Old Dan Walking

You ever have one of those brilliant ideas that you know right away will make you a zillionaire, only to find out that somebody else beat you to it? Nope, this time it wasn't the Snuggie.  

Yesterday my son Thomas and I took a little walk around Dreher Island State Recreation Area, a small park on Lake Murray just a few miles from home. While we were walking I picked up a leaf and was trying to figure out what it was when my tech savvy 13-year-old son said, "hey, there should be an App that can do that for you." I thought Thomas' idea was brilliant...

So Thomas immediately got on the phone with his Uncle Joe, an Apple App writer by trade, who burst our bubble by informing us that the University of Maryland, Columbia University, and The Smithsonian Institute were already way ahead of us. The App is Leafsnap (opens in a new window), available currently for Apple devices and soon for the Android.

I will certainly enjoy using this App, but bummer...I guess we'll have to wait a while longer to be zillionaires...

Christopher Burnette (handle XtremeKatfishn) is a co-worker who has recently been hiking all the miles of South Carolina's Palmetto Trail. He has a wealth of informative videos taken from the trails that you can follow on this site:

XtremeKatfishn (opens in a new window)

Chris will be leading a hike on December 18th on the Awendaw Passage, the coastal terminus for the 425 mile mountains-to-the-sea Palmetto Trail. (not to be confused with North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail, or MST)

Contact Chris if you'd like to join in on the fun. I may have to dust off my hiking boots for this one.

The Palmetto Trail Conservancy (opens in a new window)

The Awendaw Passage (opens in a new window)

To skip the chatter and go right to the pics of this walk, click the link below:

Appalachian Trail to Shuckstack Tower(Opens in new window)

 

Approximately 8 mile out-and-back walk at the southwestern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The walk started and ended at Fontana Dam and was along the Appalachian Trail – November, 2008

It’s pretty easy to tell I’ve been on a long hiatus from walking in the mountains this year. Being so busy around town with my boy’s events I simply don’t have the time for the 8 hours of up-and-back driving that typically are necessary on a hike weekend. The hiking legs and lungs I worked so hard to build since May of 2008 are long gone. I’ve missed my favorite time of year in the Smokies for the first time since moving up to South Carolina. So all I can do is look back at nice Fall walk from 2008.

It may not be too late

It seems like yesterday that I did the tough little out-and-back along the Appalachian Trail to the Shuckstack Tower. At that time my walking obsession was in the early stages, and I was trying to get one last walk in before the all of the leaves were gone and Old Man Winter set in. I was pleasantly surprised by all the late season color I saw on this day in early November. I have no idea what the colors look like this year up in the Smokies, but if you think you are too late to enjoy the colors, you may want to try the southwest corner and see if the explosion of reds, yellows, and browns is still in force.

Low elevation on my 8 mile out-and-back walk was around 1850’ at Fontana Dam and high elevation was around 4000’ at Shuckstack Tower. The walk included about 3000’ in overall climbing.

 

For pics of this walk, click the link below:

Appalachian Trail to Shuckstack Tower(Opens in new window)

Summer 2011 was one of the hottest on record here in my hometown, and I can't say that I'll miss it now that our first real front of the season has finally come through and cooled us off dramatically. It's time for me to find time to get out on the trails again.

One of my favorite spots to go in the Smokies when the weather cools is the Cataloochee area in the Park's southeast corner. The elk 'rut' is in full swing and there are many great trails to explore.

Click these links to revisit two of my favorite walks in the Cataloochee area: (both open in a new window)

Big Fork Ridge Loop

Cataloochee Divide Loop

I also enjoyed the popular Boogerman Trail, but I walked it before the website was created, so there is no journal.

See you out there soon. -Old Dan

 

Editor's Note: For guest journal #3 we head back out West for another look at the grand Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Co-worker Jeremiah Schwartz spent a day during a recent visit to his relatives in Colorado climbing around the tree-less heights of the majestic Rockies, bagging three separate 14,000' peaks, known to those tough enough to conquer them as 14ers, in one hike. Enjoy his description and pictures from a day spent above the clouds:

Thanks Jeremiah for the excellent journal and pictures! -Dan

Triumvirate of 14er’s

 

Greetings! When Dan is not out wandering the hills, he is my taskmaster in the real world (yes, he has an actual job! :-). Thanks for the opportunity to share my latest hike with your readers Dan!

 

The access road from Alma as viewed from the summit of Mount Democrat

 

I was out in Colorado for a family reunion, and we started our day very early so as to avoid the afternoon thunderstorms. We had intended to get to the trailhead at first light, but the drive up the access road was slow going due to the above average rainfall washing out parts of the road this year. The access road originates in the quaint town of Alma where I hear they have replaced country music with reggae at the local bar. Alma, population 179, is on state highway 9 a little ways out from Breckenridge. Having engaged my 4-wheel drive I was feeling pretty rugged and manly until I discovered the Mustang and Mazda 3 already waiting for us at the trailhead.

 

 I had climbed Mt. Lincoln three years ago, but there had been low-lying clouds that time around. The net result was not all that different than if I had stuck my head in a bucket full of dry ice for a few hours (all while climbing a steep grade at high altitude of course). Thankfully we had clear skies this time, and the views were awe inspiring. Our plan was to climb Mt. Democrat (14,148 ft) and then a few of us brave (or foolhardy?) souls would continue from the saddleback up Mt. Cameron and from there on to Mt Lincoln (8^th highest peak in the state at 14,293 ft). Mt. Cameron, by the way, weighs in at 14,239 ft. The saddleback between Cameron and Lincoln does not swing sufficiently low, however, for Cameron to be considered a true 14er in its own right. But hey, it sounds better to say we climbed three 14ers in one day, so I’m going for it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kite Lake at the Trailhead to Mount Lincoln and Democrat

 

 

Kite Lake provides a scenic start to the hike, nestled in the amphitheater created by Democrat, Cameron, and Bross. Bross, at 14,172 ft, constitutes the third (true!) 14er of this triumvirate located in the Mosquito Range. We did not get around to Bross this time, opting instead to save that one for our next reunion. The trailhead follows a stream that feeds Kite Lake for a stretch on the way up to the saddleback between Democrat and Cameron. After working up a good sweat, we met with a very chilly wind blowing over the top of the saddleback. I am pretty sure some ice crystals formed on my brow while waiting for members of our troop. The moral of the story is to dress in layers because it is necessary to add and subtract along the way.

Mount Bross as Viewed From the Spine Leading to Mount Cameron

 

 

 

 

From that first saddleback we went on to a brutal ascent up Democrat. Near the end you crest a rise that previously looked like the summit, only to find a relatively flat section leading to the true summit. Once you have reached the “false summit,” however, the remainder of the climb is tame in comparison.

Mount Lincoln as viewed from Mount Cameron

 

The climb from that first saddleback to Cameron and then to Lincoln is longer than the climb of Democrat, but also more gradual. For anyone planning to do both in one day, I recommend they conquer Democrat first and then move on to Lincoln (or, alternatively, Bross, which is also on the opposite side of Cameron from the first saddleback). Otherwise, plan on crawling on all fours at the steepest part of the trail up Democrat. And speaking of all fours, there were quite a few little rodents, called picas, which greeted us along the path. We also saw a few marmots about the size of tomcats. Alas, I did not get a good picture of the marmots to share.

Pica along the way to the first saddleback

 

According to my cousin’s GPS, the entire trek was about seven miles. Toward the end we saw and heard the thunderstorms off in the distance, but we only encountered a few stray raindrops where we were at. We were good and worn out when we arrived back at the trailhead, but with that great sense of achievement that always accompanies an excellent hike.

Summit of Mount Lincoln

Editors Note: My second guest journal is from back east in the Smokies and comes from the 13-year-old veteran outdoorsman Zachary Ott. Zachary is the son of my co-worker Randy Ott, who has appeared on Old Dan Walking before. Randy and Zachary often camp at the Smoky's highest elevation frontcountry campground, Balsam Mountain Campground, where I hear Zachary prepares some mean foil pouch pineapple upside-down cake over the fire. On a previous trip they'd walked nearby Flat Creek Trail, and since I missed that opportunity to have Zachary describe his day on the trail, I didn't want to miss his take on his most recent Smoky Mountain adventure. Enjoy!

Thanks Zachary for the great journal and pictures! (you can click on any picture to enlarge it) -Dan 

Newfound Gap to Charlies Bunion

Round trip: 8.1 miles 

My name is Zachary Paul Ott, my dad and I hiked a trail his boss, Mr. Dan DeSetto, recommended to us. That weekend we had camped at Balsam Mountain Campground above Maggie Valley, NC. It was an hour long drive to Newfound Gap through many tunnels. We finally got there, and in the middle of road was a sign saying:

I couldn’t believe we had come this far, so we parked and got packed up and ready to go. We had a hard time trying to find the trail, it wasn’t on a sign.

So we started off on Boulevard Trail, (editor's note - actually it was the Appalachian Trail)  it was all uphill for the first two miles, it was torture. We saw some grouse, but they were too quick to take a picture of. I kept asking how far we had come, my Dad kept saying “don’t think about it” 

( I had a hard time with that, heh heh).

We came to a sign that said we had come 1.7 miles and Ice Water Spring Shelter was 1.3 miles away. We found a lot of backpacking campsites, and planned a backpacking trip to Maine when I was in college. That only gives me five years to train!

After a while we came to the shelter it was a crude stone shelter, but hey… it was a shelter. About a fourth mile later we saw Ice Water Spring; a thin plastic pipe had water bubbling out of it. It was correctly named… burr! There were some crossroads and we got lost.

 

Soon, we saw some great overlooks through the trees.

We finally got to Charles Bunion, it had an amazing view.

It had a small cliff to climb,

 

…so far we had come 4.05 miles and climbed 1600 feet. 

The way back was painful. I fell on a rock and hurt my knee, which made us go two miles per hour slower than we could have, not to mention the uncomfortable rash and the blisters on my feet. Every one and a half steps it was, hurt, burn, squish … hurt, burn, squish. When we finally got back, I felt like passing out.

 

Editors Note #2: Congratulations Zachary, as you can see by the elevation profile this was no easy 'walk in the Park'. You conquered 4 miles of the Appalachian Trail (8 r/t), a 6000' mountain, and 2900' of climbing overall...great job! Keep bugging Dad to bring you back to the Smokies for camping and hiking. J

Editor's Note: I'm pleased to announce that Old Dan Walking will be featuring guest journals of three different friends on three different hikes in the coming days. In the recent weeks I've become Old semi-retired from walking Dan and I thank my three friends for filling in and providing stories of their wilderness treks. The first journal comes from longtime friend of my wife and I and former Florida flatlander Jodi Patton, now living full-time at 9200' in the Colorado Rockies. Jodi is quite the outdoorswoman and has enjoyed many treks around the high mountains of Colorado. Enjoy:

Thanks Jodi for the great journal and beautiful pictures! -Dan

August 2011 hike to Devils Thumb and Devils Thumb Lake, near Winter Park Colorado

 

Hi Everyone I am Jodi Patton and am a long time friend of Dan’s. I recently sent him some pictures from one of my hikes where I live in Winter Park, Colorado. He asked me to be a guest writer this week…..thinking you might enjoy a different perspective from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. 

Winter Park, Colorado is now considered the highest town in the US since we recently annexed The Winter Park Ski Resort.  The town sits at 9200’ and the ski resort rt peaks around 12,060’!

 

The Hike I did this past weekend is known as the Devil’s Thumb Trail. There are a few choices of trails to get there and I chose the one accessible from the Town of Winter Park, Colorado via Corona Pass Road.  Corona Pass Road is an unimproved non-maintained forest road that will knock your teeth out if you are not paying close attention to all hazards on the road. The road is slow going and takes about 45minutes of travel time to access the trailhead. This trail is approximately 8 miles round trip and follows along the continental divide on the western side before dropping down on the eastern side to a couple of lakes. The peak elevation during the hike is about 12,236’.

 

Devil’s Thumb – A Historical Note

 

According to local lore, Native Americans named Devil’s Thumb – a rocky outcropping that towers high above the town. As legend goes, after the warring Ute and Arapahoe tribes settled their differences in the Ranch Creek Valley, they buried the devil, but left his thumb exposed to remind them of the evils of war.

And YES! That is snow in the pictures. We still have quite a bit along the divide from our heavy snowfall this past winter. The views from the trail are spectacular and the wild flowers were in full bloom.  Of course don’t look to long at the flowers because you don’t want to loose your footing on the many steep ledges required to get there. 

Columbine is the state Flower as seen in this picture.

And as always, I like to have a reward once I get to my destination. Here’s my catch of the day out of Devil’s Thumb Lake. Don’t worry I put him back so he can continue to enjoy that pristine alpine lake until the next angler comes lurking. 

A Colorado Cutthroat Trout

 Jodi's dog Nick takes a break and checks out the view

No walks lately...so official trail mileage for July 2011 will be zero. I've been enjoying some down time with the family, including my first trip with the boys to North Carolina's Outer Banks. As fate would have it I brought record high temps with me to the beach, but it was still nice. Our campground in Rodanthe on the Outer Banks afforded the opportunity for the boys to see a rare treat from dry land in the US; the sun rising and setting over water on the same day by only walking a few tenths of a mile across the skinny island. Sunrise was about 50 yards from the campsite over the Atlantic, and sunset an easy walk to the other side of the island over Pamlico Sound. 

I'm sure I'll start walking on the mountain trails again soon, but I'm currently enjoying the break and am in no hurry to get back out there. When the weather cools and the air gets crisp and clear, you can bet I'll get the itch to walk again. But for right now I recommend you explore the archives of my previous walks by clicking on the "Hiking Journal Archives" tab at the top of my page. Live long, prosper, and keep walking -Old Dan

 

To skip the chatter and go right to the pics of this walk, click the link below:

Noland Divide Trail(Opens in new window) 

7.4 mile out-and-back walk in the high country of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, not far from Clingmans Dome. The walk started and ended at the northern Noland Divide trailhead on Clingmans Dome Road – June 18, 2011

When the temperatures in the Midlands of South Carolina start hitting triple digits on a regular basis, I can’t help but count the minutes until I can be walking up on the cool high elevations of a Great Smoky Mountains trail. So on the eve of Father’s Day I bolted up north for a quick walk to get my fix of the high country spruce-fir forests. Arriving in Cherokee for the Friday overnight I could see that the weather had rough around these parts recently, with an abundance of downed trees littered about and a fleet of Asplundh trucks standing by in a nearby parking lot. Some were fitted with cool fat monster-truck tires to deal with terrain, something I’d never seen before on a big cherry-picker truck. Motels were stocked full this weekend due to various activities, such as a Cam-Am motorcycle rally. Hundreds of these strange looking motorcycles were everywhere. Saturday morning, after taking in some great morning views from the Clingmans Dome parking area, it would be an early start for a short out-and-back on one of the high country trails starting just a few tenths of a mile east of the parking area.

Noland Divide – north-south ridge

Noland Divide is one of the north-south ridges that form either the ‘arms’ or ‘ribs’ of the Smokies, depending on how you look at it. If you look at a terrain or relief map of the Smokies, the main ridge, comprised of most of the highest elevation peaks, the NC/TN border, and the Appalachian Trail and sometimes referred to as the ‘spine’, runs mainly west-east from the Fontana Lake area in the west to I-40 in the east. There are several ridges that intersect the main ridge nearly perpendicular. I walked two of those ‘arms’, Forney Ridge and Hughes Ridge, last year. Today I would walk Noland Divide Ridge, another of those ‘arms’ that starts way down in the low country at the Deep Creek Campground and ends at the Smoky’s crest very near Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Park.

Noland Divide separates the Forney Creek watershed to its west with the Deep Creek watershed to its east. The trail that follows the Divide north or south, depending on your starting point, follows the Divide for about 12 miles and climbs or descends around 4500’ feet in elevation from one end to the other. This is a popular trail for those doing shuttle hikes, leaving one car at the southern trailhead in the Deep Creek Campground and shuttling another car to the northern trailhead on Clingmans Dome Road. I don’t typically do shuttle hikes, so I was going to grab just the upper 3.7 miles of the trail in an out-and-back starting at the small parking area beside Clingmans Dome Road. My starting point today was at nearly 6000’ in elevation.

Noland Divide Trail and the awesome Smokies high country

What can you say about the Smoky’s high country? Just awesome. The upper few tenths of the Forney Ridge Trail are along an old roadbed, overgrown on both sides but easy walking to allow me to enjoy my walk in the beloved spruce-fir. Signs of recent storms are just a short distance down the trail, with three big spruce toppled over and ripping the forest floor up like a can opener, exposing the virgin soil underneath. Around a bend to the right I see the acid rain monitoring tower, also a victim of the big storms. Several large spruce have toppled directly onto the tower, hitting it high up and also at the base, destroying the chain link safety enclosure. It’s tough sledding up here in these high hills. The trail bends off to the left and then comes upon a spur to the right that used to be a service road to a pump station for the Clingmans Dome bathrooms. Thanks to those newly installed vault toilets now at the Dome, there will be no need to use this road anymore. I give a moment of silence for my old friends the flush toilets at the Dome. Vault toilets are the pits..literally.

After the spur the trail thins and becomes more of a trail than a road. Alongside the trail, mixed in with the spruce and dead fraser fir, are the gnarled, twisted trunks of various types of birch and beech. The trunks of these trees are twisted in all sorts of ways by the high winds that often occur up at these elevations. Many of the red spruce trees are large, having escaped logging operations that occurred nearby because the ridges were tough to access. Dead fraser fir skeletons are reminders of the Balsam Wooley Adelgid infestation that decimated the population of mature firs in the 1970’s and 80’s. Knowing that I’ll be doing the vast majority of my uphill on the return leg, I appreciate the gentle decent, which is only noticeable steep in a few spots. Most of the descent is gradual and a pleasant walk through an aromatic and scenic forest. The only downside is ridge views of Forney Ridge to the west and Thomas Divide to the east are mostly obstructed by the thick forest.

Wildflowers zones and Upper Sassafras Gap

Today’s wildflower show was noticeably broken up into zones. At the upper elevations of the walk, Christmas fern, Hobblebush, and lilies were everywhere. None of the lilies had blooms and most did not have their seed stalks, with the exception of a few bluebead lilies that had not yet turned blue. Trillium were abundant but all had already gone to seed. In the next quarter of the descent, it was the Fire Pink show, with a cluster of blooms every hundred feet or so. Fire Pink is a distinct bright red flower with serrated or ‘pinked’ edges.

The third quarter of the descent was dominated by Squawroot, a parasitic plant that often grows on the boundaries of trails and looks like ears of corn sticking up. This marked the point where I had left the spruce-fir zone and descended into a much drier forest of dead hemlocks and oaks. Big trees were abundant as were the sprouts and decaying trunks of the blighted American Chestnut tree. The bottom quarter burst with Galax wands and flame azalea blossoms. Although technically a shrub and not a wildflower, the yellow, orange, and yellow-orange flowers of the flame azalea are a major treat this time of year in the upper-middle elevations.

Before long I reached the end of my descent at the peaceful and remote Upper Sassafras Gap (elevation ~4240’). This was the intersection with two other trails, Pole Road Creek Trail to the east and Noland Creek Trail to the west. Noland Divide Trail continued south and straight ahead towards the Deep Creek Campground. The last time I was in the Smokies I walked the southern end of Noland Creek Trail. It will be much harder to return to this spot and check off the upper miles of this trail along with Pole Road Creek Trail, a connector trail that heads east over to Deep Creek Trail. I will save those miles for another day, for it was time to retrace my steps and tackle the 1700’ ascent back to my car on Clingmans Dome Road. On the way, the heavens opened up and it stormed like there was no tomorrow. Lightning and thunder popped all around. I was thankful to be on an enclosed, rather than exposed, ridgeline. I made it to the car soaked from head to toe, but thankful for another nice walk in the Smokies high country.

Low elevation on my 7.4 mile out-and-back walk was around 4240’ at Upper Sassafras Gap and high elevation was around 5910’ at the trailhead on Clingmans Dome Road. The walk included about 1880’ in overall climbing, an easy day compared my last Smokies walk.  

For pics of this walk, click the link below:

Noland Divide Trail(Opens in new window)

Happy Father's Day to all you great dads out there, including this site's most loyal reader. :o) We're blessed to still have the architect of our family with us and I'm very thankful for that. Have a great day Dad!