Jakes Creek - Miry Ridge

Date: 7/3/15
Distance: 17.2

The weather has been rainy for several days and today the forecast was no different.  There had been a number of flash floods in the Smokies in the recent weeks, so I decided to choose something with little risk of flash flood problems.  I decided on Jakes Creek to Miry Ridge to the AT and back.  This was an out and back hike with a rather large elevation gain.

I left the house about 9:30 and started hiking at 11:10.  Jakes Creek leaves from the back of Elkmont up through the abandoned cabins.  On this day it was drizzling a bit, but not so much that a rain jacket was required.  The trail starts as a gravel road for the 1st 1.5 miles or so.  At that point, the trail crosses the creek and it becomes a more classic Smokies Trail.

There was one other small creek crossing that didn't have a bridge about 0.5 miles later.



Jakes Climbs up the mountain at a steady rate before ending at Jakes Gap after 3.6 miles of hiking.  At this spot the wind was blowing nicely, so I stopped for lunch and a bit of a cool off.

Miry Ridge leaves from this point with a good sized climb up to the ridge.  The trail then spends lots of time right on the ridge.  Today was the 1st day that that I've seen the Rhododendron blooming.

The trail reaches a peak where there are a few views.

From here the trail loses a bit of elevation before the final climb up to the AT.  The Bee Balm was also blooming today.

 The Miry Ridge trail is 2.5 miles to Lynn Prong and then another 2.5 miles to the AT for a total of 5 miles.  The trail was very overgrown this time of year as is visible in this photo.

 
It was also pretty soggy and muddy from all of the rain.  Today I was in a drizzle most of the way up.  The overgrowth soaked my boots and socks, so my feet were squishing in my boots before I made it to the AT, but eventually I got there (about 2:10).  I quickly turned around and headed back down the mountain.

I wasn't able to make a cell phone call at the top, but shortly down the trail, my text message went out and I had cell service.

I got back to the car about 5:00 with some very wet and nasty socks, but feeling good.  The climb was about 3500' total with a 500' drop in the middle.

Charlies Bunion

Date: 6/29/15
Distance: 8 Miles

Andrew and his team from World Changers (Lauren, Evan and Hannah) were in town for a few days of R&R.  On this day, we took a hike to Charlies Bunion.  I started the day at the office, but about 10:30, they decided to go to the mountains and about 10:31, I left the office.

I was excited to find that Nathan had tagged along, so I got to hike with both sons.  We made the drive to Newfound Gap and started down the AT about 12:40.

 The day was pretty cloudy, but the views were still spectacular.

Andrew was out on the Bunion, while Nathan and I were up on the rocks behind the bunion.  There is a small trail near where the trail splits to go to the Bunion that goes up above.

 Hannah setup to take her Selfies over on the ridge beyond the bunion.  She is the small dot in the middle of the photo.

 On the way back we noticed this hog cage off the side of the trail.

Enjoyable day in the woods.  We polished it off with a dinner at Hot Rod's on the way home.

Fireflies at Elkmont - Day 3 (Little River – Rough Creek – Sugarland Mtn – HuskyGap – Little River)

Date: 6/7/15
Distance: 16.4 miles

Day 3 started with an oatmeal breakfast before tearing down camp.  After loading up the car, I walked over to the GSHAG breakfast that JD and friends had prepared, so I had a 2nd breakfast of eggs and sausage and bacon.  After two nights of little sleep, I was moving slow and getting a headache, so I decided to hit the trail and see if I could hike it out of me.  I started up the Little River Trail with the goal of marking off the Rough Creek Trail.  Little River is a gravel road for most of the hike to Rough Creek (about 4.6 miles) with very little elevation gain.  Rough Creek starts the big climb up the mountain to the Sugarland Mtn trail.  My GPS didn't lock until I reached Sugarland, but it was 4500' and the Little River Trail starts at less than 2500.

Rough Creek follows a creek most of the way up the mountain with a few small creek crossings on this day, but water levels were very low in the park.  I think the 1st crossing could be more difficult if water is high.

 About 2/3rds of the way up, there was a major blowdown that I had to crawl through.  There were several spots along the trail that the vegetation along the side was encroaching on the trail making it hard to see where you were putting your feet.

After lots of sweating on this hot day, I finally reach the Sugarland Mtn trail and got a good view of the Chimney tops in the distance.

 Instead of backtracking, I turned left on Sugarland Mountain and started my hike back towards Elkmont.  Sugarland Mountain was a nice trail with several nice views.

 After 4.1 miles on Sugarland Mountain, I turned left on Husky gap.  I had recalled that Husky Gap was straight down to Little River, but it actually had a few small climbs as it made its way down.  One especially beautiful spot was on Husky Gap.  The forest floor was just covered with ferns.

 The 2.1 miles on Husky Gap seemed longer than 2.1 as I was starting to get tired, but eventually I got back to Little River and turned right toward the car.  The final 2.8 miles on Little River seemed long as well.  I find that very flat trails aren't to my liking.  I'd rather have some ups and downs.  The Little River Trail is very flat in this section.

I did see a few nice flowers on the way back.

 These are a few shots of where we stood to watch the fireflies the 1st night.  Because it was so dark, we had no idea what was in the area.

Pretty tough hike after 2 nights of poor sleep.  I was so tired on the drive home that I broke my > 1 year of abstinence and stopped for a Mountain Dew on the way home.  Fortunately I managed to stay awake for the ride home.