Jan 26 Laurel Falls & Little Greenbrier

 

After a 7 year hiatus, I'm back at Wilderness Wildlife Week in Pigeon Forge. Five of those years WWW had moved to May and several of us organized Winter Hike Week as a January replacement. I was thrilled to see 5 old friends on today's 8 mile hike. Our leaders are David Morris and Charles Maynard. We begin hiking at Fighting Creek Gap up the Laurel Falls trail. We all know the first 1.3 miles of this hike is the most hiked trail in the park. It is paved to boot but it is scheduled to be repaved in the near future. The pavement has been deteriorating for years. 

Laurel Falls as seen from the footbridge. We are the only hikers here early on this frigid morning. 

Temperatures are in the mid 20s with some wind, so we are bundled up and everyone wants to keep moving. Our hike continues to climb. We enter old growth forest with many large Tuliptrees. 

Here is a recent uproot. Some hikers have a difficult time getting over it. 

We are dwarfed by the big trees. Snow comes and goes with one snow squall engulfing us for several minutes. 

We climb for another 2 miles to the junction with Little Greenbrier trail where we take a break. All our breaks tend to be in open and exposed areas. 

David and Charles give a short presentation in the old schoolhouse. Charles tells us, the school house also served as a church and community building. Charles is very fact specific. He was the first director of the Friends of the Smokies in the 1990s. He has written a number of books about the smokies. As an author, he pales next to his romance novelist wife Janice. 

Just before reaching the Walker Sisters cabin, our group encounters another WWW hike group. Together we lunch on the Walker Sisters cabin grounds. The cabin is undergoing an extensive renovation. Charles explained the Friends of the Smokies had received a grant from Log Cabin Syrup of over $250,000 to renovate log cabins in the park. The original grant specified that the funds needed to be spent within a year. Finding experienced craftsmen to renovate these old structures made that impossible. Log Cabin Syrup agreed to extend the period and the Friends matched the grant. So, the renovation here is made possible from the 1999 grant. 

After Charles' presentation, we were treated to a singing performance by one of the hikers, also a professional singer.