Melissa on the Trail

White Oak Sink

Posted by shoe on May 17, 2013 No Responses »

May 172013

White Oak Sink

Date: April 26,2013

Catesby’s Trillium

After my trip to Ramsey Cascades earlier in the week I was excited to see more wildflowers. And I couldn’t wait. I was afraid that if I waited they would all be gone by the time I got there. I mean it was late April and I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. I hadn’t ever heard of the White Oak Sink area but the people on the Smoky Mountain Wildflower Facebook page were talking about the area. I did a little Google research and realized that this was a place that I for sure wanted to visit. Not only were there going to be wildflowers but there were also caves and a waterfall. Wildlife South has some great info on this area and even a map of the sink area that you can print out.

I recruited my friend Jim to go with me on this trip. It’s almost always more fun to go with someone else especially if you are going to be taking a lot of pictures. So we met up at the Bass Pro Shop so we only had to drive one car. Our first stop was the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg. If you have never been you must go. They have the nicest fluffiest pancakes and you always get your order really fast.

Waterfall Cave

With bellies full we went on our merry way into the park. I was enjoying the ride along Little River Road. Usually I am the one driving so it was nice to just get to look around and enjoy the beauty of the Smokies. We finally made it to the Schoolhouse Gap Trail parking area. OMG, the parking area was filled plus people were parked on the side of the road. I knew this must be a special place. We had to drive up the road a bit and turn around. Finally we got parked and situated and headed up the Schoolhouse Gap Trail.

Blue Phlox circling tree

To get to the White Oak Sink area you have to hike just a little bit over a mile on the Schoolhouse Gap Trail. This is a fairly easy trail. It’s on old road so it’s wide and well graded. After reaching the intersection of the Turkeypen Ridge Trail go about 50 yards and there will be trail to your left. There is no name for this trail but there is a “no horse” sign. This is the trail that will take you into a whole new world.

It’s only about .8 miles down into the sink area. It’s mostly pretty easy but there is a steepish downhill section which means that on the way out there is a steepish uphill section. Thankfully it’s short. There is so much to explore in this area. Unfortunately I had to be back in Knoxville to go to work so our time was cut a little short. There are 4 caves. No you can’t go into them. One even has a waterfall that falls into the cave. There is also the Blowhole cave. It is blocked off but you can walk up to it and feel the cool air coming out. There is a rocky cliffy area above the cave and this is where I spotted some Columbine.

Columbine

And of course there are more wildflowers than you can imagine. Although I saw a bunch I am sure I didn’t see near as many that are actually there. And I am thankful again for all the nice people that were out on the trail this day. They were more than happy to share their knowledge. If it hadn’t been for them there would have been several flowers that I wouldn’t have seen such as Wild Ginger.

I can’t wait to go exploring more in this area.

White Oak Sink Gallery

Yellow Lady’s Slipper

Wild Ginger

Shooting Stars

White Oak Sinks trail

Ramsey Cascades

Posted by shoe on May 14, 2013 1 Response »

May 142013

Ramsey Cascades

Date of Hike : Monday, April 22 2013
Miles: 8 miles total
Weather: Absolutely beautiful

I was feeling ambitious today. I haven’t really hiked since early last summer and my workouts have been sporadic at best and here I was about to go out on an 8 mile hike. This was an in and out hike, so 4 miles of uphill and then 4 miles downhill back to the car. I picked this trail because I had heard on the Smoky Mountains Wildflowers Facebook Page that the wildflowers were beautiful on this trail and then of course there was a waterfall at the end. What more motivation did I need?

Trail with Dwarf Crested Iris

I got started hiking around 9:45 AM. It was quite chilly at first and started out with my rain jacket on. But it didn’t take long before I was taking it off. The trail started off on an old road bed so it was wide and also a nice gradual incline. I have to say that I was kind of disappointed with the wildflower display. I guess I was expecting these millions of bright colored flowers blanketing the sides of mountain and all along the sides of the trail. And that is not what I was seeing. Yes, there were wildflowers, just not what I was expecting.

I finally made it to the 2 big tulip trees. These things were huge. But then I went around a small curve and there was a

Huge Tulip Tree

really huge one. Of course I had to ask the couple that was there if these were the trees they were talking about in the Little Brown Book. They confirmed that yes these were the trees. We talked for a few minutes and took pictures of each other in front of the tree. I was glad I ran into them. It’s hard to get pictures of yourself when you hike alone.

I sat down to eat a snack and enjoy the beautiful weather. I caught up later with the couple again. And not because I am such a fast hiker but because they were slow and were looking for birds. Wwe started talking and I learned that were in town for the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage. They come every year for it. They had come up early to some of their own exploring. I was telling them that I was a little disappointed in the wildflower display and she looked at me like I was crazy. We started walking together and she started pointing out a few flowers such as the Yellow Mandarin. I would have never have noticed that flower because of my preconceived notion of what I was expecting.

Yellow Mandarin

I thanked her for sharing with me and went on my to the falls. I decided to push myself a little bit and see how fast that I could there. Of course I got slowed down even more when the trail turned really steep and rocky. But I finally made it to the falls. They were amazing and it was so worth the 4 miles of uphill hiking. I think the most amazing thing was that I actually had the falls all to myself for about 5 minutes before other people got there. I enjoyed conversations with several other people before I made way back down to my car.

Ramsey Cascades

Lessons from the trail:
~ All wildflowers aren’t brightly colored. Some are white, some are green, some look like weeds, and some look like fungus.
~ Talking with people on the trail restores my faith in humanity. People are generally nice and want to share their knowledge with you.
~ I can hike 8 miles even being out of shape.

Full Gallery of Images

technorati claim token

Posted by shoe on May 12, 2013 No Responses »

May 122013

claim token:

SDCK8SBTAFWW

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

Posted by shoe on May 10, 2013 No Responses »

May 102013

James River Foot Bridge on the Appalachian Trail

Shuckstack Fire Tower on the Appalachian Trail

Falling in Love With the Mountains….and the Appalachian Trail

Posted by shoe on May 8, 2013 No Responses »

May 082013

On one of our many trips to the mountains.

I have my grandmother to thank for a couple of things in my life.

One is my love of cheese dip and cheese quesadillas. And the other is for my love of the mountains and the Appalachian Trail.

After getting out of the Army in November of 1990 I moved to Atlanta where my Mama’ lived. After I moved there we became close and did everything together (at least when I wasn’t working). As stated above she got me hooked on cheese dip and quesadillas. I am still trying to break the addiction 23 years later. She got me hooked on thrift store shopping (which I am not addicted to anymore). And probably the most important thing she got me hooked on was the mountains.

Way back then she had this awesome black 1972 Cougar XR7 convertible and we would drive all over north Georgia wandering the back roads seeing what we could find. The fun thing about that car was that because it was old it was also heavy and had a wide wheel base. We would coast the downhills on the mountains and see how far we could go before having to use the brakes. I think Hwy180 was our favorite. The more curves the better. We would go to little towns and visit and pick out houses that we would want to live in. Macaysville was her favorite town and there were all these cute houses that sat right on the river. And the town even had it’s own Mexican eatery. Oh, how we used to dream.

One day we pulled into one of the pull offs on Hwy 129. It just so happened that it was Woody Gap. We got out to stretch our legs and breathe some fresh air. She walked over to the information board. And I walked over to the trail that caught my eye. I wandered off onto the trail in my Keds tennis shoes and walked for a few minutes into the woods. It was almost like I got transported into another world. A world that just felt right. I walked back to the car and stopped by the info board. I learned that I had just walked on the Appalachian Trail. It didn’t really mean anything to me at the time.

The AT heading north from Woody Gap

We made it home and I looked it up on the internet. And it was dial up internet, probably at 14,400 speed. (which for all you young people means slow as molasses). Of course the internet was a whole lot different back then. I did learn that the trail went all the way to Maine and that people actually hiked it all in one year. One of the “foremost” websites for the Appalachian Trail was trailplace.com. There were a few online journals of people that were thru-hiking the trail. After reading them I knew that one day I would hike the entire trail.

Of course this was not my first time in the mountains. Back in high school I went on a backpacking trip with a Christian youth group I was involved with. We drove from Tampa Florida all the way to Asheville , NC for the trip. I remember hating every minute of it. My feet were covered in blisters and they even made me go rock rappelling which was terrifying in itself.

I’ve driven through mountains. Even real big mountains like Mount Rainer. I’ve even driven up Mountain Washington. Well technically my mom was driving. And I just have to say that that drive was extremely terrifying. I just knew that I was going to die. Next time I will be walking to the top.

But it wasn’t until I that day when I stepped foot onto the Appalachian Trail did I fall in love with the mountains and feel like I was finally home.
And I will forever be grateful to me Mama’ for bringing me to the mountains.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a year since I have posted

Posted by shoe on May 7, 2013 No Responses »

May 072013

…seriously, where has the time gone. Oh yea, I didn’t do much hiking after my last trip in June because I was working 2 retail jobs. There wasn’t any time to hike. I am now down to 1 job and am looking forward to getting out more this year. I already have a couple of [read more]

James River to Rockfish Gap Trip Report – Day One

Posted by shoe on June 6, 2012 No Responses »

Jun 062012

James River to Rockfish Gap Trip Report - Day One

Day One – May 31 James River to Punchbowl Shelter – 10.5 miles I call this the day from hell. We got started hiking at around 11:30, right in the heat of the day. First, I did not have a proper breakfast. Second, it was just really hot. Third, we started with a huge 3000 [read more]