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This week's hikes in the Smokies have been high elevation hikes selected with an intent
to at least have some chance of experiencing cooler temperatures rather than swelter in the 90's on some valley trail.
To this end I was moderately successful in that I found temperatures ranging from the low 60's to mid 70's along most
of the upper elevation sections of my hikes. Getting to those upper elevations, however, proved to be the challenge.
The wildflowers found there were very fine!
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| Barometer Earthstar Fungi |
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| Click image to view hike photos... |
Tuesday's (7/16/02) hiking selection was along Newton Bald
Trail then connecting with Thomas Divide Trail and finishing along Kanati Fork Trail
for a distance of about 11.24 miles and with an elevation range of 2,186' at the start and 5,172' atop Nettle Bald.
The finish was about 4.2 miles from our car so we'd left a bicycle locked to a tree near the end of our hike and it was used
as our shuttle service back to the car. Note: Kanati Fork Trail was featured in National Geographic's Adventure
magazine in 2002.
The day began splendidly with a drive beneath the dense green forest
canopy along misty roads speared by hundreds of golden shafts of early morning sunlight. On both sides of the route
were thousands of tall flowering Crimson (red) & Basil (white) Bee Balm and Green-headed Coneflower blossoms with occasional
patches of tall Turk's Cap Lily plants with their lovely spotted orange blossoms and art deco-looking long, re-curved stamens
& wriggling anthers. Our starting point for the hike was to be near the town of Cherokee, NC--about a two hour drive
from my and Janice's homes in Maryville, TN. Newton Bald Trail begins at about 2,200' elevation and climbs
to a bit over 5,000' enroute to Thomas Divide Trail some 5.4 miles away. Newton Bald is a lush trail laced with small
springs and seeps as it zigs & zags along the fingers of the mountains. Newton Bald itself is now mostly overgrown
since the days of herding livestock to graze in these cooler mountain meadows have long since passed.
Apparently disturbed by us from a noon nap, the bear growled loudly...
Thomas Divide Trail is one of those higher elevation trails that rewards
you with cooler temperatures during these hot summer days. It runs along the spine of a long mountain ridge known as
Thomas Divide (divide is a common term used in this region to describe mountain ridges that "divide" river valleys).
We, too, were rewarded with cool(er) temperatures along with displays of many types of plants and mushrooms found generally
only above the 4,000' level. Turk's Cap Lily, Crimson Bee Balm and Green-headed Coneflower continued to impress us with
their beauty along with Starry Campion, Yellow Bead Lily and Nettle-leaved Sage. Mushrooms of several types get the
top billing for this hike as their erupting fruiting bodies decorated both sides of the trails and reminded me of just how
prolific an area the Smokies are for these fungi. A large black bear gave us a moment of excitement: Apparently
disturbed by us from a noon nap, the bear growled loudly and rambled over the ridge top and down the slope as we passed his
resting spot. We followed Thomas Divide Trail for about 3-1/2 miles to its junction with Kanati Fork Trail. Steeply
descending Kanati Fork Trail led 2.9 miles back down into a zone of higher heat and humidity to where we'd staged our "shuttle
bicycle" some four miles from where we'd left our vehicle at the Newton Bald trailhead.
By Thursday we'd forgotten enough of the aches and pains to take on one of our most challenging hikes
of the season
By Thursday (7/18/02) we'd forgotten enough of the aches and pains to take on one of our most
challenging hikes of the season along Deep Creek Trail from its connection with Newfound Gap Road at an elevation
of 4,744' then dropping rapidly into the Deep Creek valley and connecting with Pole Road Creek Trail at an
elevation of only 2,453'. Pole Road Creek Trail lead us up the side of Noland Divide where we joined
that trail for the walk to our final destination near the top of Clingman's Dome at an elevation of about
5,700'. Total distance was approximately 14.5 miles but the last two miles felt more like five! My trusty
bike was waiting atop Clingman's Dome for the 7.2 mile ride back to our car at the Deep Creek trailhead.
Deep Creek Trail, built in 1932, is one of the original trails in the
Smokies constructed to National Park Service specifications. The last major commercial tree-cutting in this area was
in the 1890's and as a result there are hundreds of very large trees along this lush creek-side route. This route was
one I'd previously hiked and I had remembered to bring long pants to deal with the stinging nettle plants that had their way
with my bare legs last year. Fortunately, a trail maintenance crew had cleared the trail of overgrowth just a few days
before our hike and we didn't have to deal with the stinging nettle or thorny blackberry that are so common in the Smokies
along wet segments of trails during summer months.
Deep Creek Trail runs all the
way to Bryson City, NC and passes by the area now known as Bryson Place (but is just a backcountry campsite) where author
and back country enthusiast Horace Kephart (Our Southern Highlanders) lived in isolation for a few years (we won't go far
enough down Deep Creek trail to see that site today). Our route took us about 7.5 miles down Deep Creek Trail from
its junction with Newfound Gap Road (4,600') to the junction of Pole Road Creek Trail. This area is so wet and lush
with vegetation that it reminds me of a rain forest. A few areas of the trail ran for hundreds of yards in shallow feeder
streambeds that alternated between honeycombs of tangled tree roots and rock-pocked waterways before climbing higher to parallel
Deep Creek. All along the route the gurgle and splash of Deep Creek grew progressively louder as it grew in size and
volume.
The most surprising find was a group of
Southern Monkshood flowers..
Pole Road Creek Trail started with a lovely footbridge crossing of
Deep Creek. This particular footbridge had a mid-stream support platform that made negotiating from one foot log to
the other a bit tricky. The bridge seemingly juts from one wall of greenery into another as it spans across Deep Creek.
Pole Road Creek Trail climbs up the side of Noland Divide for a distance of about 3.2 miles to an elevation of 4,250' at Upper
Sassafras Gap. The trail had two completely different characters as its initial half was along and across streambeds
covered with a heavy overgrowth of Orange-spotted Touch-Me-Nots, Wood & Stinging Nettle (ouch!) and Rhododendron; the
upper section moved away from the streambeds and generally had no visible surface water or seeps. It had been widened
and its lower slope burned (apparently to destroy the cut tree limbs and vegetation).
| Yellow Fringed Orchid |
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| Click image to view gallery for this hike... |
Wildflowers and mushrooms are putting-on a spectacular display
at elevations above about 4,000'. Below that there seems to be nothing in bloom except for the usual roadside scattered
patch of Touch-Me-Not's (Pale Jewelweed and Orange-Spotted Jewelweed) and a few nice displays of Crimson Bee-Balm intermingled
with Green-Headed Coneflower. Turk's Cap Lily are also abundant alongside Newfound Gap Road above about 3,500'.
Especially pleasing were a cluster of Yellow-Fringed Orchids. More spectacular still were a HUGE group of Fragrant Chanterelle
mushrooms which we spotted about 100' down the side of a steep slope bordering our trail. (It was a slip-sliding
adventure to get down there to inspect them and a hand-over-hand struggle to climb back up to the trail!) Perhaps the
most surprising find (for me) was a group of Southern Monkshood flowers--I'd never seen Monkshood outside of Colorado.
Noland Divide Trail led us 3.8 miles to its
5,900' elevation terminus near the top of Clingman's Dome. Like the Thomas Divide Trail we'd hiked two days earlier,
Noland Divide Trail was a joy to walk with its splendid displays of mushrooms and plants native to the higher elevation zones
of the Smokies. Fraser Fir and Red Spruce trees along with Witch Hobble bushes, huge patches of Yellow Bead Lily and
a steady sprinkling of Rugel's Indian Plantain bordered the trail all the way up to Clingman's Dome where the temperature
was still in the low 60's even though temps in Knoxville were over 90 F !
| Who Needs A Car for a Hike Shuttle? |
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We saw only two hikers on the trails. Coincidentally we saw the
same two hikers (overnight backpackers) on both of our hikes--they'd spent two overnights at backcountry campsites and were
wet and tired by the time we met them the last time.
Added to the large black
bear we spotted on our first hike we spied a Ruffed Grouse on the second. Birds were not as plentiful along these
routes as we'd come to expect in other areas of the Smokies, however, biting "kamikaze" gnats were plentiful (and a major
nuisance) during the lower elevation walks beside the creeks.
There were easily more than 20 - 25 different
species of wildflowers in bloom along these trails
All-in-all we thoroughly enjoyed the hikes and would heartily recommend
that anyone considering a hike in the southern U.S. during this time of year remember to get up above 4,000' elevation for
the best of the cooler weather and wildflower displays. A final note about wildflowers: I've quit listing the
names of all the different flowers seen during hikes but the trails this week were extra rewarding with their diversity of
wildflowers. There were easily more than 20 - 25 different species of wildflowers in bloom along these trails--something
most valley hikers will be delighted to hear.
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