TN-NC Adventure--Day 7

I ended the last post on the way to Nashville on Monday afternoon. I was flying home Wednesday morning so the plan was to spend Tuesday night in Nashville but find something to do on Tuesday. I don’t remember where we stayed Monday night. I think it was somewhere around Knoxville, Tennessee but the motels on Monday and Tuesday night are less than memorable. You get what you pay for.

Katie had looked up things to do between Asheville and Nashville and found Frozen Head State Park . The criteria was somewhere we could hike in a place that Kirby would enjoy. She’d been a real trooper throughout this trip (and remember that she’d already been away from home for almost 4 weeks) and we didn’t want a hike that was too steep, too long, or where there was a body of water that was off limits (too deep, too rapid, etc).

Katie found Frozen Head State Park and we selected the Panther Branch trail.

This trail followed a creek that was accessible and fit the criteria above.

It would have been easier walking to stay on the trail, but Kirby liked picking her way along the rocks and in the water.

I saw a cluster of swallowtail butterflies in the wet dirt along the creek. Cluster? I googled a “group of butterflies”. The official word seems to be a Kaleidoscope, with other references to flutter, flight, swarm and wing. You learned something reading this blog post!

Eventually we were back on the trail to avoid a lot of branches and trees across the creek. We found that we weren’t alone. We made our was down to this waterfall and talked with a group of moms who meet here with their kids every so often. .

Kirby enjoyed the waterfall.

We spent an hour or so there and then walked back down the creek. I found the kaleidoscope of butterflies at the same place.

I read that adult butterflies consume only liquids and sometimes cluster in places that have extra minerals that they need. I don’t know if that’s the case here.

This is what happens when the photographer gets too close.

Katie and Kirby continued their hike down the creek and I took the trail.

We finished together on the trail. Then we headed for Nashville.

I had never stopped at a Buc-ee’s, but Katie is a big fan. We got gas and food here.

In the continuing theme of doing something that Kirby would find enjoyable we looked up Taylor Swift’s favorite things to do in Nashville. Kirby is a fan. We found a top five list and we visited three places.

It seems that Taylor likes to walk around Radnor Lake for some peace and quiet.

We walked the trail …

…and sat by the lake.

We found another less-than-memorable motel to spend the night. Katie went out for pizza which we ate in the room. I will remember the lightning storm that night—at least the motel was dry.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 3

This was Friday, the last day we had for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were to be in Marshall, North Carolina by the evening for the next part of this trip. There is a main road through the park from north to south and Newfound Gap is half way across.

I cropped this photo from a sign that explained that the development of Great Smoky Mountains National Park was “led more by economic boosters than conservationists”. Auto clubs pushed hard for the park and in the late 1920’s crews from North Carolina and Tennessee worked to meet up at Newfound Gap and the road was completed in 1932.

This is cropped from the same photo of that sign.

The current state line marker.

The Appalachian Trail follows the Tennessee/North Carolina State line almost all the way through the park from southwest to northeast borders. (At the western end the trail drops south off the state border before it reaches the Park boundary.)

I wanted to remember these details and photographing a sign is the easiest way for me to do that.

According to that earlier photo we could have hiked all the way to Maine but this stop was our only experience with the Appalachian Trail.

We stopped at the trail to the observation tower on Clingmans Dome, at 6643’, the highest peak in the National Park and in Tennessee. The elevation is higher than the other parts of the park and the vegetation is different. We saw more flowers blooming here and plenty of pollinating insects.

There is a half mile trail up to the peak and then this ramp to the observation tower.

From the tower there is a 360 degree view of the mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina .

Selfie time.

A panorama view of the ramp.

That’s Katie and Kirby heading down.

More flowers and insects along the trail.

Maybe there is such dense congregation of insects because it is too late in the season for flowers in the lower elevations.

Just an interesting leaf.

By early afternoon we were on our way to Marshall, North Carolina.

One last shot of the mountains near the park.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 2

Here is Day 1 of this adventure. At this rate I won’t finish for months. I’d better speed up—there is lots more going on here to share. We had all of Thursday to spend at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We chose to explore Cades Cove and hike a trail to a waterfall in that area. We tried to get an early start because we saw from the previous day how crowded the roads and parking areas could get as more visitors showed up.

We started the the Cades Cove loop drive. Our first stop was not a marked one, but we were on a one-way loop road with no traffic and there was a horse at the fence!

I like to follow a map as we explore and I learned new terminology. I was not familiar with points on the map called Bald or Gap or Cove. In the west I think Gregory Bald, Andrews Bald, Silers Bald would be called Mountain. Newfound Gap, Deals Gap, and Black Camp Gap would be called Pass. And a Cove might be called Valley. Maybe it all has to do with scale of the geographical features or it’s just something particular to this region.

We picked up the auto tour booklet for Cades Cove, and followed along while we drove, getting out of the car at the points of interest. According to the booklet the area was probably originally inhabited by Cherokee people, but “various conflicts, epidemics, and treaties made it difficult…to remain in Tennessee lands”. In the early 1800’s white families settled. They cleared land and built log homes. Corn was a major crop. The cove is encircled by an 11-mile one-way road. On Wednesdays this road is closed to vehicles and open only for bicycles and pedestrians—that’s a great idea! Fortunately we were there on Thursday.

John Oliver Place is one of 80 historic buildings in the park. We were interested in the construction of the various buildings. The materials range from round logs with notched corners to later frame buildings that use sawed wood. Katie, still trying to design a barn on her rocky Texas property, kept pointing out the “foundation”—piles of rocks that held up many of the structures.

I thought that I would remember everything I photographed, but of course I don’t, especially since it has now been a busy three weeks since this trip. I think I have everything identified correctly with the help of the tour booklet I kept. The booklet tells that a Methodist Church was built of logs in the 1820s and then replaced by this one in 1902. It pointed out the two front doors, indicated a custom of men and women sitting on different sides. However this church didn’t follow that custom, but used the building plans of a congregation that did.

Inside the Methodist Church.

We drove to the half way point on the loop road and parked at the beginning of the Abrams Falls Trail. The trail to the falls is about 2-1/2 miles through the woods.

The map indicates “moderate” difficulty. It is a well-maintained trail with a fair amount of uphill.

This bridge is over a creek that flows into Abrams Creek.

People were spread out on the trail and it didn’t seem too crowded, but there was a crowd at the falls.

It looks as though Kirby is about to dive, but she just enjoyed climbing on the rocks in the middle of the water. No diving.

Katie is photographing Kirby with a butterfly on her knee.

I often like to identify plants in my photos, but I it was a strange feeling here because I didn’t recognize anything…

…even the trees and shrubs. It is all so different than what I am used to. It would sure be interesting to see in the fall and spring.

After the hike we continued the Cades Cove loop drive. There are several buildings at the Cable Mill Historic area. This is a blacksmith shop.

I took photos of several interesting details of construction, but they aren’t all included here. I admire this horseshoe hinge.

Cantilever barn.

There is a long ditch and then earthen flume from a mill-pond to the wheel of the grist mill. It is still operating for demonstrations.

Inside the mill building is a grist mill where corn is ground.

Another large barn.

I think this is the Henry Whitehead Place. According to the tour brochure, the small building in the back was built with logs when a cabin was needed quickly. The larger house was built of square sawn logs and the two buildings are a contrast in construction types in the Smokies.

Another cantilever barn, a replica of an earlier one that was here. Hay could be stored above and fed to animals in the stalls below.

I think this is the Carter Shields cabin, build in the early 1900s.

We spent a full day exploring all the things to see on the Cades Cove loop and hiking to Abrams Falls. One of the most exciting things was on the drive at the end of the day when we spotted this black bear!

TN-NC Adventure -- Day 1

It’s about time that I sorted my photos and told the story of this trip. We finished the State Fair (blog post) on Sunday, July31. It was time for Kirby to get home to Texas after being in California for three weeks. I wanted to go to the Jacob Sheep Breeders meeting in North Carolina on the following weekend, so considered delivering her to Texas on my way to North Carolina. Instead, Katie had proposed the idea that became this adventure.

On Tuesday Kirby said her goodbyes to the sheep, giving Jade a last hug.

We boarded a Southwest flight in Sacramento that left at 6:15 p.m. and arrived in Nashville, Tennessee around 2 a.m.

Kirby and I gathered the luggage. I didn’t really need two big suitcases except that it was a way to transport Kirby’s birthday presents, including a Breyer horse stable (see photo at the end of this blog post), home. Katie had driven from her home in Texas to meet us. That was about a 14 hour drive for her. She’d been sleeping in the parking lot but was ready to continue the journey. We headed east towards our first stop, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Kirby had been asking for a meal at Denny’s, and we found one on our way to the park, in Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg—I don’t remember which.

We all loaded up on breakfast, figuring that our next main meal would be dinner.

We made it to the park a little after 8 a.m.

Our first hike was on a nature trail along Fighting Creek behind the Visitor Center.

There are several cabins and other buildings left in the park, although many are gone. This is the Ownby cabin. There was once a school, store, church, and post office in this area.

One thing that struck me when I first started walking on these trails, was the fact that I didn’t know any of the plants. All my hiking has been in the western states. I may not remember all the plant names at this point, but at least the plants are familiar. This was a whole different world. The Visitor Center has a display that describes five different forest ecosystems—Spruce-Fir Forest, Northern Hardwood Forest, Cove Hardwood Forest, Hemlock Forest, and Pine-and-Oak Forest. Sadly, there are also serious threats to many of these forests from infestations of non-native insects and fungus.

The first of many species of butterflies that we saw.

One of the signs said that mushrooms “reach record diversity” here. I took photos of some that I had never seen.

We took a short trail to the farm of Noah “Bud” Ogle, who lived here from 1883-1925.

There is a barn and house still standing.

Signs said that the forest is reclaiming the land which once included cornfields.

The forest seems to be reclaiming this mill, complete with flume that directed river water to the grindstone.

Another view of the flume.

At the end of this day we stopped at a place called The Sinks. This is a spot of cascading water on the Little River created in the early 1900’s when loggers used dynamite to break up a log jam in the river. My photo doesn’t show the rushing water but part of the river that provided a refreshing break for visitors.

We ended our day at a motel in Gatlinburg. To be continued…