Hiking in the Smokies

Last week, Wednesday March 18, we hiked Scott Mountain trail in the Smoky's from it's junction with Schoolhouse Gap (2000 ft) to it's junction with Crooked Arm (3400 ft), and back. We saw some early wildflowers blooming, but none in profusion. We saw bloodroot, spring beauty, toothwort, hepatica, and trailing arbutus. This past week, March 25, I walked up the first 1/4 mile of Chestnut Top trail, and saw the above as well as chickweed blooming, and yellow trillium, T. grandiflorum, phacelia, and stonecrop in bud. In this next week, if it doesn't get too cold this weekend, there should be lots of wildflowers popping out, especially below 2500 ft. Look at the photo album for Scott Mountain to see the early bloomers we saw on that hike last week.

As part of Great Smoky Mountains 75th anniversary celebration, the Knoxville
Symphony Orchestra (KSO) will perform pop and light classical compositions during a 90-minute outdoor concert in Cades Cove on June 13, beginning at 3 p.m. Some favorites will include The Star Spangled Banner, Overture to The Cowboys, Beautiful Dreamer, Ashokan Farewell, America the Beautiful, selections from Sound of Music and more.

A vehicle pass will be required to attend the concert. Vehicle passes will go on sale tomorrow,
Saturday, March 28, at 9 a.m., and then again on Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3
between 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. until all passes are sold. Passes can only be purchased by calling
the KSO Box Office at 865/291-3310. Only two passes will be issued per person. The
cost of the pass is $25 for vehicles with up to a 15-passenger capacity and $50 for
vehicles with a capacity of greater than 15. Friends of the Smokies, who are sponsoring the event, will donate a portion of the sales to the Park.

Note that the vehicle pass, along with a receipt, will be mailed by the ticket office
and both are required for admission. These two items must be clearly displayed on the
driver’s side of the dashboard BEFORE entering the national park.

Cades Cove is located on the western end of the national park in Blount County near
Townsend, Tennessee. Historic cabins, farmhouses and churches that date from the 19th
and 20th Centuries are maintained in Cades Cove. The concert will be held in a large
open grassy field/meadow adjacent to the Cades Cove Visitor Center at Cable Mill,
located half way around the 11-mile one way Cades Cove Loop Road.

More information regarding amenities, parking, etc. can be found at www.greatsmokies75th.org

Access to the Symphony area will open at 10 a.m. and it is recommended that you arrive early.
All pass holders are encouraged to fill each seat in their vehicle. 1,500 vehicle passes will be issued with an estimated number of attendees expected at between 4,000 and 6,000.

The Cades Cove Loop Road to Hyatt Lane will be open from sunrise (around 6:30 a.m.) to 12 p.m for non-concert traffic. The Saturday morning bicycle closure will be cancelled. The far west end of the Cove will be closed at Hyatt Lane (the second crossroad) and motorists and bicyclists will be directed across the valley to exit Cades Cove. The detour will shorten the length of the trip to an 8-mile tour of Cades Cove. The Hyatt Lane bypass will eliminate access to the Cades Cove Visitor Center and Cable Mill area as well as the several trailheads located on the western end of Cades Cove. At 12 p.m., general access to Cades Cove will be terminated at the Townsend Wye near Townsend.

NOTE TO HIKERS:
All the trails on the western end of Cades Cove will be closed on Saturday, June 13, as they are located beyond the Hyatt Lane closure.
Trails along Laurel Creek Road – No access after 12 p.m, June 13.
Trails in the Tremont area - No access after 12 p.m, June 13.

Nineteen of us started hiking out of Abrams campground, in the SW corner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You can find this hike description, and a map of the trails in my Day Hiker’s Guide. Click on "photos," above to see the pictures I took on this hike.

We drove on Foothills Parkway and cut through Happy Valley to get to the campground, and the views of the mountains in the morning mist were spectacular. We parked near the ranger station, then walked through the Abrams Creek campground to get to the Cooper Road trailhead. After we had hiked about a mile on Cooper Road trail, six of us left the group to hike on Little Bottoms trail. The trail is in very good condition at this time, following extensive trail maintenance by the NPS to repair many eroded sections that had been there for years.

We saw very few wildflowers on this hike, due in part I imagine to the extreme drought we are experiencing in east Tennessee. However, we did see a few white turtlehead plants (see photo album). We hiked Little Bottoms to its intersection with Hatcher Mountain, then crossed Abrams Creek to the Hanna Mountain trail. Abrams Creek was the lowest any of had seen it in years, and we were amazed to be able to rock hop across it. It was a fairly warm day, so one of us opted to wade across in bare feet. You can see how low the water was by looking in my photo album.

The fall foliage was just beginning to show at the lower elevations, and we had some pretty colors on Hanna Mountain trail. The trail itself is in extremely good condition, and provided a soft under footing. I found a few plants of purple, or field, milkwort (Polygala sanquinea), a flower I don’t remember seeing before, although it is listed as common in Wildflowers of Tennessee by Carman (2001).

We also saw lots of “Hearts a’busting” (Euonymus americanus) – these plants have had more berries on them this year than I have ever seen before. The surprising thing about these fruits is that nature has chosen to put magenta and orange together in the pod and seeds.

We finished this 8-mile hike by continuing down Rabbit Creek trail, coming once again to Abrams Creek at the ranger station. Although there is a bridge across the creek, it was quite warm by this time so we all waded barefoot across the creek.