Monday I was joined by long-time hiking companion Janice for another high elevation Smokies hike.  Our route was a two car shuttle kind of route with a start at the nearly 6,000' elevation Fork Ridge trailhead and exit via Deep Creek trail at the 4,740' elevation trailhead on Newfound Gap road (NC side).  The route was "only" about 9 miles long and, unless one looked closely at a topographic map, it might seem this was to be an easy walk-in-the-park kind of hike in the cool, high elevations of the Smokies.

Yeah, right.  That assumption would be about as valid as saying that if you stood with each foot immersed in a bucket of water where one was an icy 40 F and the other a steaming hot 120 F that you'd be enjoying a nice relaxing foot soak.  Such was the contrast between our hikes along Fork Ridge and Deep Creek trails on this day.

Al hates slow-moving traffic...

We got a bit of a late start to this hike and this was partly due to the unexpected heavy traffic that we found in the park on what is usually a quiet, low traffic volume Monday morning.  Apparently summer vacation is still in full swing here in the Smokies even though here in Tennessee most of our public school systems are already back in session after the summer break. Pulling out of Townsend, TN we found ourselves behind a long line of cars following a way-too-slow driver pulling an oversized travel trailer along curvy U.S. Hwy 321.  By the time we turned into the park, my "patience meter" was already flashing low-battery.  A few more pokey drivers, three jam-packed trailhead parking areas and one road construction project later we pulled into the parking slot for Fork Ridge trailhead along Clingman's Dome road; we'd been driving more than 2 hours and it was already past noon before we snapped our first photo at the trailhead sign.   I reminded myself, again, to leave home before 8 am or else stay off of the roads in the Smokies during tourist season. 

Within 5 minutes of starting down Fork Ridge trail I'd completely forgotten the nasty traffic...

Those who've never hiked in a Smokies Spruce-Fir forest need to try it.  Trails near Clingman's Dome are a lot like those found in a rain forest and with a starting elevation of nearly 6,000' the Fork Ridge trail is almost always cool and wet--even in mid-summer on a clear, hot day.  The foliage is dense and judging from the amount of undergrowth overhanging the trail you might think the trail never gets hiked.  You are also likely to be rudely reminded that all of that wood nettle with its stinging hairs needs to be avoided, even if it seems impossible to do so.  Maybe we should have worn long sleeves and long pants instead of short-sleeved synthetics and shorts.  On today's hike, however, we were pleasantly distracted by the presence of many other plants to include pink turtleheads, white snakeroot, green-headed coneflower, Turk's-cap lily and crimson bee-balm.  Soon we'd passed out of the dense overgrowth of nettle and the trail opened enough to become a leisurely downhill stroll.  Walking amid the giant red spruce and Fraser fir trees that have managed to survive, I sometimes wonder which is worse:  The onslaught of acid rain sent our way by TVA's coal-burning power plants or the tiny balsam wooly adelgid beetles that were blamed for killing most of the trees in this upper elevation zone of the park.

A bit more than halfway down Fork Ridge trail we came across a stand of beautiful yellow-fringed orchids.  We also saw foliage from pink lady's slippers (the 'pinks were no longer in bloom).  Soon we could hear the sounds of water flowing in the creeks in the valley and at about 4.8 miles, where the trail passes thru Deep Creek Gap, the grade suddenly increased to more than 23% and eventually even as much as 30% for the last 1/4 mile before reaching lovely Deep Creek and the end of Fork Ridge trail.

Icy Deep Creek:  Ahhhhhh......

Our tortured feet were more than ready for the icy waters of Deep Creek as we donned our water shoes and carefully waded across the knee-deep waters.  I think there is nothing more refreshing and therapeutic for hot, sore feet than an icy soaking.  The cold water felt so good that we elected to wear our cold & wet water shoes while we ate lunch at the Poke Patch backcountry campsite (#53) on Deep Creek trail adjacent to where we'd waded across.  Lunch included a surprise treat of two small bottles of--still cold--Sauvignon Blanc wine that I'd sneaked into my pack without Jan's knowledge (relax all of you park rangers, we were in a campsite so it was all legal).  I didn't bring any fancy cheese but Jan did bring some delicious peanut butter and crackers!    Dessert for me was a few handfuls of blackberries.  With soothed feet, fresh dry socks and full tummies we were ready to tackle the climb out of Deep Creek basin back up to our car along Newfound Gap road some 3.9 miles and 1,730' of elevation gain away.

continued at "Time to pay the piper", top right column....

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(opens in a new window).  Don't miss the bear photo at the end!