Total Mileage: 19.7

Route: Twentymile trail ( 3.1) to Long Hungry Ridge Trail (4.6) [possible side trip to Doe Knob at AT intersection-- 4 miles roundtrip], Gregory Bald trail to the Bald (1.2), stay the night at campsite 13. Day 2: Wolf Ridge trail back to 20mile ranger station ( 6.8).
Sam has already blogged about the outting, so I'm going to steal his assessment...

Happy Trails

This weekend marked a momentous occasion, one rarely seen nor experienced during the tenure of my friendship with Andy "Scat Man" Lombardo.  (By the way, that's his trail name due to his experience identifying various wildlife by their "gifts" on the trails.  Mine is Sole Man.  On a hike a few years ago, both my boot soles fell off completely and I had to hike one soled for 12 miles, and without any soles for another 4 when the left one fell off.)  Anyway...the occasion is... we backpacked this weekend and stuck completely to the itenerary and pre-planned mileage without getting lost, adding 5-10 extra miles, or being flood bound.


We did the following:
Depart Maryville approx. 7am Thursday
Park at Twentymile Ranger Station off 129 past deals gap
Twentymile trail (3.1) to Long Hungry Ridge Trail (4.6), side trip to Doe Knob (4), Gregory Bald trail (1.2), stay at campsite 13, Wolf Ridge trail ( 6.3), twenty mile trail to ranger station (.5). Back in communication by sundown Friday.


It was reasonably chilly Thursday morning, but more so once we got to the ranger station.  We planned accordingly by making the traditional Hardee's carbo load, and me swilling coffee from a Thermos from the moment I left my house until we were locking the car heading up the trail.


The Twenty Mile trail was moderate in grade as it was actually an old railroad bed.  Once we started up the Long Hungry Ridge Trail it started to steepen quite a bit.  From the very beginning and about every 30-50 feet we saw bear droppings, but we never saw any bear.  This has to be the most bear activity I've ever seen in one place.  We saw a wild boar sow and leopard piglet run up from the valley we were walking above.  Believe it or not that is actually the most dangerous animal you can come across while in the Smokies.  The sows are very protective of the piglets.  No issues with this pair though.  We decided to top off our water at a natural spring a half mile from the trail intersection.  I had my Pur water filter all ready to go, but after 14 years of use, it finally died.  I tried to repair the seal between the pump handle and O-ring with some chap stick, but alas we had to use iodine tablets.  As is, I think the water would have been mostly safe, but my intestines are happy we used the tablets.  We hit the Doe Knob intersection and hid our packs so we could do the detour trail to Doe Knob a bit less encumbered.    Definitely a good idea as Doe Knob was a series of very steep ridge caps.  We headed back to the packs we had stashed behind a big downed tree and when I was about 50 yards away, I heard a low grunt or growl.  It was loud enough to make me stop, and then I just heard a faint snort and nothing else.  Being the hardened backcountry man I am... or an idiot.. I pulled out my 3 inch pocket knife and headed toward the packs... ready for action!  Let me mention this knife was a groomsman gift from a wedding I was in and had my initials engraved on it... not a serrated hunting knife.  When I got there, nothing was within sight, so whatever it was moved out before I could get anywhere close.  I could take this time to side-track on a notion I've had for years.. so here it goes.  Somehow on one of the hikes or backpacking trips I have taken with Andy the discussion of hunting came up, and though I've never hunted, I thought the best way to get into the "sport" would be to truely match man to beast on fair ground.  No guns, no bows, up close and personal.  While I lack the teeth and claws or hooves to make it a fair fight, I think a knife would be equitable equipment.  As conversations like these tend to escalate into the extreme, I decided the best way to hunt a deer is to drop out of a tree with a knife and wrestle it to the ground... naked.  For a bear or a wild boar, I'd opt for a loin cloth.  Aren't we all glad I don't hunt.  So, packs back on, we head up toward Gregory's Bald.  As I come into the clearing of the bald I see three deer grazing right in front of me.  I stop and they start to walk toward me a little.  After taking a couple of pictures I walk on up the trail expecting them to dart away.  They just keep grazing so I get about 20 feet away and take a few more pictures.  Andy gets to the clearing about that time and I try to motion to him about the deer, but his glassses are fogged up.  He walked right up to me and stops and I say "Deer." and point left.  He says "Ah. Deer."  This is the shortest conversation we've ever had.  Outstanding scenery from the top of Gregory's Bald.





So, we head down from the Bald toward campsite 13 and setup camp as it was now getting toward dusk... and COLD.  Andy gets the tent setup while I fill up our water supply at a nearby spring.  We get our stuff unpacked for the night and start dinner.  Andy is a backcountry chef genius!  Armed with a food dehydrator, camp stove, and pre-cooking foresight, he created a masterpiece of hot delicious food.  It was a turkey-chili-mac creation accompanied by loaded mashed potatoes.  For an apertif we were treated to hot chocolate with a warming shot of whiskey.  Absolutely outstanding.  Unfortunately there was a fire ban in effect due to the dry weather, so with no fire to hang around we cleaned up and went to bed.  The wind picked up and it got COLD.  To save pack weight, we opted for a 8'x 10' tarp using Andy's hiking poles to hold up the two ends.  I had my zero degree mummy bag and Thermarest pad, and the area we setup the "tent" was very smooth and level.  I think this was the first time my bag was perfect for the weather.  I didn't freeze, I wasn't too hot.  We got up kind of late and due to a slight malfuntion with the stove, had warmish oatmeal.  I had brought a percolator pot to make coffee in, and after we figured out the stove, the coffee boiled just as we finished packing up camp.  Andy had cell phone reception and checked in with Jody his wife.  She asked if we were getting rained on.  Nope.  She said it was heading our way.  No sooner than he hung up, it started sprinkling.  By the time we had the pack covers on and our rain gear, it was raining hard.  So, not one to leave a perfectly good pot of coffee to waste, I proceeded to hike out with mug in one hand and coffee pot in the other.  I did about a mile like this until I finished the pot.  It was a good move.  I will do it again.  I may do this when I go to the mall.  Time will tell.  So to finish up, we did the last 6.8 miles back to the Twenty Mile Ranger Station in about 3 hours.  We were both soaked by the time we got there, so after a quick change of clothes, we headed back.  Awesome trip.  Enjoy the pics.

Oh yeah, the link with the pics shows a campfire and above I commented how there was a ban on campfires.  That wasn't ours. We passed a couple backpacking back out just before getting to campsite 95 (only 1.5 miles in).  We get to the campsite and we see this lovely raging campfire.  No tents.  No one around.  These two idiots just packed up camp and didn't put out their fire... at all.  Andy and I, being the kind nature loving law abiding citizens we are, took out the cooking pot and with a stream nearby, put out their fire.  It's people like these, that make Smokey the Bear necessary...but only bearly.  Ha!  Pun in yo FACE!

Date: 12-27 to 12-28-2007
Hikers: Sam'n'Andy

Update to Unsolicited Braggadocio || Tuesday, November 06, 2007

After starting to think it was all an elaborate prank, the Educator of the Week clip that was shot last May is finally going to air on WBIR.com on Tuesday, November 13. It will air at some point during the following hours:

5-6a

6-7a

12-12:30p

Live @ Five 5-6p

6-6:30p

11-11:30p

I'll be getting a copy on DVD eventually, and whenever I do I'll post it here for all (who care) to see.

No, you can’t have my rights. I’m still using them. || Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Bailey was lying in the floor reading The Road to Oz when she popped up and said "I can't read this book!--it has a bad word. it says s-t-u-p-i-d." Being the anti-establishment parents we are, we told her she can still read it as long as she doesn't say it. Jodie's quote: "It's a classic. you can have bad words in classics." She'll be on Catcher in the Rye (and Harry Potter and the Bridge to Terabithia, for that matter) in no time. After all, she was born during Banned Book Month (April).

PS--she's reading the unexpurgated, unabridged edition of the book... not the wussy illustrated classic with pictures on every other page :)

Proud of m' boy || Thursday, September 20, 2007

Myers and I were driving down the road tonight when an Operation Ivy song came on the radio and he said "oi!oi!oi!" for half the song. It brought tears to my eyes :)

Why We Love Chattanooga || 9/19/2007

Little River || 9/19/2007

Happy 50th || Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. If it weren't already past my 9:30 bedtime, I would ask you to join me in the symbolic cigarette smoked while eating apple pie, listening to Charlie Parker, and reading Langston Hughes. However, since it's late and I don't smoke, support the man, man, and check out the newly published facsimile edition of the original 120 foot scroll On the Road was written on. Ironically, and contrary to the spirit of Kerouac, I've revised this email half a dozen times and I have never hitchhiked (unless you count the time Sam and I rode halfway around the Cades Cove loop in the back of a stranger's truck after a hike...).

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/ontheroad/

Appalachian Highlands Research Center || Sunday, July 22, 2007

This weekend wrapped up my time as a teacher intern for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory at Tremont. For the weekend, we hiked up to the Appalachian Highlands Research Center at Purchase Knob. Located on the Cataloochee side of the park (home to the reintroduced elk), we made the 7.5 mile trek up the mountain via the Caldwell Fork Trail, Boogerman Loop Trail, McKee Branch Trail (the last two miles of which were particularly brutal), and the Cataloochee Divide Trail. This is the first time I've hiked with a group of 12 teenagers, and that made the trip fairly interesting (it took 7.5 hours to hike the 7.5 miles... it's much more painful to hike slowly than quickly). On the trail there were signs of old homesites and large stands of virgin timber and old growth forest. Aside from a post lunch snack of Indian Cucumber, there were few ecology breaks due to the pacing, though one student spied a Fowlers Toad, a species that doesn't have a lot of recorded sightings on that side of the park. After arriving at the research center, we met up with the other half of the group that had hiked the same route going the opposite direction to a car shuttle. We pitched our tents behind the AHRC (also called The Purchase), a former vacation home that was donated to the park in 2001 on the terms that it become a citizen science research center for both research and educational outreach. On Saturday, we woke up and made the .7 mile walk down to the Ferguson Cabin, a late 19th century cabin that is the highest elevation historic cabin in the GSMNP. At the cabin, Paul Super, a park biologist specializing in birds, and Josh, from our group, had set up mist nets to capture birds for banding. The nets were very productive, as there were multiple birds on every net run. There were several cat birds (so called because of their call), 3+ ruby throated hummingbirds, and an Indigo Bunting. The birds were processed for sex, age, band information, and parasites, particularly mites and lice. After banding, we walked further down the road to a transect of snake tins set up to study the home range preferences of the snakes found at The Purchase. Snakes found in the tins (a garter snake and a red belly) we processed for Snout to Vent length and for individual identification, which is done through clipping scales with a pair of scissors. Though not painful, scale clippings are relatively temporary as the scales grow back after several sheds. Following snake monitoring, we went back to the AHRC for lunch, followed in the afternoon by aquatic and terrestrial salamander monitoring in the creek behind the Ferguson Cabin. In an hour's time, we found, processed, and returned 39 aquatic and 3 terrestrial salamanders in 50 meters of stream. The terrestrial salamanders were found doing a leaf litter search on a 50 meter transect, while the aquatic monitoring was done, basically, by turning over every rock in a stream full of rocks, working our way up the stream as we went. After salamanders, we went back to the research center while some groups of students began work on small group science projects, while others had freetime in preparation for supper. After eating, we set up a UV refrigerator moth trap and we went on a twilight owl prowl before heading to bed. We woke up around 6:30 on Sunday morning to watch a hazy sunset, and after breakfast the students broke up into groups to work on their projects--a beetle mark and recapture project to estimate Japanese Beetle population size, a spider project, a snake project, and a moth project. After collecting data, the students were to go back to Tremont and continue research at a lower elevation to make comparisons. After all group projects were finished, we had lunch and went on our merry way. Bartley (the other ATBI intern) and I, it is safe to say, probably took a path home no one had ever taken from Purchase Knob before. The trip to the Purchase took close to 4 hours, and we were determined to find a faster way. So...our 2 hour, 45 minute route, in case you ever need it: From Maggie Valley (home to Ghost Town in the Sky), hit I40W and go to Newport, take highway 411S to Sevierville, bypass Sevierville traffic taking backroads (Middle Creek Rd to Eastgate to Park Rd) to Pigeon Forge, and turn right at the Olive Garden/Red Lobster (New Era Rd), and take it to Walden Creek. If you turn right, you will go through East Millers Cove and eventually come out in Walland on Old Walland Highway relatively close to Wesley Woods. However, turning left on Walden Creek and then right on to Wears Valley Rd would probably be faster... but hey, we were feeling adventurous.