AT Hike and Bike

Final Episode

2009-10-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

October 2009
I received my official recognition from the AT Conference - here's the patch and special rocker panel.

I've included a painting by Frederic Edwin Church of the Rapids of the Susquehanna, which I think must be the place where the river cuts through the Kittatinny Ridge above Harrisburg, 1860 or so, long before the AT was envisioned.

As the days shorten and the leaves fall, I'm feeling nostalgic for all the years of seeing the Trail - the way its variety emerged gradually over the many excursions I made, and for the friends, family, and doggies who helped make it all so much fun. As it turned out, the end of the trail was to be the end of a marriage. So nostalgia is mixed with sadness for the loss, and for my naivete in not sensing how much was wrong even as I treasured the time in nature and the sense of accomplishment each day brought.

Maine to Georgia - Complete

2009-05-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

May 3, 2009

Done! We hiked the final link in my complete section hike, ending at Devil Fork Gap on the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina.

It was a rainy day, but we felt lucky to hike for the first couple of hours in only fog. Then, when we were well committed to the route, light rain set in, perfect for umbrellas. The last section was 8.5 miles, including the usual southern Appalachian ups and downs, and ending in a cow pasture, one of my favorite features of the Trail.

If you've been following the adventure, you may remember that I climbed both Springer and Katahdin in the fog, so am quite used to not seeing the long view. Again today, we focused on the near at hand, old orchards with apple trees in bloom, trilliums everywhere, a small waterfall near the end of the day.

It's been a wonderful 12 years, and thank you to all the loyal supporters who have read and commented along the way.
Thanks to those who have driven (Augusta especially), dried me out during hurricanes (Michael and Susan) and those who have accompanied:

Phoebe for parts of the Shenandoah, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, this final section, and for believing.
Ginny and Martha for three very long sections in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Abby for Glastonbury Mountain, Vermont.
Louisa and Li Zhuang for some of the bogs of Maine.
Mabel for some Pennsylvania miles.

Oscar and Chloe for canine companionship.

Bald and Not So

2009-05-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

May 2, 2009

For several days, my most faithful AT supporters and companions have been sharing the experience. Phoebe joined me in Johnson City, and with a second car we've been able to car-spot and make double progress!
At the top of Beauty Spot Bald (above) Phoebe and I enjoyed views of the Unaka and Bald Mountain ranges on a gorgeous day. Several through hikers were lingering up there, so we asked one to be our photographer.

Some mountaintops are not so picturesque - here's Unaka, flat on top, a forest of red spruce (reminding us of New England) but not much to indicate the actual top.
In case we'd been overcome by amnesia, here's a marker to let us know we're on the AT. Miraculously, a through-hiker came by just in time to snap a photo.

Today, we hiked in fog and rain from Big Bald (where we could see that it was a bald but not much more) to Sam's Gap, where I-26 has cut a drastic gash through the landscape. Here we are crossing an old farmstead meadow near Street Gap.

We've rented a house at the Wolf Laurel resort development, so we are living in luxury for these last few days of the hike. Stay tuned for the finale!

Civil War History

2009-04-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

April 24, 2009

Six miles in from the nearest paved road, on the ridge of the Bald Mountains, I come across the Shelton graves. Two brothers from East Tennessee who had chosen to serve in the Union army, were killed here by Confederates on their way back from a visit home. I learned that people of this area didn't want to secede, but were occupied by force and made to join the southern side of the Civil War. Someone is still tending these gravestones, cutting the grass and leaving silk flower arrangements.

So much history in these overgrown woods!

Bald Mountain Trek

2009-04-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

April 21, 2009

I'm working on a 20-mile stretch of the Bald Mountains where the Trail, and the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina, make a big northward bend. Camp Creek Bald has a bunch of telecom towers on top, and a road for trucks to service them, so I used it to get up into the middle of the section.

Above is Blackstack Cliff, a forbidding-looking pile which made me feel a little nervous about venturing into the wilderness!

But it turned out as usual, there were plenty of through hikers. Much of the trail was well-constructed; here's a flight of stone steps, thanks to the trail crews!

Up here at 4200 feet, trout lilies were having their fling along trailside.

And on Cold Spring Mountain, one of the nice southern Appalachian meadows. Several old roads come up here, and the gaps are named for the farmsteads that were here: Fox Cabin and Jerry Cabin.

Here's the view back south to Camp Creek Bald where I started this morning.

Trail Town - Hot Springs

2009-04-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

April 17, 2009

Hot Springs is a famous AT landmark - the Trail is the sidewalk here along Bridge Street. Trains cross the street several times a day, passing right next to the campground where I'm staying - midnight and 5 am every night. I know because of the train whistle! It brings back memories of the "old days" by which I mean growing up in the 50s when trains were everywhere.After crossing the French Broad River, the Trail leaves the sidewalk again and climbs up Lovers Leap Ridge. Here's a view back to town. This hike is another excellent bike-hike, 8 miles down down down to the river and then the walk back up to Rich Mountain Fire Tower.

Approaching Hot Springs

2009-04-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

April 16, 2009

Coming into Hot Springs I was able to do a great bike-hike. Here's an overlook along NC Route 209 looking back south toward the Max Patch area. The road hugs the cliff top, then plunges down to the French Broad River.

Here's the hike back up to where I started - there's one of the many hikers I met along the way.
In Hot Springs, I'm camping where a CCC camp was located, and here's part of the treadway that they built in the 1930s.

Dicentra canadensis

2009-04-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2009

While strolling along on Sunday, I spotted a patch of spring flowers, and snapped a photo.

On close examination, it's squirrel corn, a relative of dutchman's breeches and bleeding heart - so nice!

Sun and Rain

2009-04-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2009

Sunday (Easter for some) was a perfect sunny day, so I "skipped ahead" a few miles to famous Max Patch, one of the classic Appalachian balds. A snow drift still clung just below the crest where the wind must have compacted it all winter. Two days later I went by the trail head and the snow was gone. Quite a few picnickers were up there with dogs and frisbies although it's quite a remote place, about a 10 mile drive up a dirt forest road.

Most days have been cloudy or foggy - today I hiked Walnut Mountain and Bluff Mountain. Here's Walnut Mountain Shelter, built in 1938, I'm guessing out of chestnut logs.

Here's the top of Bluff Mountain, at 4600 feet, in the clouds. I was glad to be on a day hike, returning to the lowlands for the night - I met numerous hardy through-hikers who were camping in the fog and drizzle.

Smoky Mountain Springtime

2009-04-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

April 11, 2009

I'm at it again. After a drive from New England on which I encountered snow flurries on the Hudson and daffodils through Virginia, I'm headquartered in Newport, TN.

I'll be hiking the Tennessee-North Carolina state line northward.

On my first day, I finished the last stretch of the Smokies and crossed the Pigeon River. Here's the Trail along State Line Branch, plunging down to the Pigeon River (and I-40).

Now I'm starting up the Bald Mountains - the first hike to the top of Snowbird Mountain was socked in with low-hanging cloud cover.

These funky trilliums (if I remember right, they're called "toad shade") are blooming in damp places.

Further up the slope, trailing arbutus are blooming along the trailside.

You can see how foggy it is here.

Architectural Fantasyland

2009-04-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2009

I've been meditating on nature and artifice. I went on another art experience ... a tour of Philip Johnson's landscape in New Canaan.

A forest was turned to farmland for a century or two, then overgrown. Then for 60 years after 1945, PJ re-cleared fields, restored and enhanced stone walls, built a pond in the valley, and constructed a series of pavilions. Each one is sculpture in the landscape but simultaneously a building that can be experienced from within, and also a container for art.

Like an Olmsted park, there is an illusion of nature, but it's carefully manipulated. PJ's humor is everywhere, from the Poussin painting in the Glass House hinting at nature as artist's canvas, to the cast-in-bronze driftwood sculpture, the mini-pavilion in the pond, and the sampling of all the design fashions of the 20th century. And yet ... what a skillful abstract composition of line, cube, cone, positive and negative, transparent and opaque.

Art from a Book

2009-04-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2009

Julie Cockburn's "The Beetle Book" on display at the Yale British Art Center to celebrate the Sustainability Summit (that's what they SAY, but it could be an April Fool joke). The beetles are illustrations which she cut out of the book and turned into 3-D paper art - I love it!

I'm getting psyched for my own performance piece - I'll be off soon to Tennessee for another outing on the Trail - I'll be filling in the last gap to complete my walk. Stay tuned ...

West Coast Week

2009-03-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

March 4, 2009

Bob & I took a low-key vacation to California where it was already spring (!) at the "Hotel Bressack."

Our splurge was a weekend with Abby & Dennis to Pacific Grove and Monterey - the jellyfish are only one of many marvels at the aquarium.

Phoebe and I indulged in local tourism with a visit to some art on the Stanford campus,

and I enjoyed the Los Altos redwood grove in high water, a first for me.

Winter Activities

2009-02-02T08:21:00.001-08:00

January 31, 2009

It's been a snowy winter, a nice change from the usual freezing rain and slush in my opinion - Oscar and I try to get out every day for a walk or snowshoe. Here we are at the north end of West Rock looking out over Hamden and the New Haven skyline.

Otherwise, I'm studying to be a volunteer tax preparer for people with low incomes and simple taxes. And trying to stay in shape for next spring, which is difficult during the hibernation season.

Holiday 2008

2008-12-24T16:57:00.000-08:00

December 24, 2008

Stories from our year:

Char - I spent the warm season hiking the Appalachian Trail with single-minded determination - had some wonderful times, occasionally with company, often solo or with faithful dog Oscar. Maine is very rugged compared with the rest of the Trail! I hope to finish the last 100 miles next spring. Now I'm volunteering at the CT Trust for Historic Preservation on a project to document historic barn structures statewide, which is useful work, from the point of view of preservationists anyway. And trying to stay fit as I turned 60.

Bob - still presiding over NEPEC and standing up to the drug companies - he hiked briefly with me in Maine in August, and then we went to Alaska in September with long-time friends Mike and Phoebe. As the pictures illustrate we had some beautiful fall weather, though yes, it was chilly.

Abby continues gardening in SF (urbansprouts.org)
She and Dennis visit wine country when they need a vacation.

Louisa works on the children's web programming at WGBH in Boston, does a lot of crafts (animalicules.blogspot.com).
She is off this holiday with Li Zhuang to visit his folks in China.

Mabel just moved to Austin, Texas to study tv, film, and video criticism - we're going to visit her over the holidays. Earlier she and John just "had" to take a visit back to Philadelphia for the World Series to share the excitement and joy.

Artifacts of West Rock Ridge

2008-12-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

Artifact: something made or modified by humans, especially an object remaining from another time or culture.

December 1, 2008

Now that I'm home in New Haven for the winter, West Rock is one of my regular haunts - Oscar and I have several favorite hikes: the Regicides Trail to Judges Cave (Oscar is showing off the so-called cave), Lake Wintergreen loop over the ridge, High Rock, Mt. Sanford, and more.

During the 19th century, quarrying, wagon roads, and mill dams put their marks on the Rock.

Here the West River in flood runs past an old dam site.

Stone walls remain as evidence of long-gone agricultural uses; this one is in the Mt. Sanford section north of Roaring Brook Falls.

Ballfields at the south end and mountain-bike trails in the woods are current uses (official or stealth).

Recently, we noticed a series of "stone age" monuments erected in different areas along the trails near the ridge top.

Only a few weeks later, one set was gone (vandalism? a purposeful temporary work?). Here are some photos of this installation art.

Nostalgia for Summer

2008-10-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

October 29, 2008

Today I received a surprise e-mail from a through-hiker who watched (and documented) Oscar and me back in August as we forded the deepest of those Maine rivers - Big Wilson Stream. Here we are, in transit, thanks to "Boat."

It's great to look back on those warm long days of mid-summer and to know that I've crossed every one of those fords. Any river-fording that I do in future will be purely optional.

Yay Phillies, 2008 Champs!

The Last of 281 Miles

2008-10-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

October 10-11, 2008

After enjoying the luxury of the Norseman Inn in Bethel for several nights (and breakfasts of warm muffins by a cheery fire at the inn) I concluded my traverse of the rugged Maine mountains by spending one last night outdoors at 3000 feet on the Trail. The route was a loop starting with a pleasant steady 6-mile walk up Bemis Stream Trail (former route of the AT until 1958). Logging is ongoing outside the stream corrider, but around the stream you're hardly aware of it.

Here's a view of lumpy Bemis Mountain, my destination for the second day, from a stream crossing.

I reached the AT near the ridge top, and found a tiny primitive campsite along the Trail where I cooked my Annie's macaroni and spent the night.

Next day, I walked the AT along the ridge north for 8 miles, with the constant ups and downs that are so typical of Maine, plus a few miles of ridge top views.

Then a wicked plunge down hill, a final stream ford, and an uphill through maple woods back to the road, where I arrived just as the sun set over Lake Mooselookmeguntic.

All the most strenuous elements of the Maine mountains rolled into this final section!

That's all for the Appalachian Trail in Maine - now I'm home for the winter, having walked 2,030 miles of the Trail so far. I'll be planning to finish up the Tennessee-North Carolina section next spring - only 145 to go.

Backcountry Challenge

2008-10-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

October 4-6, 2008

Saddleback and the Horn - aside from Katahdin it's the longest walk above treeline in Maine. And on my day it was blowing a major gale. I enjoyed the approach up the AT past several ponds; then I reached the treeline and felt the full force of the wind - every step required planning to keep from falling over. You can see by the frozen trees that winter has arrived up here. Well, I trudged along and got over the Horn, the rightmost peak in the distance there.

Luckily down the other side I found a brand-new campsite being built (by the MATC) at Redington Stream, just as I was running out of daylight and worried about how I'd get to the shelter that was still a couple of miles away. That was Trail Magic - I stayed two nights and had an easy day trip north to my "tag up" spot (where I had ended on my hike in from the north) near Orbeton Stream.

Here's the north side of the Horn on the way back over. This day was sunnier and less windy, but still freezing on top. It was a relief to get back across the exposed tops and return to the lakes at the lower elevations.

Here's Eddy Pond and
Piazza Rock, a famous landmark cantilevered piece of gigantic talus.

Fall Foliage Maine-style

2008-10-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

October 3, 2008

The weather's been gray, but the foliage is colorful.

Here is Sabbathday Pond, where Louisa and Li Zhuang hiked with me in August. Now I've been in there from the opposite direction.

This is the view of the S Branch of the Carrabassett River as I'm climbing a rocky slope on the back side of Sugarloaf Mountain.

More & More Water - Rivers and Bogs

2008-10-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2008

The last few days have featured lots of water, mostly underfoot but also from the skies. Here are a few samples of what the Maine Woods are dishing out:

Crossing the S Branch of Carrabassett River on a single plank laid across the rushing torrent. I was lucky - after the rain from Kyle, the plank was under water and people couldn't cross for days.

Fording the Orbeton Stream (not nearly as scary as the above) - cool relief for sore toes!

Slipping and sliding through swamps and bogs - note the spruce grouse in the trail - where there were bog bridges, many of them were submerged. After a half hour my feet were soaked and the rest of the day was wading.

A stream cutting across the slate bedrock - this one was an easy rock-hop

Here's one that I could admire from the bank - a flume in Sluice Brook, plunging down into Orbeton Stream.

Rock and Water

2008-09-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

September 21-27, 2008

I'm back at it again - this time I truly hope to complete my missing link across the mountains and lakes of Maine. Fall is one of my favorite times, so after experiencing Fall Color in Alaska, I'm having it now in Maine and with luck I'll see it again at home in another week.

I camped for 4 chilly nights on the shore of Flagstaff Lake (there's my camp above) while doing some good bike-hikes among the Carry Ponds (here's West Carry Pond) to the north and up the Bigelow Range from the "back" side where it's quite wild and remote.

Then I came around to the south side of the Bigelow Preserve (view to the top from Stratton Brook) and hiked over the West Peak (scene of the alpine ridge) to Horns Pond (those are the Horns behind the pond) and then down a really steep cliff to a great beaver pond (while sleeping nights in comfort at a Stratton motel).

I took refuge during the tropical storm with Susan and Michael at their Sebago Lake cottage rental - what excellent hospitality!

Alaskan Scenery

2008-09-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2008

The ultimate postcard view - Denali from the reflecting pond at Camp Denali (up the hill from the Lodge where we stayed) - it really looked like this!

We were so lucky to be in the Park to see fall color, but it was chilly - here Phoebe and I are bundled up for lunchtime on a breezy mountain pass.

Now, for the must-see video - Mike doing the Tundra Roll:

If you haven't had enough, see more pictures at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/char46r/sets/72157607350616668/

Friends in Alaska

2008-09-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2008

Mike and Bob on the Alaska RR train from Anchorage to the Denali Park entrance.

Bog walk in fall foliage at our Deneki Lakes lodging before we went into the park.

We stayed at North Face Lodge, which brought us into the Park by bus and offered group hikes each day. Here's a group climbing Camp Ridge.

And the afternoon view of Wonder Lake and Denali from the ridge:

Northern Detour - Alaska!

2008-09-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2008

Denali in alpenglow - the final views of the mountain as we left the park at sunrise. Bob and I spent a week in Denali National Park with our friends Phoebe and Mike, fulfilling a wish we'd all had for many years.

On our last day, the season's first snow fell at higher elevations while we hiked in rain down below.

Here we hiked across a foothill of Eielson Mountain on our way back to our bus after visiting the Muldrow Glacier. We were about to cross the gravel bar and river (by wading), but were already damp, so past caring about wet feet.

Below: the view from our lunch spot on the glacier.

For the complete show, visit this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/char46r/sets/72157607350616668/

More Water

2008-08-31T05:59:00.000-07:00

August 29, 2008

Ponds, rivers, streams, waterfalls ...

Oscar drinks from Baker Stream

The canoe ferry bringing hikers across the Kennebec River (Oscar and I skipped the boat ride but visited the put-ins on both banks).

Reality check watching the timber industry at work - access to the AT is over logging roads (recreational users at our own risk) where the trucks are huge and the tree-cutting equipment is huger. Logs are stacked by the roadside in 2-story heaps waiting to be moved. A constant stream of loaded trucks leaves the woods on major and minor roadways. Make the connection between this and the stuff we use and throw away down in the cities and suburbs!

But back to the scenery:

The view north from Moxie Bald Mountain - one of my favorite spots, blueberry heaven and views across the 100-mile Wilderness.

Pierce Pond Stream plummets 500 feet down through slate bedrock to the Kennebec River.

I'm heading home for a few days before the next big travel adventure ... to be continued ...

So Much Water

2008-08-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

August 28, 2008

Maine is a watery state and I'm not even talking about the ocean! The whole interior is a boggy sponge overflowing with water that pours out in torrential streams. Here are a few of my bog favorites:

Pitcher plants in the Fourth Mountain Bog of the Barren-Chairback Range

Oscar staying on the bog bridges!

Sundew growing in an old beaver pond near Little Wilson Stream

Morning and Afternoon

2008-08-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

August 25, 2008

Here is my view from Barren Ledge in the morning on my way up the mountain.

By afternoon, on the way back down:
Moments later I noticed this dramatic scene in the western sky, and figured I'd better scoot on down before the storm caught me. This was the last hike to complete the famed 100-Mile Wilderness!

Trail Magic

2008-08-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

August 25, 2008

Trail Magic is the name for pleasant surprise treats and helpful acts provided to hikers (a ride to town in the rain, a cooler of cold drinks encountered on the Trail). Oscar found his Trail Magic lying on the side of the path!

Trail Dog

2008-08-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

August 24, 2008

Oscar's been my faithful sidekick these last two weeks. Here he is bravely fording one of Maine's numerous rivers.

Family Time - Part 2

2008-08-22T05:56:00.001-07:00

August 18, 2008

Louisa and Li Zhuang came to Maine and we camped at Mt. Blue State Park - miraculously we had perfect weather for three days and capped it off with a thunderstorm the last night for a taste of real camping.

After a couple of days of hiking, now I can count the two of them on my team of AT helpers.

Here we are going down Moody Mountain - a steep cliff descent which included a new landslide that wiped out part of the trail! Oscar impressed everyone with his mountain goat skills.

Louisa made this great early birthday present - it works as a brow-mopper and also as a pot holder in camp.

* Sweat Rag - http://ye-xiao.blogspot.com/2008/08/sweat-rag.html

Oscar finally got tired - here he is resting on the Trail.

Family Time - Part 1

2008-08-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

August 14, 2008

We're jumping around a bit here - moving Trail-south, I met Bob and Oscar in Kingfield to do a hike in the Stratton area. Here is a view of Bob looking down at the cirque on Crocker Mountain with its little beaver pond. Oscar is enjoying the woods - lots of water and mud which he loves.

[Note looking back in hindsight - little did I know when Bob blew out 2 tires on his rental car by driving over a rock, why he was so distracted - this was the period of Deception - I wish I could delete him entirely from the record of this season - but alas not it's possible]

Coming attractions: more family time ...

August in Maine - means BLUEBERRIES!

2008-08-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2008

Finally the rain has let up - I made a tour of a couple of Maine's state parks. Peaks-Kenny on Sebec Lake had a gorgeous sunset view of the Chairback Range ( my next destination - it's in the 100-mile Wilderness ) with pink and blue clouds on the far side of the lake. Perfect Maine.

Then I went on an overnight backpack over Chairback Mountain to Third and Fourth Mountains - here is the top of Third Mt. with a view north to Long Pond. See the white Trail blaze on the rock?
It was blueberry heaven on the ledges - being part bear by nature, I made slow grazing progress through these patches!

Then I toured briefly north to Moosehead Lake and spent a night at Lily Bay State Park listening to loons in the night.

Monson Slate

2008-08-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

August 7, 2008

Here I am in the mountains of Maine, where this summer has seen a lot of rain - 6 inches over last year. This is the southern end of the 100-mile Wilderness.

The Trail goes through the Slate Belt here - many local houses and barns have black Monson slate roofs. The slate is very slick to walk on. Even when on it's been turned on edge by geologic forces, it was later carved smooth by glacial action. Here are scenes from a ridge-top east of Monson.

As a result, I'm leery of hiking in the rain. Today was rainy, so I stayed "home" in the tent and did some reading and email - the campground caters to the RV set, and has wifi.

All Together Now ...

2008-08-02T20:16:00.001-07:00

August 1, 2008

To celebrate the summer birthdays and have time together before Mabel and John (in the red Phillies cap) and Bea (in the splash) move to Texas ... we were trendy "staycation"-ers right here at home. Pizza and beer at Bar, more beer at Delaney's, lots of hang-out time.

Here we are having a picnic at Lake Wintergreen - a great place for dogs to swim, and good for canoeing too. The bottom picture is Abby and me at Martha's Vineyard where we went to see Abby's friend Noli and slept in her yurt in a pouring rainstorm.

A Different Kind of Waterfall

2008-07-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

July 20, 2008

I'm hanging out at home for most of this month. Yesterday Bob and I took our bikes on the train to New York City where with our friends Steve and Bonnie we rode the bike path along the East River to view the waterfall sculptures. Here is the one under the Brooklyn Bridge (Manhattan Bridge in the foreground) with Lady Liberty in the distance. The waterfalls are an interesting conceit, but in my opinion they don't have enough presence to compete with the cityscape of New York.

But public art projects are fun - we also went to "Playing the Building - an Installation by David Byrne" where an antique organ amplifies sounds generated by elements of the building.

The bike path goes down to the Battery and continues up the West Side along the Hudson. The Esplanade and gardens of Battery Park City - at the speed of a relaxed bike ride with all the people out playing, picnicking, and sunbathing - that's a fabulous spatial experience!

Smoky Mountains Backcountry Camping

2008-06-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

June 25, 2008

The Smokies - I worried all winter about how I would ever manage this 30-mile expanse of back-country. An intimidating prospect for someone who doesn't really like to carry a heavy pack and live without the lounge chair and French Press coffee maker, getting across this remote high-elevation area (which is however highly managed by the Park Service - reservations required at shelters, no primitive camping allowed).

Now I've done it! I'm in the best condition ever, due to this extended expedition I've been on since April. And, it turns out if you are a long-distance hiker (which I am, having just hiked all of North Carolina and most of Georgia) you are exempt from the reservation requirement. So I just filled out a back-country permit as a through-hiker and took off at my own pace, bringing my ultra-light tiny tent.

I made two out-and-back trips -- one northward from Fontana Dam for about 15 miles, camping one night and then staying in the Spence Field Shelter, returning back in one day (downhill all the way!). The second was up from Elkmont on the north side of the Park, camping on the access trail and then staying at two shelters to complete my Smokies trek.

Definitely the most rigorous part of my trip - 10 to 15 miles a day with camping gear, including the 3000 foot elevation change and up and down numerous "knobs" along the way. Exhausting, but it's exhilarating to be physically able to accomplish this feat!

The top photo is the Spence Field Shelter with Rick and Bubba, two high school teachers who were hiking across the Smokies together. Below is the Spence Field with turkey, and Rocky Top and Thunderhead Mountains beyond, waiting to be hiked over (Rocky Top has the best views of the hike, right down into Cade's Cove and Fontana Lake).

Over the Little T

2008-06-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

June 18, 2008

Here's Fontana Dam - built during WW II to provide electricity for Alcoa's aluminum plant over in the Great Valley, but secretly also for Oak Ridge to refine uranium for the bomb. Actually, Alcoa had planned the dam years earlier and started buying up the land at the site, so when TVA took it over in 1942 it was a project well along in design.

It was built at a spot called "The Narrows" on the Little Tennessee River, covering up a number of small towns dating from lumbering and mining activities.

The dam and its visitor center are quite a model of International Style design, including some Breuer furnishings still in place in the marble-lined Ladies Room (I mean it, marble walls all around and terrazzo floors) which still has all its vintage fittings and light fixtures. The original segregated bathrooms have been converted into excellent free showers for hikers.

The view south (top - you can see the Visitor Center at the right) shows where I've already hiked; the view north (below) with the spillway gates, looks at the route up into the Great Smoky Mountains.

Eeyore Has Company in the Woods

2008-06-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

June 17, 2008

I was hiking along as usual, getting a little bored with the green woods, no views, no special microclimates to get excited about. Then along came a speedy hiker - we chatted as she passed, and her trail name was - Tigger! She was through-hiking southbound (SOBO in the lingo) with three other women, and they had picked Pooh names, too (but none of them was Eeyore!).

Here are two of them taking a break at the Cable Cap Shelter; it's located on the slopes down to Fontana Dam where the Trail crosses the Little Tennessee River at Fontana Lake.

The guy with the dog is from Chicago, just out to try some backpacking with his dog. He's a bookstore manager from Chicago, who wants to move to North Carolina.

Crossing the Nantahala Gorge

2008-06-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

June 12-13, 2008

The Nantahala River runs through a gorge that is eroded deep down into a marble layer, so we Trail hikers have to go down and up 2700 feet from the mountain tops of Wesser Bald and Cheoah Bald to the river level.

These photos are from the Jump Ups, which are little promontories at the 3800-4000 ft level on both sides. I suppose they represent some particularly hard strata in the overlying rocks, which resisted erosion. The top is looking north from the Wesser Jump Up, at the ridge I've just climbed up, with a little glimpse of Fontana Lake in the distance, and the Smokies beyond. Below is a view south from the Cheoah Jump Up - it's been raining and the clouds are amazing. You may be able to see the river down there at the bottom. It's a popular rafting section, I think with water releases from a hydro-electric dam upstream.

As I climbed out of the gorge heading south, the rosebay rhododendrons were blooming along the shady north slopes.

Good-bye, Georgia!

2008-06-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

June 10, 2008

And that's it for Georgia - I finished the last mile of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia today, and I'm under 400 miles to walk! Here it is almost full summer; the flame azaleas are the only relief from all the green.

I'll remember Georgia for its luxuriant acres of poison ivy and the huge bugs attracted to the lights in the campground bath houses, but also for its orange azaleas and magenta rhododendrons.

Civilian in a war zone

2008-06-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

June 10, 2008

I was hiking in Georgia, about 10 miles from the southern end of the AT, coming down a hill toward where the Trail crosses a dirt National Forest road, when I heard the sound of trucks. Three of them ground to a halt and soldiers swarmed out, took up their guard positions aiming machine guns out into the woods right at any innocent passing hikers, while the rest of the troop climbed out.

I did know from my trusty guide book that Camp Merrill is just down the mountain and one may encounter Army trainees, but still it was a shock. I think now I have a hint of what it feels like to be a civilian in the midst of a war zone, thinking they probably weren't aiming at me specifically but it was hard to be sure.

On an 85 degree, 100% humid day, these guys were dressed in full coverage desert cammo suits with bulging backpacks, helmets, and machine guns. Yet they looked like hardly more than kids, and I couldn't help thinking of the memorial portraits at the end of the Newshour for these last 5 years ...

And just a little earlier I'd been passed by a group of boy scouts of similar age in shorts and t-shirts, with typical brightly colored packs, fresh from a trail crew work party, joking about the heat and the rocks in the trail.

I had plenty to reflect on during my hours of walking.

Side Trip - Decatur, Georgia

2008-06-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

June 7, 2008

I took a break from the woods to go see my cousins Pam

and Chris Martin, who have moved into a brand-new house in an older street-car suburb of Atlanta. They are thrilled with their empty-nest home which has a perfect studio for Pam (a pianist who is doing a project on the two-piano music of Cecile Chaminade) and a home office for Chris (a wine merchant - there's even space for a wine cellar in the ground level).

Chris and their son Brian went to the baseball game by MARTA (transit) while Pam & I ate at home and took a walk around the neighborhood.

Here are doggies Thor and Nemo enjoying the back yard before breakfast.

Making Friends on the Trail

2008-06-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

May 30 to June 3, 2008

Here is a friendly group of scouts from Fayetteville, Georgia, who I met four times, as they were steadily hiking south and I was day-hiking from a different trailhead each day.

Tray Mountain Wilderness

2008-06-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

June 3, 2008

Now I'm in Georgia, traversing this wilderness area. On top of Tray Mountain the catawba rhododendrons are in bloom, and the view is over to Double Springs Knob, 7 miles away, which I have just walked over from. In between are numerous ups and downs. It's the Blue Ridge - on one side is the Piedmont and on the other side drainage to the Tennessee Valley and the Mississippi River.

One of the dips is the Swag of the Blue Ridge, which the trail maintainers don't want us to miss!

Crossing a State Line

2008-06-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

May 30, 2008

I did an overnight backpack trip to pass this spot, a famous gnarled tree just north of the North Carolina-Georgia border. Most of the day was hiking in fog, which is beautiful if not too thick. But it can be discouraging - my spirits rose a little later when the sun broke through and I sat on this same tree to eat lunch and dry out.

Flowers and More Flowers

2008-05-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

May 28, 2008

On a hike in fog and drizzle with my trusty umbrella for cover, the pleasures are at ground level.

The umbrella leaf plant, Diphylleia cymosa, is a cousin of the more common mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum. It seems to be a southern Appalachian local. Look at how water collects in the center of the leaf.

Lady slippers are always a treat, I saw maybe 8 or 9 of them in five miles of trail north from Wayah Bald.

Built on Top

2008-05-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

May 27, 2008

Another variation on the balds - Wayah Bald is another heath bald, with the added feature of a stone tower. The CCC built it during the Depression, twice as tall as it is now - the top story began to crack so it was removed and a new roof put on in the 1940s. From here the Smokies are sometimes visible, 30 miles away. I used the access road for a great 4-mile downhill bike ride and then hiked back up. When I got to the top it was raining and a rainbow hung over the valley to the east.

Albert Mountain has a fire lookout tower, no longer used but preserved. Its view looks over the headwaters of the Little Tennessee River, just starting the trip north to the Mississippi. You can see a white AT blaze painted on the rock up ahead. I stopped for lunch on these rocks but pretty soon I was scared off by a loud thunder clap from the other side of the ridge.

Lunch on a Grass Bald

2008-05-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

May 26, 2008

Siler Bald in North Carolina - a terrific meadow at the top where there's a view in all directions. I had lunch up here, admiring the mountain tops to the south that I'd been climbing over the last few days and Wayah Bald, the next mountain northward. I chatted with three guys through-hiking who had been studying landscape architecture and were about to start their work lives.

Then I went by the shelter, it's called "Nantahala Design" - this refers to the roofed porch with a bench and table built in.

Heath Bald - Laurel Slick

2008-05-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

May 25, 2008

The top of Standing Indian Mountain is covered by rhododendrons, azaleas, and mountain laurels, taller than a person - it's called a heath bald or a laurel slick.

Here at the top a little view patch has been cut, looking south into Georgia, where I'll be headed soon. It was Memorial Day weekend, and there was quite a crowd up here, maybe a couple of dozen people - what a surprise after walking alone in the woods for a few hours to get here!

Springtime in the Nantahalas

2008-05-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

May 24, 2008

I spent the Memorial Day weekend at Standing Indian Campground in North Carolina, in a basin around which the AT makes a giant C-shape, so lots of hiking from one base camp.

Trilliums are maybe my favorite flower - except for a hundred others that are wonderful too. What a great time of year!

Family Time - California

2008-05-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

May 18, 2008

I gave up the pleasures of camping for a week to fly west to California where Abby graduated from her Masters Degree program in Non-profit Administration. Here she is with Dennis on Sweeney Ridge between the San Andreas Fault and the Pacific Ocean - you can see the fog creeping over the ridge top from the ocean side.

A Perfect Day on Roan

2008-05-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

May 13, 2008

This day dawned blue-sky as per the weather report - I planned a long day in the warm sun on the grassy balds of Roan Mountain.

It started with a trek Trail-north from Carvers Gap across the Roan and Jane Balds shown here, then a descent to Yellow Mountain Gap where I "tagged up" with my previous endpoint and ate lunch in a meadow with a hummingbird and a crowd of chestnut-sided warblers.

After returning to the starting point, I hiked an extra 2 miles in the opposite direction over forested Roan High Knob (the distant dark one in the photo) to where I had planted my bicycle to ride downhill to the car at day's end.

The famed rhododendron gardens are not in bloom yet - at this 6000 foot altitude, that won't happen until late June. But as the picture shows, the alders are doing their thing. Alders are here as a relict population - a New England plant that spread south during the Ice Age and has remained in the high altitude spots like this.

Can you see the survey benchmark for the AT, hiding under the alder?

The Roan Highlands

2008-05-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

May 11, 2008

Now I'm getting up into the highlands. The last two days I've been up over 5500 feet. Saturday I walked up from a trailhead at 2800 feet to the top of Hump Mountain, a beautiful bald (the name for the open grassy tops of these mountains). Sunday I took a short cut, and drove up a little road, on the North Carolina side, to a high parking area for the Overmountain Trail (Revolutionary War history - if you're interested, also look up Sycamore Shoals).

I got up to the Trail just at the end of a storm. Here's the view of Jane Bald and Roan Mountain from Yellow Mt. Gap as the clouds are lifting. Soon after this, another black cloud came along and dropped hail on me!

Rhododendron Jungle

2008-05-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

May 9, 2008

This section went down into a river valley instead of up over a mountain.

Here the Trail goes by Jones Falls. The blue blaze means there was a side trail off the AT, which is blazed in white.

Civilized Camping

2008-05-11T19:39:00.001-07:00

May 8, 2008

Here's my camp at Carden Bluff on Watauga Lake, Tennessee in the Cherokee National Forest. The wonderful kitchen structure at the left with its roof and counter, makes life so much easier - I even pulled my chair under the roof when it rained. I made fires in the fire pit at night, too. I stayed almost a week while hiking on the Trail north and south of this spot. Once I get settled, I hate to move!

News from Tennessee

2008-05-08T13:44:00.001-07:00

May 8, 2008

Greetings from Hampton, Tennessee!

Here is a view from the bike portion of a long but excellent bike-hike on which I circumnavigated Laurel Fork Creek (bike along dirt roads on the north rim, hike along the south rim of its watershed).

In the front, a Christmas tree farm - they grow Fraser Firs of which the seeds are harvested under supervision of the USFS on a nearby mountain top. In the distance, the Roan massif where I will be going next - the western rim of the Blue Ridge rising up into the 5000-foot plus range.

Where I've been lately is "only" 3-4000 feet, and the trees are just leafing out about half way up the mountains. Today I ran into another couple who I had spent some time with last year camping on Rainbow Lake in the 100-Mile Wilderness of Maine! What a small world the AT is.

Encounter of the hiking kind

2008-05-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

May 2, 2008

So I'm tromping along in the woods on Iron Mountain, feeling kind of bored, and someone calls my name - it's Vicky! She was on the guided hike in the Smokies last fall, she said she was going to through-hike, and here she is, 400-plus miles into the trip! Luckily she's walking with a fellow hiker, so he's able to document the meeting.

The energy of the through-hikers is so impressive it made me tired just to see them. So I took the weekend off and went to tour the capital of the State of Franklin and the home of President Andrew Johnson. Driving to Jonesborough and Greeneville I had great views of the wall of mountains that I have ahead of me as I move southbound (SOBO in Trail lingo) - Roan and the Unakas.

Shady Valley

2008-05-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

May 1, 2008

Shady Valley, Tennessee has my vote over Burke's Garden for scenic. I did a fabulous bike-hike loop from one rim of the valley, down through the center where I saw one of the cranberry bogs - due to the elevation, they're left from the ice age period - see:

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/tennessee/preserves/art10208.html

I also met some cattle.

I could see the mountain ridges surrounding the valley pastures the whole time I was riding. Then I hiked the ridge encircling the valley back to my starting point. Part of the ridge was open pastures (Osborne Farm, recently purchased and added to the AT lands) and part was woods with spring wildflowers.

Leaving Virginia after only 8 years ...

2008-05-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

April 29, 2008

I've been hiking through Virginia on and off since Phoebe and I went to Shenandoah National Park in 2001. Today I finished the last section and stepped into Tennessee.

At that very moment, I ran into these two guys (also section hikers) who remembered meeting me last year up around Roanoke. Amazing coincidence, not a step north or south but right on the state line!

On the Trail in Spring

2008-04-26T07:05:00.001-07:00

April 26, 2008

I'm back on the Trail, enjoying springtime in the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area. Here's some wildlife that I met along the way - I was glad it wasn't a rattle snake. Up here at 4,000 feet elevation spring is in an early stage, but the through-hikers are out in force.

Show and Tell ...

2008-04-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2008

Here's our corn leaf dracaena (dracaena fragrans) in bloom! A thrilling event that happens every 2 or 3 years - our plant lives in our bathroom where it likes the bay windows and humidity.

Every morning a selection of flowers begins to open, by evening they are wide open and the smell is just incredible all night. When we wake up in the morning the flowers have shriveled and a new set are starting. It goes on for almost a week with such great fragrance and also some very sticky sap droplets falling from the stem. It seems to be a plant native to Hawaii - we've had ours for 25 or 30 years.

And just in time, too - I'm getting psyched to get back on the Trail next week! So look forward to more adventure stories from southern parts.

Globalization in the Time of Falling $$

2008-03-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

February 27, 2008

We had a delightful week in Rome thanks to the Italian psych conference which invited Bob to speak - deluxe digs at the hilltop Cavalieri Hilton and plenty of time for sight-seeing.

Here Bob enjoys the sunshine in the upper courtyard of the Castel Sant'Angelo next to the statue of St. Michael.

After his presentation we jetted off to Sicily for a few days of even warmer sunshine.

If you are fond of travel slide shows ... lots of pictures can be viewed at these links:
http://homepage.mac.com/char46r/PhotoAlbum25.html
http://homepage.mac.com/char46r/PhotoAlbum26.html

Snowy Day at Velvet Rocks

2008-02-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

February 7, 2008

Here's Oscar who went barefoot as usual, while I depended on my trusty snowshoes.

While visiting my mom at Kendal in New Hampshire, we got our excercise by hiking up the AT from Hanover to Velvet Rocks Shelter. I love this new shelter built last year with Japanese-style timber framing. I got my snow fix - not much of it in southern Connecticut this year.

Wintering with Butterflies

2008-02-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

January 2008

On Bob's wishlist - a trip to the refuges in Mexico where millions of monarch butterflies gather from every place east of the Rockies into 12 or so tiny spots in the mountains of Michoacan.

None of our Spanish speaking relatives could spare time to go with us, so we had to manage on our own - a big adventure with Char's 20 words of espanol and Bob's books of instructions. Once we managed to get out of Mexico City, we had a fine time cruising through the country-side and up the mountain roads to Angangueo, from where we visited two of the sanctuaries that are open to visitors.

For pictures, visit this photo album: http://homepage.mac.com/char46r/PhotoAlbum24.html

Holiday Time

2007-12-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

December 27, 2007

We were at home for Christmas, with Louisa, Li Zhuang, Mabel, and little Bea visiting. Abby and Dennis spent the holiday with relatives in southern California.

The background is the Scottish Highlands from last June's trip; insets include Charlotte in Maine, Bob in the Smokies with his cellphone, gps, and ipod, and at the bottom Oscar with Bea on West Rock here at home.

I've been hiking regularly in Connecticut with the local AMC chapter, trying to stay in shape while dreaming of getting back on the trail in spring.

New Jersey's Pochuck Quagmire

2007-11-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

November 13, 2007

As a side trip I re-visited the Pochuck Creek crossing, an area where suburban development has left only the swamp land free for the Trail.

Back in 2001 when I was hiking this area, I looked out from the heights trail north, and spied this tall suspension bridge in the distance. But alas, there was no path to get to it - so the AT then was a road walk detour.

In 2002 the connecting boardwalks were finished by the hard-working trail builders, so now we can stroll over a mile of walkways through the marshes, crossing the bridge in the middle.

You can see this route clearly on Google Earth as well.

View Larger Map

It seems a popular route for local aerobic walkers, bird- and butterfly-watchers.

This is probably the last new addition to my AT miles for 2007 - I'm up to 1557 miles total - can't wait for spring 2008!

Crossing the Great Valley (again)

2007-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

November 12, 2007

This was a short hike, under 3 miles. At one end the Interstate with its diesel-belching trucks. Within 5 minutes, the Trail crossed railroad tracks and passed by this brick manufacturing facility with its own rail siding to load the pallets for transport. At the far end of the trip is the 1894 Lindamood School, part of the Settlers Museum. Traveling back through time ...

Big Walker Mountain

2007-11-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

November 11, 2007

Getting an early start, deer in the pasture with the frost melting under the sun's rays.
Big Walker Mountain is the imposing wall blocking our way in the distance.

We cross several open pastures on the approach - here's my hiking buddy, "Tripod Trek-er" setting up for a shot.

At the end of the day, the southbound Trail reaches its 4th and final crossing of Interstate 81.

Bridge Out

2007-11-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

November 10, 2007

As I was working on one of my bike-hikes, I met another section hiker with his camera gear, and offered him a ride back to his car. We teamed up and car-pooled for a couple more days and were both pleased with the extra miles we were able to cover.

Here at Laurel Creek, a bridge has been removed leaving only the sturdy piers, and the Trail is rerouted over a road bridge. Will this AT bridge ever be replaced?

Burke's Garden

2007-11-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

November 8-10, 2007

Burke's Garden, nicknamed "God's Thumbprint" caught my attention because of its dramatic appearance on the topo map - a high oval valley surrounded on all sides by a high ridge. The AT travels the ridge along one side of the Garden - the best view is from Chestnut Knob, but it's glimpsed for several miles through the trees during the ridge walk. With the leaves off, I had good views on several days' hikes.

Virginia Ridge & Valley

2007-11-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

November 8, 2007

Unable to settle into home life, I'm off to southwestern Virginia for one last fling before winter. Here is Chestnut Knob - after climbing through oak forests for a thousand feet, you emerge into this high meadow where old pastures are kept mown and open. Behind are expansive views of ridge and valley including Big Walker Mountain, a former route of the AT, and Mt. Rogers looming over it way off to the south.

Is She Making it All Up?

2007-10-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

October 17, 2007

In case you'd like evidence that I'm really doing it, here's a snap taken by hiker Dave.

Earlier in the day I had met John, who told me he got separated from his two buddies the previous night and was trying really hard to find them.

Here on Baldpate, I found Dave and Ed, the missing pair. Dave revealed that he and John are brothers (!), and Dave hinted that his brother had actually "lost" them and opted to go on ahead by himself.

The view from the top of Baldpate extends north to Lake Umbagog - a place I plan to go canoeing some day when I've had enough of the ups and downs of hiking.

High Altitude Weather

2007-10-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

October 16, 2007

Here I am at the top of Mt. Carlo in the Mahoosucs. It's "only" at 3600 feet but just going up a couple of thousand from the valley floor, the weather is completely different. Yesterday freezing rain fell here (though not down below) and this morning as the sky clears, the frosted tips of the spruces give me a preview of winter.
Luckily the ground did not freeze yet, so the path is drying quickly.
I love these ridge-top bog habitats!

The Working Forest

2007-10-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2007

A reminder that the Northern Forest is a working landscape ... On this day the first couple of miles of the Notch Trail, an access trail to the AT from the north-west, picks its way through a logging corridor. A cloudy morning is clearing, so while up ahead the ridge line is in clouds, behind me the sun shines on the valley in all its orange glory. Nearby, big trucks are working, so my hike is accompanied by the sound effects of heavy machinery all the way to the Carlo Col shelter.

Maine Fall Foliage

2007-10-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

October 16, 2007

Aiming to catch peak fall foliage several times, - here on the Maine-New Hampshire border I'm about to tackle my last missing section of the Mahoosuc Range.
I head out Success Pond Road from Berlin, NH for the Notch Trail to stash my bike and here, maybe 12 miles up a dirt logging road from the nearest pavement, I meet this guy (waiting for a ride?). At the end of the day he's still there.

Autumn in the High Meadows

2007-09-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

September 27, 2007

My last day in southwest Virginia, I hiked up into the Grayson Highlands near Mount Rogers and spent a few hours in this gorgeous open meadowland. The blueberry bushes and blackberries had turned a brilliant red, and ferns were going shades of rusty orange. The sun warmed these rocks while a breeze kept the air cool. It's a popular area for horseback riding, but being mid-week I had the whole place to myself. I could hardly bear to leave, but it was time to start heading north toward home.

Camping around Mt. Rogers

2007-09-29T21:53:00.001-07:00

September 27, 2007

Here's my campsite at the Grindstone USFS Campground - here they had a separate road loop for only tents. There was some thunder rumbling so I set up a little roof to sit under during my supper, but it never did rain. I loved the hot water shower at this place - with hot water, my camp chair, and my coffee maker, it was Eden.

Virginia Creeper Trail

2007-09-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

September 25, 2007

The perfect bike-hike - the Virginia Creeper Trail is a popular rail-trail following the route of a former logging rail line in the valley of Whitetop Laurel Creek. Each morning, vans carry loads of riders to the high end on the Virginia-North Carolina border, and folks ride 30 or so miles down hill into Damascus, VA, where they can end with pizza or ice cream (or both). Well, the Creeper Trail also parallels the AT so for me it was the ultimate stream-side return trip after a hike over the mountain ridge. I had my trail lunch on the mountain, and chocolate-espresso ice cream in town at the end.

There are several excellent Forest Service campgrounds nearby (with hot showers too!) and it was the harvest moon at night - a great time to be camping!

More Smoky Mountains

2007-09-28T06:35:00.001-07:00

September 21, 2007

Bob joined me for a few days of visiting the Smokies - we biked down the Clingman's Dome road and then hiked back up to the top. The summit was in a cloud - here is the World's Fair Spaceage-style tower built in 1960, with Bob doing email while he waits for me to go up and look out into the cloud.

Smoky Mountain Hiking continued

2007-09-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

September 17, 2007

The sun came out around noon of the second day, so we all dried out nicely. We walked 9 miles Saturday, 13 on Sunday (feet were tired at the end), and 9 more Monday. Sleeping like sardines in the shelter was my least favorite aspect - it reminded my too much of the MRI machine - but everything else was fun.

Here is the group having snack time at the fire tower on Mt. Cammerer the last day. The tower was built in the 1930s by the CCC - it reminds me a lot of the ventilation tower for the West Rock Tunnel at home - same blend of Deco and Park Rustic styles.

After this we went down 3500 feet in elevation to the finish of the trip.

Smoky Mountain Hiking

2007-09-18T09:07:00.001-07:00

September 14, 2007

The trek began on a rainy day - Hurricane Humberto brought us a day of rain, gentle in the valleys but gusty up at Newfound Gap where we started the hike. We walked mostly in a white-out but for one moment we had this glimpse out into the mountains.

My advanced planning for feet management - "flashing and counter flashing" with gaiters and rain paints - kept my feet dry successfully. We had a group of 6 tourists and 2 guides, and stayed the first night at Icewater Spring Shelter along with several other hikers (reservations required at these shelters).

South to the Great Smoky Mountains

2007-09-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

September 13, 2007

I'm aiming to rendezvous with a guided group trip in the Smokies, but first I get a dose of civilization by touring Biltmore, the Gilded Age estate in Asheville. As my friend Patti says, if you've been to France and seen the real thing, you might not need to spend too much time here. But the landscape is by Olmsted, so it's fascinating to try and imagine what is natural and what he invented.

Fabled Mahoosuc Notch

2007-09-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

August 30, 2007

No photo for this one - we were too busy doing it (besides I forgot my camera).

Phoebe Bressack and I made a quick trip to Maine. We started with an overnight at Louisa & Li Zhuang's new apartment in Cambridge, with a stop at Whole Foods for some "respectable lunch food," to quote Barbara Kingsolver, which we took along for hiking picnics.

For those of you who know the Mahoosucs from your camp days, we did two day hikes, Old Speck from Grafton Notch (the north end of the range), and then we did the infamous "hardest mile" of Mahoosuc Notch in a mini-marathon loop. We approached the Notch (by a lovely side trail from Success Pond Road) with trepidation. It took us over 2 hours to go the mile through the Notch with much scouting of routes, but it was not beyond our abilities, so we felt a great sense of accomplishment as we emerged at the north end. There was a dead moose among the boulders, as several hikers that I met earlier had noted. It was mostly decomposed, lots of bones, but the head was still recognizable and it was very stinky. Someone had thoughtfully put up Tibetan prayer flags over it.

Then after that we had a very steep up to Speck Pond and then about 5 miles more around the pond and down a side trail to get back to the car, all of which took us many hours. Also there was a thunder storm, and we had to walk the last hour in the dark with headlamps. At the end we got to the dirt logging road about a mile from the car and amazingly there was a truck driver who had seen our lights in the woods and thought we might be lost. He offered us a ride to the car - our Trail Magic for the day!

Phoebe is an incredible trooper - she actually claims that it was a rewarding accomplishment to be dragged on a 13-hour hiking trip including getting soaked by rain and walking in the dark. At the end we were happy to get back to our comfy B & B for the night.

Western Interlude

2007-09-05T09:58:00.001-07:00

August 25, 2007

A week in the west included a visit with Abby & Dennis in sunny Bernal Heights, San Francisco, then volcano touring in the clunky red Mustang including the Newberry Crater National Monument near Bend, Oregon, Mt. Hood, Mt. Saint Helens in nearby Washington, and in Portland, the wedding of my niece Margaret (shown with her parents Katie & Gregory).

White Cap

2007-08-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

August 10, 2007

Here I am on White Cap Mountain, 3644 feet. The white blazes mark the Trail.
This is the last major view north-east to the Katahdin massif. And it's the northern extent of the slate belt, so from here south the Trail crosses slate bedrock - sharp edges and slick faces make for tricky footing.

This trip ended at the Gulf Hagas trail head 11 miles south of here. I took a side trip (a zero mile day in hiker-speak) to explore Gulf Hagas, a canyon cut through slate by the West Branch of the Pleasant River. A recent thunder storm blew down lots of trees so getting around the Gulf was tricky.

For more pictures of this outing, see the photo album at:
http://homepage.mac.com/char46r/PhotoAlbum23.html

Working Forest

2007-08-16T10:58:00.001-07:00

August 9, 2007

Here's the working forest in action - when we see these guys coming, we get out of the way!

Moose Tracks

2007-08-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

August 6, 2007

The AT crosses the outlet stream of Crawford Pond - look closely at the lower left corner for a big moose foot print.

I had several close encounters with the big girls, both on road and trail, but somehow the camera was always stowed out of reach at the critical moment.

Hairy Rocks

2007-08-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2007

When I'm not admiring Mt. Katahdin across one of the many lakes, I'm wandering through forests full of old glacial boulders with ferny hair on top.

To see more check out this photo album:
http://homepage.mac.com/char46r/PhotoAlbum23.html

More Lake Country

2007-08-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2007

Here's Pemaduncook Lake on a hazy day - still our mountain dominates the horizon.

Lake Country

2007-08-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

August 2, 2007

Here I am on Nesuntabunt Mountain, looking down onto Nahmakanta Lake with - surprise - Mt. Katahdin looming over the ridge.

Into the Wilderness

2007-08-16T10:14:00.001-07:00

August 1, 2007

I'm working my way south into the fabled 100-Mile Wilderness. It crosses a land of glacial lakes, low granite hills, and numerous boggy in-between areas like this - plenty of mosquitoes here.

It's really not such a wilderness; it's a multiple-use area with logging roads where recreation is secondary to the working forest. The AT crosses these roads in 5 places, so I had plenty of access points for my 2-3 day trips.

Local Wildlife

2007-08-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

... the sight of a moose which swam across the pond to our side and then wandered into the woods.

Nature Watch

2007-08-15T17:13:00.001-07:00

July 28, 2007

Stopping at Sandy Stream Pond at the end of the day, we are mesmerized by ...

Trail Crew

2007-08-15T17:03:00.001-07:00

July 28, 2007

After a week of working hard and learning about rock work, here are some of the crew standing on our new flight of steps on South Turner Mountain. Leaders Ali and Julie are in the front; Tecla, Britta, and I in the back.

North to Maine

2007-08-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

July 22, 2007

In northern Maine, Mt. Katahdin looms on the horizon everywhere. Here it is across Upper Jo-Mary Lake, where I stayed at a campground on my way to Baxter State Park to work on an AMC volunteer trail crew.

Urban Scenes in Scotland

2007-07-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

July 1, 2007

We enjoyed the urban landscape too - at left Edinburgh's Royal Crescent in the New Town (new in the late 1700s that is) - there can be two floors below the sidewalk and as many as 5 above. We vastly increased our appreciation for the novels of Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin as we soaked in the atmosphere of the city.
At right, a statue of Andrew Carnegie, native son of Dunfermline in Fife. As a youth, he was denied entry to this park, so when he grew rich he bought it up and gave it to the town for public enjoyment.

Hillwalks in the Highlands

2007-07-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2007On the left, the view from the Stob a Choire Odhair one of the "Munros" - Scottish mountains over 3000 feet high - a delightful solitary hike through moorland up an old glacial valley.
On the right, the top of Ben Nevis, the highest place in the UK, with a view north toward the Great Glen. This day we had company - hundreds of Brits and Scots plus a good number of German and other European folks on their first free weekend after the end of the school year. We lucked out, the top is out of clouds only 1 day in 10.

Side trip - "over the water"

2007-07-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

June 26, 2007

Here we are walking over the Radical Road on the Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh, Scotland - that's Bob in the distance. You can see the castle at the left beyond the Old Town, and in the far distance the Firth of Forth railway bridge is peeking over the hill.

Another entry in our series of June solstice northern vacations.

Taking a break

2007-06-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

June 1, 2007

This trip is coming to its end - I'm heading home for some family events over the next few weeks.

Here I am with my trusty GPS which helped me find the turnoff to Loft Mountain Campground in Shenandoah National Park.