I'd expected today's hike to be uneventful since it was a mid-summer day and I was
to be hiking mostly at lower elevations.
I was wrong.
Click on mini-slideshow image to open new window for photo gallery
The plan....
The trip I'd planned began with parking my car at the Little River trailhead in
Elkmont and hitching a ride up to Clingman's Dome for the hike back to my car. The hiking route was to be Clingman's
Dome--AT--Goshen Prong trail--Little River trail, 14 miles total and mostly downhill.
I'm lucky....
I'd trekked about 3/4 mile from the car thru the Elkmont campground and almost
immediately was offered a ride to the Sugarlands visitor center by a family from France. I'd stepped out of their car
at the visitor center into the midst of another group of hikers who agreed to take me all the way to Clingman's Dome which
just happened to also be their destination. Their hiking group name is Retired Citizens of the Smokies.
Look at the birdies....
Aside from the usual nice views along the AT when hiking SW from Clingman's Dome, today
I was treated to good views of some soaring hawks that we first thought were Peregrine Falcons. Upon closer look it
seems that they may be Cooper's hawks--for sure they are not Peregrine Falcons (Peregrines have very pointy wings vs. the
"spread fingers" look of the hawks we saw soaring overhead). A short time later I spotted a pair of Cedar Waxwings and
snapped a couple of good photos of them (see the picture gallery for these photos and more).
Rattlesnake! Don't tread on me!
I was enjoying the easy trek down Goshen Prong trail and had already had a peaceful
lunch along Fish Camp Prong when, about 1 mile from the Little River trailhead, I came eye to eye with a big timber rattlesnake
that was stretched across the narrow trail. There was no getting around the snake without getting it to move so I brushed
it with a long stick in hopes it would slither off into the ditch. Nah. That didn't work. The rattler promptly
coiled-up and aimed its gaze in my direction while vigorously vibrating its upright stick of 13 rattles. After several
attempts to get the snake to move I finally found a long slender stick that I used to lift & push the snake to the edge
of the trail--just enough for me to squeeze past on the opposite side where I prayed I was out of range of a strike.
Check out the photos!
More birdies--this time they are Three-birds Orchids!
Three-birds orchids are very tiny orchids that bloom in early August. I'd only
seen them once before in the Smokies until today. Possibly the reason I've not seen them more often is that all of the
mature buds for plants in a particular region bloom on the same day and their blooms only last ONE day! Check out the
pics for these. Footnote: Janice and I went back to Little River trail this morning (the day after) to see if
we could still find any Three-birds orchids in bloom. Oh yes! There were perhaps hundreds of plants along Little
River trail starting just about 1/2 mile before you get to the Cucumber Gap trail junction. We found that most plants
had two blooms showing and one wilted. Some had only one bloom with two wilted. We even found one plant with four
blooms! When I got back home I re-read the write-up on these plants by Stanley L. Bentley in his book titled Native
Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and learned that it is somewhat unusual for all three flowers on
a single plant to be in bloom at one time (this is what we'd already noticed) and also, that the petioles (fancy botanical
word for blossom stems) are rather weak and it is common for the mature bloom to droop (you'll see this in the photos).
Also, I noticed on this 2nd reading that only "mature" buds bloom all at the same time--buds on the same plant may be in various
stages of maturity thus meaning that one plant may have one bloom at a time over the course of several days. This means
there's hope for us to see more mature blooms on the same plants during a later visit. If you go looking for these then
expect to look for the smallest wildflower plant you've ever seen. These plants are TINY.
Mushrooms too!
What kind of hiking journal would it be if I didn't mention mushrooms at least
once? Yep, on this trip I found lots of mushrooms but I'll only mention one that was a new find for this season:
Elegant Stinkhorn, aka Dog Stinkhorn. My friend Janice spotted the stinkhorn during our follow-up hike up Little River
trail this Wednesday morning. Check out our photo for the stinkhorn mushroom near the end of the picture gallery.
That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed my
surprises via the pictures and stories as much as I did finding them.
