Decision #1 In considering possible backpacking trips for the Christmas weekend, JP and I had penciled in several possibilities including the Great Smoky Mountains, Fiery Gizzard, Big South Fork, and Land between the Lakes. When the weather starting moving from the 20s to the 60s, the Smokies started looking better and better. Despite living in TN for nearly 10 years, I have only been to the Smokies once and that was simply driving through. Recognizing that there are few long weekends available, we simply had to finally go to the Smokies. Only where in this enormous park to actually go? I spent much of Christmas day trying to figure out the best initiation hike for us. The resources on the web were less helpful than one might think for such a popular park, but I finally settled on doing an 11 mile loop hike in Cades Cove that included Abram Falls and camping at backcountry camp 15.
Decision #2 I discover from the park's website that this campsite has been temporarily closed for unknown reason. We therefore decide to add 1.5 miles to the hike and stay at campsite 17 instead. This turns out to be a fortunate decision indeed.
Decision #3- About half way down on the long drive to the Smokies, JP and I are conversing about equipment, and I ask JP to confirm that he has the body of our tent in his pack. (It is traditional to split the weight of the tent into two parts, so one person carries the poles and the other the body.) He says "No, I thought you packed the body, I just have the fly." Our poles or fly need the body of the tent to be pitched. So do we simply turn around and go back (which will require an additional four hours), do we change our hike to one of the routes with a shelter, (despite having little information about these hikes or assurance that we can get a reservation for one that day), or do we just go ahead with our planned hike and try to rig up some kind of shelter? Given that the weather is suppose to be in the high 30s, I decide that we are going to try the latter, but we stop at a local Walgreens to pick up some disposal tableclothes to use a ground clothes and additional rope to try to tie the poles.
After entering the Smokies at Cades Cove road, we find the ranger station and fill out the self-registration permit for one of the backcountry campgrounds. Here we see that camp 15 is listed in two ways on two separate sheets about closures. One lists the site is closed because of aggressive bear activity and one list the site closed but states there is no bear activity.
We then begin the scenic drive on Cades Cove, which turns out to be this slow moving caravan of vehicles apparently for miles. What are are the other cars doing? I'm not sure, as there is very little wildlife to see, but I guess the open fields and mountains are scenic.
After much longer than we would like, we arrive at the trailhead. (When we arrive at the trailhead, a sign says camp 15 has been closed due to aggressive bear behavior. We are not able to confirm that the trail or camp 17 are still open, but they are not listed as closed. Are bears actually active and aggressive in the winter in the Smokies? I still don't know.) It's now 1:30 pm (CST-we never switch our watches to EST, so all times will be listed as CST). We have to hike about six miles to our campsite, and it gets dark about 4:45 pm, maybe earlier in the mountains. So we figure that as long as we average 2 mph, we should be good. We usually average around 3 mph on decent paths.
The trail head.
The route to the falls is mostly flat with about 3 ridge crossings. We are constantly following the Wilson's Creek, which is a fast flowing, rapid filled creek (what would be called a river in the west.) The section that leads to the falls is very popular as a day hike and as temperatures are in the 50s, so we see lots of families on the trail.
About an hour later, we reach Abrams Fall, a spectacular 20 foot fall. The water is running powerfully. There is only one other couple at the water fall, and they take a picture of us.
Cool rock formation carved by the falls.
We leave from the falls and continue our trek.
Decision #4 About 5 minutes up the trail, we encounter our next dilemma. The trail is completely blocked for about 15 yards by branches and what turns out to be the huge trunk of a tree fractured into three parts. We have to make a decision quickly because we don't have a lot of spare time. As you may know, one of the typical ways to signal no trail access to hikers is to cover the trail with branches. We know that one campsite on the route has been closed, possibly for bear activity. We have not been able to confirm whether the trail to the other campsite is open, but we have no solid evidence that it is not. So do we fight thru the block in the trail and potentially enter forbidden territory or do we turn around and go back to our car and just give up on the overnight camp? I push my way through the branches to examine the evidence for an intentional blockage. I find no evidence of chain saw cuts anywhere on the tree or branches. After about 15 minutes of examination, I conclude that one large tree broke off on its own about 20 feet above the trail (which cuts thru the side of a steep slope). As it fell it then must have knocked down several smaller trees, all of which came to rest on the trail because the really large trees on the other side of trail stopped them from falling further. I make my way back to JP and we decide to go on.
JP pushing thru the blockage. On the third time thru the blockage, I catch my faithful outdoor adventure jacket on one of the branches and tear a huge gash in it. I will miss it.
Time is not on our side. The sun is beginning to set, and we haven't reach the junction to Scott's Gap. We pull out the GPS we had borrowed from a friend, but it can't pick up enough satellite signals to mark our position. We don't know how long we have to go. Twice we reach points where we have to cross streams without bridges and there is no easy way to ford without walking through. This we are reluctant to do, as the water is very cold and we may be in for a cold night with wet feet. I am able to successfully jump across both streams, but JP slips on the second one, plunging his feet and leg into the water. We have to make better time, but we keep getting slowed down with ridges to be ascended and descended. Finally, we reach the junction to Scotts Gap. We hurry on. Darkness is falling.
Decision #5 I figure we should reach the campsite in 15 minutes from the junction. After 20 minutes, we come to another large stream crossing with a bridge. Looking at our map, there is a large stream crossing shown AFTER the campsite. Have we walked right past the campsite? There is another campsite further on, but if we missed our planned camp, how sure are we that we won't miss the next one? I decide that we should continue, because backtracking seems useless as no place we have passed appeared to be a good campsite even for an emergency camp.
Five minutes later, we reached the well marked camp 17. It is a large flat wooded area, at least 300 yards long and wide, completely different from the steep slopes we have been traversing for the past hour. There are two other groups in the large area. This is a relief as it validates our decision to press through the blockage. We find a fire ring well away from the other groups and begin to set up camp. We pick an area to construct our makeshift shelter about 50 yards from a fire ring and 50 yards from the bear cables, to ensure our sleeping areas is well away from bear attractors. As we hurry to improvise a shelter, we make a remarkable discovery. The body of the tent is actually packed with the poles! JP had taken the tent with him for the last scout campout and he had kept the body with the poles and only separated the fly. I can't tell you how happy this made me, especially when we find spiders and ants crawling over the tent later on. (Tennessee winters don't seem to slow down bugs as much as one would hope and I confess the thought of spiders crawling all over me at night sounds even less attractive than being woken up by a garbage diving bear).
We cook our dinner and then hang our packs with the food on these ingenious bear cables that apparently all the backcountry campsites in the Smokies have.
We can't get a fire going because all the dead wood laying around is soaking wet from the rains of the past week. So at 7 pm, we decide that there isn't much point in staying awake and we lay down to sleep. Its getting chilly outside and we snuggle into our mummy bags, reinforced with our new liners. A little while later I hear a muffled snorting sound and I wonder, oh boy, are we going to see a bear? Then I realize its just JP snoring! At 9:45 pm I wake up and rip off all my warm clothes and zip open the mummy bag wide because I'm roasting hot. (I also hear the call of the wild.) Then back asleep until 3 pm (My small bladder just kills my sleep.) and finally at 5 pm I decide to snuggle back fully into the mummy. JP sleeps thru the night, snoring off and on to keep things interesting.
We wake to a glorious dawn. After the stress of finding the site last night, everything feels just so perfect. We are camped at a small bend in the river, with awesome little rapids and stretches of deep clear water. After making breakfast, we pump some water with our new water filter (my Christmas present) and walk around. This really is what I imagine backpacking to be all about. Solitude in a beautiful place.
About 10:30 am, we head back out on the trail. We find that some of the difficult stream crossing from the night before are no longer problematic and realize that all the streams have gone down significantly overnight.
Decision #6. We had planned to continue the loop, but at the junction to Scott's Gap, which we passed through so hurriedly the night before, we find that the stream crossing marked on the map will require us to ford thru knee deep water for about 20 yards. While the weather is balmy, we are not really well prepared for a cold water crossing and for our clothes to be soaked. We decide that we should head back the same way we came in, back past the falls.
When we reach the site of the blockage, the nice rangers have already cleared most of the downed trees completely off the trail. Don't ever let people tell you government workers can't get things done quickly.
We hike on and reach the falls. There are a number of groups here now, and I climb up the falls to take more pictures.
We finish the hike. The last 2.5 miles are crowded with day hikers and it spoils the mood of what has been a great hike. Our packs feel very heavy and I am convinced that we need to shed 10 pounds from the pack the next time out.
After eating lunch, we drive out thru to the Sinks and see some spectacular white water.
