All the Way to Alum Cave

Yesterday I took you as far as Arch Rock on the Alum Cave trail.  Not quite a "cliffhanger" maybe, but hikus interruptus perhaps?

Right after I collected my camera equipment from the tree and made my way back across the bridge I ran into another couple on their way down.   



The lady in turquoise let me past because hubby was at the top with his camera.  Eyeing my equipment on the way up he asked if I wanted a shot of myself coming up the stairs.  Yes, please and thank you!

On the other side of Arch Rock things got a little rocky and slippery on the black slate so the NPS was kind enough to attach some cable to the rock to grab onto.  Looking out for me and my safety, love those rangers!

 After two switchbacks uphill I spied a nice spot to sit for a second since my heart was pounding and I was feeling a little dizzy.  (No fear, totally normal for those of us with low blood pressure, it goes away quickly if you rest and wait for the blood to finish getting to your head!)  While I was resting I thought it would be a nice spot for a selfie.  A gal in the middle of the trail was quite a surprise to the next hiker coming around the bend...

After chatting with him and his wife for a minute they passed me while I set up my next shot.  The wife thought it was pretty funny when I posed in a fashion to underscore my flatlander exhaustion.

While it's always fun to entertain the masses, I had some more work to do and put those quivering quads back to work.  It wasn't long before I was rewarded for my efforts.

Right?  I think I was standing at Inspiration Point, but there was no sign so I'm only guessing seeing as how I was so inspired.  Yet another couple stopped to enjoy the view with me and I was happy to take a snap of them with their camera.  Hope it turned out well, it was hard to tell on their digital screen whether it was overexposed or not.

Hmmm.....seem to be running out of mountain. How high is Mt. LeConte anyway?  Can't be much further.

 As I passed through a little tunnel of rhododendren branches a small squirrel was running back and forth over my head.  I got my hand within a foot of him and he just stopped and looked at me.  Someone been feeding this fella, I wonder?  When I get home I'll crop in and see if he's visible in the shot below, but you can feel free to whip out your magnifying glass and have a look if you like.

A staircase came into view and it just started feeling like I was almost there.  I had to be, because the climbing had gotten so steep that I was stopping often to catch my breath and rest my legs.

The last stretch was nearly vertical, and on loose gritty surface.  Alum Cave wasn't really a cave but an overhanging rock shelter it turned out.  From 1838 to 1840 three local gentlemen formed the Epsom Salts Manufacturing Company and mined alum, Epsom salt, saltpeter, magnesia and copperas here.

 I was resting and talking to two other hikers when a trio joined us coming down from the peak of Mt. LeConte.  You know how it went, right?  Where you from?  How far did you hike?  I met folks on the trail from Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Utah, Kentucky, and Alabama.

As the couple from Utah with their father from the Smokies started their descent I figured it was as good a time as any to get moving.  Turns out they've hiked this trail before and they estimated 45 minutes down to the parking lot.  I stuck behind them the whole way since they had long legs.

I had a hard time moving past that rock full of yellow lichen without stopping, but I kept pace with the trio all the way down and we had some nice conversation about hiking in Utah and other great places.  Dad recommends the Uinta Wilderness and I told him that it was on my list.  Alum Cave is no longer on my list though, we made it to the parking lot in 50 minutes and Wayne was at the end of the trail.  He had only been waiting a few minutes and told me I had missed a bear sighting alongside the Newfound Gap Road after he dropped me off.  I was devastated but then a few minutes later we lucked into a bear sighting in almost the same spot!  The mama and her growing cubs were a little too far down in the vegetation for me to get any shots in the fading light, but we watched for a few minutes before resuming our ride back into town. Time for dinner to make its way to my belly, I hadn't eaten in 6 hours and had a lot of calories to make up for! 

Never Gonna Get There

Monday's big adventure?  I had Wayne drop me off at the trailhead for Alum Cave!  I had noticed that the fall color was looking pretty good in that area when we drove up to Clingman's dome and my trail guide I printed out and brought with me indicated the elevation change was only 1125 feet and the trail length was only 4.6 miles round trip.  No problem...right?

The first mile of the trail follows the creek and is a gradual uphill climb that wouldn't sap most people's energy.  What should have taken me 20 minutes took an hour because I kept stopping and playing with my camera.  Can you blame me?

As thrilled as I was with the views along (and in) the creek, I was happier to be back on a trail through the rhodendron thicket.  Or is it mountain laurel?  Either way, that's the stuff! 

Still, the creek kept calling to me, and outside the thicket some golden leaves were still hanging on to the trees. 

I kept my eyes peeled for salamanders since I've still never seen one, but the pools I ran across were probably not the right habitat for them.  I'm hoping that if I get to hike with Sharon while I'm here that she'll know where to go.

Few people passed me on the trail, mostly at the beginning and lots of hellos were exchanged.  Everyone was in a great mood as they descended from their afternoon hike.  It was getting on toward dinner time so not many folks were looking to head uphill like I was.  Wait!  What's that interesting texture on the log in the creek?

Just beautiful the effect water can have over time, isn't it?

Back on the trail I started getting a little more serious as I glanced at my watch and realized that too many minutes were leaping by.

But I had to stop and use the gorillapod for a shot in this idyllic location.

It wasn't long before I made it to Arch Rock at the 1.4 mile mark.  The picture doesn't do it justice, it was pretty cool for an arch  not in Utah.  I wrapped the gorillapod around a skinny tree, and ran to the bridge.  The first two times I didn't make it and then I had to wait as a couple came out of the arch and crossed the bridge.  Just my luck, they stopped for a rest and got a good show watching me set the timer and run to the bridge again.  Third time's the charm and I made it with a laugh and a wave!

Tomorrow I'll show you the rest of the hike.  No more gradual climbing for the second half and I had to pick up the pace!

Clingman's Dome Sunset Groupies

To quote the retro National Park video playing on the local cable channel,  "Clingman's Dome, let me tell ya, it's waaaay up there!"

Before we drove to the top of the 6,643 mountain peak located on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line ridge we stopped in at the Sugarlands Visitor Center on Sunday night.  After asking where was a good place to go for sunset we thanked the young ranger on duty and gave her a hearty "Welcome back to work!".

Traffic was fairly light on the way up, and the parking lot wasn't even full.  As we neared the top of the ridge we noted that fall color was done at the higher elevations, but the red berries showing on the leafless trees were just as stunning as any maple leaf in my opinion.

We had some time to kill so we wandered onto the Forney Ridge Trail for a little while.  We only went .10 mile down and then back up because of Wayne's tender back, but it was an enjoyable stroll and less steep than the walkway up to the observation tower.

About 15 minutes before sunset we made our way to where all the other sunset groupies had set up.

I got bored waiting for the "moment" so I wandered up and down the row, taking shots of what the light was doing before it disappeared.

Can you believe that me and this guy were the only ones not watching the sun sink obsessively?

The moment made its appearance eventually, and the groupies sprang into action.  Shutters were clicking like mad.  I thought I got nothing, sunsets are not something I have much practice with, but I didn't do too bad.  Enjoy my straight-out-of-the-camera attempts!

One of my favorite shots was of this guy that I snapped as I was walking back to the truck.  Wayne said I should photoshop his face in there...if I only knew how!  One of these days I'm sitting down with that Photoshop software and manual I bought and figuring it out, I swear.  It'll be "more fun than huntin' possum!"...as they say in the old National Park video.

8th Street Bridge Mural, Sheboygan

Forget for a moment that I'm in the Smokies right now and let me take you back to the mural hunt in Sheboygan.  After checking in on the mural on Washington Avenue, Jeanna and I headed over to the one under the 8th Street Bridge.  Not to be confused with the 59th Street Bridge of Simon & Garfunkel fame.

This Sheboygan mural was painted by Kyle Nielsen of Atlanta.  What does it mean?  I have absolutely no idea, but it made for a nice shot of me and Jeanna, dontcha think?  I used that handy Gorillapod and hooked it around the railing.

Speaking of bridges, I recently read this book:



Of course it was the moose-shaped mailbox that caught my eye, but it was also a Kindle Daily Deal so it I got to read it for only $2.99!  I really enjoyed the author's writing style, but it appears she hasn't written anything in a long time and that this is her only novel available in Kindle format.  I like a character driven novel, I want to know them so well they practically step off the page.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I got some helpful tips from Bill yesterday about camera lenses.  If I had been thinking clearly I probably should have rented one of the lenses he suggested, or even two lenses instead of just the zoom.  I was thinking mainly that I'd want a decent zoom if we spied any elk activity when we drive over to Maggie Valley or a black bear in Cades Cove.  The zoom I rented when we went out West got a lot more use shooting bison and elk. 
As for John's comment on the fireplace, it's electric and since we bought a used 2010 model it was what came with the deal.  In our Laredo we yanked the fireplace out because it wasn't putting off any heat and we were working on converting it into cupboard space.  This one actually puts off heat which is great because it's chilly sitting here by the windows in the shade of the mountains!  Last night it was only 44 degrees up on Clingman's Dome, but I was prepared in my wool coat and Smarwool gloves.

My post will show up on Mural Monday, but as I've already mentioned I'm unable to use the link feature while using Wayne's laptop, so if you'd like to see what the others have posted just go to www.oaklanddailyphoto.blogspot.com

Roaring Along

We ditched our plans to hike in Greenbrier this morning when Wayne's back was spasming too much for that to be an option.  I'm all for hiking alone, but I sure don't want to spend the first morning of our long awaited trip apart!

Since traffic was non-existent in Greenbrier we decided to brave downtown Gatlinburg and make our way over to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.  The traffic wasn't too bad late morning on a Sunday, definitely better than the afternoon before.  Last time we drove the nature trail was in the spring of 2012, so it was nice to compare how it looked in different seasons.  Check out my archives if you haven't seen my images, we were there in April.  For some reason I'm not able to perform the link function on Blogger when I use Wayne's laptop.

While fall here is nice and I'm hoping it will get better, I already have the next 3 fall color trips mapped out.  The next 2 will just be long weekends in the U.P and Bayfield, Wisconsin because we have 2 really big trips planned for 2014 and 2015 at other times of the year.  But in 2016 it's eastward bound, baby!  I've never seen New England in the fall, have you?

I was taking pictures of the water and looked up to see Wayne taking shots of me.  Sneaky!

I rented a 70-200mm zoom from lensrental.com for the next week, but it's really too much lens for all this close work in the woods.  But dig the clarity!



All my other shots are with the kit lens that came with the camera.  You could hear the difference in the shutter speed whenever I changed the lenses due to working in the shade, but what are ya gonna do?   Good lens was too much zoom in tight area, mediocre lens...mediocre!  Wherever there wasn't shade there was too much light.  No real cure for that, right?  Cursed midday!



Barn and corn crib on Jim Bales Place

  

Alex Cole cabin on Jim Bales farm along Roaring Fork





Gorillapod shot of the two of us not the best, looks like either it focused on the cabin or we moved or both.  There were a few ladies out and about with dressy saris (?) on today, they were so colorful I think it confused the one swallowtail butterfly who was lazily floating around the clearing.

Wayne had to stand over the butterfly to make some shade for the shot to turn out.  Don't know the story with butterflies but it should have been much more skittish so at the end of its life cycle maybe? 

Wayne thought he was pretty funny when he lifted up his little point and shoot and tried to catch me getting gear out of the bag on his back.  I accused him of being high off all the Vicodin.

I took some shots down at Regan's Mill too, but I'll save those for later.  By the time we leave here I'll have so many photos I'll probably be posting about the Smokies until Thanksgiving!  But here's one more for today's post of me at my new blogging workstation away from home.  A fire, a cup of coffee and a view of the creek out the window.  And the day is only half over!  Love it!

Let the Madness Begin

The Smokies were reopened on Wednesday and the U.S. Government was reopened on Thursday so nothing was standing in our way to leave on Friday afternoon.  Except the weekend traffic of course.  We had wanted to try to make it past Louisville before stopping, but the Walmart in Seymour, Indiana was home instead.

We woke up to rain today and it stayed with us for awhile.  We eventually outran it though, and had some gorgeous views driving through Kentucky, as usual.

And then in Tennessee.

That is, until we hit Sevierville.

Wayne got a little hopeful when we got to the other side of Pigeon Forge, but we only got a break for about two minutes and then it looked like this all the way to Gatlinburg.

It took an EXTRA hour and ten minutes to arrive at our RV park.  I'm thinking we're heading to the quiet Greenbrier section tomorrow for sure.  But, here we are.

And we're starved to death because it's 4:30 and we only ate once all day, so it's off to Food City. (I'll admit to frying up a black bean quesadilla and gobbling it down while Wayne was setting up.)

I've gotten a heads up from the Brights that they will also be in the area when we are, and if anyone else is passing through feel free to let me know because we are definitely looking for new friends on our travels!  It will be so great to start meeting people who are as interested in getting out there and seeing what the world has to offer as we are.