Post 900 hike #23: Lower Mt. Cammerer, AT, & Low Gap

I drove to Cecil Rowe’s home and we left there at 07:25. (In addition to hiking with Cecil many times, he was on both my first hike and on the hike in which I qualified for the 900 Mile club. Although he has hiked quite a bit since completing all of the trails, after reaching age 75 he decided to hike all of the trails once again.) Taking a back route from Sevierville, we arrived at the Cosby Campground at 08:50; no one else was there so the two of us constituted our Wednesday group’s long hikers.

Lower Mt Cammerer has a gradual climb but basically a very easy trail; by noon we had covered 7.4 mi. and reached its junction with the AT. Should mention a short sojourn on Sutton Ridge Overlook Spur Trail; although this spur is not a part of the 900-Miles of trails, we had the time and although Cecil had done it previously, I wanted to do it now. Our first section of the AT is basically up (i.e., 1500 ft. gain in 2.3 mi.) Shortly after starting it at 12:00, I decided to get an aerobic workout and went ahead; I reached the AT’s junction with the Mt. Cammerer Trail at 12:59 (got my HR up to 151—very good workout). At this point I put on my Goretex jacket; the wind was quite strong.

After a bite to eat we traversed the 0.6 mi. to Mt. Cammerer Lookout. On my previous hike here I just walked around its balcony for I assumed the door was locked; on this trip Cecil opened the door and somewhat to my surprise there was even a log book for visitors to sign. To our surprise there was an apparent signature of a Derek Jeter from New York; the context of the note he left led us to believe that there was a remote possibity it could very well be the New York Yankee. We then exited the room and circled the balcony and took a few pictures. At 14:15 we climbed down the rock (upon which the Lookout sits) and then down the trail and arrived at the AT at 14:23.




Except its first part, this 2.1 mi. section of the AT descends. Did not record the time that we came to the AT’s junction with Low Gap Trail; ironically last week I hiked up Low Gap and today I was hiking down its 2.5 mi. length to the Cosby Campground. After ~0.5 mi. walk through the campground, we reached Cecil’s vehicle at 16:45. With the extra hiking I had done ~16 miles today. For our home trip Cecil thought we should take I 40; we found it to be slightly longer mileage and although a different hour of the day, longer timewise too (arrived at his home ~18:10).