High Ridges Loop - Great Smoky Mountains National Park - August 26 - 29, 2003

More delays on the next project means more time to piddle around in the backcountry.  I was excited about this trip for no other reason than I haven't hiked any of the trails in the northeastern part of the Park before.  I named this one "High Ridges Loop" due to the 14 miles of relatively-level high elevation walking between the Mt Sterling Ridge Trail, the Balsam Mountain Trail, and the AT from Tricorner Knob to Inadu Knob.

Day 1 - Started at Cosby Campground, took the Low Gap Trail over the main ridgeline down into Walnut Bottoms along Big Creek, then Swallow Fork Trail to Pretty Hollow Gap.  From there I hiked the Mount Sterling Ridge Trail to the Laurel Gap Shelter.  Distance of 14 miles with 4500 feet in elevation gain.  It was not exceptionally hot that day, but it was very humid.  I was literally soaked with sweat halfway through the day, and at Pretty Hollow Gap removed my clothing to wring it out.  Needless to say I was pretty well spent by the time I rolled into Laurel Gap around 19:15 hours.  Laurel Gap (5600 ft.) is a beautiful spot in a grassy gap.  I had the shelter to myself that night, with the exception of two bats that decided to fly around inside the shelter at about 02:30.  Saw two bears this day, the only actual sightings of the trip.  There were signs of considerable bear activity on all trails however.  It was obvious that their current diet consists primarily of berries and sometimes a squirrel or two.

Day 2 - Hiked out of Laurel Gap along the Balsam Mountain Trail.  It was an easy high ridge stroll from Laurel Gap over to Tricorner Knob along elevations between 5600 and 6100 feet.  Rolled into Tricorner Knob Shelter rather early, and was joined later that day by a rather interesting group of folks.  The first was a 67 year old gentleman named Dave from Brevard, NC.  He is a 900 miler (hiked all the trails in the Park, at least once), and had also achieved the distinction of topping 40 peaks over 6000 feet in the Southern Appalachians.  His friend Tom rolled in later that evening, having traveled about 22 miles from Mt. Collins that day.  By the way, Tom is 71.  I'm not so proud of my 14 mile day at this point.  A gentleman from Elkhart, IN, a couple from Wilmington, NC, and a 40-something couple from Massachusetts who were through-hiking the AT rounded out the guests at Tricorner that night.  All shared interesting tales and the evening conversation was quite enjoyable.

Day 3 and 4 - The rest of the trip was a bit uneventful, due mainly to my extremely leisurely agenda for the remainder of the trip.  Night 3 was spent at Cosby Knob, then out on the Low Gap trail back to Cosby Campground.  My future goal is to be able to keep up with the 71 year old.  I am at least hoping to make my seemingly monumental 14 mile day a minimum day's distance in the future.

The highlight of these last two days was the hike on the AT from Tricorner to the Snake Den Ridge trail intersection.  Right out of Tricorner I passed just below the Summit of Mt. Guyot (pronounced GEE-yo, not goo-YOT or GI-yo or JEE-yo), the second highest peak in the Smokies.  After Guyot was Old Black, then Deer Gap and the site of an F4 crash many years ago.  There is still considerable wreckage from that and many other plane crashes scattered over the mountains.  The hiking on this section of the AT is ridge hiking at it's finest, much of it level trail.

	Springhouse in Walnut Bottoms. Walnut Bottoms was well populated in pre-Park days.	Big Creek
	Pretty Hollow Gap	Sign of the times	Laurel Gap Shelter
		Mt. Guyot in the background	Late summer heat along with heavy rains has created considerable grown-up conditions where there is no forest canopy.	Another sign of the times. The Balsam Wooly Adelgid (non-native parasitic beetle) and air pollution(?) have contributed to the loss of Fraser Firs and Red Spruce in the high country. Hemlocks are also suffering considerable damage in certain areas from the Adelgid as well.
	Deer Gap			Mt. Guyot and Old Black
F4 wreckage		AT and Snake Den Ridge junction at Inadu Knob	This one's for Karsten