Post 900 Hike #144: Noland Divide. ....Martins Gap, Sunkota Ridge

Met at 07:30 at Food Lion; although I had planned to drive, I was not needed and instead rode with Steve Lobertini (could not resist his invitation to ride in the park with the top down). Tom and Dennis McAdams were also passengers; I had hiked with Dennis several years ago when I was working on my first 900. Believe there were 10 others that we met at the Noland Divided Trail Head (just below Clingmans Dome); Dennis McAdams and I reached the 3.7 mi. to the junction with Pole Creek trail head at 10:23.

Carol Anderson, Steve, Tom, Becky, Jim Stanley, Dave Smith and 1-2 others reached Deep Creek (neat new log bridge had replaced the one where one hiker almost met his Waterloo ~3 years ago). I was not prepared for what we saw next; it was perhaps one of the saddest cases that I have ever seen. An alive beautiful horse was laying down (probably broke his leg crossing the stream). It has been my experience that most riders in the park are quite rotund; this one just took the saddle and left his horse to die. We moved on a fraction of a mile and ate at Camp Site #57.

I had planned to leave the group solo to go up 1.5 mi. of Martins Gap (800' of gain in 1.5 mi.) in order that I could hike down the 3.75 mi. of Sunkota Ridge Trail; fortunately David Smith decided to go with me. He was ready to go while I was just finishing lunch; I told him to go ahead because in my prior experiences in hiking with Dave he was slow on the ups. This was a totally new Dave; I never caught him and even had my HR running over 150 a bit of time. Dave was waiting for me at the trail head of Sunkota Ridge; waiting for the both of us were some onerous weather conditions. Although I would have liked to have taken a break, I (& Dave agreed) thought that we should minimize our time on the high parts of Sunkota Ridge should we have thunder and lightening. Moreover, the first 3/4's mi. of the latter was a fairly steep up (it peaked at only 3600 & we had but 500' of gain) but it seemed like it was much more. One reason was the fact that we did not use our sticks; we did not need to have an aluminum connection with mother earth when it was lightening. Some of the thunder crashes and the attendant lightening seemed mighty close; my HR stayed close to 153 for this endeavor (not sure that I have kept it that high for that long in any prior hike. When you consider that one's max HR decreases ~1 beat for every year as one ages, I had a cardio workout. (Fortunately it would appear that my HR can go a little faster than most almost 77 yr. old codgers.)

We got out of the thunder and lightening prior to finishing Sunkota's 3.75 mi. length. Just after we started turning left on Loop Trail, Steve (and I believe Tom) came up Loop Trail from the right; however, they had to retrace their steps. By the time we reached Indian Creek, Dave said that I was listing to starboard; I cold feel it too. The last couple miles were not comfortable.

Shortly after we reached the picnic shelter in Deep Creek (~15:30--bus was to come at 17:00), and after a few others arrived from their respective hikes, some of us walked to the tube rental area to get a cold drink or ice cream. When we got back a few of my cohorts were talking with a Park Safety Ranger; I certainly hope that the hombre who left his horse to die gets caught.

It was a long ride back; the 14 of us who started together this morning were the last to get off the bus for it had to go to Clingmans Dome and turn around since such a maneuver was impossible where we started our hike on Noland Divide. Nevertheless, it was a good day and I do not remember when I got home. (FYI, since 6/12 I could not get into my blog to finish its writing; today, June 27, I was able to do so by using my wife's computer.)