Corridor 9

We left camp at approximately 6:15 this morning to head to Charles Bunion and a beautiful view of the sunrise. I really didn’t want to go; I was cold, tired, and simply dreading it. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep some more. However, I told myself the previous night I was going and I wasn’t going to wimp out now.

The sunrise was beautiful, the colors awesome. I got some great shots with the camera and was very glad that I went after all. I was a bit upset at how the lay of the land was though. Charles Bunion sits in a bit of a valley and by the time the sun came up it was bright and yellow as opposed to the dim red sun I was expecting to see. While I got some good shots, Chuck got some good shots from the shelter as well.

Going was surely easier than coming back though. It was almost all downhill there, so naturally it was almost all uphill on the way back to the shelter. By the time we got back Chuck and Coy were waiting on the oil to cook pancakes. Both Chuck and Coy’s cakes turned out well, but the mix I had must have been old or something cause it turned out like crap. It must have been too old and stuck to the pan. I ended up having to scrub the pan to get the mix off.

Shortly after breakfast it was time to get going to Mt. LeConte. While it was only 5.3 miles, I was sore a good part of the trip. Going downhill my right knee hurt. Going uphill, my left knee hurt. I think it’s official; I’m falling apart. We got to camp around 2 pm and headed down to the lodge to get water before stopping at the overlook for some spectacular views of Newfound Gap and Gatlinburg.

BTW- The portapot SUCKED! Don’t use it, go down to the lodge and use the one there.

We awoke shortly after dawn and made our way out of the BD Mesa. I had decided to stake it out the previous night to attain the full amount of usable floor space since both Dad and I were sleeping in it tonight. While it did get a bit chilly, I slept relatively well throughout the night.

For breakfast I was trying out a new recipe. I had always heard how bad things can stick to Evernew pots and pans but never had a bad incident until today. The omelets didn’t work well at all. The stuck to the pan real bad even though I had put oil in the bottom and had a non stick coating. I even tried cooking the eggs in a double boiler configuration, but to no avail. In addition, the English Muffin warming in aluminum foil sucked. The foil burned to the muffin and it was black and charred. I was not pleased with this recipe at all. I’m going to have to do more research before attempting eggs in the field again. I think I may be looking into an aluminum cook set too.

After leaving the campground we headed into Gatlinburg and stopped at the Happy Hiker to browse around. I’m always looking for more deals, but just didn’t find any this time. This is definitely unusual since almost every time I go in I end up walking out with a purchase. We then decided we’d probably better buy some more mosquito spray, but couldn’t find any that we liked so we ran into a grocery store Pigeon Forge. On the way out we simply had to stop at Krispy Kream for one last bit of civilization before heading into the backcountry.

While driving back into the park we just happened upon two bear cubs playing in the road. Upon closer inspection we found that it wasn’t 2 bear cubs in the area but 3 cubs and momma all foraging for food and playing around. We were the first car on the scene so of course we blocked the road to protect the bear cubs from being hit, or maybe it was just the wonderful photo opportunity. Either way we got some awesome pictures. As we were leaving I drove past once of the cubs in the other lane. He was less than 3 feet from my window! Such a magnificent sight.

Arriving at Alum Cave trailhead at about 1:30 pm, we were quite a bit early. We didn’t see Chuck will atound 2:45 and Coy finally dropped by about 3:20. We all piled our gear into Chucks SUV and headed to Newfound Gap to begin our walk in the woods.

As usual NFG was bustling with car tourists, so I was ready to get back into the woods all the more quickly. A final stop at a developed latrine and up the AT we went. While the hiking was almost completely uphill, the fact that it was gradual and short made it easy and pleasurable. We arrived at Icewater Springs around 5:30, but decided that we didn’t want to head out to Charles Bunion till in the morning. Dinner was quick & easy, and we all talked till around 7 pm before hitting the sack. When it gets dark that early you have nothing better to do than to head to bed.

Shortly after 8 pm 2 ladies, both named Lindsey, strolled into the shelter. They had gotten a late start and in turn were late arriving. The two guys who were at the shelter before we showed up were not happy they were arriving so late. However, having hiked at night myself, I understood what it was to be behind schedule. At least they were friendly and courteous; cooking quickly before heading to bed themselves rather than staying up all night with the light flashing in people’s eyes.

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, We finally hit the road around 7:30 am on the trip to Mt. LeConte. As usual when heading anywhere south, we had to stop at the hiking stores in Nashville. I was looking to get a new shirt and underwear before the hike. The underwear I have is all cotton, and anyone who hikes knows that cotton is a definite no-no in the woods. It soaks up perspiration and doesn’t allow for quick evaporation. This chills the body in colder weather, and causes unnecessary discomfort in warmer weather.

First we went to Cumberland Transit to have a look at their clearance rack. I’ve always had good luck finding things that were well worth the price. However, this time was a bust. I don’t know if we just hit the wrong time due to season change or what but there wasn’t much in the way of clothing that I needed.

We decided to skip going to Blue Ridge Mountain Sports cause it was a bit out of the way and we were running a bit behind schedule. Instead, we headed directly to the REI store in Brentwood where I was able to find a nice set of REI undies that were anything but cotton and definitely comfortable. I also picked up an Under Armour shirt that fit wonderfully and kept me warm throughout the trip.

On our way into the park we stopped at The Sinks. As soon as we pulled up we noticed how low the water was. The middle picture was taken this weekend, while the last picture was taken on 2 November’s ago. You can see the sign on the right hand side of the picture to compare flow.

Anyway…. after stopping to see the water, or lack thereof, we headed into camp at Elkmont. Spaghetti for dinner, and cold temperatures! I’m glad I brought the Big Agnes!

Recently, one of the women that I am in BGT with completed a 15 hike along the John Muir Trail. The trail itself is roughly 220 miles long and stretches through some of the most beautiful wilderness from the Yosemite valley to the top of Mount Whitney.

I strongly encourage you to read this trail report. However, be forewarned, reading about such adventures may make you have the urge to take 2 weeks off work to attempt such a feat yourself. Thanks Rebecca for such a nice report. It helps those of us stuck in the Midwest dream of tree lines and waterfalls.

I found this online today after reading some information about brain cysts. We all know that drinking untreated or unfiltered water is bad…. but just how bad is it to drink from that crystal clear stream. Well, here’s how bad it can get.

The Hydatid Cyst forms from a tapeworm found in fecal matter of dogs, wolf, moose, and other animals. The problem arises when one of those animals takes a crap upstream from or around a water source. These little buggers burrow into your brain and grow into puss filled sacks with millions of little hard shelled tapeworms.

You can see by the video above how big these sacks grow. In untreated animals, these sacks can grow as big as footballs. The one extracted from the brain of the patient above is about the size of a softball.

I gotta tell you…. seeing this made me seriously question the effectiveness of own filter. Thankfully my filter is adequate enough to properly protect me from this very situation. I’d suggest you make sure yours is as well.

Part of the reason that I haven’t been able to blog much this past week has been due to work around the house. My wife and spend most of the day last Saturday trying to get the pool opened up. There were a number of leaves still on the pool cover and a good deal of water.

Being the optimist that I am, I decided that the best way to get the cover off would be to wrap up the leaves and water and just pull it off like a giant ziplock filled with liquid. Big mistake. As it turns out, there was probably 15 gallons of water still stuck on the cover. Since water weight 8.34 lbs without the leaves, this was quite a load. In the end I had to hop in the pool and boost the water out from beneath. Next year I’ll be sure to drain the cover first to make sure everything runs a bit more smooth.

After I got the cover off I found that part of the pool liner had slipped down. This definitely had to be repaired prior to me filling it back up with water. I had to remove every top plate and reinstall the liner and liner wedge.

I also had to replace the pump this year. As the setup was 7 years old, and the pump had sat outside every winter, the bushings and bearings finally went out on the motor. The repair shop wanted $80 to replace these, but they couldn’t’ guarantee that they would break the impeller when the went to remove it from the motor. This simply wasn’t a risk I was willing to take for a possible fix. I ended up getting a new pump and motor combo from the local pool supply shop, I figure I’ll just store the entire unit in the shed in the winter as opposed to leaving it out in the elements.

After vacuuming and brushing the liner, letting the Polaris 65 run overnight, and vacuuming again the pool finally looks nice and clean. I just hope it stays that way as we’re supposed to have thunderstorms the next few days.

The night was long and colder than expected at East Collins Campground. I faired rather well in my 15F Big Agnes bag, but dad didn’t do so hot. He was using my 37 F Montbell Super Stretch Down Hugger and said that every time he rolled over the bag sucked in cold air and made him shiver. I have yet to use this bag, so I can’t say I’ve experienced this but it would seem to make sense. If you increase the interior volume of the bag air must come from somewhere to fill that volume.

Around 4 am I finally woke up for a few minutes. This is highly unusual for me as I’m usually up at least a couple times during the night. I was finally starting to feel better, but still needed that extra few hours of sleep to feel fully rested.

As the sun was breaking through the clouds, I could hear Coy and Dad already up talking and preparing breakfast. I knew there was no way that I would be able to eat anything still, so I decided to lay in the tent for a bit longer before braving the cold. It wasn’t freezing or anything but if I remember correctly, the temps did drop down into the 40’s F.

I found out exactly how well the Big Agnes Dual Core pad worked too. As I was packing everything up, I had to sit on the ground and purge the air out of the mattress. Within 2 minutes my legs were already hurting from the hard ground. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to thin pads.

It was shortly after 8 when we all got packed and started out again. I did end up eating a fruit cup, though most definitely not one of those crappy mandarin orange cups! We knew it was going to be a long hard trek back to the vehicles even though we were on the plateau trail and didn’t have to cross the valley. The going started off rather well. I was able to make the lead pace and get out in front of the others by a few hundred yards to begin with.

About 2 hours into the day, we had already covered nearly 4 miles when we met up with a Boy Scout Troop from Huntsville, AL. They were preparing for a section hike on the AT and figured that the trail they were taking through Savage Gulf would be comparable in difficulty. I decided it was wise to keep my mouth shut about the ease of travel their trail had taken versus the degree of difficulty we’d experienced yesterday.

As we pushed on, we made relatively good time, but it was easily apparent that I had begun to drag along again. When we stopped near the scouts Coy was a good 30 minutes behind us, but that didn’t last long. As we were about a mile away from our last rest session, Coy pushed on past me and dad. I simply didn’t have the energy to keep going. I had pushed myself so hard the day before and made myself so queasy that I was simply ready to get my butt home.

Within the last 1.5 miles is a beautiful waterfall that we decided to stop at for a rest. I had been there on my last trip to the Gulf, but I knew dad wanted pictures. Throughout the whole day he had stuck rather close and didn’t get a chance to go on any of the side trails to get pictures from the cliff edge. I felt bad, so I decided that this would be a good time to let him get a good deal of pictures; that and the fact that I was simply exhausted. We dropped pack on top of a flat rock overlooking the waterfall and went down tot he waters edge. it wasn’t long before I left him there to go back to the rock and rest on my pack for a while.

The last 1.5 miles was definitely the easiest, and I almost cried when I saw the vehicles.

I forgot to mention in the first day’s post that Dad lost his brand new OR Sombrero within the first 5 minutes of the trip. He thought he’d be slick and attach it to his pack with a slipknot so he could put it on if he needed without having to de-pack. Next time I’ll bet he uses a carabiner and just asks for help. Anyway, he stopped in at the ranger station and was able to retrieve it. Someone had been nice enough to pin it to the pegboard outside the ranger station the night before. This was definitely a blessing. The usual trail rule is if you find it, it’s yours. Most of this logic has to do with weight; if I pack out the extra weight, I get to keep the gear. It’s often been a thought of mine to throw my hiking partners off cliffs for their gear, but then I realize that I wouldn’t be able to use said gear in jail anyway; not to mention my fear of Bubba.

We packed up and headed home… our first stop McDonalds!

After leaving Horsepound falls, we traveled up the Collins Gulf trail towards Collins West on our way to our final destination of Collins East Campground. About an hour up the trail we all decided to stop for a bit of a rest at which point I grabbed one of the fruit cups that we’d purchased before the trip. Note to self: Don’t ever get the Wal-Mart brand Mandarin Oranges. It wasn’t very good, and I knew as soon as I tasted it that I would likely be sick.

Anyway… we pushed on toward the campground but the trail kept getting more and more difficult. There were a few more waterfalls and some beautiful scenery, but I was looking toward the prize; the campground, my tent, and a bit of rest. As we hit the trail head junction between Collins West and Collins East I saw a sign stating that we only had 1.4 miles to go.

It was the toughest 1.4 miles I have ever walked!

Let me give you a bit of a map reading lesson. If you look at the area right beneath Sutter Falls on the map above you’ll see a few topographic lines with plenty of white space in between. However, if you look right above the Collins West parking lot you’ll see dark topographic lines without any white spaces in between. Now, typical topographic maps are based off 20 ft. elevation changes. This means that between every black line on the map, there is a 20 ft change in elevation.

If you’ll notice… the lines between Collins West and Collins East are so close you can’t even see red trail lines much less any white areas depicting elevation change. Needless to say this was exceptionally rocky and steep terrain; terrain I certainly wasn’t expecting.

By the time I stumbled into camp I was feeling quite a bit nauseous. I wanted to get in bed as soon as I could so I setup my tent, unrolled my sleeping bag, and tried to lay there few minutes to let my stomach settle down. After getting back up to finish inflating my air mattress I felt that old familiar feeling in my throat. Remember those Mandarin Oranges; I barely got into the woods prior to having them upchuck onto the forest floor.

Once again, dinner was slim, as I couldn’t hardly keep anything down, and I was simply ready to go home.

Stay tuned for Day 3’s trail information.

Before continuing with the trail report, let me give you a bit of background on Day 2. When we were still in Nashville at Cumberland Transit, I talked to one of the salespeople about our trip plans. See, initially our trip was to stop at Saw Mill campground around noon on the second day and relax. However, he mentioned the coming rain, and a number of beautiful waterfalls along an alternative trail that would be rocking with the weeks weather. After looking at the map, it appeared that the trail he suggested would only add 10 miles to the total trip, but this would be split over 2 days, so an additional 5 miles didn’t look like that much… We were wrong on so many levels.

The Big Agnes sleeping bag and Dual Core air pad worked awesome. We were sleeping on bunks inside the cabin and I wasn’t able to feel the wood at all that night! My stomach was still feeling a bit woozy though. I wasn’t able to eat much the night before and it looked like this was going to be the case today as well as I was only able to choke down half of my breakfast; definitely not enough to keep my energy level up throughout the day. After filtering water again and cleaning up the inside of the cabin, we pushed on toward Collins East campsite.

Travel the first few hours went nice and smooth. The terrain was rocky and uneven, but traversing it wasn’t much of a problem since it was mostly downhill. We stopped in a dry riverbed for a bit of a snack. Since Savage gulf is on a plateau with numerous caves underneath, the water that is so vast at waterfalls and rivers on the top of the plateau drains into underground rivers long before be bottom of the canyon. It’s weird to be sitting in the middle of a wide riverbed cluttered with boulders weighing multiple tons and not see a river rushing by.

Shortly after noon we reached Saw Mill campground and our original destination we stopped at Schwoon Springs to fill up our water supplies again. Schwoon springs rare in that it originates from deep within the sides of the rock cliffs and breaks through the side before plunging back underground. The water is nice and cool due to it’s underground travel, and the area around feels like a chill box. We took our time here and enjoyed not having our packs on our backs and the cool air that we were blessed with.

About two hours after leaving the springs we stumbled upon Hoursepound Falls. This was easily the largest waterfall we would see this trip with millions of gallons of water flowing over the falls every minute. It was here that Coy almost took a dip into the rushing stream. He was taking pictures of the falls and dropped his camera right into the water. Luckily he was kneeling right beside a tree and the roots created a little pool where his camera hit. This kept it from being swept downstream by the rushing water, and kept Coy from having to dive in to save his camera. Horsepound falls was the last bit of peace and rest we would see until we hit camp, a grueling 4 hours later.

Stay tuned for Day 2: Part 2

After getting a late start Thursday morning, dad and I made our way south toward Nashville to hit a few stores before heading out into the woods. Dad needed a few more items, especially rain gear, due to the weather forecasted for the weekend.

Our first stop was a store called Cumberland Transit, located on the west side of Nashville. They have a large assortment of outdoor gear including shoes, clothing, hiking and backpacking, climbing, and even mountain biking gear. They are also real good about having a clearance rack located in the back of the store. From the clearance rack dad was able to find a great deal on a Patagonia Shirt, and was able to pick up an OR Nimbus Sombrero, and a pair of Marmot PreCip full zip pants.

After leaving CT, we headed over to Blue Ridge Mountain Sports. I’ve always had great service here and they have always given us wonderful advice. Once again they were right on the money with my suggestions. While dad had a Helly Hanson, he really needed some sort of Gore-Tex fabric that sheds water while allowing the fabric to breathe. After trying on a few models, he walked out with one of the new Mountain Hardware Typhoon jackets. Such a nice jacket indeed!

We finally got out of the stores and headed down to the Savage Gulf ranger station where we met Coy. He had been waiting for a while and was definitely ready to hit the trail. We threw on our packs and hit the trail shortly after 3pm on our way to Hobbs Cabin. We stopped after an hour or so for a snack, but finally made it to the cabin around 6 pm.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling well at all so after a small dinner I decided to hit the sack for a long nights rest. I woke up around midnight, finally feeling better, and slept nicely the rest of the night.

More on the 2007 Savage Gulf trip to come. Additional pictures can be found here:
http://www.corridor9.net/gallery/v/Camping/SavageGulf2007/

I’ve reworked some of the links in the sidebar to more adequately resemble the pages that I visit the most. I would encourage you to visit some of these links and check out what some of my friends are up to.

Callipidder’s Blog: Rebecca has a wonderful backpacking and hiking blog. She also tests for BackpackGearTest.org and has some of her reports online.

Paige’s Smugmug: I’ve hiked with Paige before and consider her very knowledgeable on lightweight backpacking. I am absolutely awestruck at some of the photos she has on her page.

Stiglu: I’ve also hiked with Jason Lustig and consider photo’s to be exceptionally beautiful as well. He is the one who turned me onto the Nikon D40 camera, especially after seeing the tremendous pictures he’s taken with his D40.

We’ve finalized our trip plans to Savage Gulf, so I thought I’d upload a picture so you can see.

The first day we start out at the ranger station and will likely have to make a mad dash to get to Hobs cabin before nightfall. Because of the tremendous drop off from the cliff to the canyon floor, hiking at night is strictly prohibited. Our second day will be much more leisurely and we should be seeing Saw Mill Campground sometime shortly after lunch. This will provide us with ample opportunity to day hike around the area. The third day will be a bit of a climb from the canyon floor up to the rim and back toward Savage Falls camp. I don’t foresee a problem with us getting there fairly early in the afternoon. That next morning we will have a simple jaunt back to the vehicles, and a long drive home.

I can’t wait.

The Big Agnes Lost Ranger arrived a few days ago with a bit of a surprise. Because Big Agnes wanted to make sure that we had the proper sleeping pad to test the bag with, everyone was issued a Dual Core pad in addition to the sleeping bag. This is a definite plus, and a wonderful opportunity to test gear that I’ve not been exposed to before.

I’m also looking forward to the Snowpeak Giga stove that should be shipping by Friday. I’ve never used a canister stove before, and from all I’ve read this is going to be a great test. Compared to my MSR Whisperlite Internationale, the Giga is lighter, smaller, and will allow me to simmer; something that has always eluded me with the Whisperlite.

I’d like to thank BackpackGearTest for allowing me the opportunity to test such gear.

Over the past few days I’ve been busy tying to get my EMT certification in order before it expires and finalizing a number of BackpackGearTest reports. Unfortunately I’ve either had a report due or the responsibility to edit other reports every week for the past month.

However, yesterday I was able to get a bit of time to work on the boat. After cleaning out a number of leaves and throwing away more than a few items of trash I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Because the boat was rigged more as a fishing vessel, I’ve had to remove some of the depth finder wires running throughout the hull. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to remove the duck blind poles yet, but we’ll just have to see about that.

I was hoping to get it in the water tomorrow, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. I’ll keep you updated on the progress. It would be nice to take the family fishing while Abby is down though.

With all this hot weather lately, I have been thinking about opening the pool. Of course Kristie is telling me no, but she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I have no problem braving the cold… maybe a bit of a polar bear swim until it warms up?

Anyway, while I love the cold, I am looking to get outside without having to wear a coat. So what date do you think I should open the pool?