Abrams Creek Hike

This hike stared at the Abrams Creek parking area.  It was warm, maybe in the mid 80s and a little humid.  It had rained the day before.  There were several cars in the parking area, and a couple eating lunch on the picnic tables.  The gate to the camp site was closed and locked since the camping area is closed due to the Sequester.  As I started my hike up Cane Creek Trail, I passed one person on the gravel road between the gate and the camping area.  Other than that one older man, I didn't see anyone the rest of the hike.  I did see this odd looking fungus growing on a log at the bend in the gravel road.

I did note a lot of footprints in some of the fresh mud that seemed to be heading in the same direction I was going, east on the trail.  The trail generally follows the creek heading NE, but turns away from it after about 1/2 mile.  It is a wide trail that is well maintained and is graveled , wide enough for a truck or jeep to drive up and I noted that someone had driven up the trail recently.  After about a mile I turned off of Cane Creek Trail to Little Bottoms Trail.  At this point I was heading due East, I waded a small creek and followed the trail through a Rhododendron thicket. It smelled good.  Nice and fresh.  It also looked like the Rhododendrons were about to bloom.  After I passed out of the ticket, I started up the ridge.  The ridge is steep and the trail switches back and forth a couple of times.  From the trail, you can see down into camp site 1.  There wasn't anyone camping there.  About mid way up I saw this little guy (Ring Neck Snake - http://www.tnwatchablewildlife.org/) sitting the middle of the trail.  I took his picture a couple of times and shooed him into the woods some some crazy hiker wouldn't stomp on him or smash him with a stick.

The trail up the ridge is pretty steep, you can see the Look Rock Tower through the trees on your left as you climb, and as you crest the ridge it opens up into a nice sitting area with a couple of logs where you can see the trail going down in both directions and you can hear Abrams Creek in the distance.  One thing that I noticed was there was A LOT of poison Ivy, and it was everywhere!  All the rain has created a great growing environment for it.  From the sitting area I made my way down the trail toward the river.  Some of the wild flowers were blooming along the trail.  I thought this one was colorful.  I have no idea what it is called.

I got down to the creek, it should be called Abrams River,  and saw it was running high.  I fished a little without much luck.  I stuck to fishing from the bank.  The rocks in that river are so slick and due to the geology most of them are flat and angled one way or another.  That combination of high water and slick rocks doesn't make for a good wading experience.  I hiked and along the river up to camp site 17.  Along the way I saw lots of lizards, butterflies, and this great big Hellgrammite.  I have never seen one that big before! 

I also saw a lot of brush piles that were several feet above the trail.  The water looks to have been several feet over the level of the trail during some of the big rain events that we had.

When I got to camp site 17 I and turned around and hiked out.  I figured I would be out just before dark and I made it.  On my dive out I stopped at the corner of Happy Valley Road and Abrams Creek Road and took this picture looking across Happy Valley towards the Foothills Parkway.

On my way out I took Happy Valley Road over the ridge line and got these pictures about 2/3rd of the way up the ridge.  This is looking SE across Chilhowee Lake into the Citico area.            

These are looking NE into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

  

Bee/Wasp Nest

This is a huge paper bee or wasp nest that we saw on a short hike that we took.  It was hanging from a vine.

Arches - Pickett State Park & Big South Fork

Pickett State Park - http://tn.gov/environment/parks/Pickett/

Arch/Natural Bridge on the Natural Bridge Trail:

Arch/Natural Bridge on the Natural Bridge Trail.  It looked a lot like a cave from the entrance:

Here is the back side of the Arch/Natural Bridge above:

Rock formation at the back of one of the Arches/Natural Bridges

Related Areas:

Big South Fork - http://www.nps.gov/biso/index.htm

Ouch!

Fishing can be dangerous!!!  I was fishing the North River and slipped while I was trying to land a nice Brown.  It doesn't look that bad, but I had to close that thing up with some super glue.

I need to post a picture of the scar.

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Fishing in Citio Creek, TN

I fished Citico Creek in October of 2011.  This is a section of the main Citico stream along the road that I fished that day.  I had great success fishing these chutes.  Most of them are pretty deep and they seem to hold some pretty nice fish.  There was one large Trout that I hooked a couple of times, but I just couldn't land him.  He would hit the fly, spit it out, then go back to his holding place.  He started ignoring my fly after he hit it the second time.
 

From there I drove on up the road and parked in the camping area at the end of Citico Road.  From there I hiked in and started fishing just past where the North Fork and the South Fork come together to form Citico Creek and fished my way up the stream to around the first big stream crossing.  I didn't go past there.  The water was high, it was cold, and I didn't want to get wet.  Below is a video of a typical section of stream.

The stream is mostly pocket water with lots of plunge pools.  There are also a lot of huge boulders, overhanging branches, logs, stumps, leaves, etc... to fish around.  I got hung up more than once, but I could usually get to it and retrieve my flies.  Most of the time the stream is about 10 - 12ft wide, but at some points it becomes very narrow flowing through chutes between boulders or against the walls of the valley.  The rocks were also pretty slick where ever they were wet. 

This is a video of a rainbow that I pick up out of a pool.  It is pretty typical of the Trout that I caught that day.  He was holding at the far end of the pool where it tails out into the stream and he smashed my fly when he hit it and then ran to the deep part of the pool.  It took me a few minutes to land him.  I had to be careful to not break my tippet.  He was one of the better fighting fish that I caught that day.

Overall, the fishing wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.  I think it was because the water was a little high due to some rain the day before.  There was some color in the water at times, an I guess there was plenty of food being washed through the stream.  I did catch enough fish, all rainbows, to want to go back to the South Fork of the Citico again.  I used mostly top water flies, but I did have some success with nymphs at times.

 I camped that night on the North Fork.  What happened that night is a story for another day.

The next day I moved back down to the camp site at the end of Citico Creek and met up with some friends.  We set up a camp there and gathered a lot of firewood.  They put up their huge tent and blew up their air mattresses.  After that, we did a little fishing around the camping area, without much success, and afterwards I did a little cooking in the Dutch Oven.  I made a nice beef stew that fed the three of us very well that night.

The hole for the Dutch Oven

 

Beef Stew in the Dutch Oven

We spent the evening sitting around the camp fire, talking, and enjoying nature.  I slept next to the fire on my sleeping mat, in my sleeping bag, and used my tarp as a ground cloth and bivy to provide an additional layer of insulation.  It was fantastic.  Even though it was pretty cold, I would say it was in the teens, I was toasty warm in my bag.
 
The next morning we got up, made breakfast, packed our gear, and moved on down the mountain to home.

Hikers hogtie man who attempted to take them hostage

Interesting article on a "Druggie/Drunk" taking 4 people hostage at a popular and remote parking area in his search for drugs.
 
Police: Hikers hogtie man who attempted to take them hostage

This is also a good reminder to stay aware and know how to defend yourself no matter where you are.

FYI - There are no "Game Wardens" in TN.  We have TWRA Officers and they have easily recognizable uniforms and carry badges.  They are also very nice folks.  Everyone of them that I have had the opportunity to talk to have been very professional, helpful, etc....  Here are a couple of pictures of their uniforms:

• TWRA Uniforms 1
• TWRA Uniforms 2

Lost in the Smoky Mountains

This is why I always carry a pack with additional clothing (including wool), fire making materials/stove/lighter, food, some shelter making material (small tarp), etc... even for a short day hike.  You never know.  Tragic!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/14/air-force-veteran-and-his-2-sons-die-while-hiking-missouri-trail/  

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1/3/2013 - Still no sign of Derek Lueking

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Missing Teens Found

Getting lost, even on the trails, is easy.

• http://www.digtriad.com/news/article/248114/57/Missing-14-YO-Teens-Found-Safe-In-Smokies-?odyssey=tab|topnews|bc|large

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10/2/2012 - Kind of a late update but:

It looks like they found Michael Giovanni

• http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/aug/21/remains-found-in-smokies-may-be-man-missing/
• http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/09/remains-found-great-smoky-mountains-national-park-belonged-missing-tennessee-man10496

Still no sign of Derek Lueking

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They still haven't found any evidence of the 2 lost hikers (Derek Lueking, Michael Giovanni Cocchini) that went missing in the GSMNP in separate incidents in March.

• Derek Lueking - http://www.wate.com/story/17205861/search-continues-for-missing-hiker-in-great-smoky-mountain-national-park
• Michael Giovanni Cocchini - http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/mar/21/second-man-missing-in-smokies-vehicle-found-near/

 
This is a pretty good article on the search - http://www.smokymountainnews.com/component/k2/item/6619-anatomy-of-a-smokies-search

The CAP even assisted in the search - http://www.tfponline.com/news/2012/mar/23/civil-air-patrol-uses-night-search-missing-hiker/?print

There are three other unsolved missing person cases in the GSMNP.

• Six-year-old Dennis Martin- Knoxville, TN.  He disappeared while playing at his family’s campsite in 1969.  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jun/28/missing-dennis-martin/

• 16-year-old Trenny Lynn Gibson - Knoxville, TN - Last seen on a school field trip near the parking area of Clingmans Dome with her friends in October of 1976.
• https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/4524
• http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/feb/22/lost-smokies-mystery-surrounds-disappearances-over/

• 58 year old Thelma Pauline Melton - Jacksonville, FL - Disappeared from the Deep Creek hiking trail in 1981.
• http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/feb/22/lost-smokies-mystery-surrounds-disappearances-over/

Folks don't seem to understand how rough the country is or how easy it is to get lost out there and how hard it is to move through the underbrush.  Took this guy 6 - 7 hours to move 1/2 mile - http://www.tuckreader.com/in-lost-hikers-story-a-cautionary-tale/

Some of the things that I have read in other places say that the prevailing thought is that Trenny and Thelma either left the Park on their "own" or were "taken" out of the Park by someone, but that Dennis Martin is still in the park.

Here is a good book on the subject.  It was written by one of the Rangers involved in searching for Dennis Martin and others - http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Rangers-Journal-Search-Rescue/dp/0964173417

Fishing Alone!

This weekend I got the opportunity to fish in the GSMNP and actually didn't run into any other fishermen.  I didn't even see anyone fishing on my drive along the lower parts of the river (West Prong).  It could have been the weather.  It was cloudy and cold with a mix of rain and snow, mostly rain, turning to all snow as it got later in the day.  Accumulations were supposed to range from a dusting to 4-6 inches above 2500 feet.  I didn't see any snow stick while I was out there.

The creek looked good. There was just a bit of color and it was a little high, but the banks showed where it at been much higher recently.  I took a little time to sit along the bank, drink some coffee from my green thermos, and look at the scenery. 

I saw some vibrant greens and reds in the moss and berries. 

I thought this tree was very interesting looking with all the fungus on it.

Folks might not have been out there due to the time that I went.  I headed up there late on Sunday and fished until about dark.

I only caught a couple of trout, but the solitude was priceless.  I appreciate all the folks that stayed at home today!

Thanks!