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Al's
Hiking Journals and Musings
What's inside? 120 webpages
of hiking journals, feature stories, news and editorials. Links to over 8,000 high quality photos.
Click for Hike Journal Menu
More than 90 hiking stories!
Park Service whacks hundreds of roadside purple fringed orchids just in time for July 4th celebration.
June 30th, 2009: I did a quick drive up Clingman's Dome road on Tuesday, 6/30,
just prior to making a 21 mile hike along the AT out to Peck's Corner shelter and then down to Smokemont (Cherokee).
The news was that purple fringed orchids were blooming at or near their
peak all along the upslope side of the road to Clingman's Dome. They were even all around the boundary of the
parking lot at the observation tower parking area.
The bad news is that the park service mowed most of them into oblivion for the
season in preparation for the "pretty look" of 4th of July weekend. Yep, we drove back up Clingman's Dome Road on July
2nd and in place of the lovely roadside border of purple fringed orchids we found a freshly mowed shoulder of green grass.
Shame on the park service botanist(s) for not more closely monitoring this beautiful and somewhat rare resource so that the
public could have enjoyed it during its one or two weeks of peak bloom.
I'm sorry for suggesting to my readers that these orchids would be so easy to
view and enjoy. I had no idea the park service would mow them down at the peak of their bloom. Should we call
that event negligence, indifference or just plain stupid? You can bet I'll bring this to the attention of the park service
so that in 2010 I can say for certain they knew there were purple fringed orchids blooming along Clingman's Dome Road.
Posted 7/5/2009.
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Bee Balm and Turks Cap Lilies in the Smokies!
Those lovely spring wildflowers of 2009 are now just memories and photographs
but the prime season for crimson bee balm, turks cap lilies and a few more orchid species is just around the corner.
Please remember the diversity of wildflowers found in the Smokies during different times of the year.
Many of my favorite "discoveries" have been made along trails where I'd never considered looking for flowers. Give
it a try: Hike a familiar trail during a different time of year.
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Bear Creek.....aka the SUCK IT UP
Trail (grin)
A hiking journal from the woman's perspective......
We’d parked at the tunnel (the Road to Nowhere) and
started our hike. I had never hiked the Bear Creek Trail and this day we’d hike it beginning to end--and back--followed
by a few "bonus" miles along Forney Creek and White Oak Branch trails. Visit Jan's website to read this journal and link to photos.
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The Fifth Trail from Never
A hiking journal from the woman's perspective.
The route.....
Anthony Creek to Bote Mountain (3.6 mi)-Bote Mountain to Appalachian Trail (1.7 mi)-AT to Jenkins Ridge (.3
mi)-Jenkins Ridge to Hazel Creek (8.9 mi)-Hazel Creek to Lakeshore Trail (4.5 mi)-#86 to boat ramp (.5 mi).
Al and I hiked 19.5 miles of trails today, June 2, 2009, for me to complete the 8.9 mile Jenkins Ridge Trail
that I’d not previously hiked. This hike represents the fifth trail from the end of my hiking all 900 miles of
maintained trails in the Smokies--a feat I once thought would "never" happen.
Click here to read Jan's hiking journal The Fifth Trail from Never with
links to our photo gallery for this hike.
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Gregory Bald Hike in mid-summer (and some flame azalea photos too)
Hiking to Gregory Bald has become one of my most repeated hikes since
moving to East Tennessee in 1996. For some reason, I seem to have never posted a narrative of any of those hikes on
this website. Here is one I'd written after an August 2001 hike:
With the possible exception of viewing the spectacular displays of
flowering flame azaleas during early-to-mid June, my hikes to Gregory
Bald have been anything but "gee-whiz" kind of hikes. Nonetheless, traveling there manages to serve up a combination
of views and experiences that seem to satisfy like few other hikes within a day's drive of my home. In fact, I've puzzled
over the past couple of days about just how to describe this hike without making it sound as boring as it seems when looking
at any particular highlight along its route. It is going to be difficult but I'm here at the keyboard just for this
purpose so here goes... Click here to read the complete journal and link to photo galleries.
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"Did you read about the time when I hiked....."
All of the hiking journals I've posted to this website are
accessible from my
hiking journals main menu/archive page. You'll
find journals for hikes in the Smokies, Frozen Head, Big South Fork, Fall Creek Falls and even the Swiss Alps.
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