Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Brushy Mountain Trail

Another beautiful day was forecast for today. I woke up early again and made the drive over to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Today I headed over to the Greenbrier section of the park for a hike up the Brushy Mountain Trail to, no surprise, Brushy Mountain.

I was on the trail at around 8:30. The trail was deserted. It was just me and the changing leaves. There was some fog in certain areas that the sun was trying to burn off. I started off hiking the closed gravel road that serves as the Porters Creek Trail. Porters Creek was lovely just like I remembered it from my last visit, clear and cascading over the abundant rocks in its bed.

I passed a large wasp nest just off to the side of the trail.

Luckily they were not active on this cool morning. There were lots of signs of the community that once existed in the area, lots of stone walls.

Soon enough I reached the turnaround loop on the gravel road. Here I found the Brushy Mountain Trail which I would follow for the next 4.7 miles up and then 4.7 miles back down.

The sun began to really burn through the fog at this point revealing the blue sky which contrasted dramatically with the reds, yellows, and oranges of the leaves.

At a little cascading creek that looked like a possible site for a natural water slide

(it was too cold to test it out) I stopped to check my map

and eat a snack. When I was finished eating I continued on with a steady ascent

eventually reaching the Trillium Gap Trail.

At the junction with the Trillium Gap Trail,

the Brushy Mountain Trail gets pretty interesting. The foot path becomes a deeply rutted track lined with mountain laurel and rhododendron.

As you ascend the vegetation gets a bit brushier (maybe this is why its called Brushy Mountain) and the views open up. There were impressive views over to Mount LeConte

and the mountains to the east. I had arrived just as the last of the fog was burning off.

I found a spot near the summit benchmark

to eat lunch and admire the views before turning around to head back to the car.

The hike down the mountain went faster than the climb up. I saw a few red squirrels in the trees on the way down and they both scolded me with their chattering.

I only ran into two other hikers on the trail. One was a volunteer out to remove some of the blowdowns blacking the trail. The other was an older gentleman who seemed to be enjoying the fine weather and fall colors.

Sierra must be influencing me a bit, because when I had descended to Porters Creek

I took off my shoes and dipped my piggies in the water.

It was very cold, but refreshing. After resting my feet for a bit I got out of the water

and headed back to the car for the drive home.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Mt Sterling/Pretty Hollow Gap/ Little Cataloochee/ Long Bunk Loop

With beautiful weather forecast for today, I just had to get out for a hike. I decided to head over to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to enjoy the weather and fall foliage. Since I did not want to go anywhere near Gatlinburg, I decided to do a loop hike starting at Mt Sterling Gap. The drive was long, but uneventful and before I knew it I was at the trailhead to start my hike.

The hike started with an ascent on an old road. The fall colors in the morning light were quite spectacular.

After about an hour on the trail I had made my way up Mount Sterling. I climbed the old fire tower and admired the wonderful views.

The sky was absolutely cloudless and there was no humidity making for the beautiful bluebird skies that one sees in the western US.

The views in all directions were just spectacular.

I spend about 10 minutes admiring the view and then headed down the tower and back down the Mt Sterling Ridge Trail to continue on the loop of my hike. At the junction with the Pretty hollow Gap Trail

I turned left and descended,

eventually walking along Pretty Hollow Creek.

Eventually my descent ended and I turned onto the Little Cataloochee Trail.

I was really looking forward to this portion of the hike as I had read about some of the old buildings that have been preserved in the Little Cataloochee Valley. I soon found an obviously maintained side trail that led up and up. It eventually ended at a cemetery. There was only one marked grave in the cemetery. It was that of a 2 year old boy named Charlie Burress.

After pausing for a minute I returned to the main trail to continue my hike into Little Cataloochee.

The first evidence of past habitation that I found was a large flat area that was obviously an old home site. There was one of the old hog traps

set up on the flat area and nearby were a few moldering logs left from a log structure.

I continued on through beautiful colors

to the Cook Cabin

where I met and talked to a man from Charleston, SC. There was a brilliant orange butterfly fluttering about in the grass outside the cabin. I was able to get close enough to it to get a nice photo.

The butterfly then took off flying and landed right on my arm.

I admired the close view of the butterfly for a few minutes before it flew away again, this time for good. Nearby to the Cook Cabin is the old Cook apple house.

The Cooks acquired quite a bit of wealth growing and selling apples.

From the Cook place I followed the trail (really a road at this point) up to the Little Cataloochee Baptist Church.

It is a pretty little church. I went inside to have a look around

and even rang the church bell a few times. I then went back outside to inspect the cemetery a little bit. From the cemetery I got back on the trail and headed across Little Cataloochee Creek

over to the Hannah Cabin

which looked to be smaller than the Cook Cabin and was certainly less interesting. Shortly after leaving the Hannah Cabin I found my self at the junction with the Long Bunk Trail which I had hiked to from Old NC Highway 284 two weeks ago.

I h turned onto the Long Bunk Trail and began an ascent to the Hannah Cemetery.

I did not stop long at the cemetery as I was starting to get tired. Instead I kept moving, albeit slowly, up the trail. The Long Bunk Trail portion of today's hike turned out to be the least interesting part of the hike. I did find a tree marked with a faint white blaze with a trail nearby that led to what I am guessing is an old cemetery with unmarked graves as it was a flat area cleared of woody vegetation. There was one stone set in the ground that appeared to be a grave marker,

but nothing else. When I finally arrived back at the junction with the Mt Sterling Trail, it was a quick walk back to the car fro the drive back to Greeneville.                         

Photo of the Day: Greeneville in the Fall

Pisgah National Forest: Graveyard Fields Loop

Sierra was in the backpack and we were on the trail hiking along when out of nowhere Sierra said "This is a happy day!" Was she ever right on the mark with that statement. She's a smart girl!

The day started in Greeneville looking gray with the threat of rain. We decided to go to Asheville anyway. I loaded up our recyclables, we packed Sierra's backpack and diaper bag and hit the road. The ride was uneventful and by the time we had crossed into North Carolina the sky was blue. The best part of all was the fact that Sierra did not get car sick! We dropped off our recyclables and then headed into downtown Asheville to eat lunch at Wicked Weed. We arrived before the noon opening and checked out some of the pumpkins outside

before heading in for a delicious lunch and really good ales.

After lunch we headed over to the Blue Ridge Parkway for our longer-than-expected drive to Graveyard Fields. The colors around 3,500-4,000 feet were peak. Lower there were still a lot of green leaves and at 5,000 to 6,000 feet there were lots of bare trees. I think that windy storm about a week ago prematurely blew a lot of the foliage down. When we arrived at the Graveyard Fields parking lot we found it packed. We parked at a legal spot along the side of the road and then hit the trail.

Although the color was past peak, the weather was excellent. It was the type of weather that you wait for all year long. Not too hot and no humidity.

We hiked through a tunnel of rhododendron,

crossed Yellowstone Prong on a bridge,

and headed over to the Second or Lower Falls

first which was a short downhill walk (with lots of stairs)

from the parking area. There were lots of other people out enjoying the fine weather and fall scenery.
We did not spend too much time at the falls before we turned around

and headed over to the Graveyard Fields Loop.

The loop started off with some really nice scenery. It would have been especially nice had we caught the foliage in peak color. There were great views of Graveyard Ridge and the surrounding mountains. We then hiked along on a boardwalk

before heading back into the woods.

We left the loop and hiked a spur to the Upper Falls. At the Upper Falls (or at least the bottom part of the Upper Falls)

Sierra insisted on dipping her piggies in the water. I did not want to let her do it at first, but I eventually gave in as I realized it was not too cold and this would likely be her last chance to dip her toes in the water in a while.

After toe dipping, Sierra ate a snack

before we put her back in the backpack for the hike back to the car. We crossed over Yellowstone Prong one more time

and were treated to some wonderful views of the mountains from the parking lot.

We headed back to Greeneville via I-40 and US-321, essentially making our drive one big loop.