Porter's Creek With Darlene and Deena

You know why I wanted to hike at Porter's Creek, don't you?

The one and only pink Lady Slipper found

I wasn't able to get my Mom and her cousins to go along, but I did get new friends Darlene and Deena to go.  Porter's Creek is easy-peasy as far as hikes go here in the Smokies.  It was 5.4 miles round trip but the time flew with fun folks to talk to and such a wide almost level trail.

Cantrell farmstead stone walls

Greenbrier is one of my favorite areas of the park.  The landscape is beautiful and it's less populated with tourists.

Ownby Cemetery

An added bonus was a few wildflowers that I hadn't previously seen.

Meadow Parsnip, member of the Parsley family

I was especially taken with the Brook Lettuce.  I took a few beautiful shots...that didn't turn out because I wasn't able to hold the camera steady and too lazy to double check my shot.  This plant is found nowhere else in the world except the region from eastern Pennsylvania to southwestern South Carolina.

Brook lettuce lining Porter's Creek

Last time I was at Porter's Creek it was fall and we spotted that owl, remember?  I wonder what I'll see next time I visit?  Hopefully I'll finally get out to Ramsey Cascades next time.  Or maybe I'll try to follow the creek instead of staying on the trail which ends up high above it.  Those boots would come in handy again for that.

I had to work three days in a row after my return, so this morning I drove out to Kettle Moraine for a ranger-led wildflower hike.  I saw a few wildflowers that I saw in the Smokies, much to my surprise.  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Hiking Huskey Gap Trail

I've never seen a lot of cars parked at the lot for the Huskey Gap Trail and it wasn't far from our rental house so I thought I'd give it a try on Saturday morning.  We were expecting a few more distant relatives to show up for lunch so I was on the trail by 8 AM and was the only car in the lot.

At 8AM the temperature was just barely 50F so I had to keep my hands in my jacket pockets and I kept my hiking buddy snuggled in there too.

Right away I spotted some Wild Geranium and was hopeful I'd be seeing a few new wildflowers on this trail.

Wild Geranium

I'm assuming the reason this trail isn't as popular is because it was a grueling steady climb.  Not steep enough to require stairs to be built, but there was only one short level spot near the beginning and then it was up, up, up. An elevation gain of 1240 feet in 2 miles is nothing to sneeze at in this flatlander's opinon.

Crested Dwarf Iris lined the trailhead

Some of my new favorite wildflowers made an appearance along with the previously unseen ones.

Showy Orchis

White Baneberry?

The wildflower distribution on this trail seemed to almost appear in organized sections.  Huge patches of one kind of flower or another would blanket both sides of the trail for awhile before giving way to another variety.

Soon there will be lots of Bloodroot blooming, and there was also a ton of this unidentified plant below.

The Early Meadowrue was in abundance in one section as well.

Early Meadowrue

The trail kept going and kept giving me something new to look at.  Otherwise that endless climb might have deterred me.

Yellow Mandarin

fading White Trillium

With all the stopping and admiring I didn't get sweaty or out of breath, but it wasn't long before the sun started pouring in as I kept going higher.

Yellow Trillium with a surprise inside

As always happens there came a point where I thought for sure I must have missed something.  Shouldn't I have gotten to the top already?  After all it's only 2 miles, how slow was I going anyway?

Race you to the top!

Bishop's Cap

One of the benefits of going slow was I spotted some fading Squirrel Corn.  The rest of the nearby plants had lost all their blooms, but I looked hard as I kept gaining elevation and was eventually rewarded with a few plants that weren't yet past their prime.  It seemed to like growing in wet, rocky sections.

Squirrel Corn

Suddenly it was pretty obvious I was near the top.  Ground cover got scarce and there were no leaves on the trees.  I'd been on the trail for 2 hours and it was really warming up.

The summit was reached!  As tempting as it was to choose a direction and keep going I turned around and headed back down.  I might not have met any bears or people on this hike, but it was a great way to start the day.

Today's day started with a drive in the rain to work and the temperature readout on my dashboard only read 40F.  Thank goodness I still have these posts - I can pretend for a little while that I'm still where it's warm.  I'm planning next spring's escape already - I can't decide whether to head for Georgia in March or the Red River Gorge of Kentucky in April.

Traipsing Around Tremont

After I left Mom and Annmarie to go do their own thing in Cades Cove I headed over to the Institute in Tremont.  When I was hiking with my pals on Curry Mountain Trail Gene mentioned that there was supposed to be some Jack in the Pulpit up behind the Institute on an unmarked trail so I thought I'd traipse around the woods and see what I could find.

I peeked in on a couple of unmarked paths, but ended up taking the Lumber Ridge Trailhead to the trail that heads out to Spruce Flats Falls.  As with almost every hike I've been on I had the trail to myself for most of the time.  I passed two guys coming out who told me to "be careful" out there.

Pennywort at the trailhead

The trail got a little rocky, a little narrow, and in some spots a little steep.  Add some on and off again rain to the mix and it was a nice little adventure.  Good thing I brought along my umbrella.

At one point the rain was coming down really hard, but there wasn't any lightning so I pressed on.  I got a phone call from Katrina when I was approaching this cool staircase.  She happened to call me every day when I was on the one point in the trail that actually had cell service.  How did she do that?

My persistence paid off and I arrived at the falls right when the only other people there were leaving.

My new camera is so great that I don't even have to bother with taking any tripod with me.  Thank goodness because the camera and lenses are heavy enough without adding any extra weight.

The rocks were wet but easy to get around on to get the shots that I wanted, but I could see why the other hikers had warned me to be careful and I used good judgment.

Lower falls

I did set up the Gorillapod for a shot of the falls that included me, even though I was a wet, muddy, frizzy mess.

Upper falls

As I was starting the 1.5 mile trek back to the Institute I heard a little rustling beside me.  I caught the slightest movement out of the corner of my eye and spotted this fella.

All the little critters I see would be hard to catch with companions along to distract me.  I enjoyed my quiet moment with the amphibian who thought that if he just held still enough I'd never see him.  Still, it's not going to be the same at home...I might finally have to look into joining the Kettle Moraine hiking group.

I didn't find the Jack in the Pulpit, but I would have never known about this trail to the falls if I wasn't looking for a patch of wildflowers.  Sometimes it's better finding what you weren't looking for, right?

We finished our drive home today, but don't worry, I still have at least a week's worth of posts about our trip left to share!

Hanging With the Ladies

No Monday Mural today, too much to talk about down from Tennessee still.

I spent some time with the ladies I shared a house with, I swear.

French Toast made by Pam

I kept trying to get them out in the woods with me, but they had their own ideas.  I did talk them into taking a drive through Cades Cove.  We took separate cars though because I wanted to do some hiking in Tremont.  

Little River Road

We went as far as the Townsend "Y" together to see some wildflowers on the Chestnut Top Trail, but first I had to veer off onto the side of the road to capture the vivid Columbine blooming on the rock face along Little River Road.

Then it was on to the Chestnut Top Trail for a wildflower stroll with the ladies.

I had an opportunity to put all my new-found knowledge to good use and tell them the names of just about everything they pointed out.

Wild Stonecrop

A butterfly enjoys the Beaked Violet

I saw some Fire Pink when we were in Kentucky, but I was happy to see a little red here in the Smokies too.  The "pink" refers to the shape of their petals and not their color.  The tips of the petals are notched or "pinked" (think of a pair of pinking shears).  The deep tubular corolla evolved to use flying insects and hummingbirds as its primary pollinators, giving it a better chance of the pollen being passed on than with crawling insects.

By now I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, for goodness sakes, how many wildflowers must Pam show us?  Well, there are 1500 kinds of flowering plants in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but I promise not to show you that many.

One-Flowered CancerRoot - the only one I've seen

After they were done looking at the flowers they stopped along the Little River to pose for some photos before they left for their drive through Cades Cove.

On Saturday even more Newfie cousins showed up.

Sunday breakfast 

That's three Newfie cousins with three daughters and an extra non-Newfie friend thrown in for variety.  When they got started on the "remember when" tales with the convoluted family tree that goes along I felt kind of sorry for poor Deena!  

3 cousins and 3 daughters

She took it in stride though and by the end of 24 hours I hope she felt like family.  You know them Newfies, nothing but foolishness.

Goofy Newfies

While the cousins played catch-up and drank tea I dragged Deena and Darlene to Porter's Creek to hunt for Lady Slipper.  

When we came back we had some more visitors to our backyard after supper.

If they were hoping to get some scraps they were in for a disappointment.  We made sure to latch the bear-proof lock on the garbage storage outside.

Mom and cub just grazed underneath our deck for awhile and we all hung around watching them.

It was a short time we had together, but full of laughter and friendships both old and new.  Hopefully we'll all meet up again soon...the bears can stay in the Smokies where they belong though.

Today we drove as far as Indianapolis, tomorrow it's all the way home but I don't think it will be long before I'm back on the trails of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I even picked out an RV park in Townsend for us to stay at next time so I can explore the other end of the park more!