Post 900 Hike #62: AT, Dry Sluice Gap, Bradley Fork

Was not sure what my hike was going to be today initially; because I am not striving to complete the 900 a second time, BZ Lane “scheduled” me to do Hike #1 or shuttle others for Hikes 2 or 3 if needed. Because additional drivers were not needed, I ended up doing the hike outlined in the title.

At ~0800 John Hutsenpeller and I arrived in Cecil Rowe’s van at SVC; Ellie Doughty joined us and we headed for Newfound Gap. Also heading for Newfound Gap in other vehicles were Tom Siler, Leslie Toney, Lloyd Luketin, Dick Ledyard, and three new to our group: Rita Haynes, Carl Muse, and Charlie Bean. (Our entourage initially also included Martha Frink, Jane Calfee, & Vicki Watkins; however, they did a loop ending at Newfound Gap.)

At 0837 we embarked on the AT in a NE direction; Carl stayed with me and we were followed closely by Leslie and Lloyd; we reached the Sweat Heiffer Trail junction (1.7 mi.)at 0920. In large groups such as this we usually wait at each trailhead for at least the next contingent if not for all in our group. At ~1+ mi. later, just after passing Icewater Springs shelter on the AT, things got quite interesting. At this point I was alone and came upon a sheet of thick ice on the trail; the ice so covered the trail that there was not room on either side to get traction (on the R-side there was a drop-off). I took a serious detour, hanging on to windfalls, branches, etc.; never have I found a section of a trail to be so daunting. Although I did not get a picture of those immediately following me, Dick Ledyard got a picture of Ellie circumventing the 30-40 foot of ice trail; only a short section of gray ice appears in the foreground in Dick's picture. (Richard Ryburn subsequently advised me that the icy trail section was ~10 times as long as I had estimated; he and his group had done it in the reverse direction. I can now assuredly say I did not exaggerate its length.)

At 10:40 I reached the Dry Sluice Gap trailhead; with the waits and because of the extent conditions, that 2.7 mi. trail section took 80 min. Because most of the remaining hike would be going down, getting a good aerobic workout would be impossible; therefore I decided that recording any further trail times was not worthwhile.

The 2nd picture (also compliments of Dick) is the Dry Sluice-Grassy Branch junction; from L-R are W, John, Lloyd, Cecil, Leslie, & Rita (you'll note rain ponchos on a few--it was never really bad). Although we usually stop at ~1200 for lunch, one recommended that we try to reach Cabin Flats trailhead. Initially I took off but soon realized that there was a lot of "down" to cover prior to reaching Cabin Flats; all 12 of us stopped for lunch ~1220. From L-R are Dick, Lloyd, Leslie, Ellie, Cecil, BZ, Charlie, Rita, Tom, & Carl.

Shortly after lunch we reached the Cabin Flats trailhead (in & out, 0.6 mi.); the next pic (again compliments of Dick) includes Leslie, Cecil, Carl, Ellie, BZ, & W. It was then on to Bradley Fork. Other than a few neat Beaver “chop-downs” of trees, our 4.5 miles on Bradley Fork (an old road) were not interesting. At 1530 BZ, Lloyd, and I reached Cecil’s and BZ’s vans after also walking through ~0.5 mi. of that part of the Smokemont campground inaccessible to vehicles in the winter. (The vans had been conveniently moved from the Newfound Gap parking lot by Bill Broome, Bob Hutchins, & Bill Woodrick; our group is so fortunate to have friends like this to help with logistics.)

My Omron pedometer registered 14.57 mi., 30,773 steps of which 24,254 were aerobic, with 1,125 calories burned. (On the way back to the SVC, Leslie, being ~5'2", thought that she would have had quite a few more steps; I estimated that she took 30,318 aerobic ones.)