Post 900 Hike #14

Today I would hike with Bob Bolinger and Janetta Baker; to save time I thought that I should drop them off at what I assumed was the trailhead (Noland Divide) and then drive to Mingus Creek and hike up towards them. I arrived at SVC ~30 min. prior to our planned departure; I wanted to examine our respective treks to get a handle on the time requirements of our venture for I had not looked at the map yet for this hike. To my surprise they were both early too; despite Bob’s willingness to drive, because I’d be driving from trailhead to terminus I wanted to drive my CRV; we left SVC at 8:45.

On our way to Newfound Gap I noted that my pulse was only 51; I had never noted it to be below the middle 50’s (low marks when I was a passenger on the way to a hike). Moreover, I had had a cup of coffee at home and also one in Pigeon Forge on the way to the Park—more on my HR-monitor pulse later). About 30 min. later we reached Newfound Gap and then I turned on the road to Clingmans Dome for the Noland Divide trailhead was 2-3 mi. shy of the Dome. Bob immediately told me that I had made a wrong turn; I was a little confused but since I had not recently looked at a map, and because no hiker’s navigation skills would be apt to exceed Bob's--a former pilot, I turned around and we started down the mountain into NC. We went a few miles and realized that we missed the trailhead; I turned around and we spotted the trailhead sign for Thomas Divide ~40 ft. off the road. (At that point in time the sign did not register with me.)

I then drove down the mountain on US 441 to the Mingus Creek trailhead. At 10:00 I started the first segment of Mingus Creek. The trail is quite flat at first; this is followed by some incline and one often walks in what would be creek beds if there were a lot of rain. The last segment includes a bit of “up” with a number of switchbacks. I pushed a bit here and my pulse reached a high of 148; I made the 2.9 mi. in 61 mn.

At this trail junction I took a brief break and had a little electrolyte; I had only sipped water from my bladder—still very cold since I had removed it from the freezer just prior to leaving home. (Believe I looked at my map here and I think that it was at this point that I truly realized that Bob and Janetta were doing Thomas Divide rather than Noland Divide, a 10+ mi. hike versus a 19+ one.) The next segment of Mingus Creek is 3 mi. and about every bit of it is “up”. I motored because I wanted to reach its junction with Newton Bald trailhead before they did; that was not too realistic because they had ~1 mi. less and ~30 mn. head start. At ~2.5 mi. I met Janetta and Bob; we turned around and I motored. After ~1 mi. Janetta realized that she had left her sticks at the Mingus Creek-Newton Bald junction. We turned around and of course had a bit of “up” to do. I decided to make it a good workout day; I went ahead and got my HR to 154; that is not as high as it was as in running my first road race in 6 yrs. last fall but it was high for a hike. Two factors come to mind that could have influenced my HR:
(1) It was a hot day; in Knoxville the heat index was to be ~104. When I was ~4 mi. from home at ~6:00 p.m. I noted that my car thermometer for outside temperature was at 100—that’s the first time I had ever seen it in 3 digits.)
(2) This past Saturday (8/4) I turned 73.

We ate lunch at the resting place of Janetta’s sticks (Newton Bald-Mingus Creek junction). On the return trip I decided to go ahead in order to ice my knee and thus they would neither have to drive for me or wait. I did the 3 mi. trail segment in 45 min.; again, it was an easy “down” and one could really motor. Met an interesting backpacking couple at this point; they were doing the Mountains to the Sea trail, and since their map was not clearly marked, I was able to help them despite the fact that my map had virtually disintegrated due to sweat. I arrived at my vehicle at 14:35; thus I did the return 2.9 mi. in 50 mn.; the lower section of the trail is not conducive to making very good time.

I thought that my pedometer would give me a relatively accurate estimation of my miles. Although mapwise it was only 11.8 trail miles for the roundtrip, my pedometer registered only 11.91 miles and it was actually 0.27 when I started. Nevertheless, with the backtracking, I am certain that I did 13+ miles. A little more than one year ago when I did Ace Gap (5.6 mi.), my pedometer only registered 5.1 mi. upon its completion. Two reasons: (1) when I motor I still stride long on "ups" and (2) on easy trails that are level or a gradual "downs", I really stride out. In the future I should set my pedometer's stride length in concert with the trail.