Joe H.
09-18-2007, 11:28 PM
A week long family reunion gave me the opportunity to revisit these gems. When my wife and I were living and teaching in Greenville, SC, we used to head over this way quite a bit. With all of our past adventures during the off-season, we were not really prepared for what we found this summer, but, as is often the case, just a few hundreds meters off the road usually found some peace and solitude. Two day trips were taken during a week that also featured some fishing, whitewater rafting, and some excellent mountain biking at the Tsali Recreation area outside of Bryson City, NC (Mountain Bikers - you must go here - it is amazing!!!!!!)
Trip One - Chimney Tops - the Cascade of the Smokies - This was a nice trip with my wife, youngest daughter, son in the backpack, and brother-in-law and his kids. A beautiful 2 mile walk through the woods to a knife-edge ridge, and the large narrow rocky block that makes up the summit. The babies in backpacks waited with the other adults while the adventurous ten-year-olds took turns climbimg the third class rock to the summit with me. Very spectacular.
Trip Two - Mt. LeConte - a trip with my oldest daughter. Thanks to the CCC this trail is a well graded smooth 5 mile long path to 6600' Along the way it passes spectacular rock formations, views, and ridges so sharp that one has a hole that passes right through the rock. Very interesting. It leads to the summit of Mt. LeConte - the Skylight of the Smokies. You guessed it - rock cairn on summit - legend has it ....., etc., etc., etc. We carried small rocks up from the stream bed at the bottom to add to the very large pile. LeConte has three summits - the cairn, Myrtle Point, and Clifftops, and we visited each. We had left at 6:45 from the trailhead, and we pretty much had the entire trail to ourselves. We met many headed up on the descent. Back to the cabin by lunch after a stop for ice cream. A morning well spent.
I'll try to load some pictures on here soon.
Trip One - Chimney Tops - the Cascade of the Smokies - This was a nice trip with my wife, youngest daughter, son in the backpack, and brother-in-law and his kids. A beautiful 2 mile walk through the woods to a knife-edge ridge, and the large narrow rocky block that makes up the summit. The babies in backpacks waited with the other adults while the adventurous ten-year-olds took turns climbimg the third class rock to the summit with me. Very spectacular.
Trip Two - Mt. LeConte - a trip with my oldest daughter. Thanks to the CCC this trail is a well graded smooth 5 mile long path to 6600' Along the way it passes spectacular rock formations, views, and ridges so sharp that one has a hole that passes right through the rock. Very interesting. It leads to the summit of Mt. LeConte - the Skylight of the Smokies. You guessed it - rock cairn on summit - legend has it ....., etc., etc., etc. We carried small rocks up from the stream bed at the bottom to add to the very large pile. LeConte has three summits - the cairn, Myrtle Point, and Clifftops, and we visited each. We had left at 6:45 from the trailhead, and we pretty much had the entire trail to ourselves. We met many headed up on the descent. Back to the cabin by lunch after a stop for ice cream. A morning well spent.
I'll try to load some pictures on here soon.