Old Backpacking Memories

 Everything about the scene brings back multiple memories. The young men on either side of me are 4 or 5 years older than me, more experienced at backpacking and most everything else, too. The location is Carver's Gap, just below Roan Mountain on the Appalachian Trail, my most frequented section of trail overall. Yeah, I lost count somewhere above 25 times I had been on part or all of this 13.5-mile section that includes the Yellow Mtn Gap of Overmountain Men Revolutionary War fame, Grassy and Jane Balds, Hump Mtn (5587' with 360-degree unobstructed views), Bradley Gap and spring for excellent tent camping, and Yellow Mtn Gap Shelter (i.e. barn). The gap now has a wooden split rail fence, paved parking lot across the road that is crowded on weekends, and a graveled and graded switched back trail up through the woods to the top of Grassy Bald unlike the straight up eroded one you see here. And look at that sign. They don't make them of that quality now. This was nearly the beginning of my association with my backpacking partner on the right of the picture. Looking hardly old enough to be more than halfway through high school, I am excited and full of vigor and green as all get out. I have the same pack as my partner. I sport my new Bass double insulated hiking boots all shiny with Snow Seal wax. I wear my Fostline gaiters for mud that I sewed myself on my mother's machine. We all make the mistake of wearing cotton pants, their jeans and my gray corduroys folding awkwardly on my bowed legs, that block no wind and retain all moisture. I have my recently purchased, used purple plaid, heavy wool shirt that I still have to this day. Growing up in Knoxville, I have a Volunteer Orange and White cap that probably poorly kept my head warm. The leather gloves would have been worse for a soul whose hands just don't circulate blood well. I remedied that soon with wool liners and cotton lined, leather mitts. The picture doesn't well reveal it, but I have a beard of sorts, really a goatee and thin mustache because I could grow no more. My classmates in high school thought of me as confident but I well hid my deep feelings of inadequacy and bouts with depression. I loved everything outdoors and challenging to the body. My wife who was about 6 years future of this picture once said that God made me poor to keep me out of trouble. I probably would have gotten involved in some pretty wild outdoor pursuits given the money. I settled for a pack, a steep grade, hill and draw, woods and fields, trees and flowers, creeks and peaks, cold and heat, sun and rain and snow, minimal food and hard sleeping, quiet company or walking alone, and I called it fun and a hobby. The scene is probably late winter with patches of snow and dead grass tops. Wind sculpted Red Spruce and Balsam Fir outline the ridge with naked deciduous brush all down the flanks. The wilderness in general has a melancholy feel, all the more in the winter. The temperature and wind chill are only ameliorated by the bright sunshine. It feels like a good day for a hike!

God has been good to me to allow me to start early and continue hiking these nearly 50 years. I still go at it hard and may get to go overnight again one day soon.

6001' Shining Rock

The Parkway was closed, so we came back down slope to Shining Creek to start our nine mile hike up to Shining Rock. The weather was cool and damp, but no rain to start off.

I told my daughter that this trail was old-fashioned, no switchbacks, just attack the mountain side head on. The peak is called Old Butt Knob.

You know, of course, that there is a difference in level and flat. A vertical wall can be flat, but it is certainly not level. This difference can sometimes cause you to see a flat but steep slope as level. The trees probably give it away and my daughters seeming lean forward might if she was close enough to see well. This slope is quite steep and quite flat. Much of this trail was steep and rough, sometimes with step-ups as high as your hips.

While resting along this upslope, I spied a curious root on a rhododendron that seemed to be squeezing out the base of the bush. It also was decorated with a rattlesnake plantain brooch.

There was quite a bit of the greenery covering the forest floor largely hidden by the season's leaf fall.

Seriously, the trail was steep.

There are many benefits to hiking in the winter. One is the views even on forested slopes. The dendritic drainage patterns of these folded mountains remind us of extreme upheaval and wear down, in a word, the Flood.

A small rock outcropping here and there opens up the surrounding landscape to view. The hand on the sapling is not just a pose, it's a safety factor atop a small cliff.

So much to see. I would guess we were coming up the south slope from the abundance of pine trees that tolerate the baking sun of summer drought.

Were you planted in a crack in the rock? Show your stuff anyway. It will shine all the more in the midst of the stony surroundings.

Now we are looking down on the ridges and the trees and bushes are looking more high elevation.

This sapling appears to have been abused by antlers. I guess he was marking his territory.

'At over 5000' now, Spruce trees begin to appear with Galax patches.

Bearly missed the owner of this fur I'd say. (1)

At around 5500' the snow went from widely scattered patches to nearly continuous in the less than fully sunlit places.

This is not ground cedar but it does grow in vines along the ground. Is it ground fir?

Nearing the top! There are no sharp peaks up here. It feels like it was once a large, gently sloped field.

Shining Rock is a curious outcropping of quartzite. The outcropping is perhaps several acres in extent and juts up 25 feet on one side, but I see no evidence of this rock type beyond a few boulders that have rolled off of the cliffs. I wonder if it shone in the sunlight in years past after the top had been logged. It is surrounded by trees and bushes and mostly covered with lichen, not really all that shining now.

And on this particular day there was variable fog and drizzle with some occasional light rain.

There is a certain quiet, solitude, and peacefulness coupled with melancholy to foggy forest and brushland.

Add a stiff little breeze with damp air and lack of sunshine and you want to keep moving.

My son-in-law surveys the high country.

Seed spikes of the ground evergreen vine

Our hike to Shining Rock and back would be nine miles, but we had gained the ridge which was significantly level. So, I convinced my daughter to hike out an extra 1.5 miles (3 miles roundtrip) to bag another peak. It was actually somewhat difficult to discern the peak since the ground sloped so little. Between the GPS and a small boulder we found, we feel confident that we found the top.

I didn't even notice how red the branches of these leaf naked bushes were when I was there.

On the return trip I stopped to record the cliff side of the Shining Rock.

It is unique and seemingly unparalleled on this ridge.

By the time we reached the car, it was nearing dark on this winter day. 12 miles and weary, we shed our wet boots and coats for the warmth of my car. Conversation, shared experience, the subtle beauty we observed, and making another step toward the goal were reason enough to challenge our bodies. God has so blessed us to be able to do such things.

1. Just goes to show you how useless grammar check is when you really need it.

M and B Falls

 The contrasts between this time at Margarette and Bailey Falls and the previous excursion were many. First of all, the temperature was in the twenties when we arrived with considerable cold drainage coming down the gorge, as opposed to 40's to 60's the other time. We hiked quite quickly up the trail both to keep warm and because we could.

Instead of family members ranging from 6 to 74 and many in number, there were just us three. This bridge is where the draw becomes a gorge with broken cliffs rising higher and higher as the draw becomes narrower.

There were no leaves on the trees this time.

There was significantly more water.

That increased flow rendered the falls more awesome and with the temperatures the boulders were icy. I slipped and stripped off a sizeable piece of flesh from my shin. At that temperature I barely felt it, but it made up for it later. Oh well, the falls was certainly beautiful.

The young ones are quite the hikers. I especially had trouble keeping up with my partner's younger brother.

The bushwacking up to Bailey Falls was more challenging with higher water. We even placed rocks here and there for crossing. Some of our launch pads were moss, water, and ice covered and slanted poorly for a safe, dry return. This figured into our later plans. The walls on either side of the approach are not more than 25 feet but the narrow notch is picturesque and intriguing.

The increased flow and sun rays through the mist were much more beautiful than I was able to capture.

It fascinates me to be able to straddle the top of a waterfall, even if it is only about twelve feet tall.

It was at this point where the two hikes diverged more extremely. I suggested that the odds of crossing the creek the numerous times needed for the return trip, where treacherous launches would be worse landings, was fraught with injury and cold wet potential and that we should go along the side of the ridge past the cliffs and then descend back down to the creek. Here is a view the cliffs we were enable to get past, and the valley beyond.

Between the brambles, rhododendron and laurel thickets and cliffs scattered all along the ridge slope, we decided to go cross over the top of the ridge and try the far slope. Here is a picture from the top of the ridge toward a higher, snowy ridge to the east.

Next, we went steeply down slope, though without cliffs. The heavy leaf litter obscured rocks and roots. I use a step resembling slalom skiing where you turn your boots perpendicular to the slope then reverse a few steps and hops later. When we had almost reached the other creek bottom, we came across an old roadbed with occasional rock walls to form the roadbed.

The reason bushwacking always gets a description but very few if any pictures is because it is hard to do justice to what it is like in a picture. The force and tightness of branches and brambles against your clothing and skin feels much tighter than what the picture suggests. And what can you really see anyway?

At last, we saw the new creek bed after an estimated 600 feet vertical traverse of a ridge of thickets.

It was much faster going down this draw, mostly along the roadbed, though fallen trees and briars blocked this path to a lesser degree. We subsequently came, as did the tributary we followed, back into the main creek and trail. My partner said that his GPS said we hiked 4 1/2 miles, but it felt like 9. His brother enjoyed the adventure but reflected that coastal Washington has thicker undergrowth, seeing as it is rainforest and all. We were just thankful for the opportunity to explore without serious injury. I do so love being out in the woods. God's Creation must have been ravishing before the Fall, and forest without thorns would have been good, too.

Active Thankfulness

My sister-in-law said it is her favorite holiday because the world has done little to add to or subtract from it. Of course, a large portion of the culture does not know to Whom to give thanks, but it is less fraught with secularism than most all other holidays. Traditions can be a deterrent to worship and thanksgiving to God, but they do not have to be. Our family's thanksgiving celebration is strong on tradition and may need some tweaking, but by in large I think it is filled with feasting of food and fellowship and fresh air mindful of God's good gifts. We are certainly blessed with grandchildren. Between my oldest brother and me, we have 27 grandchildren and two on the way. For this reason, larger vans are becoming the vehicle of choice in the family. Here my oldest son and his wife arrive along with their oldest daughter.

And here is their youngest doing what he does best.

Their second oldest and his older brother are really enamored with baseball at present. We tossed ball and did batting practice. They couldn't persuade enough cousins to play a game.

It is so good to see cousins having fun together. The one in white is so good with the younger cousins and loves to play with them.

The cousins range from 27 down to less than a year. Here two brothers and their uncle hang out. I have a few less than flattering pictures of a few people but I think they all have better pictures at other places. How else would you react when interrupted from a concentrated texting?

If you don't know these people, then my relationship references will make little sense. In the last picture, I am the uncle of the texter and great uncle of the two young men. The texting nephew's daughter was facetiming her oldest brother in Vermont.

I have Turkey and bread and I am happy.

Some of my grandchildren move too fast to get a sharp picture, but you can definitely see that he is happy and cute.

My daughter has never really been happy on the light collecting end of a camera lens, but she was there and happy in the occasion.

Some people seem to purposely sabotage their own image as my nephew has done in this picture with his wife.

Cool as a cucumber.

Sister-in-laws and daughter-in-laws are common in this family for which we are thankful.

My oldest brother is this patriarch of the family. We have been meeting at his house for Thanksgiving for over 40 years, I believe.

This picture tells you much of what you should know about my sister-in-law. She loves nothing better than telling or hearing a story and grandbabies.

When I asked my oldest granddaughter what she liked about Thanksgiving, she said, "Cousins." Here they are being quite crafty under the watchful eye of my older brother.

More crafty moments

Another perspective on the story

I don't think that this great niece doesn't smile very often.

The better view of my nephew

We had children as young as 4 years old and others as old as 75, and yet, everyone walked the whole way on this 3-mile hike. This is my oldest son's contingent.

If you count you will see that there are 23 people in the picture, but there were 24 on the hike. This was supposed to be a 10-second delay shot so that I could get into place. Evidently, it didn't work. I was not even caught on the way there.

All that this tells you about our hike is the trail we were on for part of the hike. My brother veered us off onto an unmarked trail for the return trip.

We came upon one patch of ground covered in mosses and ground cedars.

The woods were very pleasant, having very little underbrush in most places and the trail was never steep. 80+ years of no logging has produced mature forests. This wind protected draw had a preponderance of Yellow Poplar (Tulip Tree, if you prefer).

The leaf litter is thick this year but still the forest floor has its greenery in ferns and other herbaceous plants.

I have never seen Little Brown Jug (also called Arrowleaf Ginger) blooming in late November. Do you see the bloom at the stem base of the leaf?

Rattlesnake Plantain

Galax

Maidenhair Fern

Black Locust logs don't easily rot. This Yellow Poplar fork has held this Black Locust trunk for perhaps several decades based on the growth around it.

My grandson and I pose beside what may be the largest live Black Locust tree I have ever seen. Since they are so shade intolerant, they do not usually last so long in a mature forest.

Have we two species of shelf fungus here or an earlier manifestation of the same mycelium turning dark?

I thought that I knew what kind of leaf this is until I got home and couldn't find it under that name I presumed. Then I thought otherwise but the leaf edge is entire (smooth, not serrated). I'm going to have to think on this one.

So many things to learn!

"Come up here and sit with the cool guys", said one of the great nephews. Was I to be honored or chagrined? It made for a great photo op with my granddaughter.

He certainly is enjoying himself.

My wife asked me why I would take a picture of bear skat. Well, it had persimmon seeds in it and I used it as a teaching opportunity for the young ones.

Lunch break log

I wish that I had added something for scale. I think these must be Pileated Woodpecker holes on this large Yellow Poplar.

Catawba Rhododendron

Bigleaf Rhododendron

????

At one point we came across half a dozen quartzite boulders somewhat bigger than softballs. Do you see the golden spot on this one? The picture is not quite so clear as I would like it to be, but this is a spider egg sac.

You would think that we just sat around rather than hiked, but of course people are easier to capture when still.

I tell you, she likes the little cousins.

Time to start off again.

There were alternating gray and yellowish-brown patches up the bark of this small tree- interesting.

Puffballs! My grandson was beating them with a stick to watch the green powder emerge. I requested that he leave a few unbattered so that I could take a picture. He complied with a smile.

It was another memorable Thanksgiving with family strengthening relationships and traditions that we hope might extend in some form to the next generations. God has given us so much good to enjoy and utilize for His glory. May we always be thankful to the One to whom praise and thanks is due.