Date: 2011-11-03
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Miles today: 0.0

I will leave on Sunday, October 23 for my GSMNP trip. I¢ve had to delay this trip 3 times for various reasons but all that is in the past. After the usual goodbyes to my family, it is in the car and I begin the 6 hour drive to Newport, TN. I arrive in Newport and stop at the local IGA to stock up on a few things, and then drive for about 30 minutes to the Big Creek parking area. It has been a gorgeous, sunny day with temps in the mid 60¢s. That is quite a change from the previous week of very cold and rainy weather. The parking lot is nearly full as I pull in at 3.45 PM. I put on my boots and hoist my pack up and begin the 6 mile walk to Walnut Bottoms and campground number 37. I packed heavily taking a jacket, gloves and long underwear. The creek is running pretty good and there are a lot of folks out taking pictures. I cross the footbridge after Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek Falls and pause to see if I can spot any trout. I see a few but the reflection off the water makes it hard to see. After pausing, I notice some bear scat but see no bears and move on hoping to make camp before dark.The leaves are changing color and the sun late in the day makes odd spots of light in open areas on the forest floor. The trail is void of people now as I pass mile number 3. The onset of twilight makes me up the pace a bit. I get to the campground and find that only one site is occupied. It is a family of 4. The parents whose names are Jason and Megan have two young daughters who I guess are about 6 and 8 years old. They have their camp set up and are gathering firewood for the evening. I chat for awhile and get an offer from the girls to help me hang my pack on the bear cables. These cables are used to hang your food high above camp out of the grasp of pesky bears. The cables are not like any I have used before. There are hooks and cables and pulleys. The girls who are named Jen and Liz show me how to use the cabling system and we have a good time as I take instructions really well. Darkness falls and I retire to my tent and listen to my neighbors sing Christmas carols. I am only a few feet from a stream and the sound of the running water and singing puts me right to sleep.I wake up at first light but stay put in my sleeping bag. It got pretty cold during the night so I donned my long johns and I am in no rush today. My neighbors are packing up and heading back to the parking lot. So after I finally give in to the call of nature, I get out of my nest. Then I fix my breakfast and slowly and methodically break camp. I begin the 7 mile hike up to Mt. Sterling. Today the trail will be mostly uphill so I take it slow. The trail has a series of switchbacks and it also follows a creek. The morning air is cold, I am warm enough without a Jacket but do wear gloves. I stop after about 2 hours and take a break at a waterfall. I eat some snacks and then head out. The trail now increases in steepness. I pause occasionally to rest and take in the view. I keep watch out for bears but don¢t see any. At about 11.00 AM I feel a sharp pain in the calf of my right leg. It is severe enough that I fall. It¢s a muscle cramp and I¢ve never had one on a hike before. I try to get up but can¢t stand without being in pain. This is one hazard of hiking alone. If an injury occurs, you put yourself in danger. Because I often hike alone I carry a SPOT communicator that uses satellite signals to notify 911 in case of an emergency. It is nice to know that I can use that if I have to. But I think I can work my way out of this. So I pull off my pack and try to massage the calf muscle. That helps some. I now become frustrated. I am too far now to just turn back. Yet it is all uphill from where I am. I look at my GPS and it tells me I have 3 more miles to go. I keep trying the massage and it seems to help. I grab my first aid pack and get some Alleve. I stay put for about 45 minutes and slowly I¢m able to stand. I try a few steps and the pain seems to lessen if I try not to put too much wait on my heel. I walk for 50 steps and rest for 2 minutes, then 50 steps and rest. Soon my muscle seems to cooperate. At about 3.00 PM and after what seems like about 100 stops, I arrive at the Mt Sterling Fire Tower. Much to my surprise there is a USFS person there and he is working on fixing some cables. Off to the side there is a John Deere Gator which has to belong to the USFS. Mr. USFS guy isn¢t too talkative. I debate if I should ask for a ride back to the parking lot since I¢m not sure what my leg will do by morning. I try to make conversation and he limits is answers to yes or no. I ask if the tower is safe to climb and get the response ¢I don¢t know¢. So I decide I will set up camp here and spend the night. I do climb the tower and get a great view. The weather remains clear and the sky is cloudless all afternoon. Later another hiker arrives and then a group of 3 more hikers tramp in so I have company for the night. The next morning my leg feels somewhat better. After the usual morning ritual, I head down the Baxter Creek trail. It is very steep ¢ dropping 4,500 feet in the 7 miles that lead back to my car and the campground. This trail is neither well marked nor maintained. The trail is rocky, has many roots and in places the trail has been worn away so that it would be very easy to slip off the trail, especially with all the leaves. I find I must walk very slowly and keep perfectly upright so as not to get going too fast downhill. My leg muscles feel the strain! After about 4 hours, I make it back to my car. In the parking lot there is rather interesting ¢couple¢. A middle age gentleman is helping an elderly woman who is using a walker to get about. I start a conversation and the guy seems to have a wealth of knowledge about the GSMNP. The area where we are camping was once the site of a CCC crew and he tells me just about every hollow had a CCC crew about the time the park came under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. He also tells me that the Big Creek area was once a small community with some logging companies. But in the 1920¢s, the lumber concerns simply harvested what they could and then moved on. It is always very interesting to hear the history of all these places. The man tells me to go and see the CCC display near the Sugarland Visitor Center. I make a note but won¢t get there on this visit. I make my way to my campsite and bed down for the night.The next day I will take on the trail to Mount Cammerer to see the Observation tower there which was built by the CCC. I make the 20 minute drive to Cosby Campground where I will pick up the trailhead for Low Gap Trail which leads to the AT and ultimately to the Mount Cammerer tower. I hit the parking lot and pack up to head out. As I get to the trailhead from the parking lot I happen on two fellow hikers; Clarence and Mary are professional nature photographers. As we begin the ascent to the AT, both of them stop to take pictures of some wildflowers. I leave them behind for now and then come upon an unusual sight. Ahead of me off in the woods is a USFS pickup truck. It looks out of place parked in the woods. I walk over to take a closer look and see there is a tank in the bed of the pickup. I see a hose and I figure they must be spraying chemicals of some kind. I¢d be willing to bet they are after some pests. I¢m reminded of all the warning signs you see in the campgrounds that prohibit use of non-certified firewood. I had a chance to talk with a Park Ranger on a previous trip. He told me that in the GSMNP that many campers bring their own firewood and the Emerald Ash Borer along with some other pests were a great concern. In fact, the Ranger told me that they did a ¢check¢ of the campgrounds and found that 31 campsites had ¢Non-Certified¢ firewood which means people probably aren¢t reading the signs on prohibiting firewood. So the risks of invasive pests are real. Just like the ¢don¢t feed the bears¢ signs, people don¢t think that this applies to them. Anyway, I plug on and stop to rest. Clarence and Mary catch up with me and they tell me about the many species of ferns that are all around us. I¢m envious in that they know so much about the indigenous plants and wildlife. I ask about what I think is a large cedar tree and they politely correct me that the tree is in fact a spruce tree. We go onward and upward and the trail increases in steepness. It is fun having someone to talk with, especially experts on plant life. I find out that Mary is also a tour guide for the ¢Wildflower Hikes¢ that the GSMNP puts on each April. She makes a passionate plea for me to attend next spring and bring friends - so I make a note of it. She hands me a paper with the website information and I tuck it in my pocket. We finally reach the AT and pause again. Off in the distance I see what I think is the back end of a black bear heading off into a patch of rhododendrons. I can¢t say for sure if it was a bear but there is bear scat all along the trail. The trail is little more crowded today as the weather is perfect ¢ a cloudless blue sky with temperatures in the 60¢s. As I rest and eat a snack, a Park ranger who is off duty arrives with his wife. He is from Chicago¢s south side and that strikes me as odd why he became a Park Service Ranger. He has a Masters degree in Biology and couldn¢t find a teaching job so ergo he got a job with the NPS. I head south on the AT toward Mount Cammerer. The trail levels out some and I begin to get some nice views of the lower elevations. At one point, I see I-40 and it looks a small ribbon of black in a sea of green and gold leaves. I get to the side trail for the Mount Cammerer observation tower and after about 12 mile come to the final few hundred yards to climb. There are rocks you have to climb and once I navigate through them I see the tower. It is a beautiful piece of work to be sure. Built by the CCC, the tower is considered an observation tower and not a fire tower. The difference is that this tower is not built on a metal structure like a fire tower, but is built on hand laid stones and is designed to fit right into the natural surroundings of stones. It is octagonal shaped and you can go inside to get spectacular views. The elevation here is almost 5,000 feet. I break out my lunch and enjoy the warm sunshine and spectacular views. The number of people with large cameras and tripods etc are now showing up in increasing numbers. So I pack up and head out. I now hike north to my destination for the night; Cosby Shelter. The shelter is nice and like many of the shelters on the AT in the GSMNP it has been recently renovated. As my day and trip now wind down, I think to myself that I passed this way before. But when you are on the AT and hiking for distance, the chances and time to get to see many side trails and points of interest are few and that¢s too bad. I read a few days ago that a lady named Jennifer Davis had set a new speed record for hiking the AT ¢ 47 days. That means she had to AVERAGE 46 miles per day. While the feat is indeed a stunning achievement, I wonder how many sights and sounds are missed when you hike for speed. I fall asleep and wake up early and hike back to my car. I head out and plan for my next trip. I¢ll probably take my time.