Book Recommendations

I'm not into writing book reviews, just wanted to give a shout-out to the books below. Currently reading Grandma Gatewood's Walk and enjoying the story of her walk on the AT and her life story in general. If she could walk the AT with the minimal supplies and at her age ... 

I have read Bear In the Back Seat 1, written by a GSMNP ranger and covering familiar trails and terrain ... Have to finish Grandma Gatewood's Walk and will start in on Bear in the Back Seat 2. Expect it to be just as good. Maybe a career change is in order?!

Thomas Divide/Kanati Fork

After eating lunch, we took off to drop off a car at the Kephart Prong parking area and all piled in the truck to and reached the trail head to Thomas Divide Trail. That makes it sound easy, we actually had to do a bit of doubling back as we couldn't find the trail along Newfound Gap Road. We finally did, and that's when we piled out ... (just to be clear).

Thomas Divide Trail is a 13.6 mile trail, but we were only hiking to the Kanati Fork Trail intersection, so we only covered a 1.8 mile section of the trail. That section has an elevation change of approximately 400 feet and carried us along the top of a ridge for a while, but the view was hidden for the most part by the trees

My new pack, an Osprey Manta 28; it fit well, after some adjustment and was big enough to hold everything I wanted, which was an improvement over my old pack. (I might have loaded it to excess for the "just in case" deluge). I like the osprey hydration system better than the camelback system ... for what it's worth ...

The section of the Thomas Divide Trail we hiked on was an open forest at around 4700 feet.  There was grass scattered all along the forest floor, just beautiful. The weather was PERFECT at approximately 75 degrees, which was so unexpected after the heat of the previous week. Elevation makes a big difference.

More rhododendron in bloom, what a treat to see!

There are a number of fallen chestnut trees in the forest along the Thomas Divide Trail. According to the GuideBook, "They have not rotted even though the trees died more than 60 years ago. The tannic acid in their bark makes American chestnut hardier and more weather-resistant than many other trees, a quality that led pioneers to prefer chestnut wood for barns and houses."

The grass-edged trail slowly started growing up more and more as we headed down the Kanati Fork trail. According to legend, Kanati and his wife Selu, were the first people; the trail gets it's name from the stream flowing nearby. 

Turk's Cap Lily

The downward decent on Kanati Fork (just over 2,000 foot elevation change) wasn't so steep that it wore out the knees, but the further we went, the more overgrown the trail became, until we could hardly see the trail in areas. This is the reason to not wear running shorts. Very soon, those with shorts on started to borrow the trekking poles to keep the overgrowth at bay as much as possible.

Rod and Chase kept the rear guard ...

Quite certain this is Ashy Hydrangea ... 

Trail? There's a trail?

Rhododendron blossoms

Rod and Chase were both wearing shorts and both got stung at different intervals by members of the hymenoptera family, with varying degrees of pain. They were both wearing shorts ...  We had a vaseline/activated charcoal combo along that we quickly slathered on the stings, which seemed to help, and saved a mess having to mix the charcoal on the trail.

Rhododendron tunnel

Grape vine extraordinaire ...

A bit blurry, but beware of bears ...

A switchback

Now that's a large knot ...

We made it to the car parked at Newfound Gap with no rain, despite the forecast predicting thundershowers.

Pardon the super sweaty face, but the bathroom stalls in the Newfound Gap overlook always make me laugh!

The family at the Newfound Gap overlook.

The STATS:

Total Mileage hiked: 4.7 miles

Mileage Added to 900 Mile Challenge: 4.7 miles 

Total Miles Hiked Toward 900 Mile Challenge: 58.5

Miles Added to Centennial Challenge: 4.7

Total Miles Hiked Toward 100 Mile Centennial Goal: 59.5

Nolan Divide/Deep Creek Horse Trail/Deep Creek/Juney Whank Falls Trail

After a LONGGGG hiatus from the trails, but dreaming of them every day, we went back the weekend of July 8-9, 2016, possibly the hottest weekend of the summer. Serious consideration and brain power went into the wisdom of this timing and the possible consequences of hiking in 90+ degree weather.

This hike commenced the morning of July 9, 2016. It had been a stormy night, and we had stayed in a KOA in Cherokee, North Carolina, while Rod and Pam stayed in Townsend. The cell service was very poor and we were only able to communicate that we would meet at the Oconaluftee Visitor's Center at 0800. We then proceeded to have a chilly night (which is due to poor planning on our part, it was 96 degrees at home and we couldn't imagine that 2.5 hours north we would be cold, but the mountains are a climate zone unto themselves). So after a poor night's rest, we made it to the visitor's center and found that Rod and Pam were not there. 

The exciting part about this trip to me was that my dear children were accompanying us. One might say they were forced to come,  and thinking that they had no choice,  they agreed,  hoping to see a waterfall and a view. 

While waiting, a trip into the visitor's center revealed that several roads were closed due to the inclement weather the previous night and downed trees, which explained why Rod and Pam hadn't arrived.

Right outside the visitor's center, along the Oconaluftee River Trail, were six elk. They are the first we had seen in the Smokey's. So the photo below contains a few of them, but of course they are too small to pick out ... 

This is part of the Mountain Farm Exhibit outside of the Oconaluftee Visitor's Center ...

Lucky shot ...

After a while, Rod and Pam arrived and as was the custom, we changed our hiking plans at the last moment.  The weather looked "iffy" in the afternoon, and we wanted a higher elevation for cooler temperatures. So we decided on the Deep Creek area and Juney Whank Falls, with another trail in the afternoon up near Newfound Gap area.

We made it to the trail head, a loop hike totaling 3.0 miles. This was again a new area for us. Several of us had gotten new packs, myself included, and just to try them out, we all carried our packs, except the children, who rolled their eyes at us and scoffed at our trekking poles. (They would change their minds about the poles later in the day.)

At Juney Whank falls, I ran into an old college acquaintance. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't take his photo and include it in this post. So Arthur, if you happen to read this, make sure to say "hi" in the comments, and it was great to see you!

We have all taken to using Frogg Togg cooling towels. We discovered a new use for the trekking poles, reaching poles for wetting the cooling towels. Trekking poles are so multifunctional:

   Pam at Juney Whank Falls, a good picture of the falls is hard to get as the walking bridge is right at the base of the falls.

To cover all the trails for the 900 Mile Challenge, we had to cover several small off-shoot sections of the trail and backtrack on the same trails to get the all the mileage in. 

Juney Whank Falls Trail & Deep Creek Horse Trail were quite populated with hikers and tubers. They are not trails for contemplation and solitude, but hidden gems can be found anywhere:

Deep Creek

We were pleased to be able to see the rhododendron in bloom, we were afraid that they had passed their prime and that we'd have to wait for next year to see them in bloom.

There were a number that were still just starting to bloom. This is one sight that I have never seen in the Smokey's ... but one I've heard about it for years. What a treat!

Tom Branch Falls

Some of the storm damage presumably from the previous evening.

Three miles went by quickly, and we were back to the vehicles in time for lunch, which meant we didn't have to eat on the trail after all. Everyone's packs were feeling comfortable, so it was a good test-run-hike for the new packs.

Lunch was eaten quickly at a pavilion marked "reserved." We didn't get kicked out, and packed up to head to the second hike and leave the crowds of tubers behind. 

Trip Stats:

Total Mileage hiked: 3.0 Miles

Mileage Added to 900 Mile Challenge: 2.7 Miles 

Total Miles Hiked Toward 900 Mile Challenge: 53.8

Miles Added to Centennial Challenge: 3.0

Total Miles Hiked Toward 100 Mile Centennial Goal: 54.8 Miles