Friday, 4/13/07
How did last week's freezing weather affect the North Carolina side of the Smokies?
About the same as in TN.
Friday the 13th. Lovely weather in TN turned to rainy weather as we
drove across Newfound Gap enroute to the North Carolina side of the Smokies. I'd planned for a hike up Bradley Fork &
Cabin Flats trails but instead we elected to hike a few shorter trails in the Smokemont area. The rain continued off
and on most of the afternoon as we hiked the
Oconaluftee River trail and then explored the Quiet Walkway in the Collins Creek picnic area. Both trails had nice displays of wildflowers
and were almost as enjoyable as one could expect a hike to be--especially since we didn't get more than 1.5 miles from the
car.
Oconaluftee River trail is that little trail that runs along the river
from the Oconaluftee visitor center to the park boundary in Cherokee. It offers nice views of the river and on Friday
had stunning displays of
phlox and fringed phacelia. The fringed phacelia looks like it will continue to bloom at the lower elevations for another few days.
Phlox was prominent on this trail as well as roadside near the visitor center. I'd last enjoyed hiking this trail
in October and Friday I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely it is in the spring. We often say that each trail has
a different look for each of the four seasons and this one looks very nice right now. We even saw a few
southern nodding trillium in bloom.
The on again/off again drizzling rain continued so we elected to check out the Collins
Creek picnic area (I'd never driven into that area). Nice. At the back end of the upper picnic area we found a
Quiet Walkway bordering lovely Collins Creek. We walked up about 1/2 mile to a point where the trail seemed to be blocked
by windfalls. There were the usual signs of freeze damage here too but some flowers seemed to have dodged the ice monster.
We found a few
dwarf ginseng in bloom and even a small group of
painted trillium! My
Hiking Trails of the Great Smky Mountains book by Kenneth Wise mentions the Collins Creek Manway as being
the oldest access to the Thomas Divide trail from the upper Oconaluftee valley. This Quiet Walkway appears to be the
lower portion of that manway. The manway does appear on my
old topographical maps but, of course, it will not be seen on any "officially sanctioned" Smokies trail map since the park service goes to great
lengths to prevent people from learning about unmaintained trails. For those of you who might have an interest, the
manway is about 4 miles long and gains nearly 2,600' in elevation as it climbs the mountain at a steady 16% grade up to Thomas
Divide trail near Sunkota Ridge. That will be a trail for me to explore in the near future.
If you are looking for a quiet place to enjoy your lunch instead of the madness
of Cherokee, check out the Collins Creek picnic area. You'll see the sign on Newfound Gap Road about 1.5 miles
down from the Kephart Prong trailhead and about 2 miles before you get to the Smokemont campground.
Elk & Bears !
Our return trip was not without excitment: Just north of the Collins Creek
picnic area there was a traffic snarl caused by four large elk grazing beside the road. One of the elk looked to be
a bull that had recently lost its antlers (they do that each spring). The elk looked beautiful. Next, we
befriended a tired
AT thru-hiker seen standing in the parking area at Newfound Gap and gave him a lift into Gatlinburg where he was planning to spend the
weekend "recharging" before resuming his trek northward on the AT. Meanwhile, on the way down the mountain from Newfound
Gap, we had three more "critter jams" with scores of cars, trucks and RV's stopped while their former occupants lined the
roadside in search of those car-stopping black bears. Our thru-hiker saw one of the bears but we didn't stop and I
was too busy dodging those bear-crazed tourists, darting along the road with cameras in one hand and children in the other
(are the children to be used as bear bait?).
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