X-C Ski Sojourn: Clingmans Dome Road

U.S. 441 was closed yesterday and was also closed this morning. Nevertheless, Doug Jerger and I made a last minute decision to go X-C skiing today, for we assumed the road would be open prior to our arrival; it was. We were on our skiis at 11:35; immediately we noted that the road had been snow plowed in order that work could begin on the road as well as the facility at the Dome. This work would have started sooner had it not been for all the snow; undoubtedly this is our last ski venture on Clingmans Dome Road this season. (Normally this road is not open to vehicular traffic until April 1; this year it will probably be closed to everyone (e.g., X-C skiers, backpackers) beginning next week for the construction that will last several months. One week ago today the snow depth was over two feet when I X-C skied; today there was only ~4 inches of fresh snow after it had been plowed. However, the snow plowing was done only on what we estimated to be the first 4+ miles; after that I had to work to break trail, comparable to last week.

Primarily because Doug's waxless skis seemed to be no longer waxless (the same thing happened to me last year on 3/3/09 when my old skis seemed to lose their gliding ability), I was leading. A young man named Brian (only ~50) caught up with us; he seemed to like our pace and company, so he fell in behing me but in front of Doug. I had planned to stop at the Fork Ridge trailhead (this is directly across the road from an AT access point) to see what Doug and our new friend Brian wished to do. However, although the skiing was not particularly easy, this was one of the first times that I had ever had company this far up the mountain, thus we talked considerably and fatigue was far from my mind. When we reached the point that Clingmans Dome road actually descents 0.5-0.75 mi., I realized that we had passed the Fork Ridge trailhead; moreover, Brian advised me that he had seen the AT signage a while back. We convened and somewhat to my surprise everyone wanted to keep on going at least until 14:30. It was about then that I took this picture (Brian on the left and Doug on the right).



When we came upon the Noland Divide Trailhead (it's 5.5 mi. up the 7 mi. road--its picture was too blury), we continued on our quest. After plowing on ~0.5-1.0 mi. further, the lookout observation deck at Clingmans Dome faded in and out of the clouds; if you look to the left of the dominant tree on the right in the next picture you can see it.



Brian had never planned to go this far and planned to turn around; thus Doug and I decided that the pursuit to the top was not a good one for the time remaining in the day, paticularly when Doug's equipment problem was considered. And as previously indicated, Doug had serious equipment dysfunction (i.e., skis would not glide); it is a good thing that we turned around because subsequently on the descent both of his ski poles broke (he evidently was trying to get too much propelling from his arms to compensate for the lack of glide from his skis). Thus we sort of took it easy took in some of nature's beauty; the next picture really shows why we like to X-C ski in the GSMNP.



Brian had gone ahead and Doug and I took it leisurely. I really must correct that; our descent time was not great. However, I had a good workout (particularly in breaking trail on the way up). Brian skied further than he ever intended. Doug had a workout and a half, for with his equipment malfunction, he had to work harder than anyone.

Post 900 Hike #99: Anthony Creek--3.5, Bote Mtn--1.2, AT/Spence Field Shelter 0.3 & return

Bob Bolinger and I had planned to do the AT from Newfound Gap to The Boulevard Trail and then down to LeConte; we would then take the Alum Cave Trail out to U.S. 441(i.e., we would have left one vehicle there on way to Newfound Gap). However, we were advised against this because of deep snow conditions; although I knew we would have deep snow since I had just X-C skied out of Newfoundd Gap on the Clingmans Dome Road on 2/19, I had not given the less-traveled Boulevard Trail much thought. We then decided to do the hike presented in the title; John Kennerly, Elke Narton, Doug Jerger, and Richard Ryburn joined us.

I think that we started on our hike out of the Cades Cove campground ~09:15. Although we had icy foot logs to cross a couple of streams, there was no appreciable snow; however, since we were on a climb, snow depth progressively increased. I brought up the rear in order to facilitate my picture taking; I deemed the four presented to best represent our hike of the 40+ taken.

The first picture presents my 5 cohorts on Bote Mtn Trail. Although there was no ice to contend with, we put on our crampons. (Four of us use STABILICER Ice Cleats; because they are so effective, the two without planned to order them ASAP. For their effectiveness on extremely icy trails, see my blog of 12/30/09.)



The second picture is one of rime frost; this picture was also taken on Bote Mtn. Trail. Rime Frost results when the moisture from low clouds "hits" cold objects; the direction of the ice crystals is in the direction of the prevailing winds. It was at about this time that most of us donned our crampons; although it was not icy, they help with traction on snow as well. The depth of the snow when we had reached the shelter (elevation 4900 ft.) was 2' plus.



This is Doug on the Appalachian Trail (AAT); he was picked since his red vest stands out.



The last picture is the Spence Field Shelter off the AT where we had lunch. My five cohorts are inside where the "bunks" are; enterprising AT hikers made what is typically a room with 3 walls a 4-wall room with the addition of plastic ground cloths. Needless to say had I taken the picture from the open side, it would not have been nearly as attractive as the picture presented. The temperature "inside" was ~freezing.



We took a leisurely lunch and ~1330 started a somewhat leisurely retrace of our steps made prior to lunch. I took only one picture on the way down; I also for the first time inserted "hand warmers" in my mittens that I had purchased ~3-yrs ago. My cohorts swear by them and they worked for me too after I really "shook my hands". I plan on purchasing more prior to X-C skiing on 2/26, assuming U.S. 441 is open then.

X-C Ski Sojourn: Clingmans Dome Road

I awakened ~06:00; it was then that I decided that I should X-C ski today. After eating breakfast and walking the dog. I prepared for a trip to the GSMNP. I arrived at the Park a little before 11:00 and then drove to Newfound Gap; at ~11:30 I set out from the parking area below the gate to the road to Clingmans Dome.

One unique factor was that today I just stepped over the gate that blocks access to the road in the winter; in prior trips the snow level was such that I walked around it. Despite my late start I envisioned skiing to the top. At this time a couple of “pedestrians” and one bona fide snow-shoe “hiker” had left the parking area. I passed the pedestrians almost immediately and then caught the snow-shoer (Jeff Waddle). This was the first time that I had ever encountered anyone on snow-shoes on this trail. Because a skier can move a bit faster even up a grade, I passed him. The snow was deep; although I became the first one to travel on this virgin snow, breaking trail is a challenge. At one point, when I was checking a presumed animal track, I pressed my left pole down and it kept on going and going; the result was my first “X-C ski fall down” in I don’t know how many years. It was very difficult to get to a standing position, for as I pushed with my hand the snow went up to my shoulder; eventually I positioned my skis (still firmly attached to my shoes) so that I could push against them. The first picture includes a jet contrail.



Although I had planned to ski to Clingmans Dome, I realized that breaking trail was requiring much more energy than I realized would be necessary. I do not remember having to stop on the way up to rest in previous trips; it seemed that on this trip it was almost necessary for breaking trail was exhausting. I then decided that the Fork Ridge Trailhead (4.2 mi.) was a reasonable goal (the AT closely parallels Clingmans Dome road on the opposite side—Mount Collins shelter is nearby too, it’s on Sugarland Mountain trail). I was thinking my goal was just a short distance past a “spruce nature sign” (forget the exact wording); when I did not reach it shortly I became concerned that it (and the AT sign across the road) might have been covered with snow causing me to bypass them. However, I plodded on and finally reached the Fork Ridge Trail sign and the AT sign across the road. The next picture shows my tracks to get there; the one that follows shows what was in store for me if I went further up the mountain. At this point I decided to go a little further than my goal; I wanted to determine the point that the Road to Clingmans Dome actually descends prior to resuming its trek upward.







On the way up the snow laden trees at the right edge of the road appear to be covering ~half of the road. After I reached this crest (0.25 to 0.5 mi. passed the Fork Ridge Trail sign), there's 0.5 0.75 mi. of downward slope and I strongly considered the pluses and minuses of shooting for the Dome. My late start and the possibility of encountering black ice on U.S. 441 from Newfound Gap to Sugarlands suggested that going to the Dome may not be the best decision. On the way down I met Jeff and talked with him a bit; he is very interesting and has written a book I believe titled “Mayday—Mayday” on airplane crashes. (I’ll have to check this out—perhaps I can trade a copy of my book on exercise and the back for a copy of his.) Of course since I can coast a bit, my speed going down was quite a bit faster. Very soon I met another skier going up; he advised me that I would be meeting his wife shortly. I did meet her but it was not shortly; she had a major equipment problem in that the “membrane” on the bottom of one ski had peeled off this ski. She advised me that I’d meet a group of backpackers; she hoped that they would be walking on Jeff’s snow-shoe trail rather than the skier tracks that I had initiated and that she and her husband had been following. I met them at Indian Gap; they were about to get on the AT at this point. I doubt that they would have had this endeavor if they knew how deep the snow really was.

Almost immediately I found that a few of their group of six had walked in my ski tracks; when you have at least one-foot deep footprints in ski tracks, it’s as easy to blaze a new trail so I did a bit of both. Surprisingly I did not meet a soul on my last 1.7 mi.; however, when I reached my vehicle a few true tourists parked there so that they could look at snow on the up-side of the gait.

Post 900 Hike #98: Maddron Bald, Albright Grove Loop, Madron Bald (~6 mi.)

Last week Bob Bolinger, BZ Lane, and Richard Ryburn did Ramsey Cascades; because Bob knew that I wished to do more snow and/or ice hikes for Wilderness Wildlife Week pictures, he suggested that he and I do Ramsey Cascades again. In retrospect I should have put out word on this hike to the 227 members of our group; however, after Cecil Rowe contacted me about our planned hike, he recruited four more (John Kennerly, Elke Narten, Cecilia Rowe, & Eva Rather). Meanwhile Bob had gotten Charlie Woodward to join us too. Because Cecil’s home is in essence on my way to the GSMNP for the intended trail, that was our meet-up point. John and Elke left Cecil’s with me; Cecil went with his daughter Cecilia and Eva. At Sevierville I picked up Bob and Charlie; we then proceeded to Green Briar. However, as we entered Green Briar, Cecilia, Cecil, and Eva met us on the way out; the road was closed to Ramsey Cascades trailhead. After a few minutes discussion, Cecil suggested we hike a part of Madron Bald Trail; that sounded OK to me for Cecil has a good perception of most any trail in the Park without even looking at a map. Even though Bob and I had hiked this trail previously (think this was my 3rd time), we commented to each other that we really did not know what exactly we were doing. We shortly realized that Cecil picked a winner; the snow conditions made it one of the pretiest hikes that I had ever done.

The first picture is of Willis Baxter cabin; this 2-door cabin (with no windows) was built out of chestnut in 1889. It is hard to perceive that Willis, his wife, and 4 sons resided in this one-room cabin.



For the second picture I got ahead of most of our group and waited for the first to appear in what I thought was a very pretty setting; it was Eva.



We had one bridged-stream crossing; this is Bob executing it. Since the log was stacked with snow, it is a crossing that is not to be made nonchalantly.



For the last picture I lagged behind and got another picture of Bob after he had executed a switchback; the fact that he was wearing a red vest made it less likely that shots of him made it to the "cutting room floor."



Although Madron Bald was not the hike that we had planned to do, it is doubtful that I could have gotten any pictures of this quality had we hiked Ramsey Cascades as originally planned. Initially I was going to put six pictures in this blog; however, I decided to stay with my rule of thumb that I never include more than four. It was hard to decide what to include and what to omit for now; however, assuming that I present at the 2011 Wilderness Wildlife, many of the pictures taken today will be used.

After we finished I dropped Charlie off at his vehicle and then we both went to the adjacent McDonalds for take-out lunches (it was ~14:15). The others proceeded in Ciscelia's Highlander to the Arrowmount School to view Bob's photographs; both Charlie and I had seen them previously. You would have really been in for a treat in this blog if I were half as good of a photographer as Bob is.

X-C Ski Sojourn at Roan Mountain State Park

Had planned to go to Roan Mountain State Park with two others but our schedules did not appear that they would ever jibe so belatedly I went solo today. I had previously gone there to X-C ski in the 1980’s once with my wife Meredith and once with my youngest son Kirk. I used MapQuest to get me to Elizabethton thinking Roan Mountain was quite close; unfortunately it was a bit further and that does not include the 7+ miles to get to the top of Roan Mountain; when I was there in the 80’s I truly did not appreciate the scope of what I missed.

Initially I skied around in the low-lands; it was not that great. After talking to a Park Ranger, I decided to attempt to drive to the top of Roan Mountain. The Ranger thought that there was a good chance that I could make it in my Highlander that has only front wheel drive; because traffic would be so light on it today, he said that I would have no problem turning around if I were having problems. I decided to give it a try; I soon found that the criteria for opening this road is a little different than that used for opening U.S. 441 in the GSMNP. There were not any pull-outs so I did not even think about turning around prior to reaching the top.





Although I took a picture of the markers for the Appalachian Trail (AT also runs across the top of Roan Mtn), it was not worth printing. As most know, much of the AT is on a ridge which is also the border between states; the second sign in the first picture states a welcome to North Carolina. Although I had planned to ski at the top, there were really not any parking spaces that I deemed safe for a non-4WD vehicle; I definitely did not want to end up being stuck on the top of this mountain.

On the way down I quickly stepped out of the car to take a couple of pictures (there was no traffic); it is the last one.

Post 900 Hike #97: Snake Den Ridge—5.3, AT—4.7, & Low Gap—2.5

Last week after our Mt. Cammerer hike Bob Bolinger suggested to John Hutsenpiller that he contact me after he had figured out a hike that he needed; he subsequently came up with Snake Den Ridge—4.6, Madron Bald—0.7, AT—4.7, and Low Gap—2.5. I put it out as an Alternate Hike and we had four takers: BZ Lane, Debra Barton, Doug Jerger, and myself. I picked up Doug at Lakeside Market and Debra and John at Cracker Barrel; we met BZ at Cosby Campground ~09:25.

Snake Den Ridge has ~3,400 ft. of gain; it is not easy. Shortly after we started I realized that John was having a tough time; I dropped back with him and it was then that I learned that he had pneumonia in the fall. I knew nothing bout this and had assumed that his not hiking related to a low back problem that he had. Except for cruising ahead to tell the others at Madron Bald what his condition was (got my HR up to 153 for this), for the rest of the hike I stayed with him; he was having one tough time particularly on the ups. As one might expect, the amount of snow on the trail was proportional to our elevation. The 0.7 mi section remaining after Madron Bald was particularly difficult; here the snow was at least one foot deep. (Deep snow means short steps; about this time my pedometer indicated that I had gone ~one more mile than I had actually covered.)



The next three pictures were taken between Inadu Knob and Camel Gap on the AT. The first one is a "Rhododendrun Tunnel. On the next one the AT is on the North side of the ridge so it gets plenty of sun; in the background is some "smoke" in a distant valley in NC. We saw some very unique displays of rime frost; it is particularly seen on ridges where wind dictates how the water vapor from a low-lying cloud can form when it freezes.







The next section of the AT from Camel Gap to Low Gap became progressively easier and was mostly down; Low Gap Trail was also down. We arrived at my vehicle at 16:55.

Post 900 Hike #96: Cove Mountain Trail

Because we were not sure that U.S. 441 would be open to enable Doug Jerger and I to X-C on the road to Clingmans Dome, we decided to hike up Cove Mtn Trail in hopes of finding enough snow at altitude to X-C ski. Much of this trail is adjacent to private property since it runs along the Park's Northern edge. Doug had not yet done it; thus whatever done today might help him in his trek for completing all trails. Although I had originally planned to start from the West, any route taken would necessitate hiking 4-5 mi. prior to reaching Cove Mtn trail; if we started from the East, we would be on it immediately and thus know its status much sooner. Doug parked his SUV in the Park Headquarters parking lot and we attached our skis to our backpacks (see pic Doug took of me) and headed up Cove Mtn. Trail ~09:30. The next picture shows the peaks of LeConte.





The branches overhanging the trail were overloaded with snow; this frequently resulted in "snow showers" down my neck as I did not always allow for the height of my ski-tips. (Because Doug carried his skis obliquely, he did not get "snowed upon" as much.) The third picture captures a short-lived winter moment on our trip up Cove Mtn.



Although the amount of snow on the trail increased, it was not that deep and somewhat crystalline; thus on downhill sections it could be most difficult to control speed and make turns. Nevertheless, we decided to hike on in hopes that we would come to a spot that we would recognize should we attempt to finish this trail by starting from the West-end or, assuming we could find an accessible spot from an "out of the Park" road, starting where we stopped. Had it been cloudy today and Sunday, conditions probably would have been much better because much of the trail was on the N-side of Cove Mtn and was getting a bit of sun.

When we came to the third "housing area" adjacent to the trail (~1700' of the trail's 2500' of gain), we ate lunch and then retraced our steps. The last picture is of Clingmans Dome; because this mountain is so big, it seemed as though it was always present for much of our downward trek.