Andesite Peak (Nevada County, California)

I had to travel to Reno yesterday for work and since I'm going to be here, I decided to arrange my schedule to allow me to enjoy a few extra days with friends and seeking adventure. This morning, I'll combine the two. Joining my long-time friend, Nick, we head across the border into California with Andesite Peak in our sites. I've hiked many other trails and peaks in and around this mountain, but never summited the peak itself. Today, we'll be attempting to do just that. It's late in the year and there is snow on some of the taller mountains, but hopefully, that won't be a problem.

Parking my rental at the end of the pavement on Castle Peak Road on other side of Interstate 80 from Boreal Ski Resort and then finding a 'facili-tree' to relieve myself before the hike, we prepare to start the hike. I'm taken by the fresh air and smell of pine up here on Donner Pass. I really miss this environment. I like hike in my new home near Atlanta, but it's just not the same. 

We make quick work of the dirt road and soon take a left turn onto the single track to begin heading up to the peak. Passing through the forest, we spot a few piles of black bear scat on the trail, but they appear to be a day or two old. The lazy creatures they are, bears will almost always follow human trails as they are the path of least resistance through the forest. We do pass a couple of patches of shallow snow, but there isn't much here. In the distance, we get a few great views of the nearby Castle Peak and the valleys to the north and south.

Following the switchbacks, we are soon above the tree line. The trail here becomes loose scree and the travel becomes much more precarious. There are a couple of sketchy areas, but eventually, we reach the summit. Andesite Peak rises 8,219 feet above sea level and offers some magnificent views of the Sierra Nevada Range, which surrounds us. The views really are breathtaking and I catch myself thinking about how much I truly miss living near this area. The mountains of Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina just aren't the same.

After spending a few minutes on the summit, we carefully make our way back down the way we came and returning to the car. We hiked about 5.1 miles today and it was a really nice hike. It was also nice to be able to hike with my friend, who I normally only see a couple of times a year. Hopefully, I'll be able to get more trails in during my visit.

Pine Mountain via Cooper's Furnace (Bartow County, Georgia)

Today, I'm returning to a great hike I've done a couple of times just northwest of Atlanta, and dragging a few members of the Meetup along for the ride. Pine Mountain, not to be confused with the long ridge of the same name in west-central Georgia, rises above Lake Allatoona near Cartersville, GA. I had read a few weeks ago, that much of the brush had been cleared off of the summit providing a much better view of the surrounding area. It seemed like a great way to spend a Saturday morning. 

Meeting the folks that had signed up for the hike near the historical Coopers Furnace, we did a quick round of introductions and then hit the trail. It starts near the giant iron furnace built in the 1830's and later abandoned after the nearby town was mostly destroyed by General Sherman's troops during the march on Atlanta. 

The first part of the trail is a gravel road leading into the woods and travels due north, but soon the trail crosses over a tiny creek and begins a mild ascent. After about a mile-and-a-half, the trail takes a sharp left and heads west up the eastern slope of the mountain. The trail is well maintained and most of us in the group are pushing a pretty fast pace. The trail will include a figure eight with stretched mid-section and so, we pass the forks that we will later revisit. 

Reaching the spur trail to the summit, we take the short offshoot and head uphill. Once we get to the top, we are rewarded with a magnificent view of all of the lake, with Kennesaw Mountain and downtown Atlanta in the distance. We agree to take a few minutes for a snack and to take pictures. However, some agitated, winged, stinging friends take some offense to our presence. There appears to be yellow-jacket nest nearby and they are on high alert against invaders. Though no one gets stung, we make a tactical retreat down the mountain towards safety.

Next we begin hiking down the norther side of the western figure eight loop, which requires just a little bit of rock scrambling. We encounter a number of other hikers on this side of the mountain. Most of them have probably parked at the western trailhead and will complete a shorter route than what our plan calls for. We make quick work of this second loop and then continue on the southern section of the eastern loop, finally returning to the parking area near Coopers Furnace. 

The rest of the hike was uneventful, but very enjoyable. The weather has been fantastic all morning and everyone seems to really enjoy the hike, though a couple of people were struggling to catch their breath on the uphills. Our total distance was just over 7.5 miles. After saying our goodbyes, we get into our respective cars and go our separate ways.

Fort Loudoun (Monroe County, Tennessee)

Beyond my love of the great outdoors and sense of adventure, I also consider myself a bit of a history buff and when offered the opportunity to visit notable historic sites, I always take advantage. While leaving the Knoxville, Tennessee area, one such site was only a short detour away and I had to go. Fort Loudoun was a wooden fortification built by the British between 1756 and 1757 to help garner support from the Cherokee at the outset of the French and Indian War. This definitely seems like some place I want to check out. Though the original fort was likely destroyed over time, it was recreated from the original plans in the 1930's.

A state historic site complete with visitors center/museum has been built nearby to preserve and educate on the historic fort. After passing briefly through the museum, I make way out to the fort, which sits on a small peninsula (itself on a small island) jutting out into the Little Tennessee River. The fort is of wooden construction and consists of a palisade surrounding somewhat complicated diamond configuration. As I read the information placards, I learn that it was also originally surrounded by a dry mote and row of thorn bushes. Built on a hillside, the palisade follows the contour of the land to fortify the structures within. At each of the four points of the diamond a platform has been built inside to host several small canons, which are shown here as replicas. I can imagine this would have been a fairly difficult fortification to attack with all of these defenses.

Inside the stake walls, a number of structures served as home to the residents. These include a series of barracks, a storehouse, powder magazine, and blacksmith shop. It's open and roomy in here and the flag of the thirteen colonies flies overhead. I can imagine being a British soldier back in that time and being stationed here at the furthest reaches of the known world. It must have been exhilarating. 

My tour of the facility now complete, I wander slowly back to my car still lost in my thoughts of what it must have been like back then. Back to reality though, I have a long drive home and I need to get started on that.

Meigs Falls (Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee)

 

After leaving the nearby Tuckaleechee Caverns, I decided to drive the short distance into Great Smokey Mountains National Park to visit a small waterfall visible from the road. Meigs Falls is not all that impressive, but is easily visible from a small pull off along the winding Little River Gorge Road. As I pull my car over, I see there are a number of people here taking in the view of the small waterfall. In the near distance, I spot a stream of water plummeting perhaps twenty feet over the left side of a rock cliff. The view is surrounded by fall colors, which definitely adds to the charm. However, I imagine this would be much more scenic after heavy rains when the waterfall is coming over the entire rock cliff, instead of just one side. Either way, it was only a short detour and worth a stop.

Tuckaleechee Caverns (Blount County, Tennessee)

Yesterday morning, I drove up to Knoxville to attend a Craft Beer Festival, but while I'm in the area, I wanted to hit a few stops. After a somewhat rocky night, I got ready and left the hotel headed for Tuckaleechee Caverns near Townsend Tennessee. This is a privately managed cave system like many others and draws a lot of tourists from the nearby Great Smokey Mountains National Park, though it is technically not within the park.

Arriving just as the facility opened for business, I checked in and paid the tour fee and just started looking around while waiting for the tour to start at 10:15 am. A number of others arrived afterwards and by the time of the tour, we had a group of about twenty people ready to descend into the earth. Our guide lead us down a hall way and then a winding ramp into the original sinkhole that revealed the cave to a group of children in the early twentieth century. It had been known to the local Cherokee, but apparently not widely used for an purpose. 

Here the tour guide offers a little history and a little geology, as well as setting expectations for the tour. He explains that there are some 410 total steps to climb up and down over the course of about a mile-and-a-half and that the full tour will take about 90 minutes. Everyone nods their agreement and we descend down a set of manmade steps into the depths. 

The area of the cave the tour travels through is mostly well lit with stairs, paved walkways, and hand rails. Like most caves, it's cool and humid. The first section seems to be little more than caved in earth, probably from the sinkhole. Soon though, we enter an area much more 'cavelike', complete with stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, and a running stream below us. Though much like the many other limestone cave systems I've visited in the the past, it's still quite beautiful.

We walk a short ways before the guide stops us and begins providing some basic cave education, and explaining in basic geologic terms how some of the features have formed over the eons. There are some really nice columns here and a very large flowstone that is considered (dead), as there is no longer water running over it causing the mineral deposit to grow any further. 

The stream below our feet ebbs and flows, runs in and out of the rock and continues through the cave at a pretty good pace in areas. Eventually, we reach the Big Room, which is said to be the size of a football stadium, though it's difficult to discern as depth perception in caves, which generally lack flat surfaces, is challenging. We reach an area in this room with some benches affixed to the stone walls and our guide askes us to take a seat. He proceeds to demonstrate true darkness by shutting the lights off. He also briefly convinces some of the younger participants that they can create "friction light", but rubbing their hands to together very fast. It makes for a good laugh, when he tells them the truth. 

Turning the lights back on, he points out a couple of large stalagmites far in the distance, including one called the "Dinosaur's Toothpick". This is a unique one in my experience in that it is so slender. It's impossible to tell it's height from so far away, but informs us that it is over twenty feet tall. 

Leaving the big room, we return the way we came and then passing back by the staircase we first descended to get here, pass by it an continue in the other direction along a paved path, which runs beside the stream in a zigzag pattern. There are a few areas to watch one's head, but the path is relatively easy to traverse. At one point we stop and our guide tells of the chemical composition of the water and how clean it is thanks to the limestone filtration. He invites us to reach down, grab a handful, and drink it. I and a couple of others do so. It's not as cold as I would have expected; cool, but not cold.

As we continue on, the sound of slapping water begins to fill the cave and our guide informs us that we are approaching the waterfall. Finally getting there, we are treated to a magnificent feature. A narrows stream of water is falling over a steep cliff in the ceiling to slap against a large mineral deposit and fan out around a moderately sized room and then falling into what may be the origin of at least this part of the stream. Looking up towards the source as it runs over the cliff, I can see another waterfall coming over another cliff much higher up. It must go on and on like this, but beyond this second waterfall, is darkness and the unknown. This is a really spectacular site and I'm glad to be able to see it.

After our visit to the waterfall, we return to the entrance and climb back up the stairs, returning to the visitors center. This really was a nice tour and a very interesting cave system. The waterfall at the end was the highlight and I would recommend a visit for anyone in the general area.

Elkmont and Daisytown Ghost Towns (Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee)

It's about 5pm and with the sun setting behind the mountainside above me, I'm debating on sleeping in my car, rather than putting my tent up at the campsite I reserved. I brought a tent, but I also prepared to sleep in the car due to the high potential for rain overnight. Not that I mind camping in the rain, but as I want to get an early start tomorrow, I thought it might be just as well to save myself from having to break camp. After all, I bought this Subaru Outback because I could fully stretch out in it when I put the seats down. I decide sleep in the car. 

Since I don't have a lot of time, I quickly walk through the campground and across the main road to hike the short Elkmont Nature Trail. I had seen images of old houses and from the research I did, it seems they may be in this area. The hike is very short and does a loop around small stream, but offers no sight of any structures. I did see a couple of large turkeys though grazing in the area between the campground and the road. 

Debating on what to do next, I head to the other side of the river across a sturdy bridge and discover another parking area and trailhead here. Walking up the trail a short distance, I see some kind of stone ruins, but more like an entry gate to an estate than anything else. I'm not convinced that is the right way either. Doubling back, I head up the paved road and wander into the restored homes of the 1930's resort community of Daisy Town. This was a destination that brought the attention of the affluent crowd to the park. I'm unsure of when it was abandoned, but the National Park service has done a marvelous job of restoring the houses on at least one street of that community. I wander about a bit, but don't delay too long as it's getting dark. 

As I start to make my way back to camp, I catch site of what appears to be an old chimney up another hill and climb up to check it out. Once atop the hill, I can see that there are actually the ruins of at least 4-5 houses up here. These appear to be older than those at Daisytown, which just a bit more than a hundred yards away. I'm unsure of whether this was part of the town or perhaps part of the older town of Elkmont. After exploring just a bit more, I head back to camp to make some dinner. 

It did end up raining through the night and it continued well after I awoke. Not having to pack up the tent and other gear made hitting the road much faster. Though I had wanted to do another hike today, I decided against it with the rain seemingly all that was on the agenda for the day. When I eventually got home, I did a little further research about Elkmont and Daisytown, but still came to no firm conclusions. I'm convinced there is more to Elkmont than what I found, but it's exact location remains something of a mystery to me.

Cades Cove (Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee)

Before heading to the campground, I decided to do the scenic 11-mile loop around Cades Cove, which is one of the most visited parts of Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Though, I've been to the park a few times over the years, I've never been to this section and thought this trip would be a good opportunity.

The entrance was a little confusing and I had to turn around a couple of times, but eventually found the correct way and joined dozens of other cars exploring the area. Cades Cove opens up beautifully this time of year. This secluded valley on the southwestern side of the park and was home to several settlers before the park was established. Many of their homesteads have been preserved and are one of the draws to this part of the park.

As I make way down the one-lane road, following numerous other cars, we are gifted with sites of the valley, which remains grasslands (after being cleared by the settlers nearly two centuries ago after the Cherokee were forced to surrender their claims) surrounded by low rolling mountains currently lush with the colors of fall. Movement is very slow, as the cars ahead of me stop often to look at . . . well, I'm not exactly sure what they are looking at in most cases. 

Making a sharp 90-degree turn, cars get backed up a long way and I see two people a few cars ahead of me get out and begin taking pictures of something, but it's not until they have moved on that I can see what they are looking at. A large black bear, fat and ready for winter, had just crossed the gravel road and was lumbering through the field on the right. I didn't stop, but I did slow down to get a picture through my passenger window of this big guy. Unfortunately, there was a barbed wire fence somewhat obstructing the shot, but it still turned out pretty good. 

Continuing further, I park at near the Cades Cove grist mill and walk around to visit the preserved buildings in this area, which includes a home and several other farm buildings. They are all well preserved and this appears to be a very popular part of the area, as there are dozens and dozens of cars parked here and people walking around taking it all in.

Soon and after having seen most of the structures, I head back to the car and start heading out of the area. There are couple of more old homesteads along the way, but for the most part I'm just anxious to get to my campsite as darkness is approaching and I have another hike to do from camp. Overall, this was a pretty scenic drive into yesteryear. I only wish visitors would do as the signage asks and pull over instead of stopping traffic constantly.