Tunnel and Forney Ridges, off-trail

 Despite what they say in Townsend, North Carolina is really the quiet side of the Smokies. There are far fewer tourists there, and no need to deal with the horror show of driving through Gatlinburg or the Parkway. Jean and I enjoy the quieter, less crowded trails on the NC side, but it is not always easy to make the longer drive over the mountains. 

When we visit, Bryson City is one of our favorite stops. It’s a pretty little town with a nice hotel and a couple interesting places to eat. With this trip in the era of COVID-19 we weren’t looking to eat out or visit shops, and just appreciated its proximity to the trailheads on the Road to Nowhere and Deep Creek. We planned trail hikes for our inbound and outbound days (Noland Creek in the rain, and the White Oak Loop) and saved our middle day for the real adventure of the trip, an off-trail hike on Tunnel and Forney  ridges.

Clyde and I had recently led a Smoky Mountains Hiking Club trip that included Tunnel Ridge, and Jean’s idea was to also revisit the route of our original 2009 trip with Clyde and Nan on the adjacent Forney Ridge Manway. Since the Tunnel Ridge manway had proved so open on our previous trip, we expected that the travel and navigation for this route would be straightforward. But we had also seen just how much a route could become overgrown on another recent bushwhacking trip up nearby Laurel Branch.

For Tunnel and Forney ridges we had our prior GPS tracks, and the Forney Ridge Manway is well marked on the 1949 park map. We would start on the Lakeshore Trail at the tunnel, follow it to the south end of the Forney Ridge Manway and follow the manway to its end at the intersection with Springhouse Branch Trail. Our return route would descend Forney Ridge, but then diverge onto Tunnel Ridge and follow it over the tunnel to the Tunnel Bypass Trail, and then back to the parking area. The Forney Ridge Manway is an old trail probably built by the CCC. The Tunnel Ridge Manway was also probably built as a trail, but I have not seen it on any park maps.

Tunnel at the end of the Road to Nowhere.

We started at the tunnel on beautiful, clear cold (31F) morning at about 8:15. By this late in the fall all the leaves were off the trees. Regrettably, there’s much new graffiti spray painted inside of and on the face of the tunnel. The barely risen sun shone through almost the entire length of the tunnel and we wondered if there was some sort of Stonehenge effect here. Would the sun shine through the entire length of the tunnel once a year to mark some special day?

Some recent redigging of the trail bed made for nice walking as we headed past the junctions with the Tunnel Bypass and Gold Mine Loop trails to the first small ridge crest on the Lakeshore Trail. Approaching the small ridge, I could not recall if in 2009 we had been able to follow the end of Forney Ridge Manway exactly to the trail junction, or if we had simply picked the easiest way through the open forest to descend. Just before we reached the ridge, we spotted what looked like an old manway and proceeded up it. The tread soon gave out but the forest above us was open and rhodo free, so we decided just to bushwhack to the crest and pick up the manway there. Along the way we paid our dues in a ten minute section of unwelcoming greenbrier entwined with laurel, but otherwise reached the ridge unscathed. On the climb we saw the first of several deer and many of their beds.

Forney Ridge

Deer are relatively rare in the deep forests of the Smokies and we wondered if there was a relation between these browsers and the open woods they live in. Was it the deer who were keeping these magnificent woods so open, or was the lack of underbrush natural, and the deer just take advantage of it?

Forney Ridge.

The junction of Tunnel and Forney ridges can be a tricky spot, but we hit it on target and rejoined the manway again. Besides the open forest, the other remarkable thing about these ridges is how flat they are. The open forest, gentle terrain, abundant sunshine, and leaf-free views accentuate the beauty of these ridges. We followed the ridge to the northeast towards its only steep pitch, near where we’d briefly gotten off route on our club hike coming up from Laurel Branch. Our 2009 notes indicated that the manway would be visible all the way ahead, but that it was easier just to follow the open crest of the ridge.

We hadn’t committed to going beyond a survey point at 3670’ and ended up stopping there for lunch., but could not find the survey marker. Jean asked how much further it might be to the trail and when I told her, I was surprised that she wanted to continue. I guess the temptation of so much open easy ridge was too much to resist. The next knob to the north had a small stone siting on edge at its very top, so we dubbed it Tombstone Peak. The ridge did indeed continue open and sunny all the way to the Springhouse Branch junction which we reached at 11:45. In fact, we overshot the junction and walked a bit of the trail.

Springhouse Branch Junction in 2009

 

Tombstone Rock

The return hike was an easy repeat of the manway this time down to the spilt between Forney and Tunnel Ridges. The Forney Ridge manway may split off the ridge a little north of this spot, but the area is so open that it would matter little to the hiker following along it. While Forney is the dominant ridge, the better manway heads southeast down Tunnel. We descended gradually along the Tunnel Ridge manway eventually reaching a low saddle in the ridge. The manway then passes above the tunnel and encounters a few areas where it is overgrown. But as it makes its way towards the Tunnel Bypass Trail the ridge opens back up again.

We were able to follow the manway past a fallen 4x4 post, all the way to the Tunnel Bypass Trail junction, enjoying  awesome views down into the valleys of Forney and Noland creeks. Then it’s a left turn for a brief hike back to the tunnel trailhead, which we reached about 2:30PM after 8.2 miles. Though we had seen no hikers all day long, the tunnel in the afternoon proved to be a popular spot for visitors looking for a short quiet walk. 

The Tunnel in 2009.

2020 11-12, Cumberlands, NCWMA, Mill Creek and Flower Mountain Run

I got the idea for this run after plotting the results of my  mountain bike ride on the NCWMA “Four Lane” two weeks ago (Here), and from my Brimstone Road mountain bike recon trip in 2014 (Here). Based on what we’d seen on the Four Lane.

it looked like there would be along skinny loop out of Lone Mountain Church at the south end of the Brimstone Road. Both trails 39 (Flower Mountain) and 33 (Mill Creek) show as roads rather than ATV trails, so they should be mountain bikable at best, and runnable at worst. There were three options to connect the two, trail 79 at the shortest and the Gobey Crest Road at the longest. I targeted the middle route, a blue “foot trail” along the 2600’ bench for our route as it would give us a nice long middle third of new trail to explore. My initial estimate for the route length was 13.1 miles.

The drive in the trailhead may have been the toughest part of the trip. Leonard and I met in Oak Ridge, and the drive to the trailhead via Highway 27 took about 1:15.  I didn’t remember that we needed to climb a small hill to reach the Lone Mountain Church, but luckily Leonard had spotted it from the bridge below. We elected to park at the Church, figuring it would not be busy on a weekday.

The start of the trails.

The start of roads 39 and 31 was not marked at the intersection with the Brimstone Road, but we found it by walking just 100 feet or so back down the road from the church. Almost immediately the road forked at signs for TWRA and CNX Gas. We took the left fork to do the loop clockwise and begin along Mill Creek. The day before had seen an inch of rain in Knoxville and there had apparently been much more here. Mill Creek was full, almost bursting its banks.

Wet weather falls on Mill Creek.

The trail took us by some old trailers in a field in the east end of the meadows below the church. As is often the case we found that there were many more intersections with ATV tracks than our maps showed. 

Crossing a side branch of Mill Creek.

There are no gas wells along the first few miles of Trail 31. We saw the Trail 77 junction and worked to keep our feet dry at the crossing of several side creeks that are likely normally dry. The surface here was gently graded well packed gravel that would have made for nice biking. The trail hugged the creek until it approached its headwaters near the junction with Trail 79. As the trail pulled above and east of the main branch, we could see a concrete block building below us along a side trail. But, since we had a long loop ahead of us, on almost completely unexplored trail, we didn’t check out the structure more closely.

Old building along Mill Creek.

Beyond the structure and the Trail 79 junction, Trail 31 climbed steeply as a rocky and eroded ATV route. We began to parallel a utility line and also saw the remains of an old 4” pipeline partly excavated in the road. The pipeline could have been buried in the road from the start, and just not exposed by erosion, but we weren’t sure where the start of the utility line was. Both lines probably once fed the old coal plant that was sited above us on the north side of the east end of Sandy Gap Mountain.

Leonard along Mill Creek.

Near the top of the climb, we made our only navigation error of the day. We spotted the start of foot trail that we thought we be our connector, and did the smart thing by continuing a short distance up the road to the junction with the Four Lane to get our bearings. Then we went back down to our foot trail and followed it a short way before it began to fade away as it approached an old mine site. We quickly realized that this was not our trail, and went back up the junction with the Four Lane and found our trail leading out of the back of a gas well site. More careful reading of the map would have told me that hiking to the Four Lane level was needed here. The confusion added maybe 0.5 to 0.7 mile tour route.

Don't turn here (photo by Leonard).

Our “foot trail” was obviously well used by ATVs, but at least it was open. However, the “trail” followed an old coal mining bench at 2600’, so it was essentially too flat to drain. After our efforts along Mill Creek to keep our feet dry, we were soon plunging through one nasty mud puddle after another. It was a slow slog through a pretty area. At one point I noticed a 6” diameter hole in the middle of the bench, too deep (>3’) for me to reach the bottom with a stick. I wasn’t sure if this was an old blasthole that was just never fired, or if it was an exploration hole drilled to examine the coal seams below.

Following the old coal bench (Photo by Leonard).

The west end of the bench had seen some recent scraping with a bulldozer, as did the first bit of Trail 39 that we turned onto leading up to the junction with the west end of Trail 79 on Fork Ridge. The mile of trail around the east side of High Knob was one of the two sections of trail that I’d done previously, and I didn’t remember this dozer work from my visit earlier in the year. The trail was faint past the last gas well, and I wondered if Trail 39 was really the better used road on the west side of High Knob.

Once around to the north side of High Knob we were on the home stretch. There was some recent intense logging on the west side of Flower Mountain around the head of Indian Creek, near our south end. The split left to Gosnell Mountain was faint, but I think there was no logging north of there. We cruised along another well-kept gravel road, ignoring the splits that led to gas wells or unmapped ATV trails. Here we passed our only person of the day, a lone ATV rider who told us we were on the correct road (!) and that he also had parked at Lone Mountain Church.

Leonard along Trail 39.

The last three miles of the loop were downhill, and the tread mostly good enough to be bikable, so we did our only running of the day here. Back at the church we found that our ATV rider worked for the gas company, so we can hope that some modest maintenance gets done on the existing TWRA roads. 

2020, 11-2 Joyce Kilmer, Slickrock-Hangover Hike

Mark had been talking for a while about wanting to try a hike in Joyce Kilmer and finally we found a good weekday to go. With a lot of recent rain and overnight lows forecasted at freezing, we decided to try a loop from Big Fat Gap with the Slickrock and Hangover Lead South trails, rather than the more ambitious Slickrock Creek hike that Mark had originally proposed.

Big Fat Gap Trailhead.

I’d hiked frequently in the combined wildernesses from 1994 to 2007, mostly on backpacking trips, and many of those with Jean. Jean and I had even completed our “Map” of all the trails in 2005 covering the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Creek Wilderness, mostly in NC’s Nantahala NF, and the Citico Creek Wilderness mostly in TN’s Cherokee National Forest (Link).

But in 2008 the state of Tennessee completed their “Connecting the Cumberlands” project which included the addition of the Emory Tract addition to Frozen Head State Park and the Emory Lease property just to the north of the park. With so much new land to explore closer by and less crowded the Emory Area became our prime target for exploring new areas and visits to Joyce Kilmer became less frequent. This hike would prove to be my first trip to the area in eight years.

We met at 6:30 at Kroger Northshore and were on the trail by 8:15. Mark drove. US 129 (aka the dragon) wasn’t crowded, I took a Dramamine to prevent motion sickness on the curvy road. We saw bear hunter vehicles from Foothills Parkway continuing thru the lower part of the BFG Road. BFG Road is well maintained no potholes or washboards, and would have been easy for 2WD sedan. I used both Garmin and Maprika GPS and my phone camera.

Mark wanted to try descent via Windy Gap, which is also part of the Benton MacKaye Trail. It starts as old logging road to small gap west of Cold Spring Knob. The trail was well maintained and easy to follow. No blazes, but most trail junctions were signed. I forgot to GPS the upper Nichols Cove junction. I  GPS’ed the lower Nichols Cove/Big Fat and Slickrock Creek junctions in campsites at Big Fat Branch. The junction is south of the Big Fat crossing, not north as map shows. The Joyce Kilmer trails are notorious for being hard to follow, so we were taking no chances.

The first part of the hike is easy down to Slickrock Creek is easy, but getting out is a different story. There things turn rough and the place names sound like a bachelor party gone wrong; Slickrock, Ballbuster, Naked Ground, Haoe, and the Hangover.

Mark along Slickrock Creek.

It was easy going to a trail sign near crossing of Hangover Creek. The trail is old railroad bed here. We then got sidetracked by a side spur to a campsite, and walked a small loop, then found a switchback to the left. Next we followed the old RR grade south along Slickrock Creek until we realized that our maps showed this as part of the abandoned Slickrock Spur Trail. We turned back just short of another sharp switchback left on a RR grade and returned to the last sign, not seeing any sign of the main trail. We returned to the sharp switchback and realized that it was indeed the main trail, however its location was mismapped. We spotted a cairn at the elbow of the switchback, which, had we walked just a few feet further the first time, would have clued us in.

The trail then swung around into Hangover Creek. I changed batteries on my Garmin at the base of the ballbuster climb, not remembering that my ancient Garmin generally didn’t acquire satellites the same day after a battery change. I still had Maprika running, so the rest of the route is sketched in on my map.

The crux of the Ballbuster is 1400’ of climbing, alternating between ridiculously steep, eroded pitches alternating with gentle traverses that somehow always seemed to give up some of your recently hard earned elevation. Much of the climb was through thick rhodo. Mark pulled ahead, but I’d had enough Barkley training to make good progress. We ate lunch at Naked Ground enjoying some great views. Then it’s a quick mile past several inviting campsites to the top of the Haoe, where Jenkins Ridge Trail comes in. We saw two hunting dogs just off the trail near Naked Ground, otherwise we saw no signs of hunting during the hike.

Curiously, the Trails Illustrated map omits the crucial short section of trail through Saddle Tree Gap. We took the side trail to the top of the Hangover. Again, what the map shows as a 4-way junction is actually offset, with the Deep Creek Trail ending in a T-junction with the Hangover Spur. With a cold clear day, the views were crystal clear including all the sub peaks of LeConte. Hangover must have one of the best mountain views in the southeast, the entire southwest side of the Smokies is visible.

View from the Hangover.

On our return we noticed that the first mile of Hangover Lead is also mismapped. The trail swings much further west before rejoining the crest of the ridge. Tim Homan’s guidebook mentions that this change was done to improve the route, but the “new” trail is still extremely rough, and has the same super steep-flat traverse pattern of the Ballbuster. Finally, in one last jab at the map makers, there is no sign of the trail 400 that is shown on the TI Map.

There was much more traffic coming back on the Dragon, mostly sports cars, but none of the racing, corner cutting that we used to see.

With the exception of part of the climb up the Ballbuster we didn’t see much of the thick rhodo that plagues the Smokies. It would be fun to do more hiking here, especially on the NC side, and maybe try some off trail hiking. 

Trip Stats: 13.3 miles, 3500’ climb, 7 hours

 

  

2020, 10-25, NCWMA Mountain Bike Ride, The Four Lane

The North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area is a tough place to find your way around. The maps of the area are lousy, there’s almost no signing, and there is a dense, confusing network of ATV roads. This means that hikers generally stick to nearby Frozen Head State Park and that mountain bikers rarely visit the area at all. But the area is still popular with ATV riders who pay a much smaller penalty for getting lost, just some time and a little fuel. No gut busting climbs for them.

A few years back I’d spent some time exploring the area, mostly by mountain bike and occasionally on foot, but it had been several years since I’d done an exploring ride there. One of the few items left on my list was the “Four Lane” aka the Brimstone Haul Road, reputed from information on Tom Dunigan’s East Tennessee Mountain bike website to extend from the Brimstone Recreation Area near Huntsville, TN south into the NCWMA. On a prior ride I’d ridden the first couple miles of the Four Lane on the south end.  I started looking into taking another shot at completing it after reading two articles online in the Oneida Herald written by Ben Garrett. Hypothetically, the Four Lane could give me a long ridgetop ride through the heart of the Cumberlands, without requiring multiple major climbs for just the modest price of a TWRA permit.

My older rides in the Cumberlands had been replaced by some exploring in Windrock, usually with my friend DK who had tons of experience running, riding, and jeeping in that area. We were still doing some modest mountain biking together and thought we might be able to pull off a 28 mile out and back ride to connect the north end of my NCWMA riding to the south end of what I’d ridden on a previous trip to Brimstone. The weekend offered a pre-gun season, rain free forecast, and prime fall colors, so we decided to give the route a shot despite being far from trained up for the adventure.

Key to the plan was using DK’s jeep to climb into the heart of the mountains and deposit us up on the mountain crest.

We started at the coal plant and soon were bouncing up the rutted, rocky road. Not too far in we got a warning light on the jeep, but a quick stop and some easing of the road grade enabled us to continue. Once at the awesome overlook that marks the end of the main climb the driving improved. But the road proved to be much rougher than in past years, and we decided to start riding before reaching our intended launch point, figuring we could go about as fast of the bikes as we were driving.

Overlook

The start of our ride was on road I hadn’t been on recently and proved much rougher than I remembered. But soon we were on familiar ground with enjoyable riding. Most of our riding would be on old gravel roads, dotted with puddles and mudholes on the flats, and loose and rocky on the steeper sections. The roads receive some maintenance, probably to allow access to the gas wells that dot the Cumberlands, but we also saw that much of the Four Lane was also marked as a pipeline route. Though it had been a day and a half since our last rain, the well shaded roads hadn’t dried up at all, and we rode all day with a thin layer of mud covering the hardpack.

It was about four miles of riding to our intended launch spot and by then we were riding smoothly. Much of the way we had the modest curves and rolls that make riding so much fun. We met two guys on a four wheeler, and they confirmed we were on the right road and that there were no major climbs ahead. Next, we came to “the slide” where part of the roadway had washed away and collapsed. The route was still plenty wide for bikes (and ATVs).

Landslide on the Four Lane

Almost the entire Cumberland Mountains have been mined for coal. The existing roads tend to follow the coal seams or have been used to reach the mining sites. The highwall mining used often in the later stages of mining had its advantages though. Many of the roads, including much of the Four Lane, are bordered by high rock walls opened up by the miners. With the regrowth of the forest these areas are now remarkably pretty.

DK at the Slide

We were seeing a few signposts marking our route as trail 1. Though there were numerous side roads splitting off, we only saw a TWRA sign at the intersection with Wolf Pen Trail #22. Maybe this lack of signage was for the better. In contrast to the sign, the online map for the NCWMA shows this as unnamed trail 56 and that Wolf Pen Hollow itself was several drainages away. Next up we made two crossing of a powerline cut that opened up some views for us, including the transmission tower aptly on top of Signal Mountain.

NCWMA Trail Sign

Given our slow time on the drive in and our need to ride 4 extra miles to the start we’d realized right off that we wouldn’t make it to our original intended turnaround. We rode down one more significant hill before stopping for lunch at the intersection with an ATV trail that turned out to be NCWMA #55.

Though we’d lost elevation on the ride out, the ride back went more quickly. Maybe we’d rediscovered some bike handling skills, or were just nervous about having issues with the jeep driving back. DK, though complaining mightily about the hills, attempted to ride all of them and was successful on most. I’d ridden a lot less this year and knew I needed to conserve my energy, so I could rationalize walking my bike up anything long or steep. We’d only seen a couple folks on the ride out, but there was more ATV traffic on our return. Bikes were obviously a novelty, and we got a lot of friendly comments from the other riders.

By after noon the dense clouds in the valley had dissipated and we got better views at the few overlooks. Our pattern was to ride together on the flats, and DK would wait on my at the top of the hills. I was really enjoying the Four Lane, it was exhilarating riding and would also make for great “trail” running.

Muddy Bike

With plenty of time, but not much energy, to spare we made it back to the jeep. Both riders and bikes were coated with thick layers of sloppy mud spun up from the tires. The trip down the mountain proved blessedly uneventful. We talked up a couple of ideas for future rides, always the sign of a successful trip.

 

Links to articles in Oneida Herald:

Destination: The high country

https://www.ihoneida.com/2020/09/29/19th-century-surveyors-used-scott-countys-tallest-mountains-as-their-waypoints/

2020, 10-5, Smokies Run, Clingmans Dome from Elkmont

In Tennessee, early fall is my favorite time for trail running. Summer’s oppressive heat and humidity have finally broken, and the leaves have not yet buried the trails, hiding all the rocks and roots. As a bonus, most of the bugs are gone and the weather tends to be reliably dry. Consequently, there are a lot of races this time of year. My friend Leonard had just finished the 50K Barkley Fall Classic, and was preparing for the No Business 100 miler in two weeks. He’s been preparing with a lot of runs in the Smokies, and invited me to come along on one of his longer ones. 

Leonard has got one of the more interesting resumes in ultrarunning. He started running the Barkley Marathons in the 1990s, but didn’t try a “conventional” ultra until 2000. He’s now run an amazing number of races including 175 that show up on ultrasignup, and has multiple finishes at a number of the 100 mile classics. We’ve been running together for close to 15 years, and he still manages to come up with some new stories every time. He does a lot of his training from the trailheads on the north side of the Smokies that lead up to the Appalachian Trail. 

Leonard at Clingmans Dome.

The route from Elkmont to Clingmans Dome follows the Little River, Goshen Prong, and Appalachian trails for 13.7 miles from the trailhead to the summit observation tower. It is one long continuous 4,500’ climb all on trails. We had done this same run last year, but slightly later in the fall. The combination of more downed leaves and a balky hip flexor on my right side made this a ten hour trip in 2019, but after successful BFC’s we both expected we could do better this year. 

According to Schmidt and Hooks in “Whistle over the Mountain,” the Little River and Fish Camp Prong drainages were logged by the Little River Lumber Company between the early 1910s and early 1920s. The current trails follow these old railroad grades from Elkmont to about the 4,200’ level along Goshen Prong. The 1931 Park map, shows no routes up Goshen Prong, so it is probable that the trail from Campsite 23 at Fish Camp Prong to the AT was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. 

We started our trip at 745 in the light from the Elkmont Trailhead at 47F and overcast. Despite the gentle grades we hiked all of the climbing sections, trying to mirror the same balance of walking and running he would get in the race. Some leaves in the understory had started to turn color, but most of the canopy was still the deep green of summer. On our previous run the trails had been simply a tunnel of gold with the leaves and sunshine. The Little River and Goshen Prong trails are two of my favorites as they offer so many views of the magnificent streams that they follow. It was still chilly when we turned off Little River Trail to follow Fish Camp Prong. In 2019 this trail was getting a bit overgrown with dog hobble. There had been much recent work this year on cutting open the trail. Kudos to whomever performed this work. 

We passed two parties of backpackers heading out from Campsite 23 before the trail turned south to follow Goshen Prong, near the end of the old logging grade. After about another mile and a half the trail finally begins to climb away from the Prong. I had finally warmed up enough to take off my medium weight shirt. Despite the remoteness of this section of trail it is still well maintained. The grade increases some approaching the AT, but never gets too steep. I had noted a good water source at the very head of Goshen Prong about 5 minutes below the AT and used it to refill my bottle both times we passed. 

Once on the AT we started passing other hikes again. The climbing still wasn’t over though, we still had another 900’ to gain before reaching the tower on Clingmans. The morning clouds had burned off and we now had a clear blue sky to enjoy the limitless views off the stateline crest. It took 5 hours even to reach the top. The tower itself was a zoo. There were enough people that it was hard to find a spot along the rail to enjoy the views. We took a few pictures before ditching the crowds and heading down. 

Leonard and I on Clingmans Dome.

I was lucky to not have any knee issues on the long descent. We walked the rocky AT section and I filled up with water again just after leaving the AT. We set a good pace down Goshen Prong Trail, but still mostly hiking. The 7.7 miles of Goshen Prong seemed to take a long time, but we were still moving well and enjoying a perfect weather day. Finally, the bridge over the Little River appeared. I finally took off my other long sleeved shirt and ran the last few miles back in about 45 minutes, for a total time of 9:36. I got back to the car with no knee, foot, or hip issues flaring up, just the tiredness that’s unavoidable for an ultra-length training day.

View east toward Mt LeConte.

Yellowstone & Tetons 2020

 Yellowstone and the Tetons are two of our favorite places. After a visit to the Dakotas last year, we decided to head again to the mountains, and Yellowstone was an easy choice. We planned early, getting reservations at the Old Faithful Inn nearly a year in advance, applied for a backpacking permit at Heart Lake as soon as the permit window opened, and got our airline reservations six months early. Our plan was to split our time evenly between the two parks and take at least one backpacking trip in each.

Then things changed. For quite a while, due to travel restrictions designed to slow the spread of coronavirus, we were not sure the trip would happen at all. We grew more confident in late spring when domestic travel began to open up some. Our reservation at Old Faithful Inn was then cancelled as Xanterra did not expect to be able to open the Inn for the summer, but we were able to get replacement rooms at Lake Cottages where we already had reservations for later in the trip. Our airline schedule also changed, turning two easy half-day flights into 17-hour cross country marathons. Near the end things brightened some, we got our preferred backpacking trip to Heart Lake, and when some rooms at the Inn were opened, and we were able to switch our reservation back from Lake to Old Faithful.

7-30-20, Taggart Lake, Tetons, 4.0 mi., and visit to VictorAfter flying United from Knoxville to Houston to LA to Jackson the previous night we were hell bent to get in some hiking the next day. Taggart Lake is one of the few short easy hikes in the Tetons, and the views of the southern end of the range are spectacular. The short side of the CCW loop was crowded, but the far side allowed a little privacy. After the hike, we drove back to Jackson to get our supplies for the trip and then headed over to Victor, ID to see our Barkley friend Dusty and Jake where we went berry picking and then were treated to a wonderful dinner. Then it was back to the Golden Eagle in Jackson.

 Approaching Taggert Lake

7-31-20, Jenny Lake, Tetons, 9.2 mi.

Jenny Lake is perhaps the most popular hike in the Tetons with hikers and casual walkers both attracted by the convenient boat shuttle across the Lake and easy access to Inspiration Point and Hidden Falls. Jean and I were expecting some congestion on the route, but were not prepared for the huge crowds we saw. We had gotten up early to stand in line for our walk-up backpacking permit for the next day, and started from the Jenny Lake TH barely early enough to get a spot in the parking lot. We thought we’d lost much of the crowd after passing the boat dock, but found it was hard to find any solitude along the southwest shore. Approaching the shuttle drop off we talked to another couple who told us that adding Inspiration Point and Hidden Falls to our loop was worth the effort, so we extended our loop and added some climbing. Yes, the scenery there was great, but the crowds were thick, pandemic or not.

The North Face of the Grand Teton, from Jenny lake Trail

We managed to find an otherwise unsigned horse trail to avoid the West Shore Boat dock and had a quieter walk for the rest of the loop with still awesome views of the central Tetons. A ranger along the horse trail educated us on the inedible twin berries that were so prominent along the trail. The walk around the east shore of the lake was longer that we’d expected (I’d estimated the loop at 6 miles vs the actual 7.7 miles), but the views of the high country remained fantastic.

8-1&2-2020, Bear Paw Lake Backpack Trip, Tetons, 7.1 mi. in and 4.5 mi. out

Jean and I had stayed at the Bearpaw B campsite in 2017 and we were hoping to get the same site again this year. “B” is only available for walk up permits, so we had waited in line the previous day hoping to be early enough to get it. We ended up with Bearpaw “C” on the opposite side of the lake. With the short walk in, Jean suggested that we walk in via the north shore of String Lake to give ourselves a little variety. Despite the drop dead beauty of the trails along String and Leigh lakes the story of the day belongs to the three bears.

View from Leigh Lake campsite

Other hikers had warned us about Bear #1 on the String Lake Trail. Sure enough a furry black head poked out into the trail and a large black bear wandered a bit down the trail before turning off. No problem here, a bear doing bear things. We had no warning on Bear #2 when a furry brown head poked out onto the trail near the Leigh Lake campsites. This one gave us the shivers, out came the bear spray, and slowly backward we walked. It was soon obvious the bear was so focused on ripe berries that it wasn’t interested in us. Our bear “pause” became extended when the bear wouldn’t leave the trail. Finally, it disappeared into the bushes, and another couple came walking through its space from the other direction to clear the way.

 Black bear near String Lake

Bear #3 appeared not long after we arrived at our campsite on the west side of Bearpaw Lake. We were camped in the trees above a small stream when we heard some thrashing in the thick brush around the stream. Shortly we could some movement and then Bear #3 popped out and asked, “Is there a trail up there, I am so lost.” Luckily for both groups this was a skier who had left at 4AM, climbed high on Mt Moran, skied down the Skillet Glacier, gotten off track on the descent, and had to bushwhack between Jackson and Bearpaw lakes. The bushwhack had been thick and was complicated by the skis, boots, and ice ax attached to his pack. Jean fed him some cookies and we got him headed home.

Try Bushwhacking with that pack

Bearpaw C was in a decent spot, but the tent site was small, and it lacked the vistas of Bearpaw “B” or the Trapper site. There was another couple at the adjacent A site, but they were so quiet we never heard them. A uniformed volunteer came by our site in the evening. She said in 20 years she’d never seen a grizz in the area and, to our relief, that our Bear #2 was likely a brown colored black bear; AKA a cinnamon bear.

The hike out the next day was less eventful, but featured another encounter with Bear #2, this one ending when the bruin decided to hit the lake for a short swim. At the String Lake junction, I walked a short distance up an unmaintained trail toward campsites 13 and 15, just long enough to determine that those might be viable campsites for us on another visit. We then drove up to Yellowstone and hiked the first mile of the Howard Eaton Trail leading north from Lake while waiting to check into our Lake Cottage.

 

Bear #2 Swimming in Leigh Lake

8-3-2020, Mary Mountain Trail in Hayden Valley, Yellowstone, 7.6 mi.

The Hayden Valley is one of Yellowstone’s premier wildlife viewing areas. The area came so highly recommended by our friend Clyde that we made it our first priority for day hiking on this trip. Even the drive over was spectacular as we stopped to take pictures  of one elk herd and two large bison herds. We still got an early start, but not nearly as early as the party we soon met on their way out. They had started near dawn and were rewarded for the efforts by the sighting of an early morning grizz.

 

 Bison and elk grazing in Hayden Valley

We saw mostly lone male bison, a few geese, and the geothermal areas at Sulfur Mountain and Alum Creek. The views up the valley of Alum Creek were spectacular, this is part of the wild heart of Yellowstone.

Bison grazing along Alum Creek

On the way back to Lake Cottage we stopped at Mud Volcano to hike the short interpretive loop. After getting back to Lake I also hiked the 3.6 mile Elephant Back Mountain Trail in back of Lake while Jean was packing up.

8-4/6-2020, Heart Lake Backpack Trip, Yellowstone, 8.0 mi. in and out, and 7.5 mi. RT for Mt. Sheridan, 10,313’

Heart Lake was a repeat of our 2017 three day trip. We’d reserved two nights at campsite 8H6 and planned to climb Mt. Sheridan on our middle day. It is 8 miles into Heart Lake, a long way for us now, even on a smooth, gentle, and relatively flat trail. We sped through the monotonous first five miles without the persistent mosquito harassment we’d endured in 2017. Overall, we were just a bit later in the season than on previous trips, but conditions were much drier and bugs never a major issue.

We took a long break at the overlook that marks the edge of the forest and then cruised through the geyser basins down to the lake. It was warm enough to take a brief swim in the shallow lake water, then we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beach and nearby wildlife. Rustic Geyser was erupting modestly in back of us at 20 minute intervals.

Alpenglow on Mount Sheridan

We launched our climb of Sheridan the next morning to superb alpenglow on Sheridan and a carpet of fog on the lake. The 3,000’ climb is long and steep, but the trail is well graded and maintained has prolific wildflowers on the lower slopes and a few snow fields near the top. The views from the summit extend from the heart of the Tetons, north across Yellowstone to the Beartooths and Absorakas, and include all the other large lakes in the park. Strangely, this is the best place to observe the Rustic Geyser field, the straight down viewpoint is the best place to appreciate colorful Columbia Pool.

Heart Lake from the top of Mount Sheridan

 

Rustic Geyser and Columbia Pool from Mount Sheridan

After the climb I took the short walk through the woods back to Rustic Geyser for some close up viewing and a chance to video one of the short eruptions. The hike out the next day was more manageable with our more lightly loaded packs. We stopped at Kepler Cascades on the way to Old Faithful where we were able to check into our room early and get cleaned up. We’d found the grab and go burgers at the Lake Lodge Cafeteria pretty spartan, but the noodle bowls we got from Old Faithful Lodge Cafeteria were good and hearty. We rebounded enough to wander out for a 9:15 eruption of Grand Geyser, which didn’t disappoint.

An eruption of Rustic Geyser

 Grand Geyser

8-7-2020, Fairy Falls and Imperial Geyser, Yellowstone, 8.2 mi.

We’d hiked to Fairy Falls in 2008, but it was a tip from a hiker at Heart Lake about Imperial Geyser that led us to return. We parked at the Fairy Falls Trailhead and hiked a CW loop to the falls and geyser with a return on the Fountain Freight Road. Not on our map was a new side loop to an overlook above Grand Prismatic Spring. The subject of spectacular air photos, the spring’s concentric colors are notoriously hard to view from ground level. The overlook helps some, but we still found the spring obscured by steam from the spring’s pool.

 Fairy Falls

Fairy Falls is 197’ tall, enough to make it a major waterfall, even in Yellowstone. It pours off the front of a monstrous lava flow into a small pool. Luckily for us most hikers turned around there rather than proceeding on to Imperial. We passed burbling Spray Geyser on the way before reaching an unoccupied viewing area. Imperial now erupts almost continually throwing a small tower of water in the air. We stayed for a while, eyeing the unmapped trail in back of the geyser. While the trail soon ends at two small ponds, it does provide a great view of Imperial and its nearby pool.

Imperial Geyser from above

For the rest of the walk we circled the Lower Geyser Basin returning by Goose Pond, and gradually rejoining the teeming hordes. We were back to the Inn by early afternoon and decided to reprise our strategy of yesterday by taking a long rest break over dinner, and then heading back out to observe an eruption of nearby Castle Geyser. On previous trips we’d dedicated a day to geyser basins, tromping from one steaming geyser to another. With a home base at the Inn we now could use the NPS geyser predictions to set our schedule and just wander out on cue to the eruptions of the predictable geysers. This allowed us to better appreciate the differences between the various geyser, to see their entire eruption cycles, and to photograph them in the evening light.

Castle Geyser

8-8-20, Lone Star Geyser, Yellowstone, 8.5 mi.

We decided to do our hiking for this day without using the car. We walked the Howard Eaton Trail over to Lone Star Geyser, a slightly longer route than the usual trail, but one that started just north of the Inn. Lone Star has a lengthy eruption that starts reliably every three hours, the catch being that since it is in the backcountry the only record of eruption times is in a logbook kept at the geyser site. The hike there is easy, but not very scenic since the forest was heavily burned in the 1988 fires.

We arrived at the geyser after 9AM, just ahead of a family that came in via the Lone Star Trail. Shortly after, a group of backpackers and another family arrived, none of us sure where the geyser might be in its cycle. The logbook noted a major eruption the prior night around 6PM. Much to our relief with10 minutes of our arrival the eruption started. The eruption lasted nearly 30 minutes, with water jets close to 40’ tall, a long noisy steam phase, and at one point a double rainbow. What luck to arrive just in time!

 

Lone Star Geyser with a double rainbow

On the return we detoured to scout campsites OA1 and OA2, both of which were very appealing. Back at Old Faithful Inn we made afternoon and evening trips to both Riverside and Grand Geysers, arriving just a bit too early for an eruption of Castle.

 

Morning Glory Pool and Riverside Geyser

8-9-2020, DeLacey Creek, Yellowstone, 7.5 mi.

Delacey Creek leads down to the north shore of Shoshone Lake, the largest backcountry lake in the US. We’d backpacked to the east and west shores of the lake on prior trips and wanted to check out the short way in that was so nicely described in all our guidebooks. This quiet, easy trail lived up to its reputation with a lovely mix of open forest and flowery meadows. We lounged a bit at the beach then decided to explore over to campsite 8S2, just a half mile away. We discovered that the bridge over Delacey Creek on the mapped trail was missing, and that the current route hugged the shore of the lake. Two Wyoming ladies at 8S2 interrupted their lounging to give us a rundown of the nearby campsites in preparation for our next visit.

Delacey Creek Trail

Back at the Inn, I walked the not very worthwhile Fern Falls Loop , and then we made a final tour of the Upper Geyser Basin featuring a short eruption of Daisy Geyser, the last of the basin’s predictable geysers. For the second time we used our camp stove to cook dinner in the nearby picnic area, and then headed out for a finale of predicted 8PM eruptions of Castle, Daisy, and Grand, with an opener of Old Faithful at 7:30. Heading out we saw Old Faithful erupt, then Castle not long after. We joined a larger crowd for the Grand eruption, distracted momentarily by a colorful sunset. By dawdling on the way back we saw our final Old Faithful eruption.

Daisy Geyser

8-10-2020, Two Oceans Loop, Tetons, 6.4 miles

For our return to the Tetons we decided to try for a lesser used trail and the Two Oceans Loop seemed to fit the bill. There were only two other cars at the small TH when we arrived, and we had the first half of the CCW loop to ourselves. That north side was fantastic alternating between open forest with some huge aspen and monster spruce and lush meadows, and featuring perhaps the best views yet we’d had of Mount Moran and Skillet Glacier. The heavily forest south side though was a disappointment, only two small meadows and little views of the nearby lake. To our surprise the TH was packed when we returned including two horse trailers and an RV.

 

Tetons from Two Ocean Lake

8-11-20, Phelps Lake Loop, Tetons, 6.3 miles

For our last hike of the trip we chose the loop around Phelps Lake. Another early start netted us a prized parking spot and once again we had the start of the CCW loop to ourselves. Our mornings had been growing chillier throughout the trip, but this was the first time I wore any fleece while hiking. Jean scouted the campsites and confirmed that #3 was still the most desirable. The beach at the northwest end of the lake may be the finest in the Tetons, lots of fine white sand and a warm shallow bottom. Things were quiet enough that we had Huckleberry Point to ourselves for some afternoon ray bagging. We made it back to the car early enough so that there was some time for bonus hiking, so I added and extra three mile repeat on the Woodland-Lake Creek Loop before it was time to head back to the Golden Eagle to get packed up.

Morning Light in the Tetons

The next day we flew home on United through Denver and Dulles with no issues other than a one hour rain delay on the runway at Dulles.