Gregory's Bald || Monday, June 16, 2008

Backstory--mid to late June is prime time for Flame Azaleas to bloom. A more apt description can be given by the 18th century botanist William Bartram...

"The epithet fiery I annex to this most celebrated species of azalea, as being expressive of the appearance of its flowers; which are in general of the color of the finest red-lead, orange, and bright gold, as well as yellow and cream-color This is certainly the most gay and brilliant flowering shrub yet known."

Backstory part II: Jodie has an aunt who has always wanted to go to Gregory's Bald, home to one of the most brilliant displays of flame azaleas, well, anywhere, to see them bloom. It was also one of the things on my life list, and although I made it up there last year in July, they had all already bloomed and wilted.

SO, we got back from Disney around 12:30am Sunday morning, and at Jodie's grandparents house the next day around noon, we set up a trip to the bald for today. Already car-lagged and operating on way too little sleep, we got up this morning at 6 to start making our way up there. Total participants: 7. Total of participants over the age of 12: 3. Myers, 2 years old, Bailey, 7 years old, cousin 1: 7 years old, cousin 2: 11-12ish, me, Jodie, Jodie's Aunt.

The hike to Gregory's Bald starts on the Parson's Branch road, one of the exit routes from Cades Cove. The trip to the bald is essentially 4.5 miles, all of which were uphill. The trip back is the same 4.5 miles except downhill. Do the math: 9 mile trip. Bailey's previous longest hike was a little over 5 miles. We had a pretty bad start, as all the kids were whining within a half mile. We did stop frequently at the beginning, as Jodie's aunt used to be one of the people in charge of the education dept. at Tremont, so it was a lot of fun having a plant identification person on hand. I can now ID pipsisewa, galax, blood root, and that's about it. I am horrible with plants. Scat is way more my thing. One of the early highlights of the trip was finding a real live brood 17 cicada who was docile enough to be put on all the kids heads for picture ops. Bailey is 7 now, and the next time an offspring of this cicada will be seen she will be 24. Scary stuff. Anyway, around mile 2 Jodie's aunt started a game of Disney Trivia, with the rule that she would only ask questions if we were walking down the trail. The kids went from how long to break how long to break to getting up and urging us on when we were taking a break. Brilliant.

On up the trail, miles 3-4.5 were particularly taxing, but we made it to the bald just in time. While pretty beat, the kids still found it in them to explore some, spying azaleas, climbing a weird, short, bonsai-looking oak tree, etc.

The walk with kids in tow basically took from 930am to 2--4.5 miles in 4.5 hours. The way back, being downhill, went more smoothly in terms of time. However, going downhill, especially with Bailey's joint issues, posed a problem, as Bailey fell and twisted her ankle big time with about 3 miles left. On already wobbly footing, she fell hard two more times, but she got up and did an awesome job. We also saw a once in a lifetime event on the way back--a millipede molting. Like snakes shedding skin, invertibrates have to grow new exoskeletons as the grow. "Eagle Eye" Bailey spotted the really bizarre happening and got our attention. It was basically like it had just crawled out of it's skin, but instead of being dark brown it was now bright white. Very cool. It also spelling like cherries. I will give kudos to anyone who can comment and tell me why it smelled like cherries. It's a neat factoid.

Anyway, we make it back to the car and COLLAPSE. Nine miles is usually a warm up when Sam and I go backpacking, but nine mile with Myers on my back and three other kids running around was INSANE. Once in the car, we took Parson's Branch out to The Dragon and went to the Tail of the Dragon Motorcycle resort for bathrooms and food (very good hotdogs... hotdog + drink + really good fries or onion rings for $4.19). On the way home, Jodie and I stayed awake while Myers and Bailey slept. Once home, it was showers, tick checks, and bed. Bailey was dead tired. Her eyes are swollen and blacked, myers is asleep where he passed out while playing in my bed, and Jodie is zonked. I'm very proud of all of them. Jodie in particular was a trooper. She loves outdoorsy stuff, but as she puts it she likes "controlled" amounts of nature. Long haul hikes are not really her thing. Especially after her stint in the hospital a year and a half ago with her lung condition, stuff like this is a big deal. While it kicked her (and everyone else's) butt, she did great. Bailey also rocked, hiking through tears after a particularly hard wipeout in the mud (damn horses). Myers, well, he didn't hit me in the head with his sippy cup too hard. His general temperament was excellent as well. We started hiking from the bald at 3, and were at the cars at 530, so we were on the trail a total of 8 hours. He was in the backpack carrier for 7 of them and he didn't go insane, so props to him. The rest of our crew did an excellent job as well--good trip.

The best part is that although it whipped all our heineys, I already brought up the next trip and they didn't stone me. For those of you wishing to make future plans, the next trip will be a family oriented trip to Abrams Falls... 2.5 miles to the falls, swimming and lunch below the falls, and 2.5 miles back to the car. This is tentatively being planned for between July 3-6, but I'll keep everyone posted on a final time table. This trip will be MUCH easier,and well suited for beginners or those who haven't been out in a while or who haven't taken kids out before. It's a classic trip.

On a personal reflection level, this was my third trip to Gregory's Bald (the first using this route), and while I don't think I'll make it back the 100+ times Bert Garner did in his lifetime, I don't think it'll be my last time there. The view of the mountains and the cove are phenomenal. As this is the first time I've been there in clear weather, I had never really appreciated the view. If you live in the Knox/Blount/Sevier area, this is a place you need to make it to at least once in your life.

Pictures will be posted as they are uploaded. Basically, I'm way too tired to walk to the kitchen where the camera is to get it to upload photos.

Team Rodent || Sunday, June 15, 2008

We are freshly back from a week spent with Team Rodent in very sunny and toasty Florida. I'll repost this blog in earnest after I've had time to decompress and filter through pictures, which will be posted in due time. I'm mainly posting this now because I'm getting ready to post something that happened today, and I still want Disney to be in chronological order.

I Little River || Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Regrettfully, I have no pictures. Bailey and I put in kayaks at Coulter's Bridge on Little River today. This was her first time in the kayak on the river, and it went swimmingly. Again, a little nervous about separation, so we tied together again, but we floated down about a half mile just kind of putzing around and practicing paddling, and then paddling back up, floating down, paddling up, etc. We stopped at one of the little reed patches to get out and explore, find shells, throw rocks, and splash around. All in all, she did great and was asking for rapids by the time we were done. As there weren't really any rapids here, we paddled upriver of the bridge where there are some MAYBE class .5 rapids for us to come down. My favorite part: this is in Maryville, 10 minutes from my house, it took 1.5 hours on the river, its FREE, and we were making memories. I mean--HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO WATCHING TV? Going to wal-mart? Mowing the lawn? Please--I beg you--get out this summer. If not on the water, find a trail, explore some woods, go fishing, walk the greenway. Let me know if you need help with ideas. After I get back from Disney World, Jodie and I will be posting some family-friendly outdoor activities in the next few months. (Stepping down from my soap box)

Anyway, have a good night :)

Smokies Game, Sometime in Summer of 2008

Butterflies Eat Poo. Really. || Sunday, June 01, 2008

Possibly the most groundbreaking phenomenon to come out of last week's canoe trip was not necessarily the revelation that butterflies eat poo (ask any of my 7th graders with a pulse during descriptive writing week... it started a lively discussion in some classes), but the decision to move forward with the advertising campaign. More details later--keep an eye on Sam's blog for more details.

As to the actual trip, we headed out Saturday morning at 830ish, after someone left their food in West Knoxville and had to go back and get it--though I'm glad he did... the potato salad and baked beans were kickin'. We left Maryville around 830 and got to Cable Cove boat ramp on Fontana Lake around 1030 or so. The paddle went pretty smoothly, especially once we made it off the main channel and into the cove where Hazel Creek empties into the lake. The water was a little choppy due to the wind and boats with motors, which, combined with the fact that I crammed the canoe with a crapload of gear (i.e., propane powered George Foreman grill) and you have the makings of a slightly nerve-wracked andy. Put it like this... I was on my knees in a whitewater stance for most of the way across the flatwater lake. A little wobbly. Off the main channel, though, it was pretty easy going. Once we made it to the point where the trail to the campsite meets the lake, we decided to cheat and try to paddle up Hazel Creek some so we wouldn't have to portage as far. For kayaks, this is a pretty good idea. For loaded canoes, not so good. We ended up having to walk the canoes through low water and rapids a little ways, and then had to port them up a steep and overgrown bank. Somehow I managed not to get poison ivy betwixt my toes. After porting we set up camp and had lunch. The original plan was to paddle in and start our 16.5 mile hike around, o, 11 or so. In reality, around 150 we started getting ready. Now, for the mathematically inclined, the average human hiking pace on level ground is 2/2.5 miles per hour. 16.5 divided by 2 = 8+ hours of hiking; 2 oclock + 8 hours = 10 oclock = dark. Needless to say, I wasn't too terribly enthused about the idea at this point.

Starting off on the trail, we explored the Calhoun house for a few minutes and then headed up the Hazel Creek trail. Within about a 10 minute walk we started to come upon stone foundations and a few small out buildings. Historically, the Hazel Creek area was one of the largest settlements in the National Park. It was also the last to be purchased by the park. This area wasn't Parkidized until after WWII--Fontana Lake was created for the sake of Fontana Dam (2nd tallest Dam in the US... It's the one Harrison Ford jumped off of in The Fugitive) to create electricity for ALCOA to make aluminum for planes for the war. Anyway, within about 10 minutes was came upon a small outbuilding with a group of bats in it... very cool. Behind that, we caught a glimpse of a large brick wall. Upon investigation, we made our way back to what was once a large dry kiln for drying lumber. Today, it is basically four long and tall brick walls with a partial roof and a ton of artifacts and NPS junk. Very cool stuff. Check out the pics to see what I'm talking about. I think it offers a very fine commentary on the juxtaposition of nature and industry. I'm always interested with the motif of something that was once intensely important, that people spent months and years planning and designing a building and it served as the livelihood of mulitple familes, and now it's just a very large pile of bricks. It's like Marla Singer's prom dress.

We spent about 30 minutes exploring, and then we headed off at a good clip with the expectation of finishing the hike before, say, midnight. We passed a water level measurement station (the thing in the pics that looks like something from Lost) that housed possibly the Park's largest spider. At the end of the trail, there was a NPS bunkhouse for park workers to stay in while training or doing trail mantenance. This trail, by the way, is extremely well maintained. I could have driven my Subaru along the entire trail.

On the way back, we took a side trip to the Bone Valley trail. At the end of the trail was a well preserved cabin. In the 40s, the site adjacent to the cabin house a very large hunting cabin/tourist preserve. At this point we were making really good time and were on pace to make it back to camp by 9 or so. In the end, was hiked the last 4.5 miles in 63 minutes and got back to camp at 8.

We grilled out turkey burgers and bratwurst, baked beans, potato salad, etc. Good eats.

After bedding down, we woke up to a massive thunderstorm the next morning. IN a break in the rain, we decided instead of porting boats all the way to the water, we'd put them in the creek right at the campsite. Again, great idea for kayaks, not for a heavy canoe. We ended up walking the canoe most of the way. It also led to the first backcountry injury I ever had to go to a doctor for. While walking the canoe I busted my foot on a rock and bloodied up a toe real good (I'm still heavily medicating for it) and it's gruesome. Oozy, puss-y, painful. I went to have x-rays last night and got a script for antibiotics to prevent the whole gangrene/toe amputation thing. We paddled across during a break in the rain, loaded up, and took the Dragon home.

Seriously, a blog posting can do no justice to this trip. Campsite 86 is a great place and relatively accessible and received relatively little traffic. I'm hopefully going back later this month to take my dad fishing and Bailey camping (assuming I'm not having a toe amputation :).

Map of the trip