Post 900 Hike #86: Huskey Gap, Little River, & a segment of Goshen Prong

I had planned to hike with Dick Ledyard as he completed his 900 today (AT 1.9 p.d., Goshen Prong 4.4 & 3.3 n., Little River 1.0 p.d., Huskey Gap 2.1 n. & 2.0 p.d.). However, my Airedale Terrier Winston captured some chocolate chip cookies last evening; although I gave him hydrogen peroxide to bring them back up, I had to monitor him a bit this a.m. prior to deciding to meet Dick et al. as they descended from the road to Clingmans Dome. In part because of heavy traffic in the GSMNP, I did not get on Huskey Gap Trail off U.S. 441 until 12:17.

Although Huskey Gap has ~1,300’ of climb in its first 2 miles, they are easy and it took me 47 min. without pushing it. The next 2.1 miles of it also took me 47 min., while the 1-mi. of Little River Trail took ~15 min. Dave Anderson was sitting at the junction of Little River with Goshen Prong; he and his wife Carol had also hiked in from U.S. 441 but she had gone ahead. Because I had figured to meet Dick et al. at least by then, I decided to proceed on Goshen Prong; I soon met Carol for she had started her return. I told her where Dave was near the vicinity of Campsite 21. At this time I thought that Dick et al. had really encountered a problem and I thought that I had better find them. After a short while I met Frank March and Charlie Bean; they informed me that there was a tough stream crossing that was unexpected (did not show on the map but we have had lots of rain lately). I then met Teresa Yu and finally Dick and Richard Ryburn plus one or two others (one woman I had never met).

I hiked with them; had a chance to talk with Richard Ryburn and get his advice from weed trimmers to servicing inboard/outboard boat engines. The others were waiting near Campsite 21 and all of us then proceeded on the first section of Huskey Gap. With the completion of this 2.1 mi. section of Huskey Gap, Dick Ledyard would meet the qualifications for The 900 Miler Association; the picture is of him after he completed this quest. Dick is a very strong hiker but he also has a serious knee problem for which he wears a very expensive and complicated brace (prescribed by Greg Mathien, an extremely top-notch orthopedic surgeon who used to help me teach a graduate class at UT) that redirects compression loads to those areas of the tibial-femoral joint more abundant in articular cartilage. I really admire Dick for hanging in there and completing his quest under the conditions he operated; I just have to ice my knee upon a hike’s completion—Dick has had to deal with much more serious problem.



After congratulating Dick on his quest, I took off for there was an outside chance that my wife would get delayed in checking on Winston; Dave accompanied me on this last segment and we had a nice conversation--talked quite a bit on X-C skiing. In my car and on the way out of the Park to my surprise I could reach my wife in Metcalf Bottoms; with my prior cell I had to either be at elevation (e.g., Clingmans Dome) or get well into Townsend.