Stinkin' Jenkins (Lead Cove - Bote Mountain - Jenkins Ridge - Hazel Creek)

Date: 5/14/16
Distance: 20.6

Today's GSHAG adventure started bright and early at the intersection of 321 and the Foothills parkway.  Part of the GSHAG group (JD, Ahmad, Betsy and Martin) drove a couple cars over to Fontana Marina while Anoria, Laura, Roger, David, Jack, Marie and I took a couple of cars to Lead Cove.  We hit the trail about 7;15 and we had a reservation to be picked up by the boat at 4:30, so with a little concern about missing the boat, we hustled up the trail.

The climb up Lead Cove and Bote Mountain was a steep and tough as ever, but the day was just beautiful and the company was nice so the climb passed  quickly.  The view from Spence Field was just awesome.  I love how you can see Fontana Lake down below where our boat would pick us up later in the day.

 Just after Spence Field, we turned right on Jenkins ridge.  The trail was quite overgrown in places and is very steep.  It also had quite a few wild flowers to brighten the day.

The final few miles of Jenkins is an old road which was easy hiking.  After 8.9 miles total we arrived at Hazel Creek.  We turned left and hiked the 0.8 miles to Bone Valley where we turned around and headed for our boat pickup.

 We arrived at Proctor about 3:50 and after killing a bit of time made our way down to the end of the Hazel Access trail where I soaked my feet for a few minutes before the boat came around the corner.

 Super nice day in the park with a big climb and a steep descent.  It was quite rewarding to finish off Jenkins for the 2nd map.