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| Morning Dip, Anyone? |
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Wednesday, 10/4/2006 @ 9:05 am
Hazel Creek confronts me just 45 minutes after breakfast. I wasn't really
ready for another ice water bathing session but here at this very wide and deep section of this lovely stream I'll have to
pick my way carefully thru the fast-moving currents and large slippery submerged rocks or an icy bath is what I'll get.
I'm heading up Cold Spring Gap trail this morning with my destination being High Rocks where there are ruins of
a 1930's era fire lookout tower and warder's cabin.
| Steep, Wet, Rocky: Cold Spring Gap Trail |
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3.6 mile long Cold Spring Gap trail was described as steep and rocky
by one trail guide, a rough trail with a difficult stream crossing near the lower terminus (which) can be very wet in
places by another and very steep...and the creek is forded many times by my oldest guide, The Sierra Club's
1973 Hiker's Guide to the Smokies. They all got it right. About the only evidence of past civilization
here is the old railbed upon which the trail runs. This ends after about 2 miles and from there on upward toward Welch
Ridge trail the path runs thru a series of wet rocky streambeds, masquerading as trail, as much as it does along regular ground.
In all cases the grade is steep. Finally the rocky footing gives way to a smooth surface which immediately reveals
why there are no rocks here: It is so steep they all rolled down the mountain. Seriously, the last 1/4
mile was so steep that found myself stopping about every 100 feet to catch my breath. At last I reach the top,
vowing to never hike UP this particular trail again.
| Why Walk When You Can Ride? |
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Welch Ridge trail continues the uphill slog but not so brutal as Cold
Spring Gap trail. I continue past the spur trail to High Rocks so as to complete the short section of trail between
Bear Creek and High Rocks trails. Along this section I encounter four park trail maintenance men with their horses and
pack mule. They'd been using a chainsaw to remove from the trail a section of a downed tree. A short while later
I'll see these gentlemen again.
| High Rocks Warder's Cabin |
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High Rocks trail leads to the former site of a fire lookout tower.
The tower, built in the 1930's, was removed with a helicopter in the 1980's but the old warder's cabin still remains.
It is here atop this rocky knob, 5,136' above the world's oceans, that I find the four park service workers
eating their lunch. They'd left their animals tied to the rocks and rhododendron bushes at the base of a set of stone
stairs a few hundred yards farther down the trail.
It turned out they were here to cut away some trees that were endangering
the old warder's cabin and to cover its deteriorated roof with a tarp. They told me the park service plans to renovate
the cabin in 2007. It looks so bad that I don't dare venture inside for fear it would collapse.
| Confederate Army Veteran's Gravesite |
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After enjoying my lunch and the views I make my way back down the mountain
and one more wet crossing of Hazel Creek to my campsite at the start of Bone Valley trail. I walk up an old roadbed
where I find a trail leading to the Bone Valley Cemetery. This particular cemetery has a few gravesites for confederate
war veterans along with the usual mix of graves so typical of these early mountain communities--lots of children, infants and
women of child-bearing age.
Most graves are marked with simple fieldstones without any inscriptions.
One of the confederate soldier's graves has a modern-era bronze plaque that shows he died in 1862 indicating to me that just
32 years after Moses Proctor settled some 6-1/2 miles downstream there was already a community of people living in this area.
Walking back down the trail toward my campsite I pass two men who'd been
trying to cut down a large dead tree for use as firewood. They'd managed to down the tree and were now busily working
to saw it into manageable pieces they could load into one of their two-wheeled carts for transport back down the trail to
their KOA-esque campsite. I speak with them but don't volunteer to help.
Coming next: Day 4, Thursday, my last day of this hike and an additional report about my return visit on Sunday, just three days later, to this area
with Janice and members of the Northshore Cemetery Association.
Click here to view photo gallery of all pics taken on this day's hike.
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