Post 900 Hike #141: Eagle Creek et al.

The meet-up for the Knox and Blount County hikers was at Food Lion at 0600; further hikers would join us at the Foothills Parkway junction with U.S. 321. Vehicle swaps would be made at that point and eight proceeded to Lead Cove trail head (on Laurel Creek Road near Cades Cove--they were to hike South) while three drove South to the area of Fontana Marina and Lakeshore Trail (they were to hike North). (The logistic arrangements made by Carol Anderson for this hike were truly outstanding. Although I had wanted to do the hike North, since my January accident I have experienced problems on two of four recent hikes that that exceeded 19 miles; hiking North would have been harder since they were doing ~4 more miles starting at Fontana Dam instead of taking a boat close to the Eagle Creek trail head, and I did not want to press my luck. The hikers going North were Ramsay Roth, Dennis McAdams, and Steve Lobertini; those going South were Becky Gibson, Jim Stanley, Richard Ryburn, Tom Hickey, Gracia Slater, Carol Anderson, Teresa Yu, Dick Ledyard, Jerry Roddy, Lisa Mynat, and me.)

We were on Lead Cove trail at 0645; Tom and I finished its 1.9 mi. (~1,200' of climb) at 0730; our moving average speed was 2.8 mph. The first picture is of Tom at our junction with Bote Mtn trail. The 2.9 mi. section of Bote Mtn that we did has ~2,900, of gain; we reached the AT in 79 min., and our overall speed was reduced to 2.5 mph. We proceeded to the Spence Field Shelter on the AT (and in essence at the Eagle Creek trail head) and waited for the others.



Eagle Creek descends ~3,000' by the time it junctions with Lakeshore trail; the Brown Book indicates that it has 19 unbridged stream crossings in its 8.7 mi. Our group stayed fairly close together on this descent. Lisa and I rock hopped the first major crossing (the rest donned water shoes); think there were ~17 water crossings in which water shoes definitely required. I broke in my new Keene ones for the second; although the water got my knee brace wet, it never reached my knee cap. The next picture was taken of a rather typical water crossing.



After ~1 mi. of Lakeshore trail, several of us proceeded to do ~0.3 mi. of Lost Cove; at this point Jim Stanley completed his requirements for 900 miler certification (he hiked > than 1,500 mi. to complete his 900; some day I'll have to check to see how many I did to complete my 1st 900). The next picture is of Jim after he completed the Lost Cove trail segment that he needed. (Must say something about the perseverance of Jim; because of asbestos poisoning he is absent total lung functioning, yet he guts it out on ups. I should also say something about the same trait in Dick Ledyard; he has bone on bone between his R-femur and tibia; if he wants to "go" without pain he needs a TKR. For the time being anyway, Dick just takes more Aleve and guts it out on downs (i.e., compression force is grater on downs). I am so thankful that all I have is a patella tracking problem and a stiff neck since my January accident; however, PT and anti-inflammatory medication is improving my prognosis.



We then went back to wait for our boat; it was a long wait but it is better to be early rather than late. The last picture is of Fontana Marina taken from its parking lot. At Dick's and Jim's vans a bit up from where the picture was taken, a little party was held in Jim's honor; it was very nice. Then the long drive back, including a number of miles on the Dragon (U.S. 129). Nevertheless, it was a lovely day and a very nice hike. I believe that I arrived home ~1900.