Uphillhike

Author: mmbowden60

  • Day 1 – Bartram – AT Loop

    Started on Hwy 19 at Winding Stair road. 5 miles on Bartram to AT And Cheoah Bald. Another 8 miles to the Nantahala Outdoor Center on Hwy 19. Another 0.8 miles to Rufus Morgan Shelter on AT.

    Didn’t see anyone on the Bartram trail. It follows Ledbetter Creek with beautiful cascades and falls. After climbing 3000 ft in 5 miles, the rest of the day added to the exhaustion.

    Now I am sitting at the Rivers End Restaurant at the NOC before hiking the last bit to the shelter. I slack packed this section. The outfitters store held my full pack for me.

    Added bonus was coin operated shower at the NOC.


    Railroad tracks at beginning of hike at Winding Stair Rd. I crossed these same tracks at the end of the day, only 6.3 miles downriver.


    Bridge over Ledbetter Creek. After this, the trail climbs climbs climbs.


    Finally reached end of Bartram near Cheoah Bald.

    Hiked on Friday, October 23, 2015
    Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

    Location:Appalachian National Scenic Trl,Bryson City,United States

  • Day 2 – NC Bartram Trail

    Day 2 – NC Bartram Trail

    After breakfast of coffee and oatmeal with walnuts and dried blueberries I finally got my stuff packed. The other Mark B had been packed up ready to go a long time ahead of me. We soon discovered that we had not yet reached Jone’s Gap at all. We had assumed that we were camping about 0.2 miles past Jone’s Gap, but in fact we had camped about 0.2 miles short of Jone’s Gap.

    The must see view was a 0.3 mile hike off the trail to the top of Whiterock Mountain. There was a large granite face down the opposite side of the mountain with wide views. This is a popular spot for a day hike from Jone’s Gap and back. I recommend it.

    Panorama from Whiterock Mountain.
    Top of Fishhawk Mountain. The view is not worth the steep climb. It is a tree obstructed view. Sign at turn off shows trail length of 528 feet. The Bartram Trail guide states 1440 feet. The trail guide is right about the length, but incorrectly describes the view. The trees must have grown since the guide was written.
    Proof that I climbed to the top of Fishhawk mountain.
    Our last high view on this section of the Bartram trail.
    This old school bus is not far from Wolf Rock overlook and is well up the mountain. How it got here is anybody’s guess. It is right in the middle of the trail.
    Largest and most unusual tree burl I have seem. Burls are formed when a tree’s growth hormone gets hijacked, usually by a bacterium. This burl is unusually symmetric.

    – Hiked on Sunday, October 18, 2015
    – Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

  • Day 1 – NC Bartram Trail

    Day 1 – NC Bartram Trail

    Saturday- October 17, 2015

    Lying under my tarp writing this with the campfire smoke burning my eyes.

    My friend, Mark and I dropped his car at Buckeye Creek and we drove my car to Hale Ridge Rd where we began hiking north. Still in the 40’s by late morning.

    After crossing HWY 106 at mile 3.6 we went up log steps and proceeded up steep wash straight up the fall line. The trail turned left and began switchbacks just past the steps but we missed that. Eventually we were wandering around lost high up the mountain. We climbed up steep rock exposures and wandered a number of false trails, always trying to bear left in an effort to rejoin the trail. Unfortunately, most clear trails led us right. We climbed to avoid impenetrable laurel. To avoid undergrowth we climbed rock faces where we found them. I used my Iphone app GPS to bear closer to the trail GPS trail track. Reaching difficult laurel, I dropped my pack and slipped through the laurel thicket then climbed more rock until GPS showed me nearly on top of the trail. I didn’t know whether to trust the GPS track that I had downloaded from the Internet. In any case, too far to turnaround without knowing, I bushwhacked straight up through briars and overgrown laurel toward what appeared to be level area 30 feet above. Emerging through the vines and thorns I stood on the trail next to one of the Bartram’s yellow blazes attached to a tree. I yelled down to Mark that I found the trail and heard a whoop in reply. We were exhausted, I still had to descend to retrieve my backpack and repeat the last part of the ascent. My forearms were bloody, torn up by briars. We had emerged close to the top of Scaly Mountain. At Scaly Mountain, we took a break to enjoy the views and chowed down on the Subway sandwiches that we had brought along.

    The last part of the day was spent ascending toward Jones Gap. Around 11 miles we found a flat spot to camp. We camped 0.2 miles past Jones Gap without ever coming out on the road. Apparently, the trail has been rerouted and the guide is out of date. (Note: 10/18/2015 – The trail hadn’t been rerouted. We were actually still short of Jones Gap.)

    We pitched tent and tarp, ate dinner of stovetop stuffing and Moon Cerse. Built a fire and ate marshmallows and fig newtons and fell asleep exhausted and happy to be back on the real trail.


    Mark during break while lost.


    – Mark (me) on Scaly Mtn . Back on trail at last.

    Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

    Location:Retreat Ln,Highlands,United States

  • Day 8 – Rain

    Ridge Lake to Snoqualmie

    6 miles

    The rain and wind started lightly, but in very little time I had water dripping from the roof at the lower end of my tent. I woke up at 1 AM and realized that the foot of my bag was in a puddle of water. I scrunched up toward the upper end of the tent and attempted to stay dry. Water was also leaking through the seam for the rain fly door and water coated the entire inside of the fly. I need to get rid of this Sierra Designs flashlight tent.

    Big puddle of water at bottom of my tent. See the sagging roof at top of photo with water dripping.
    We arrived out of the mists of the mountains seen in the background. Photo take from Summit Pancake House where 10 wet dirty smelly hikers piled equally wet dirty smelly gear in the entrance vestibule before eating a big lunch.

    – Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

    Location:Snoqualmie

  • Day 7 – Chikamin Ridge

    Spectacle Lake to Ridge Lake

    12 miles

    I packed early then rolled out my pad on a rock to relax while enjoying the view of Spectacle Lake and surrounding peaks. A hummingbird was sitting on a pine tree nearby. I was motionless as I attempted to see how long it would rest if undisturbed. In a flash, it was hovering about 10 inches over my chest close to my nose. In order to extend the moment, I remained motionless. It hovered seconds as it drifted closer to my nose. I wondered about the danger of the long sharp beak that was clearly too close. At that moment the hummingbird disappeared.

    This section of the hike was supposed to be dry and I only had a liter of water. We questioned a number of hikers passing the other direction and they confirmed that it was dry; however, after reaching the top of the first climb from Spectacle Lake we found a small muddy looking pond right off the trail. We pumped water from this pond. I cameled up by drinking both my bottles and refilled here. About a half mile further down the trail, I hiked off trail to the right for about a quarter of a mile to refill at a better lake. The others hiked on and I soon caught up.

    Much of the walking was an ascent across steep open slopes. We reached the ridge top and crossed over to Chikamin Ridge. From this ridge there were views of the valley below that extends miles toward Snoqualmie. I was soon startled by hearing a sharp whistle. It was Marmots whistling. I lagged behind the others and let the Marmots continue to whistle. Eventually, one of them growled at me. I hope it was a Marmot growling and not a Mountain Lion. 🙂

    While we continued to hike across an extremely long section of exposed slope just below the top of the ridge clouds thickened and grew gray. Up ahead the trail crossed a section on top of the ridge. I suggested that we keep on moving to avoid a storm while on these slopes. The storm didn’t seem to fully form so we stopped for lunch. After lunch some rain and wind started up and although we were on the ridge it was not intense. I hiked in my rain pants and hooded jacket.

    Click on photo a couple of times to really zoom in and find our hiking party making its way beneath these Chikamin Ridge peaks.

    Alaska Mountain ridge between Joe’s Lake and Alaska Lake. Rested here for about 45 minutes and read Kindle while waiting on others to catch up. Zoom in to see the birds that were pecking at my pack. I could tell right away that they were thieves. One pulled on a strap, then tried to pull apart a pocket on the pack. Then the bird hopped over to where I was laying and was about to peck the bottom of the boot I was wearing. There were vertical drop-offs on the trail on both sides of this ridge top. Particularly a section on the south side. From here there is a short side trail to the top of Alaska Mountain.

  • Day 6 – Gorgeous Glaciers

    Easily our hardest day of the trip. We started earlier than usual at 6:30 AM. I never have trouble getting ready before others and I had plenty of time for my coffee and oatmeal with blueberries. We started the day with a long switchback climb and ended the day with a hot dusty climb through fireweed and burned forest to Spectacle Lake. We didn’t finish up hiking until after 7 PM. Matt and I hiked ahead at the beginning and the end of the day. We really moved out on the ascents.

    Along the way we were treated to the most spectacular views yet of jagged mountain tops draped in snowfields, glaciers, and waterfalls.

    DSC02644

    Long early morning climb view of cloud enshrouded Bear’s Breasts.

    Late arrival at campsite on Spectacle Lake.