Smokeys for Thanksgiving
It's hard to find time off for us during the school year so we decided to make the most of our thanksgiving days off and spend a few days hiking before having turkey with the family. Luckily for us we were supposed to spend Thanksgiving in Knoxville, Tennessee and the Smokeys are just about in Knoxville's backyard. Turns out November is just about the perfect time to explore the Smokeys. The days were cool and a little rainy, but we pretty much had the trails to ourselves.
Day 3:
The next day our socks and boots had dried out just enough to not make squishing noises when we walked. This was the last day for us on the AT before we turned off onto Miry Ridge Trail. We hadn't seen much wildlife so far, maybe because of the fog but we did manage to catch a glimpse of some deer and a turkey on this stretch of the hike. Miry Ridge Trail ran for a while along the side of a hill, and with all the rain it was hard to keep your footing and keep from sliding down the hill. The trail head in a northerly direction and offers some good views of nearby mountains and valleys.We had been debating whether to hike out that day cause we weren't sure we could manage another soaking, especially with no shelter at the end of the day's hike, but the weather seemed to be cooperating with us finally. The clouds that had been following us all hike long finally seemed to be breaking up and we saw blue skies for the first time. So by the time we arrived at Campsite 26 we decided to stay the night and hope the weather stuck with us. The campsite was huge, with plenty of room for several parties of campers. We had it all to ourselves though. There were the usual bear cables and a nearby spring for water.
We had just started to cook dinner when it started to rain again. We managed to keep a fire going for a while in the light rain, but the rain only picked up and so we decided to cut our losses and head for the tent. We must have just settled in when it started to pour. Our little tent held up well in the storm and kept us dry but we noticed that water was pooling under the tent and was soaking though onto our sleeping pads. It turned out we chose the flattest site for our tent, but it was also the lowest so in the midst of the pouring rain we picked up the tent and set in down on a patch of grass that we figured would keep the floor of the tent off the saturated ground. That did the trick and the rest of the night was noisy with the thunder and rain... but uneventful.
Day 4:
The rain eventually stopped sometime in the early morning but it looked like it might rain again at any minute. We tried to set everything out to dry but nothing was drying in the humid air. Since we didn't have a long day, we packed everything up wet and decided to make the hike out before the rain started again. The hike was pretty much all downhill to Elkmont. The trial changed names to Jakes Creek Trail after about 2.5 miles. The scenery was very nice as we followed Jakes Creek down the hill, but the rain had started again so we kept up a fast pace. The creek was running full from last nights rain and there were several crossings we had to make. One was flowing so full the regular stepping stones were completely submerged and it was flowing too fast to wade across. We had to walk upstream and us a fallen tree to cross the creek. Finally we reached civilization. The next creek crossing had a nicely build bridge across it, and the trail on the other side was wide enough to drive a car down. Just before reaching the parking lot at Elkmont, there is an eerie old town of abandoned houses and buildings. After being away from everything for a while and coming across this it was kind of weird as if something had happened while we were out in the woods. Apparently, Elkmont was a logging town and theses old houses were part of an old resort town that was used until the National Park acquired the last properties not very long ago. Anyways we finally made it out tired and wet and we made our way to the nearest Mellow Mushroom to celebrate surviving the wet Smokey Mountains.
We didn't have too much time off and could only stay on the trail 4 days, so we decided to do a short 30ish mile trek starting at Cades Cove Campground, up to the Appalachian Trail for two nights and ending at Elkmont Camp Ground. In the Smokeys, sites and shelters have to be reserved. In the peak seasons we heard that shelters on the trail can fill up quick, and sometimes people end up sleeping on the floor. We didn't know what to expect around thanksgiving so we made sure and reserved our sites early. Also you are not allowed to camp just anywhere in the park and have to stay either in the shelters or designated campsites. This makes planning a days hike a little tricky as you can hike a short 6-8 mile day between two shelters or keep going to the next shelter making it a 12-14 mile day. We voted on the short days, and it turned out to we had a little too much free time at the end of the day. The plan was to arrive at Cades Cove after driving all day and spend the first night in the campground there. Then spend two nights on the AT at Spence Field and Derrick Knob, then head back down to Elkmont, spending a night a Campsite 26 along the way. A good map of the trails in the Smokeys, and all that we used for our trip can be found here. You also have to get a backcountry permit to stay overnight in the backcountry, but it is free and you just get it the day you arrive so it's not any hassle.
We left our house early Saturday to make it to the Smokeys at a decent hour, allowing for a stop at REI in Nashville along the way. We don't have an REI in Arkansas so had to make special allowances for that. We had organized with my sister to meet us at Elkmont so we could leave our car there, and have them drive us to Cades Cove.
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| Last Supper - Cades Cove |
We had a great last non trail dinner around the fire before my sister and her husband abandoned us to make the trek back to our car. The weather was cold, but not terrible. We had prepared for the worst and bought new jackets that we justified getting as they would be needed for this trip. That night the wind started blowing so we thought some rain might be on the way, but woke up dry to a foggy cool morning.
Day 1:
Most of the main car campsites in the Tennessee side of the Smokeys are located in the valleys of the mountains. The AT follows the ridge of the Smokey Mountains on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. So our first day involved climbing out of the valley up to the ridge of the mountains to meet up with the AT. The first trail of the hike was Anthony Creek Trail. The trail starts off easily enough, following Anthony Creek for most of the way up crossing it a few times. There are make shift bridges made out of a tree trunks with a handrail fashioned on it so crossing it does not require any removal of shoes.
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| Anthony Creek |
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| Crossing Anthony Creek |
The trail gets steeper and steeper, until finally winding back and forth in switch backs climbing up to Bote Mountain Trail. It seems here the trail has been compacted so much that it is about 3 or 4 feet below the rest of the ground, making a sort of channel to climb through. Unfortunately this means that rain collects in trail and makes a muddy mess adding a little more difficulty to the steep climb. From Bote Mountain Trail it is just under 2 miles to the AT and is a little more uphill climbing but the worst is over. I suppose there are some good views normally along this part of the trail, but the fog that we started the day with was still hanging around and our view was limited to the trail ahead of us. We finally reached the AT, just east of Spence Field so had to hike a little backwards to our shelter. Spence Field, is really a field or clearing in the trees at the top of the mountain ridge. The actual shelter is a few hundred feet down the south side of the ridge.
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| Spence Field Shelter |
When we arrived there was no one else there, but it was still early in the day and before the end of the day 5 others had arrived and we all shared the shelter for the night. The shelter was a great place to stay dry and warm, there was a fire in the fire place that we kept going all night long and had plenty of sleeping space for 7 of us. We had heard stories of mice running over peoples sleeping bags, and bears waking people up in the night, but our night was relatively quiet. All campsites and shelters have food storage cables to keep food out of bears reach so you don't have to worry about rigging your own every night. There is a spring just a little down the hill from the shelter to fill up water, and a privy so it's like a regular hotel in the woods.
Day 2:
This day started much the same as the first day with heavy morning fog. We knew we didn't have far to go today so we were in no hurry to pack up and leave.
We hiked back up to the AT and headed east, and through the fog we could just make out the peaks of Rocky Top and Thunder Head mountains where we were headed. The trail follows the ridge of the mountains along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. Any other day I am sure there would have been great views but the fog got more and more dense as we carried on. We saw very few people that day, just a few hikers headed the opposite way whom we assumed were through hikers on the AT. After a break for lunch we had just started back on the trail when the weather took a turn for the worse. The trail was still running along the mountain ridge and the wind really started picking up blowing clouds up over the mountain so eventually we were in the clouds and then the thunder and lightning started. The storm came up so quickly that we didn't have time to find shelter or get down off the ridge, and there was nowhere to go except keep going along the trail hoping the ground would level out and we could get off the mountain ridge. Luckily the lightning left as quickly as it arrived, it was just followed by torrential rain that soaked us within minutes. We had (cheap) rain jackets and had rigged covers for our backpacks, but my hiking boots were instantly turned into little swimming pools for my feet and we were slowly making our way onwards to the shelter. We knew we didn't have too far to go so we pushed on keeping our eyes peeled for any shelters. In the downpour our camera didn't fair very well, and thus our last picture of the trip was of us looking goofy in our makeshift rain gear. Coincidentally, we vowed to spend a bit more money on good rain gear and real backpack covers before our next trip. We finally made it to Derrick Knob Shelter, glad that we didn't have any further to go that day. We managed to start a smokey fire in the shelter and left our wet clothes draped everywhere in the shelter to dry. This time of year in the Smokies, everything just stays wet as the air is so full of moisture that unless we placed it so close to the fire that it almost caught on fire, it was very difficult to dry anything. Derrick Knob looks exactly like Spence Field, there are bear cables and a small spring just down the hill from the shelter to collect water. There was no privy though. We spent the night with three other people, they had been our shelter mates the night before too.
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| Foggy Start - Day 2 |
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| Storing Packs and Food on Bear Cable |
The next day our socks and boots had dried out just enough to not make squishing noises when we walked. This was the last day for us on the AT before we turned off onto Miry Ridge Trail. We hadn't seen much wildlife so far, maybe because of the fog but we did manage to catch a glimpse of some deer and a turkey on this stretch of the hike. Miry Ridge Trail ran for a while along the side of a hill, and with all the rain it was hard to keep your footing and keep from sliding down the hill. The trail head in a northerly direction and offers some good views of nearby mountains and valleys.We had been debating whether to hike out that day cause we weren't sure we could manage another soaking, especially with no shelter at the end of the day's hike, but the weather seemed to be cooperating with us finally. The clouds that had been following us all hike long finally seemed to be breaking up and we saw blue skies for the first time. So by the time we arrived at Campsite 26 we decided to stay the night and hope the weather stuck with us. The campsite was huge, with plenty of room for several parties of campers. We had it all to ourselves though. There were the usual bear cables and a nearby spring for water.
We had just started to cook dinner when it started to rain again. We managed to keep a fire going for a while in the light rain, but the rain only picked up and so we decided to cut our losses and head for the tent. We must have just settled in when it started to pour. Our little tent held up well in the storm and kept us dry but we noticed that water was pooling under the tent and was soaking though onto our sleeping pads. It turned out we chose the flattest site for our tent, but it was also the lowest so in the midst of the pouring rain we picked up the tent and set in down on a patch of grass that we figured would keep the floor of the tent off the saturated ground. That did the trick and the rest of the night was noisy with the thunder and rain... but uneventful.
Day 4:
The rain eventually stopped sometime in the early morning but it looked like it might rain again at any minute. We tried to set everything out to dry but nothing was drying in the humid air. Since we didn't have a long day, we packed everything up wet and decided to make the hike out before the rain started again. The hike was pretty much all downhill to Elkmont. The trial changed names to Jakes Creek Trail after about 2.5 miles. The scenery was very nice as we followed Jakes Creek down the hill, but the rain had started again so we kept up a fast pace. The creek was running full from last nights rain and there were several crossings we had to make. One was flowing so full the regular stepping stones were completely submerged and it was flowing too fast to wade across. We had to walk upstream and us a fallen tree to cross the creek. Finally we reached civilization. The next creek crossing had a nicely build bridge across it, and the trail on the other side was wide enough to drive a car down. Just before reaching the parking lot at Elkmont, there is an eerie old town of abandoned houses and buildings. After being away from everything for a while and coming across this it was kind of weird as if something had happened while we were out in the woods. Apparently, Elkmont was a logging town and theses old houses were part of an old resort town that was used until the National Park acquired the last properties not very long ago. Anyways we finally made it out tired and wet and we made our way to the nearest Mellow Mushroom to celebrate surviving the wet Smokey Mountains.
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| Hiking in the Fog |
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