Post 900 Hike #57: Smokemont Loop

Although I thought the two Sweat Heifer hikes off the AT out of Newfound Gap would be cancelled Wednesday because of snow possibility in the late afternoon, one was done (major problem was getting into their iced-up vehicle in late afternoon). Thus when Dick Ledyard contacted me about doing a short hike out of Smokemont Thursday in honor of Frank Marsh’s finishing qualifications for The 900 Miler Association, I jumped at the chance. Our hike was to be a short one (Smokemont Loop) since Dick had a dental appointment in the A.M.

We started our hike shortly after 13:00. In the first mile of our 2.2 mi. stint on Bradley Fork we saw a boar; although I have had several on-trail bear sightings since completing requirements for The 900 Miler Association, I had never seen a boar. Unfortunately the boar scuttled away before I could get my camera out; nevertheless, on the basis past elk and bear sightings in the GSMNP, I am estimating his weight to be ~400 lbs. He was flat out huge! The first picture is of Dick Ledyard at our completion of Bradley Fork; Dick took the second picture of me crossing a very nice foot bridge (Note cable instead of a wood-branch rail).

The Smokemont Loop trail (3.9 mi.) has a lot of up; although this is true regardless of whether one is going CC or C, most aver that the CC direction that we went is a little bit easier (Dick took the picture of me on a bit of the up). I neglected to bring my HR monitor, but this time (possibly because I had lifted weights in the A.M.) I never tried to get a good aerobic push; thus I doubt that my pulse ever even reached 140. We finished the 6.1 miles in ~2 hrs. 30 min. Because we had hoped to greet Frank where our vehicles were parked, we had time to kill, Dick suggested we hike that portion of the Benton—MacKaye in Smokemont (that particular portion is not one of the 900 requirements), by my new (& fairly expensive) pedometer, we covered ~7.5 miles on today’s afternoon hike and arrived Dick’s car at 16:30.

Since Frank had estimated that they would finish by 17:30, we decided to wait there until 18:00 in hopes of congratulating him (one of Frank’s sons and Richard Ryburn were with him). We knew that Frank and Richard often hiked well into total darkness, and because Frank's son is a very strong hiker, we decided that we did not have to worry about them; thus we to get a sandwich at Calhoun’s in Gatlinburg in hopes that they too might come there. (We subsequently learned that they had run into a bit of ice on the AT; it was the ice that had considerably slowed their pace.)