Post 900 Hike #51: Max Patch

This was my first hike in three weeks due to weather on 10/8 and a memorial service for a neighbor and friend on 10/15. Today was also the first hike that I took with our group that was outside the GSMNP. When this hike was scheduled previously, I was either (a) intent on completing all trails within the GSMNP first or (b) after doing the former, requested to go with someone else in their quest to finish all the trails. I had also wanted to go to Max Patch for someone suggested that it would be a good place to XC-ski; I wanted to check that possibility out in good weather prior to driving there in the winter.

The meet-up site was Cracker Barrel at the Strawberry Plains exit at 07:45. Eleven of us set out in either Ann’s vehicle (BJ, Diane, Marita, & Teresa); I went in Cecil’s with Bill B., Bill W., John H., and Joy. I am not sure when we started our hike on the AT but I believe it was ~09:45. John and I completed the 5.5 mi. hike to Max Patch at 11:35; we pushed in the last ~0.5 mi. going up the Bald to get an aerobic workout.

At the top I went over to talk to a couple of AT through hikers from Vermont; they planned to fly from Knoxville back to Vermont on 11/1. They were in tune to the water and bear problems so they knew which AT campsites would be OK. Because of water problems, they had to carry as much as a gallon at times; these individuals were perhaps not in too great a hurry, but I really must tip my hat to them and those others who undertake the AT challenge. One of the Vermonters brought to my attention the special cloud formation that I tried to capture in the first picture.

Bill Broome identified the first "whole" mountain from the right in the second picture as being Newfound Gap; for those not familiar the AT is basically follows the ridge of the Smokey chain. The third picture presents a different view from of the bald.

We started our downward trek at 12:30; Cecil and Bill W. went to the former’s church camp where he does periodic checks of water quality. Bill B. started down with us but when we met one of his sons, latter’s wife, and another couple, he went back to the Bald then down to the parking lot on the other side to wait for us. The rest of us set out the 5.5 mi. trek back to our two vehicles; John, Joy, and I completed the 5.5 miles at 1:55. John drove Cecil’s vehicle back to pick up our three cohorts while I iced my knee. Relative to potential XC-skiing on the Bald, it would have to be just after a snow on a cloudy day; of course the road to the bald could be closed under such circumstances.