has done a good job with. Nice picnic tables and well-maintained walking trails. There is virtually no hiking involved to get to the waterfall. After about a 50-foot walk you come to a nice overlook. If you want to go all the way down to the base it's a little further and a lot steeper, so we stopped at the overlook.

Then we headed over to the Stumphouse Tunnel, which is located in the same recreaton area as the falls. I had been to the end of the tunnel a couple of times, but never with Laura. The picture below was actually taken back when Greg and I first visited the tunnel last year.

So with our headlamps blazing we headed in. The tunnel is something like 300 yards long. The park service has built two brick walls into the tunnel with doors to control access. About a third of the way down we came to the first door, and it was locked. Seemed kinda odd for 2 pm on a Thursday in May, but whatever. So we turned around and headed to our next stop.

This one is a bit tricky to find. But once you find it, it's an easy hike. Gravel roads turn into 4X4 roads. Then, finally, you reach the trailhead for Cedar Creek Falls and Blue Hole Falls.

Cedar Creek Falls (above) isn't that impressive. It's a nice cascade over an angled rock face. But just a few short feet downstream is the powerful sluice that is Blue Hole Falls. It's practically impossible to picture the whole thing. The waters of Cedar Creek slip tightly into the rocks and curves around the base of a cliff, and empty into a large pool at the bottom where, when the sun is high and conditions are right, the water turns a dark blue shade.

We spent a lot of time hiking around this area. We were hoping to find a good camping spot for future trips, but there wasn't terrain anywhere that was ideal for a tent. We lounged around for a while and headed out. On one of the tricky parts of the trail leading to the base of the falls, I put my hand down and felt something squishy. I almost crushed this little creature.

Not really that little at all. We headed back up the trail and got back in the Jeep. Next stop was Brasstown.

We've been here many times. If I'm in the area I just have to swing back by. The middle waterfall of the three at Brasstown Creek is just picture perfect for picture taking. Not to mention I had recently heard of a third waterfall a mere tenth of a mile from where we had been hiking at Brasstown. So we sat out to find this waterfall, and sure enough it was right there. It couldn't have been more than a few hundred yards upstream.

After that we headed down and spent the rest of our time shooting Middle Brasstown Falls. Conditions were right and I came away with what I thought was a pretty great shot.

After that we loaded up and headed home. All in all, I would say not a bad way to spend a Thursday.

A Family Affair

2009-04-29T13:06:00.019-04:00

This time last year I finally convinced my folks to take a hike... with me. I told them I would carry almost all the pack weight, all they had to do was walk the trail. I enlisted Greg's help to lighten my load a little. So with great anticipation we headed down the trail to the Three Forks Junction.

Everyone had a great time. So great a time that my parents were ready and anxious to get out there again. This time my mom was excited to bring along my brother JR and his two kids: Dayton (5) and Slade (2). JR wasn't completely convinced, but nonetheless he agreed to go. It should be noted that on our last hike out, we had to pull Momma's reins back a little bit when it came to the packing. She just kept trying to add more and more stuff. Well, on this trip there was a new challenge. Laura, being 9 months pregnant and all, couldn't carry a pack. And the kids couldn't carry packs either. So that left only me and JR to carry Laura's pack, the kids' packs, and any excess not able to fit into Mom and Dad's packs. I made the executive decision to do something drastic. Even though I hate seeing it on the trail, I decided to get a wagon. Yep, one of those red wagons with the big wheels on them. There would be rough spots on the trail, but for the most part we could get it down it. With the two kids' and Laura's packs, not to mention Mom and Dad's extras, me and JR just had no other way to get the gear to the campsite. Normally I would say no way, but I really wanted the kids to experience their first camping trip. Of course, with this new bit of news about the wagon, Momma's face was shining, it meant she could add more stuff. So with all our gear AND our wagon, we headed up to North Georgia to the trailhead.

Ridiculous isn't it?

With much anticipation we were finally on the trail. JR and I swapped out hauling the wagon. Hiking with him was an eerie reminder of hiking with Greg, all go - no slow. I found myself giving that same shpiel (shpeal, shpeel, shpele... I don't know) about enjoying the trail and taking your time. So with that, we let him push on ahead and I fell back to see how the kids were doing. Little did I know, Dayton was hopping right along and wanted to stay with his daddy. Slade was back with Momma getting a bigtime kick out of all the puddles.

So far everyone was be-bopping along great, except maybe Daddy, but we all expected that. Before we knew it we were there, ready to cross the river. It had a few scary spots, but nothing life-threatening. We all managed to cross safely and now it was time to start setting up our camp. JR wasted no time starting a fire (it would become a theme for the trip for him). Momma took the kids and the toys (that's right, she packed up toys) and found a spot to play in the dirt. The toys ended up being useless, the kids' favorite game was throwing rocks into the river. I have about 100 pictures of them getting a big hoot out of just throwing rocks.

We spent the evening hanging out around JR's campfire. We cooked up a little supper and got ready to hit the hay. So far it been a great trip. We had a great hike in, a great first day, now it was time for a good night's rest. The kids conked straight out. There was no peep from Momma and Daddy's tent. I noticed JR hanging out solo around the fire. He said it was his quiet time. He probably stayed up for another hour or so. Then it was all quiet in camp. The next morning everyone rolled out of their sacks slowly. We had some hot oatmeal for breakfast and the kids didn't waste any time getting back near the water to play. We spent the day hopping on boulders and, of course, throwing rocks. I pulled JR away from his duty as fire builder (self-appointed by the way) long enough to climb the Big Creek waterfall.

After climbing the waterfall, it was a quick break, then we packed up. This was the portion we had been hoping to somehow avoid. We got the wagon loaded down, the tents were packed up, we crossed the river and started climbing. The kids had been real troopers the whole trip. Dayton never had to be carried. He loved running along the trail. We carried Slade from time to time, but only to keep him from stopping at every puddle.

With a little help from Slade we got the wagon and all members of our party back to the trailhead in one piece. JR swore he would never be a pack mule again. He said next time he goes he is carrying only his stuff. That made me happy because it meant he might get back on the trail! The kids loved it. Hopefully they will remember this and it will be a jump start to a future in the great outdoors for both them. Momma and Daddy had the same great time they did last year. Laura and I had a great time too. We made a lot of memories with our nephews that we don't get to see too often. It gave us a little taste of what it might be like for us in a few years when Gabriel is hopping around the campsite in Huggies! It was a trip we'll all remember for a long time!

Smokies Mis-Adventure

2009-04-20T20:36:00.029-04:00

This is the trip I wrote about earlier. Greg and I have been planning it for a while now. Laura gave me the green light for one last multi-day trip before Gabriel's due date arrived. We planned a 4 day, 3 night trip in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As the jump off day arrived, wouldn't you know the weather forecast brought us bad news. Spring weather had been in the air for a solid month now, but our week of hiking included the Smokies' last winter storm. Of course! We could expect nightly lows in the single digits, daytime highs no better than mid-40s AND heavy snow that would turn into heavy rain and thunderstorms late in the week. I have always thought the fear of thunderstorms is highly over-rated, but it's one of the top trail killers due to landscape and elevation factors. After only minor deliberation, we decided to press on.

Greg's plane was to arrive in Charlotte at around 4 pm, which would put us at our upscale Gatlinburg resort (or a Super 8 Motel) at around 8 or 8:30. Charlotte is only a 2 hour drive or so from the house, so I was planning to sleep in. At around 8 am the phone rang. I jumped out of bed to answer it. It was Greg. He missed his flight. He got a new flight that had a layover in Atlanta around 8 pm. We're still good. Atlanta is also about 2 hours from the house and we could be in Gatlinburg 4 hours after he touched down. Negative. I can't pick him up on a layover because his bag would still be on the plane. The airline was going to charge him like $1600 to change his flight to actually drop his bags in Atlanta. He wouldn't get to Charlotte until after 10, which would put us in Gatlinburg after 2 am. Our shuttle to the trailhead was scheduled to pick us up at 7:30. Awesome. By the time we got to Asheville, which is about halfway between Charlotte and Gatlinburg, we were already looking at not getting to bed until after 3. I had called the shuttle folks earlier and pushed our pick-up time back to 9:30. The real bad news was that, even though we weren't at any real elevation, the snow had already started falling. By the time we rolled into Gatlinburg 2 hours later, there was about a 3-inch layer on the ground. Not that big a deal. We got in the room and checked the weather report for the park. Snow was up to 14 inches on some peaks. Cancelling at this point really wasn't an option.

We woke up the next morning as late as we possibly could to still be ready for the shuttle pick up at 9:30. My phone rang at 9. The shuttle folks called with bad news. The park had closed all its roads to traffic. Even though the snow wasn't terrible, because the park stays so busy, anytime there is even slightly bad road conditions they have to close them. Our original plan of being dropped off at one end of the park and hiking back to the trail had to be changed. We decided to do it backwards. We would hike out of the hotel, and later thumb a ride back to the hotel. So with the snow only falling lightly that morning, we headed out of the parking lot on foot. Our destination was about 7 miles and 5500 feet away: Mt. Le Conte. We hiked up a road for the first 2 miles or so, gaining about 1500 feet. It was tiring, but the road wasn't collecting any snow, so the going was fairly easy. We finally reached the trailhead and were surprised to see a decent amount of traffic, despite the terrible conditions. Since technically we weren't in the park yet, most of our fellow hikers drove to the trailhead. Nonetheless, we headed up still feeling peppy and ready for a week of the best the Smokies had to offer.

Right at the trailhead sign we were passed by a guy with his two sons. He was probably late thirties, carrying limited gear. He asked where we were headed, and wanted to know if we planned on staying overnight. We told him our goal was Le Conte, and if time allowed we would take the 5.5 mile Boulevard Trail over to the Appalachian Trail and stay at the shelter there. He laughed. Literally laughed. My initial reaction when I run into people like this is to just stop talking to them and continue on with my hike. Greg, however, usually likes to go a little deeper. He wanted to see why the guy doesn't think we can reach it. The guy told us how he has hiked all over this mountain and he knows that when it is covered with fresh powder it is nearly impassible and that with our heavy packs it'll be more than we bargained for. Greg gives him a "you're an idiot" shrug, and we press on.

(forgive me for picture quality. I couldn't take my usual big honkin' SLR on this trip. Had to carry the ol' point and shoot. In this picture I had also just dropped it in the snow.)

The trail was beautiful. The snow had covered everything in white. A picture perfect stream tumbled alongside the trail. The trail itself hadn't collected much snow at this point, so tread was still good. My excitement for the journey ahead was keeping my mind off the pain that was already collecting in my thighs. Not long into the trail we passed a very cheery looking couple. After a few back and forth passes and small conversation at each pass, we finally introduced ourselves to each other. Rebecca and Larry. They were lightly packed and told us their destination was the Le Conte Lodge. Le Conte lodge, simply put, is a little slice of mountain nostalgia heaven on the second highest peak in the Smokies. It's a dining hall and an office surrounded by separate mountain shacks that are truly log shacks. Their only post 19th century amenity is a propane space heater.

(again, sorry for the fuzziness)

We passed Larry and Rebecca again at this small waterfall. We knew Rainbow Falls should be around here somewhere. Knowing that the falls was our halfway point, I asked anxiously if this was it, and Rebecca promised me we weren't near halfway. We slowed enough to grab a snack and Larry took this picture of us. We took a few sips of water, threw the packs back on, and kept on climbing. It wasn't too much later that we reached the real Rainbow Falls. At this point we were high enough that we kept getting these off and on bursts of high wind and snowfall. As soon as we would stop and put our weather gear on, it would stop. The trail was still in good shape, with only a few inches of packed snow. We had to climb past a family that had dropped their packs at the base of the falls for a snack. I was shocked to see that not only had they brought grandpa, they also had a daughter (about 12) and two boys (I would guess 10 and 7 years old). They appeared to be well-equipped though. They offered us some fruit and the dad told us about -15 degree temperatures at the summit the night before along with about 28 inches of snow. Me and Greg both laughed at how the further up the trail we got, the worse and worse the weather reports got.

We crossed below the falls on a skinny snow-covered log bridge and immediately the trail conditions got worse. This was obviously the turn-around point for many of the day hikers who had the trail pretty well packed down up to this point. Now we were more on our own, and prepared to make the final push to the summit. At around 5000 feet I hit my wall. My legs didn't feel terrible, but my body just wasn't letting me travel more than 30 to 50 yards at a time without a break. Now the trail conditions were really started to get bad. We had heard everyone talk about all the snow on the summit, but until now had seen no evidence of it. As slow as we were walking, somehow we were still passing people. Finally we reached a sign saying we were .6 miles from the lodge. Still passing a few slow hikers, we were met by two lodge workers checking up on hikers. They told us there was a warm stove in the dining hall and even those without reservations were welcome to come in and warm up. I think the thought of that warm stove was the motivation that got me up the last 300feet to the lodge.

Walking into this crappy little dining hall felt like walking right into the gates of heaven! We dropped our packs, took off all our weather gear, laid all the wet stuff near the stove, took a seat and started to thaw. It was still somewhat early in the day, probably no later than 4 p.m. Technically, we thought we had time to get across the 5.5 mile Boulevard Trail, but the energy just wasn't there. Not to mention that after walking onto the lodge grounds, we could see that the ground was covered in about 18 inches of snow. We decided this would be it for the day. Looking around, we found no sign of our nay-sayer friend we ran into at the trailhead who told us we couldn't make it up in these conditions. The dining hall was empty, except for one patron who had come up the day before and all the workers. They asked about anyone else headed up to the lodge. We told them about the family we passed at Rainbow Falls and an immediate feeling of worry came across all of them. A couple workers put on snow shoes and went to find the family. They came back about thirty minutes later carrying the small backpacks of the kids, and sweating profusely. One of the workers summoned anyone who could still walk to help with carrying the kids the rest of the way into the lodge. I was ticked at myself for not having enough energy to help, but Greg geared up and headed out with a couple other workers. Another half hour passed and they came rolling in with the most exhausted bunch of people I think I had ever seen. I helped the little guys get out of wet clothes and get set up near the fire. We later learned that the reason for such urgency on the part of the Le Conte Lodge staff was because, at this same time last year, a storm a little less extreme than the one we were in hit, and a man sat down at the sign that read ".6 miles to lodge". The next morning they found him frozen to death. He was wearing tennis shoes, blue jeans, and a cotton sweater.

Next on the schedule was dinner. Earlier, the lodge manager offered us one of the rooms. To get a room at this lodge you have to enter your name on the list on the first day it comes open, and even after that you have to get your name selected from a lottery pool. Its pretty hard to do. Larry and Rebecca told us that this was the fifth year they tried to get a room. So when he offered a room, he had my attention.. that was until he said it cost $120 per person. I reluctantly declined. After the mini rescue, he offered again, only this time he said it was on the house. Sweeeeeeet! Talk about a once in a lifetime deal falling in your lap. I immediately accepted, then turned to Greg. Greg, of course, felt the need to decline. He wanted to stay out in the shelter. Trail shelters almost always resemble a life size version of the stable from a nativity scene; three walls and a roof with one wall completely open to the elements, and on this mountain at this time of the year, there was no shortage of elements. In any other situation I would have went along with Greg. I would have declined the room and slept in my bag in the cold. But this, this was different. Declining that room wasn't even an option. I told Greg he was on his own, and I carried my pack to the cabin they let me stay in. That night we had a meal on the house, then parted ways for the evening.

I put all my wet clothes around the furnace, took some pain pills, and was out of it in a matter of seconds. The next morning I woke up and peeked outside the door. Even though we arrived early the evening before, the clouds kept all the mountain vistas hidden. Peeking out the door gave me my first glimpse of what makes Mt. Le Conte one of the Smokies' finest jewels.

After soaking all that in for a few minutes, I walked back up the dining hall for a delicious breakfast. The day before, me and Greg had sort of taken on a celebrity status amongst the other hikers. They thought we were crazy for hiking up all the way from town, with huge packs on, to stay in the shelter. Greg caught everyone's ear when he refused the room, so when I showed up, all the other patrons wanted to know if Greg survived the night. I laughed and told them I didn't know. They began serving breakfast when Greg finally rolled in. Applause broke out and he sat down, taking a glass of water and no food. We said our goodbyes to Rebecca and Larry and all the other people we had come to know over our short stay at the lodge. I ran up to the office to buy a T-shirt and took a couple more pictures from the deck. After that we were off to break trail on The Boulevard.

THE BOULEVARD TRAIL.

We had been politely warned by some of the Le Conte workers about The Boulevard. No one had been on it for the entire three day period of the snow storm. They told us how it was a ridge hike, meaning that it was exposed to elements from every angle. Also, when you hike on ridges, wind is always much worse than it is in other places. We expected it to be slow going, but we really didn't consider not going an option. Immediately after leaving the lodge the snow on the trail started to slow us down. A few tenths of a mile up the trail we passed the shelter Greg stayed in the night before, only reaffirming that I made the right choice by staying in the lodge.

It didn't take long to get out of the tree line and get our first 360 degree panorama of the Smoky Mountains. Those views were some of the best views I've experienced anywhere. The fresh powder added an artist's touch to an already surreal scene.

The further down the trail we got, the deeper the snow got. Often times we were hiking through drifts that were waist deep. After every step we had to take a break, swing your weight forward, pull your back leg out of the snow and swing it forward to take the next step. The going was slow across the entire trail, but in those sections it was super slow. The elevation change along the trail was minor. 5.5 miles like this would normally take us 3 hours, maybe less. We didn't reach the junction with the Appalachian trail until around 3 pm, 6 and a half hours after we started. Again we had to revamp our itinerary.

We were supposed to press on another 6 miles, cross Newfound gap and Hwy 441 and climb part of the way up to Clingman's Dome. Again, the snow got the best of us. We decided instead to just head down the trail in the opposite direction about two tenths of a mile to Icewater Spring Shelter. This was the first time Greg was completely onboard with cutting our day short. He led the way across the Boulevard, so he did all the trail breaking.

When we first got to the shelter, we had the place to ourselves. Honestly, in these conditions I didn't expect much of a crowd. Through the early part of the evening we had a couple of groups stop there for lunch, be they all pressed on. At about 6, a couple and their 7-year-old stopped in for the evening. Then a couple of AT thru hikers. Then another group of about 5 guys from Ohio. Then a couple more AT thru hikers. After the sun went down, still more AT hikers showed up. Before it was all said and done there were about 17 people crammed into that shelter for the night.

This picture was taken when we were still at only half capacity.

The crowd was less of a bother than I originally thought. It was interesting hearing the thru hikers talk about their adventures up to that point. By then most of them had been on the trail right at a month. They all agreed on one thing, the Smokies sucked. The elevation changes here are the worst of their entire trip. The other good part about sharing the shelter with them was that in the morning we didn't have to worry about listening to them anymore. They were fun, but one night was enough.

The next morning we took our time fixing breakfast and seeing off thru hikers. We caught a sunrise and packed up. The evening before, some of the snow started to melt, but it refroze overnight, once again ensuring that trail conditions were as far from optimal as possible. On the way down, a hot spot I had on my heel really started to get bad. I tried doctoring it a few times, but it just felt worse and worse. By the time we got down to Newfound Gap, it was so bad I couldn't walk. I took my shoes and socks off to have a look. A woman with a first aid kit came running over and tried to help. We got it taped up enough to make it stop hurting, but we still didn't know how it would hold up on our 3000 foot climb up to Clingman's Dome. We crossed 441 and headed up the AT. We made it a mere 500 feet in elevation, and probably no more than a mile or two when the blister dressing came off. Luckily the trail came back in contact with the road, and there was an area we could stop and take off our packs. Again, a woman with her family caught a glimpse of my heel and offered to give me a ride. I hated to do it, but I had to bail.

Greg wasn't very happy, but what could I do? I gave it a pretty good effort I thought. I probably pushed about three miles too far actually. I told Greg my hike was officially over. There was a couple of AT thru hikers there. I offered them all my trail food and took the lady up on her offer for a ride up to Clingman's Dome where I was going to meet Greg.

From here the rest of my trip in the Smokies consisted of thumbing rides, doctoring my blister, and taking in roadside views of the Smoky Mountains. Later that evening I picked up Greg from the top of Clingman's Dome. He decided to go ahead and go back to the hotel a night early with me. We grabbed a good steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse and crashed at the luxurious Super 8 Motel at an early hour.

The next morning we woke up to rain and thunderstorms. We knew Friday's forecast called for rain, but we both expected it to be evening showers. Had we been on the trail it would have been frozen snow on the ground, heavy rain falling from the sky, and lightning. I looked at Greg and said, "Not a bad move getting off the trail, huh?" Of course, he disagreed. We laid around for a while, and at about noon the rains finally let up. According to the Weather Channel we only had three hours or so of clear skies. We rushed up the road and took a short hike to Laurel Falls.

Even this short trip gave us a little something unexpected. The hike was along an asphalt paved trail with only slight elevation change. We were passing people of all physical ability levels. We got to the waterfall. It wasn't thirty seconds later when we heard a rumble, then a loud crash. The family that had just left the falls to return to the parking area came running back to the other side of the falls with pale faces. There was a rock slide right next to the falls. The rocks came from high above the trail, hit a free-fall of about 50 feet and crashed into the trail. It didn't stop there. The boulders were so big they went right through... yes through the asphalt trail, taking about 6 feet of dirt and rock from beneath the trail with it, down to the river below. The boulders missed us by less than thirty seconds, and they missed that poor family by a matter of inches. We went back to the ranger station and let them know of the damage to the trail. With the storm pressing in we decided to head back up to Clingman's Dome and see what it looked like in a hail storm.

From there we went back into town and completely destroyed a 20-inch pizza. We spent that evening recovering from our trip and walking around the crummy tourist town that is Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was pretty cool to look up at the mountain that stood over the city and know that I climbed it. The next morning we packed up, stopped for pancakes at a diner that amounted to a glorified Waffle House and headed back to Charlotte Airport.

I got the vibe from Greg that he considered this trip a bit of a disappointment. I saw it coming. Anytime we don't go from start to finish on any trail, it's like a failure to him. We discussed how he puts more emphasis on covering ground than having a good time, like I do. To me, if having an enjoyable trip means 10 miles instead of the 15 we planned, I say do 10. Its a dilemma many hikers face. I got to stay at Le Conte Lodge for free, we saw the Boulevard Trail like only very few people ever have, and we spent some time in Gatlinburg laughing at the abundancy of white trash. The weather didn't agree with our itinerary, but I felt we still made the best of it. All in all I considered this one a success.

Not long after dropping Greg off, I got a call from my brother. He was cruising down 95 with his two kids, headed to the house. He said he should be in Columbia the same time I get there on my way home. No break on this weekend adventure.

To be continued....

Our First Spring Fling

2009-03-25T20:02:00.020-04:00

The original plan for the first weekend in spring was to tour the hospital where Gabriel is to be born. We also needed to attend some birthing classes and maybe some good ol' breastfeeding seminars too. Don't get me wrong, I want to do everything I can to make sure Gabriel's transition from womb to world is as smooth as possible, but that doesn't mean I couldn't get a little excited when we found out the hospital tour and classes were full this weekend. The weekend had officially become plan free!

Our last time out it became official: No more camping for Laura until the baby comes. With this in mind, I started making hotel arrangements. The great thing about the mountains is that you get away from all the commercial and industrial garb of the city. The bad thing is, if you don't plan on camping, good luck finding a hotel. We called up Dennis to see if he wanted to go too, and hey, maybe we could crash at his parents in Greenville again! (See previous post for details.) Well, he was working, but he said we could crash there without him, no big deal. I was sure it wouldn't be a big deal, but I hate feeling like I might be inconveniencing people, even though in this case I knew Dennis' parents would enjoy the company. Sure enough, when we arrived in Greenville, Mrs. Dennis was excited to see us. We had an absolutely great time. I never thought I would go to Greenville and enjoy the company more than I enjoyed the trails, but that was certainly the case this weekend. We spent the first night enjoying her stories about her kids. Saturday night they listened to our account of the day on the trails and on Sunday we went to church together and enjoyed a great meal at Chipotle... our FAVE! And I'm not sure, but I think Gabriel may have gained new grandmother along the way. Anyhow, anyone reading this is probably here for the pictures and/or the account of the trails, so here you go.

(Laura, me and Austin chilling at the base of Bridal Veil Falls)

We started off late Saturday morning. We headed up the winding road that leads into the Middle Saluda River watershed of western North Carolina. First, we had to go through Caesar's Head State Park. Right before the entrance, after gaining a couple thousand feet by road, we stopped at a roadside granite monolith with a low enough angle you could walk out onto it. The bad part of it was that being so close to the road, it was covered with graffiti. The good part was the view was pretty unbeatable. I'll wait for the part when sunset comes to put up the pictures. From there, with a short stop at the Caesar's Head Visitor's Center, we went on to the Bridal Veil Falls trailhead. The trail was an anti-climactic hike down gated gravel roads to the falls. The mountain bikers were out in full force on this first weekend of spring. The waterfall was pretty busy, but with so many viewing areas the crowds weren't a problem at all.

This waterfall is hard to describe and even harder to photograph. About 120 feet above where the trail meets the base of the falls, Bridal Veil makes its first sheer drop of about 10 feet over a granite ledge. After that tumble, the water spreads wide and thin on a huge granite mountain face. It's too wide and too tall to get into a picture, especially on a sunny day when the thin water reflects the sun's rays straight into your lens en masse.

The big granite slope of the falls.

The water reaches the bottom of the granite in many separate sections but eventually meets back up, forming a shallow, sandy river bed and disappearing into the woods of DuPont State Forest. It was such a perfect day. Maybe a slight chill when the wind blew, but any hiker will tell you that beats hot and sweaty. We flopped down on a big bolder, had a snack, and just soaked up the sun.

Me at the top of Bridal Veil Falls where it makes its initial drop.

After hanging out and trying to get a good picture of the waterfall, I scrambled up to the top of the falls. It really wasn't a scramble at all. The easy slope and smooth granite made for a stroll easy enough for even the feeblest of hikers. I could hardly suppress the urge to slide down the big rock face, but the water crashing violently into the rocks at the base convinced me not to.

From there, we headed back to the car and after stopping to check out a huge flock of Eastern Turkey hens being chased through a pasture by some excited jakes, we continued up the road to Hooker Falls.

Hooker Falls was a little disappointing. The parking area looked like a Wal-Mart parking lot the day after Thanksgiving. The trail, excuse me, dirt road, that led to the base of the falls was populated by people in jeans, mini-skirts, dresses, high heels, and those over-sized skate-boarding shoes. There was even a family of four on bikes (which is crazy because the road is at best a quarter mile to the base of the falls) where the mom, bringing up the rear, was holding the leash attached to a mini-poodle. I never thought I would say this, but the natural beauty of the falls, in my opinion was completely sapped by all the man-made garbage they put around it, making it accessible for everyone. I never thought I would say anything like that. Don't get me wrong, waterfalls can still be great with maintained trails and observation decks nearby, but something about this one just didn't seem to balance well.

Hooker Falls from the side.

From there we walked back to the parking lot. Laura decided to chill in the car while I crossed the bridge and headed upstream to get a glimpse of Triple Falls. It was a very nice change of pace from the over-crowded Hooker Falls. The sun had started retreating, so all those in mini-skirts had to get back to their warm cars. This waterfall was really quite a treat. Three absolute beauties, one right after another. They had carved out plenty of room at their base for you to safely roam around near the falls without being in real danger. If I posted all the pictures I took of these three falls, I might overload the website. I'll leave you with this one. Although I spent most my time right underneath each falls, I was able to get this from a gap in the trees that allows you to see all three falls at once, a real treat.

After a few more shots of the tumbling creek below the falls, I headed back to the car. There was just enough time for us to make it back to the aforementioned rock overlook to catch the sunset.

You can't see it well, but the mountain you see in the right portion of the picture is Table Rock, a South Carolina icon. This was the visual highlight of the trip. It didn't show up on film, but from here you could also catch a small glimpse of the Greenville skyline. Before it went completely dark we headed up the road to get a few shots of a roadside waterfall we sped past on the way in.

lower portion

upper portion

Compared to last weekend, it didn't seem like we got as much hiking in as we should have, but the slow pace this weekend was a nice change. We woke up late, we lounged on rocks, and we enjoyed some great company. With the reality sinking in that Augusta may be my home for another 4 years or so, it was a welcome relief knowing that weekend getaways like this one, at the Dennis house in Greenville, are just up the road.

The Golden Corner Never Disappoints

2009-03-08T21:47:00.018-04:00

Man! Did it ever feel good to get back out on the trails. It seems like it's been forever. The last post had me thinking surely I wouldn't get to head back out for another 2, probably 3 months. I bumped into Dennis at work and he was chomping at the bit, ready to go. I, of course, had to oblige him. We made plans for a night hike into Burrell's Ford campground. It's a super short walk into a semi developed primitive camp site along the South Carolina side of the Chattooga River. Laura decided to give this one last go. The hike to the campsite was a short one and the next day she would spend most of the time acting as our taxi, rather than hiking with us. We'll call her the Prego Trail Warrior. Things went off pretty much without a hitch. Dennis brought along his brother, Robert. They decided to drive up separately and meet us at the trailhead. We walked down with headlamps blazing and got to the campsite without a hiccup. The weather was a little chillier than anticipated, but other than that all was well. We set up and got ready for bed. That night the trip appeared to be taking a turn for the worst. We already knew that Laura was pretty much done with the hiking part of our weekend adventures, but the sleepless night in the cold and on a very thin ground pad proved to be the end of her camping part of our weekend adventures as well. (That is, of course, until after our bundle of joy arrives.)

The next morning I was up bright and early and wanted to get at least a little fire going so Laura could get some sort of warmth when she rolled out of her bag. Dennis joined me shortly there after, and along with his brother we decided to make the short hike over to King Creek Falls (above). This was one I visited back in the fall of '07 and it certainly made an impression then. The trail from Burrell's Ford is only about a half mile, but is very pleasant. The rhododendron makes a tight canopy overhead for the first portion of the trail. Then you meet a junction with the Foothills Trail, cross a short bridge over King Creek, then follow the tumbling creek up to the falls. We hung out there for about a half hour. I got busy snapping photos. Notice that the north (left) side of the falls has icicles clinging to the granite. Geez... last night was colder than we thought!

I snapped a few more pictures of the remnants of the winter storm that had blown through only about 48 hours earlier. We then headed back to camp to be sure Laura hadn't been eaten by any bears. To our surprise she was up and at 'em, and doing a better job of gathering fire wood than I had. At that point we decided to head on over to another short hike, this one to Spoonauger Falls. On my trip to the area in the winter of '07 this waterfall eluded me. At the time I had no GPS. Without a GPS, you have to be a little more careful on searching for unknown trails. After a short search, I called the search off, only to find out after looking at a map I had turned around about a quarter mile short. SO! Off we headed, GPS in hand, to find Spoonauger Falls.

I tried climbing the battered south (left) side of the creek bank to get a better angle on the falls. The angle from down low makes this one seem much shorter than what it is. Compared to the above picture of King Creek Falls, you would think Spoonauger was much short, but actually it measures about 5 feet higher. Some waterfalls are more photogenic than others. The creek valley formed by this unnamed stream appears to be pretty hard hit by downed trees and erosion. The hike over to the falls parallels the unpaved Burrell's Ford road. At this point the trail overlaps the Chattooga River Trail (a multi-day trail on my short list). After the trail crosses the road it's only a short distance, and a hop over a small stream, where the Spoonauger Falls trail climbs slightly up and to the right. An interesting piece I read about this waterfall, the name of the falls comes from a family that used to live at the top of the waterfall. That came as a shock to us who saw the relief of the mountains in that area. We're still not sure where they would have put a house. We played around a little, then headed back to the campsite to pack up and head out.

Our original plan to do an 8 mile point-to-point hike was quickly thwarted when we saw that the forest service was doing a controlled burn on one of the mountains we were planning to hike on. So we headed in to town and decided to make new plans over Arby's. First up, we were going to hike down the Winding Stairs Trail. This trail is named for its short series of steep switchbacks. The little secret it holds is in the form of the Miuka Falls Series. It really isn't a secret. The secret is actually getting down to a place where you can view the waterfalls, rather than just hear them.

It wasn't easy getting this shot. The well hidden side trail comes in from the north (left). The interesting thing about this creek is that there is no creek bed. Because of there being an abundance of granite in these mountains, sometimes the water can't cut into the rock to form a bed. That's part of the reason you see so many granite faces behind the waterfalls in my pictures. Well, where this water is trying to escape the mountain happens to be a long running vein of granite. So instead of the stream flowing down the mountain in a creek bed, its sliding down the mountain almost like water would flow down your windshield. Getting across to the other side of that slippery slope was a scary prospect. If you slip, the angle isn't dangerous, but who knows when you would actually find a stopping point.

(This is a shot of Austin trying to manueuver the aforementioned slippery granite.)

From here we made our way back up to the trail and headed on down. Lower Miuka Falls was a little of a let down, especially after the off-trail bushwhacking we had to do to get to it. The walk down from there was nice and relaxing. It was a pretty steep descent. Lucky for us we had a ride waiting on the bottom, relieving us of the duty of climbing it back to the top. At the bottom we stumbled upon some huge wads of course black animal hair about 2 inches long. Don't worry, no bear encounter. We met back up with Laura (who was trying to recoup some of her lost sleeping time from the night before) waiting in the Jeep. At that point we decided to head on up another trail for a short half mile romp to another waterfall.

Crane Creek Falls isn't overly impressive. Its unusual shape and flow are really what sets this one apart. The hike over is a really short walk up Crane Creek from the parking area. About half way between the falls and the camping area there is a nice clearing in a bend in the creek perfect for setting up camp. We didn't spend too much time here. The sun was heading down and we really wanted to get in one last trail.

We can undoubtedly say we saved the best for this trip, and that's saying a lot. The guide book warned us, "Lee Falls is the Upstate's best kept secret." The trail is apparently very lightly used by locals, and almost unheard of to most people who come to the area as tourists. (The only way I found out about it was by getting a hold of a cheaply made SC waterfall book.) We got to the trailhead knowing time was going to be a crunch. Laura decided to hang back on this one since we would be double-timing it in and out to beat the sunset. Just in case, we stuffed our headlamps into our pockets and pushed off. The trail started by leading us through, of all things, three pastures. I can see why many avid hikers would avoid this trail. You start by walking nearly a mile through a tractor-maintained pasture. Shortly after you join up with Tamasee Creek. The guide book talks about an old gold operation that used to be in the area. On the way back we found the old gold smelter. Neat. Because of its light use, the trail was hard to follow. But after about a mile and a half we were not disappointed.

Lee Falls drops softly in three sections about 100 feet before coming in contact with the base of the cliff. It continues to fall sharply in smaller sections for another 50 feet before leveling out. I could have spent an entire evening shooting this waterfall. Unfortunately time was not on our side. I tried to scamper up the steep banks quickly to get a good shot. Again, it was pretty cool seeing portions of the cliff face frozen from the winter storm. We didn't get to spend much time here, but the time we were here was spent looking up and gawking. Dennis quickly tagged it as the most impressive he had ever seen. It certainly falls into my top five (not exactly sure where). I still leave Virgin Falls, Tennessee, at my number one (see my first blog entry for details). We all but ran back to the parking area, getting back just before the last rays of daylight slipped behind the Blue Ridge.

WHAT A DAY! We had planned to camp that night as well, but with Laura having such a rough go the night before, I didn't wanna put her through that again. Luckily, Dennis' parents live in Greenville. We headed over and got a fresh shower and a nice meal. It was a prefect ending to a great day on the trail. As usual, leaving this area for Augusta made me wish I could spend every day in the Upstate. We'll be back first chance we get!!!!

Reality Check

2009-02-12T22:39:00.004-05:00

I have looked forward to this for such a long time. Probably an abnormally long time. Usually it's the woman in the relationship, but in our relationship it's me. May can't get here fast enough. We've made it out a couple times since Laura has been pregnant, but I knew the time would eventually come when she would have to forgo the trail. We had planned a trip for this weekend. It seemed like my first in such a long time, but in reality it hasn't really been long at all. Well, last minute Laura decided to cancel, and made the tough call of saying she was probably done hiking until Gabriel arrives. Of course, once he gets here it'll be a good while after that before she is able to make it back out. If I go without her, does that make me a bad husband/father? I'm sure she would tell me to go ahead and go but I think I would feel guilty. But man, without that, we're talking probably a year without sleeping in a tent.... yikes!

Not Our Usual "Weekend Adventure"

2009-01-21T16:18:00.007-05:00

Wow. It really was just as amazing as I thought it would be. We kinda last minute decided to drive up for the week. My wife's family lives near D.C. and her sister and brother were both visiting from far off lands, so we decided to make it a "two birds with one stone" trip. Once we decided we were going to go, I really started to get excited about the whole thing. The media coverage was unprecedented. The crowd estimates, if they held, were to be larger than anything else that had ever taken place in D.C. And that's quite a history of events. I couldn't wait to be a part of history.

We showed up the weekend before and the weather had been brutal. Wind chills were below zero. Snow was falling. It was cold. VERY cold. I hoped that it would warm up, and it did. It got into the thirties for the first time all week on Inauguration Day. Boy, didn't I feel lucky. We had to wake up at about 2:30 that morning. The plan was to be at the Metro station by 3:30. We would hopefully unload near the Mall around 5:00 a.m. and be in place before 6:00. Everything went pretty smooth. The crowds at the Metro station were brutal and so were the masses moving from the Metro to the Capitol. Luckily, once we actually got out onto the Mall (after security detoured us all the way around the Capitol) things weren't as bad as I expected. We moved to a decent spot with a nice view of the Capitol. Considering it was still well before 6 in the morning, some might have hoped for a closer seat, but it was better than I expected.

Here we were, at 5 something in the morning and the wind chills were in the single digits. There was nothing to do to warm up, yet people from all over the world were moving in tight for, at best, a lousy view of the event. Already I was struck with amazement. Everything to this point had given all these people every reason in the world to be ticked. No sleep. Terrible weather. Huge crowds. A crappy view. But everyone I saw had a smile on there face, and wouldn't have rather been anywhere in the world.

So there we were perched comfortably (relatively) between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. The Capitol was glowing in the night. It was kinda surreal (a theme for this whole experience). The monument stood behind us, and already the crowds stretched past it, on to the reflecting pool.

Finally, after 2+ hours of standing in the dark cold with nothing to do but take in the surroundings, the jumbo-trons came to life. They started playing clips from the concert that was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial two days before. The music was, to me, the greatest part of the day. I wished so bad we had came down for it. There were some of the biggest names in music, traveling across the country and singing (usually just one song) for little to nothing, except for the chance to say that they were there. Garth Brooks absolutely brought the house down. He sang Don McLean's "American Pie". Nearly the whole crowd was singing and dancing along. Then he went to exit the stage, because up to this point all the artists only sang one song. He paused right at the edge of stage and belted, "waaaaiaaaiaaat a miiiiinute...you know you make me wanna SHOUT!" The crowd absolutely came unglued. People everywhere were jumping and singing along. There I was, a guy you will never catch dead dancing in public, throwing my hands in the air singing and hopping around like a high school cheerleader. He had almost everyone there singing and dancing together. It, again, was surreal. The song ended and everyone clapped and laughed with each other, even people they obviously didn't know. From then on the cold weather was only an afterthought. I was witnessing history.

You can imagine what the rest of the event was like. The crowd was on edge waiting for Obama to show up. Every time the live cameras shot him moving through the building the crowd would go crazy, even though were introducing some Congressman no one had ever heard of. When he got his final introduction, the screams went to a higher, louder level. Then finally, for what was a lifetime of waiting for some of the wheelchair-bound people near me, Obama was officially sworn in. When they finally said "Congratulations, Mr. President," I think every foot on the Mall left the ground. He then gave a speech that had 2 million people begging for more. After the fact, I was looking through my pictures and realized that I had snapped a photo of everything that happened that day, but during the swearing in and Obama's speech, I was so caught up in everything I didn't get a single picture of him. I mean really, it was that surreal. I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

*for an interesting international perspective on the event, you can click the title of this blog and it will take you to a website by the BBC with some interesting comments.

Panther Creek Falls

2009-01-15T12:59:00.011-05:00

Dennis sent me a text message about two weeks ago. It read, "Man, I wanna go backpacking!" He hadn't been out since back in the fall when I took him to the Golden Corner of South Carolina for his first backpacking trip. (See the "Another Lifer" entry for more details). I had just finished reading Backpacker Magazine's entry on what was voted the best hike in Georgia, Panther Creek Falls (click on the title of this blog for a link to their website's trail description). So we set it up, and Monday after some early morning appointments we both had, we headed off.

We got to the trailhead a little later than I planned. The last thing I wanted to do was finish the hike and set up in the dark. It's just annoying. So, we had 3.6 miles of trail ahead of us and a little less than 2 hours of daylight left. With that in mind, we left the sight-seeing for tomorrow's return hike and kept a steady pace till the falls. We got there in almost exactly an hour. Pretty darn good trail time. We set up and still had a decent amount of sunlight left to soak in the scenery.

Here we all are in front of the tent. Austin is the tan one on the left, then me in the blue, then Star sitting in the middle, then Dennis. The waterfall was so much taller than we expected. The pictures we had seen before didn't make the waterfall appear more than maybe 30 feet high. In actuality the waterfall was all total about 120 feet tall. Even in this picture you can't see the water as it tumbles from around the rock outcrops on the left. At the base of the falls was a really nice sandy area that made for the perfect place to set up camp. The base of the waterfall is a huge breath-taking pool perfect for swimming. No, we didn't swim. It was in the 20's when we got there and got even colder as the night progressed. The creek past the waterfall was littered with car sized boulders. All in all it really was a great spot to set up a tent.

Now, the hike in... well it could have been better. To start, the trailhead was on a busy two-lane road, with room for only three vehicles. When we got there, all three spots were taken. It presented quite the danger opening the hatch of the Jeep and letting the dogs out so close to a busy road (yeah, I forgot their leashes). Right off the bat you have to walk under an overpass while on the trail. Shortly after that you come to a clearing for high rise powerlines, where a huge cable also passes over the creek, protruding from the high creek bank, then disappearing into the other side. There is tons of construction debris from the overpass and trash from passing vehicles. Luckily, you quickly disappear into the thick woods of the Chattahoochee National Forest. The next slight disappointment is that, although the creek rumbled loudly below, you are so far above it and the foliage is so thick, you can't see anything going on in the creek. Finally, after about a mile, you reach the creek's side. By this time the water has calmed down quite a bit. This is when the trail really became enjoyable. There were an alarming number of fallen large timbers, but other than that it was a very scenic trail. There were flat areas for camping all along the bank. A few times the trail rises above the creek, mainly at the numerous sharp bends. During the last mile, the creek begins to give you some hint of what lies ahead. Then finally you start hearing the rumble of Panther Creek Falls. The trail takes you along a rock outcrop that hangs at the very edge above the huge waterfall, where you get a nice view of the camping area below.

Your options once at the campsite are to either continue on the banks of Panther Creek to the eastern terminus at Yonah Camp/Yonah Dam. That is supposed to be another 2 miles or so (I can't verify that because we didn't hike it). Or, of course, backtrack to the main trailhead at the Panther Creek Recreation area. Be prepared for a bit of a climb. 750 feet in all, with most of it coming in that last mile.

3..2..1.. BUNGEEEEE!

2009-01-07T21:32:00.014-05:00

The first bungee trip was yet another last minute idea of Greg's. The original plan was to head north from Monterey, CA, to Crater Lake, Oregon. Plans had to change when almost everyone from our group backed out. As usual, we came up with a last minute back up plan, because sitting in the barracks all weekend wasn't a sound option. Bungee America! It was a place in Los Angeles where you first had to hike 5 miles through the Angeles National Forest to "The Bridge To Nowhere". Then you got a class on bungee safety. Then you jumped!

The Bridge To Nowhere is quite the site in itself. The history behind it is back in the 1940s when an attack from Japan on our western shore was a possibility, the government decided they needed an emergency evacuation route for Los Angeles residents. Their answer was a road through this valley through the Angeles National Forest leading further inland. Well, while construction was still going the valley flooded and washed the road out completely. By that time, with the war coming to an end, they decided to abandon the project. The only thing left was this bridge (lucky for us!).

The hike out to the bridge is an adventure in itself. There are something like 5 or 10 river crossings and a few short wooden bridges that seem very questionable. And some spots where a small mis-step could take you 80 feet down to the river bed with likely terrible results. It is extremely scenic. For me, kinda surreal. I mean, 15 minutes before we were parked in some shady grocery store parking lot right outside of the urban sprawl of L.A. Now we seem to be a world away from civilization. And if the awesome hike isn't enough, you get to jump off a bridge at the end!

My first time jumping was back in Fall of 2005. I think October. I remember when we got to the bridge and sat down for the safety course, the first thing they told us was, "You guys don't need to worry, you just survived the most dangerous part of your trip today: the hike!" If I was supposed to feel relieved, I didn't. You see, this whole time I had myself pumped up and ready to jump off the bridge. I had come to terms with it and was really starting to get excited. That all changed instantly when we arrived at the bridge and I took my first look over the rail. We sat around waiting for the rest of the group to show up (some people were really slow hikers). As our safety class went on, I started feeling better and better about jumping. I could do this.

We decided we were going to be in the last group to jump, so we spent the day climbing on rocks and playing in the creek, and watching grown men come almost to tears trying to throw themselves from the bridge. We laughed and had a great time. Then it was our turn. I again felt like I had psyched myself up enough to jump. But then... BAM! As if staring over the railing for the first time wasn't a smack in the face, actually strapping the cord on and trying to step over the railing is a like taking a right hook from Tyson. But standing on the little platform on the other side of the rail, I knew I couldn't let myself freeze up like some of the other guys did. Even though my muscles were giving out and my mind was screaming, "DON'T DO IT!" I refused to be the guy who couldn't jump. "3..2..1..BUNGEE!" Holy Cow! If I tried to describe what it felt like jumping off that bridge, we would be here all day and it still wouldn't do it justice. I'll say it's feeling like you know for sure you are about to die, but you don't. Scary. And the feeling you get when you are finally standing back on the bridge is euphoric.

If you are ever in L.A. and are looking for something to do, look these guys up. You can click on my blog title and it will take you to their website.

So this past October I got another one of those calls from Greg. "Hey man, if you get a plane ticket, bungee and everything else is on me." Since that first trip to "The Bridge To Nowhere", I had been back twice. This trip was going to make it three returns (four total trips). Greg got lucky enough to be stationed in San Diego and he had been back so many times that he was not only on a first name basis with all the guys who worked there, but he was getting to do a lot of special jumps. So our group made it out to the bridge and we had an excellent day of jumping. A lot of the guys had never been before, so it was hilarious watching them freak out trying to jump off the bridge. When it came my turn, they said since I had jumped so many times I could try some of the harder jumps. I got to do a back flip... which is nuts, and, scariest of all, a running start jump. On that one, instead of jumping flat-footed from the platform on the other side of the railing, they let you run from the middle of the bridge and jump the railing as if you were jumping a fence. It was wild.

The above picture is Dani. It was absolutly hysterical watching him jump. If it hadn't been for a 12 year old boy jumping earlier in the day, Dani never would have jumped. But he admitted that since the little boy jumped, he couldn't back out. Once Dani moved over the rail to the jumping platform, it was 4 loooooong minutes before he finally jumped. When he did, we got to see a man who was truly scared out of his misery has he fell to the bottom of the valley. We weren't completely sure that he wasn't going to die of a heart attack on the way down.

We jumped late in the evening and camped right there beside the bridge with one of the bungee employees. It was an awesome night. As the sun went down we got to see a handful of big-horn sheep moving along the ridges high above the bridge. The next morning we packed up and headed out, passing the next day's group of bungee jumpers as they were on their way in. Yeah, we were all jealous.

The Wheels Are In Motion...

2009-01-05T22:20:00.007-05:00

I just finished talking to Greg, and it's official. Plans are being made for another week-long excursion. I asked Laura for her blessing on one last week-long hoora before our baby boy arrives. She said yes, so I phoned Greg. As I knew he would, he said,"Let's do it." So, the plan is to get together some time during his spring break and head into the Carolina mountains.

Our adventures like this never, ever disappoint. Let me highlight a few for you. If you check out the side bar, you'll see pictures of things like Death Valley, the Western Continental Divide, the largest tree in the world, Crystal Caves, Badwater Basin, Mt. Whitney, etc. These were ALL accomplished in one amazing three-day weekend. It was the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and I got a call from Greg. "Hey man, you doing anything this weekend?" I said, "No..." He replies, "Good, because I bought you a plane ticket to Cali for the weekend." This is how Greg operates. He is all go. We can think about it and make plans on the way. I never was like that before, but after a few amazing weekends in Northern California, I just made the decision that when Greg asks, just go with it. It's what has made us great friends. It's also made for memories that I will never forget, experiences I wish everyone I knew could have experienced.

Now, he was responsible for making that one happen. This one is on me. I feel a little pressure, but very excited at the stories I am going to come back with. The Carolinas don't quite have the same wow-factor that California does, but I'm sure when we get back we'll have some great stories to share.

Hunting Island, South Carolina

2009-01-01T20:45:00.008-05:00

Hunting Island, South Carolina is located on the South Carolina coast just north of Hilton Head Island. It's also about a two hour drive south from Charleston (mainly due to there being no direct road connection). I first visited this island in January of 2008. It was another one of those weekends where, with Laura being in Iraq, I needed to keep myself busy, so I just decided on a whim to hop in the truck with the dogs and drive to the coast. When we got there, being that it was out of season, there was no attendant taking money for parking (I think the usual cost is $3). There wasn't a single car in the parking lot. We got out and started exploring the beach. I didn't do any research before-hand, so I was surprised when, around the corner from where we parked, was a beautiful lighthouse. We snapped some pictures there and read the placards about the island's history. The lighthouse was built in 1859, and then rebuilt in 1875 after it was destroyed during the Civil War. It was deactivated in 1933. Because we were there in the off season, the lighthouse was closed, but you can climb all 167 steps for a small $2.00 fee when it is open during the spring, summer, or fall.

The beach was awesome. The sand was awesome, and being that it was out of season, the dogs got to run up and down beach at free will. One of the placards also talked about the erosion problem. Apparently the island has been washing away at an alarming rate for quite some time. That explained all the downed palm trees. It made for a kind of surreal scene. We headed down the beach for quite a while till we got to the campground. Then we backtracked on one of the trails they have just inland from the beach.

The trail leads you under a canopy of palm branches from the campground, to the lighthouse, and on to the beach parking area. All in all we had a great time. We made it back to the island during the summer. The crowds were pretty overwhelming, but we still found a nice spot on the beach to lay down a towel. Dogs are welcome year round, just be sure you leash them (unless its winter and there is no one there!).

Another Lifer!

2008-12-31T12:49:00.009-05:00

This is a hike we did back in August. And when I say "we", I don't mean the usual "we". Laura was spending her last weekend at Camp Lejeune, so she was a no-go for this one. I finally talked a co-worker of mine, a fellow Airman, Dennis, into going with me. Anytime you take people hiking or backpacking with you, you can usually tell within the first hour of the trip whether or not they will ever go on another trip. Getting people to go backpacking is a non-stop effort. I go hiking probably every other weekend or so in the three warmer seasons, and probably once a month in winter. EVERY time I go I try to recruit anyone from work that I can to come with me. It's usually the same reaction I get when I ask. "Hey man, sounds pretty cool. Where are you going camping? Can we bring beer? No? Oh, I'm actually supposed to go to the bar with my friends this weekend. Maybe next time." And of course there is actually never a next time. So needless to say I was excited to hear that Dennis was going to come, and he was bringing a friend of his from tech school with us.

We prepped to camp for two nights, and made three stops. All three stops were in the Golden Corner. (The Golden Corner is what they call the three counties in the western tip of South Carolina). We got to Brasstown Creek just as night was setting in. We set up camp, cooked some food, and washed up in the creek. I was anxious to show the guys the Brasstown Waterfall Series that was less than a quarter mile from our tents that night. The next morning we packed up and went on down to the waterfalls. The guys were just as blown away as I was the first time I stumbled upon these falls. The first is a 30 foot wide cascade tumbling slowly down a rocky incline. Just 20 meters downstream is a 20 foot waterfall flowing over a cliff face. It's a very picturesque waterfall, one of the best I've seen (above). Then the third part, again just 20 meters or so down stream, is a sluice that drains into an awesome swimming pool, framed to the north by a beautiful cliff face.

((left to right: EVAN, DENNIS (kneeling), ME, & AUSTIN -one of my two dogs))

The next stop was just up the road (an old forest service dirt road) from our campsite. We walked to the top of Pine Mountain and caught some really amazing panoramic views (as pictured above).

After that, we headed up the road to the Chattooga River. If you are ever in this part of South Carolina, you have to go enjoy the views of the Chattooga River Valley. After driving through the rain on a questionable dirt road, we arrived at the trail head. We sat in the car for a few minutes to wait for the rain to stop. Sure enough the clouds rolled back. We loaded up and headed down the valley wall. We arrived at the river, and there was an awesome spot just across the river perfect for our three tents. We set up early and spent the rest of the day walking up and down the river soaking in the views.

After the trip, Dennis was already talking about all the gear he needed to be a fully equipped backpacker (he was using all my wife's stuff for this trip). I knew then I had found another lifer. He was hooked. We have tried to get some trips together since then, but our schedules haven't worked out. We do have dates set aside for the week after next. I'll keep you posted!

Virgin Falls, Tennessee

2008-12-28T23:31:00.006-05:00

Well, now that I am back to the blogging, I have to catch everyone up on all those hikes you've missed out on the past year or so. This one was an all-around interesting adventure.

I had just had micro-fracture surgery on my left knee only a week ago. I found out later that I wasn't supposed to walk for six weeks, but those instructions were given to me while I was still drunk on meds in recovery. I still had the staples in my knee and everything. Anyhow! I was headed to Texas, from Augusta, for my cousin's wedding. I figured since I had so much time off for recovery, I would take a detour and hit up some Tennessee trails on the way home (even though it wasn't really on the way at all).

When I got to the trailhead and unleashed the hounds (my two dogs, Austin and Star)and let them get their usual pre-hike scamper over with, I got my pack on and laced up my boots and hit the trail. By that time the dogs' tongues were dragging the ground. "No big deal," I thought, "they can get some fresh water out of the creek we are supposed to cross in about half a mile." Sure enough, at about half a mile we crossed a footbridge over a completely dry creek bed. I had no water on me at all, expecting to use the creek as a source. I figured surely at some point we would find some water. Mile 1, nothing. Mile 2, nothing. At this point, I was very close to going into panic mode, because they were really panting hard, and I myself was getting quite thirsty. Thank goodness at mile 3 there was a decent sized puddle in the creek bed and they got a good (dirty) drink.

We reached the campsite and found this amazing, one of a kind waterfall. There is a small hill/mountain top, with water coming out of the very top. No really, just flowing striaght out of the mountain top. There is no visible river or anything feeding the waterfall. The waterfall splashes down about 90 feet to its bottom, where it disappears into the base of the mountain. It's so crazy. There in the middle of this wilderness is a mountain with a waterfall flowing down its side. No river at the top, no river at the base. Awesome.

When we got there I hike down to the slippery base of the waterfall, being extra cautious not to fall and slide into the abyss where the water disappeared. I filled my water bottle, took some pictures and got ready to climb back up to the campsite. On the way up I felt my leg getting wet. At some point I gashed a small hole in my bottle. So now, if I balanced it just right, I had half a bottle of water. The only way to refill the bottle was to hike down to the slippery base of the waterfall and hope not to slide into the abyss. Not cool. It was rough and thirsty night.

The next day, I finished taking my last set of pictures and soaking it all in. We packed up and got ready to hike out. Right when I shoved off, another hiker comes in with nothing more than a walking stick and a small backpack. We made small talk about the dry creek bed and the best time to catch the waterfall (he recommended December). I headed out, thinking he would stay, but he said he was headed out as well. As we talked along the trail, I found out that he comes out here all the time and hikes the trail as a workout (which explained why he didn't hang out long at the falls). At first I was slightly annoyed that he hiked out with us. The dogs usually act edgy around company. But he was very friendly and seemed to enjoy the dogs running up and down the mountain. Then, suddenly, I noticed my heart getting kinda fluttery and my hands felt really shaky. I looked in my pack, but I had only packed what I needed for supper last night and breakfast. I knew it was only a 5 mile hike and figured surely I could make it out. My new hiking buddy offered me some of his food, but I didn't want to take it. Also, my water bottle (or half water bottle) was empty after about half a mile. I did accept his offer for water (since the dry creek bed was in fact still dry...), but still just felt bad about accepting his granola bar. Sure enough, with just one mile to go on the hike, I simply couldn't take another step. I realized that the whole time I was using only my right leg to carry the load (due to the left knee only being a week removed from surgery). This drained me way faster than normal. So I took up his offer for the granola, which gave me the boost I needed to get back to the car.

To date, that's the only time I have had any trouble on the trail. It was close to being serious trouble. This guy I thought was going to be annoying ended up saving me from a world of misery. I think it may have been God's way of making me feel like a heel for judging someone. He ended up being a true Godsend.

**This trail also offers some cave hikes. I got in late, and was short on water and food, so I didn't stray to far from the main path. There is also a short spur trail to take you to a nearby river, but my new hiking buddy informed me that even the river was dry at that time; something he had never seen before.

Pine Mountain Sunrise

2008-12-26T00:22:00.003-05:00

This sunrise we caught from Pine Mountain in South Carolina, near the town of Westminster. Laura and I drove up early and started up before sun-up. I stumbled upon this place during one of my many solo hikes I took while Laura was deployed. It was really fun to be able to take her back there and experience it with her. It was pretty amazing watching the sun press into the mountains and watch the fog lift from deep in the valley's cracks.

The other significance to this is, it was our first trip since finding out we were pregnant. Wow! What an exciting feeling. I have dreamed for a long time about the day when I would welcome my first child to the world. Its unbelievably exciting to know that it is coming soon. One day I will stand on this mountain with a new addition to the family, and we'll all catch this sunrise together.

Three Forks Junction With My Parents

2008-12-25T22:17:00.004-05:00

The Three Forks Junction is a place where three creeks flow together to form the West Fork of the Chattooga River (The river where the movie "Deliverance" was filmed). From the north, Overflow Creek flows in. From the west is Holcomb Creek, losing elevation fast and flowing narrowly between two mountains before reaching the junction. From the east flows Big Creek. Big Creek carries the most water into the junction, and has some amazing waterfalls just upstream. Right in the middle of all this there is just enough flat and soft ground that allow you to set up camp with water flowing in all directions, surrounded by mountains. The amazing scenery combined with a fairly simple, yet rarely undertaken hike makes it my favorite camping spot. I wish everyone I knew had a chance to come and spend a couple nights out here. I had the pleasure of taking my parents on their first backpacking trip here. It was a great experience for all parties involved.

That very trip will be one that I remember for a long time. The biggest skeptic was my dad. We had to wheel and deal to get him out there. Part of the deal was we would find a way to get him an air mattress AND the pump to the camp site. And we would hike in real food, not trail food. Also, his pack had to weigh less than 20 pounds. I recruited Greg for the trip, and me and him stuffed our packs, including the air mattress and pump, so that Daddy's demands would be met. I could see that both my parents were really enjoying the scenery on the way in, even though the trail was in really rough shape. We ended up decending a mountain side completely off the trail at one point because the markings were gone. It ended up being one of the more rugged hikes I've taken. I felt bad about promising my parents an easy hike, then running into all the problems we did, but they laughed about it once we were at the campsite. We set up camp and then began playing around on some of the boulders and waterfalls surrounding the campsite. It was great to see Momma acting like a twelve-year-old, jumping across creeks and playing on big rocks. My mom talks all the time about that trip, and they plan on making another go at it next time they are in Georgia.

Here are some of our photos from the trip we made in December. The weather was nasty, but it was a rare warm weekend in December, so we headed out anyway. Enjoy!

http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r248/Eldowney7/Three%20Forks%20with%20Mom%20and%20Dad/?action=view¤t=1884453d.pbw

In the Beginning

2008-12-25T11:43:00.001-05:00

Ok. Take Two. I tried to start a blog last year, but it fizzled after only one entry. The blog was titled "My Weekend Adventures". At the time, my wife and I were stationed in separate places. Now that Laura is done with her fun in the Marine Corps and living with me in Georgia, it's only fitting that I change the title from "My..." to "Our Weekend Adventures". When I started the blog I had only been out hiking a few times. Since then, I have lost count how many times I have been out. Our focus for these rants will be our thoughts and opinions about the hikes. Of course, we reserve the right to go off on tangents about anything our mind wanders to, especially if it wandered there while hiking! Our weekend adventures are sure to take us more places than just trails, but trails are the most frequent (and my favorite).