May 15 Tanawha Trail Hike

Twelve hikers packed into 2 cars for the shuttle to begin our hike. The sky turned blue and early clouds dissipated. We were ready for a great day of hiking. One of my favorite parts of this trail is the approach to Linn Cove Visitors Center. The trail traverses a rocky ravine on a wonderfully constructed footbridge.



Just past the visitors center, the trail passes under the Linn Cove Viaduct. You can see this engineering marvel from another angle - under it.



I've seen shrines before but never on this trail. The shrine we saw was upon a flat rock, above the trail and featured the Virgin of Guadalupe complete with fresh roses.



We ate lunch with a stunning view of the viaduct and mountains beyond.


It was at lunch someone made the ill-fated comment, "the trail is much easier from here". That of course is usually the case but since winter there has been so much deadfall, the trail is almost impassable. Everyone bailed at Boone Fork Parking Area and walked along the Parkway except Nanci and me. We were socializing with some hikers at the parking area and they offered to drive us to Price Lake.

May 8 Linville Gorge

I'm excited, it has been years since I've climbed Babel Tower. Today the Piedmont Hiking group led by Ben Harris, strolls around Linville Gorge and all around Babel Tower. It takes forever to get to the trailhead and then shuttle cars but now we're ready to go. Babel Tower trail is downhill into the gorge. We see some spent Wake Robins and a few almost spent Painted Trilliums. And some British Soldiers. The little tiny ones.



We spend about an hour roaming around the spires of Babel Tower, snapping photos and trying to not get blown off the tower by very high winds.




After lunch at the base of the tower, we walked along the Linville River toward Conley Cove. The trail was on the river at times and up a bit at times.

Just before the junction with Conley Cove Trail, we walked down to river at the Spence Ridge Trail and bridge across the river.


It was a nice climb out of the gorge and an interesting meal at Yanini's in Morganton.

May 6&7 on the VA Creeper Trail

This mid-week ride begins in Damascus at the town park sporting a beautiful red caboose. Landy, Gail, David and I roll the bikes toward Abington along scenic Laurel Creek. The first few miles are mostly open and developed, paralleling US 58. Once we duck under the road, the trail becomes more rural and travels through wooded area as well as open fields. The trestles on this section are in terrific condition. Some are quite high. We open and close gates numerous times before the final uphill into Abington. The trail ends here in a small park sporting a locomotive. We lunched about a block away at the Trailside Cafe.

After fueling, we turned the bikes around and rode the 16 mile return to Damascus.

Next day I raced down the 17 mile route from White Top to Damascus.

April 2010 Trail Camera

May 1 Rock Castle Gorge Hike

Today's PHOC hike was led by Ken Yates. We had 13 participants. Flowers abounded today. I was thrilled to see lots of Fire Pink, a few Pink Lady Slippers, Foam Flowers, May Apples, Ramps, Showy Orchis, lots of nice tall Canada Violets, Geranium, Columbine and some type of Bellwort, maybe Wild Oats.

It was a warm day. Along the ridge we were subjected to breezy condition with some very strong gusts. For about a mile prior to entering the rock jumble (Rock Castle) there is Trillium field extending as far as you can see up and down the mountainside. The Trillium appeared to be just past prime as there were many old pink petals.

We ran into the usual number of hikers. Everyone seemed to be enjoying a great day in a great place.

April 30 Pizza

Tonight we made a nice thin crusted dough with whole wheat and semolina flour. Topping were ground venison and chanterelles.

April 23 Hike to Russell Field and Spence Field

This is my last hike with the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage this year. It was led by DK Smith, curator of the UT herbarium. Easily it was the best hike of the program for me. We saw morels, a rare variant of trillium, a couple bears and the incredible fields of flowers on the ridgetop.

Starting up at the Cades Cove Picnicground on the Anthony Creek Trail, there were just 6 of us. The long slow pull up this trail and Bote Mountain Trail finally ended at Spence Field. We sat in the grass surrounded by spring beauties and trout lilies, eating lunch and listening to DK tell tales. We heard his adventures working on the Alaska pipeline, clearing ordinance in the Aleutians, exploring Denali and surviving the Alaska Railway train wreck of 1974.

We meandered along the ridgetop through what seemed like an endless field of flowers. At Russell Field and the AT shelter, we headed down Russell Field Trail. Almost at the end of the trail, I had gotten well ahead of the group when I spotted an unusual trillium with 5 series of triple pedals. I waited for the group, thinking DK would say,"Oh yeah that is such and such" and keep moving. He had a much different reaction. Apparently this is a very rare variant DK had seen only once before. He got his camera out for the first time on the hike and carefully took some pictures. It so happens that the world's leading expert on trillium was at the Pilgrimage and these photos would be of interest to him. While everyone was crouching on the ground giving this flower plenty of attention, I stood and saw 2 bears headed our way. Everyone looked up except DK. He kept on examining the flower.

We finished up at 6:30 on this 12 mile outing.

April 22 Hike to Low Gap & Snakeden Ridge

Another Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage hike. This one beginning in Cosby and heading up Low Gap Trail and down Snakeden Ridge Trail. I found the hike up tiring. We bobbed ahead and then behind several other hikers before reaching the gap. The ridge walk was very nice. There was an abundance of Spring Beauties, Trout Lilies, serviceberry with a dose of Frasier's Sedge, witch hobble, Squirrel Corn, Dutchman Britches and Fetterbush thrown in. We hiked a total of 12 1/2 miles.

April 21 Sugarland Mtn Hike

This is my first hike at the 2010 Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage. Hikers met at the Laurel Falls Parking Area and rode a van to Newfound Gap. We started hiking on the AT toward Clingman's Dome. At about the 4 mile mark, we hiked down the Sugarland Mountain Trail and finally finished back at our cars at Fighting Creek Gap for a total of 16.6 miles.

It was hovering around freezing for the first hour. Mist shrouded us for the entire AT walk. Once we headed down Sugarland, conditions improved. We missed a few nice views at first but caught a few later in the day.

Nothing really unusual in terms of flowers. Silverbells, Magnolias, and Serviceberries were blooming. There were a few nice wildflower spots but nothing like what I would experience later.

April 20 Hike to White Oak Sink

April 20 Hike to White Oak Sink
White Oak Sink is a unique area located in the GSMNP on the road leading to Cades Cove. Any water running into the sink has to exit via a limestone cave opening. There is even a waterfall that exits into a cave. The lime in the soil allows for some different vegetation.

It was raining this morning and I did not photograph the yellow lady slipper I saw. The first I have ever seen. Once in the sink, blue phlox is dominant. It looks like it covers the ground in wide swaths. There were some other folks in the area hiking. The "locals" steered me around to the best spots including a sinkhole full of shooting stars and one full of bluebells. I spent about 2 hours here before moving on, hiking Turkeypen Ridge Trail and looping back to my car.