“Falling Rock” in Cataloochee November 23, 2014
Posted by Jenny in bushwhacking, hiking, Smoky Mountains.Tags: Beech Grove School, Cataloochee, Falling Rock Creek, Lost Bottom Creek, Palmer Creek, Reverend Will Camel
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Falling Rock location.
The strange thing about the famous “Falling Rock” is that it is not located on Falling Rock Creek. It’s located on Palmer Creek, very close to the mouth of Lost Bottom Creek, on the left side of Palmer as you go upstream, but below the confluence with Falling Rock Creek.
For those of you not familiar with the story, here’s the deal: Sometime in the 1920s, Reverend Will Camel, a preacher from Cosby, TN, went camping up Palmer Creek with a friend. It was a cool evening in the spring when they found a cave-like rock formation and decided to stay there for the night. They lit a big fire to keep warm. Sometime during the night, the heat of the fire warmed up a rock slab to the point that it came crashing down on Reverend Camel, pinning his body to the ground and killing him.
His companion was not able to roll the slab off Camel’s body. He went for help in Cataloochee and enlisted several men and a few schoolboys from Beech Grove School to help, and they succeeded in lifting the slab.
Some people may recognize the story from Wayne Caldwell’s novel, Cataloochee. Details were changed in Caldwell’s version: in his telling, the rock formation was located at the headwaters of Lost Bottom Creek.
My friend Ken proposed that we go look for the rock formation. We had seen or heard several versions of where it was located. One version stated that it could be found 200 yards above the mouth of Lost Bottom. Other versions said only “somewhere near the mouth of Lost Bottom.” The 200-yard version sounded so specific that we believed it. Turns out it was wrong.
The junction of Lost Bottom and Palmer features a dense rhododendron thicket. In the belief we needed to go 200 yards upstream, we stayed on the trail past the worst of the rhodo before dropping down to the stream. We crossed the stream and worked along slowly—partly to be sure we saw the rock formation and partly because various obstacles of vegetation and boulders made it impossible to go quickly.
The weather had warmed after two nights of mid-teen temperatures, but plenty of ice remained along the stream.
Each rock had its own tailor-made slipcover of ice.
A pretty little waterfall.
Ice and pool.
Large pool.
It took us a couple of hours to go the short distance to the Beech Creek/ Falling Rock Creek junction. We had not seen the rock formation, and we realized that we had probably bypassed it just above Lost Bottom. We climbed up to the trail and walked back, looking over at the left streambank to see if we had missed it somehow—perhaps it was higher up the slope.
We found a good place to go back down to the stream, a little above where we’d hit it before, and walked along searching for it again.
We found it, within a stone’s throw—so to speak—of the mouth of Lost Bottom. I took a picture. The picture, and you’ll laugh at this, didn’t come out. Of all the photos I took, that one came out blurry.
But you don’t really need the photo. Just go up Palmer a minute or so from Lost Bottom, and you’ll see it. Have fun!
Ken beside the stream.
Communing with ice November 19, 2014
Posted by Jenny in bushwhacking, hiking, photography, Smoky Mountains, Southern Appalachians, weather.Tags: East Fork of Fisher Creek, Fisher Creek, Plott Balsams, winter weather
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Up close and personal with ice.
It’s been a bit cold lately. Approximately 20 degrees colder than normal temperatures for the date.
There’s a blog put out by the folks at the lodge on top of Mt. LeConte. Yesterday they had a 24-hour high of 9 degrees and, I think, a low of -1. (Actually not that wide a range—they must have been in fog or clouds.) People were talking about how cold it was. Someone chirped up with a comment along the lines of, “It’s a high mountain! It’s supposed to be chilly up there!”
This person didn’t understand the concept of the weather history of a particular spot. Yes, summits are colder than valleys (usually—except when there’s an inversion). The point is that on the date of November 18 each year, there’s an average temp. This year, it is way below average for that summit.
I took a short walk this afternoon to my favorite local destination, an unnamed waterfall on the East Fork of Fisher Creek in the Plott Balsams. You have to bushwhack a short distance to get to a good viewing point at the bottom.
I communed with ice.
Blobs of ice.
I liked the blobs so much, I did a closeup.
The flow of water is frozen in time. Wait a minute—I mean, it’s actually frozen.
Ice formed on the rhodo over the stream.
The upper section of the waterfall. It has two main sections. You can’t take a picture of the whole thing.
I have been to this waterfall many, many times in all seasons, but I like it best in the hard uncomfortable season of ice.
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Bear Pen Hollow with a bit of snow November 10, 2014
Posted by Jenny in bushwhacking, hiking, Smoky Mountains.Tags: Bear Pen Hollow, Mt. LeConte
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Tackling a rock outcrop. Photo by Clayton Carver.
Mt. LeConte got blasted by a snowstorm October 31 to November 1. The official measure of snow depth on the summit was 22 inches. Many of the surrounding areas received much less snow. For instance, where I live in Sylva, NC, just southeast of the Smokies, we only got a dusting.
My hiking buddy Clayton and I had plans to climb LeConte via Bear Pen Hollow on November 9. I studied the long-term forecast and saw there would be a lot of subfreezing temperatures at night time in the period leading up to that. Also, the forecast called for a chance of showers the night before our hike, and rain showers would be snow showers at the higher elevations. That meant the Newfound Gap Road might be closed when we wanted to start our hike.
As it turned out, the weather on Friday eliminated most of the snow. It was warm and rainy all day. I’ve learned that rain gets rid of snow even faster than sunshine. And, as we got closer to the 9th, the forecast changed from chance of showers to zero chance of precipitation. So there would be no problem with the road being closed.
So many times I’ve heard about people underestimating the conditions. In the past week there were three occasions when people got into trouble. The first involved a pair of backpackers aiming for the LeConte shelter the night of the storm who were wearing blue jeans and had no clothing suitable for the weather. The LeConte Lodge crew had to go out and help them. The second was a family going up the Bullhead trail who found themselves struggling through hip-deep drifts. The third was a guy on the Alum Cave Trail who slipped on ice and broke his ankle.
So I said to Clayton, “You have to get Microspikes! The road might be closed! The conditions are going to be messy with thawing and re-freezing!” Turned out I was wrong on all counts. There was very little snow, it was a beautiful day, and Microspikes weren’t needed. But I’d rather be overprepared than underprepared.
I’ve done Bear Pen Hollow by several different routes, and it’s easiest to head up to the ridge on the right side of the creek. But I led us up to the ridge a little bit too low down. Well, as a result we got to climb a nifty rock outcrop that I’d never been on before (see photo at top).
There were patches of snow on the ground that made it a little bit harder to see the herd path where people had gone before.
Snow on the ridge.
We got up to an opening on the ridge with views over to Cliff Top.
What a day! You can see every shadow etched out clearly.
There is one spot on the ridge where you have to do an awkward little jump-down. Well, we bypassed that, not really intentionally. Due to the snow and a blowdown on the ridgecrest, we dropped down just to the right and climbed up along the base of a big block of Anakeesta. By the time we got back up to the crest, we were past that tricky spot. From there it was a short climb to the top of West Point.
As we made that climb, I slipped on a patch of snow and my knee popped out of joint. That had been a big problem for me a couple of years ago, but after physical therapy the issue seemed to be resolved. Well, I still think it’s not going to get in the way of my hiking activities. At least, I hope not.
We’d planned on going down Big Duck Hawk, but with my knee problem we opted to take Alum Cave Trail all the way down. But first we went up to the Lodge, and we had great views from the porch in back of the dining hall. It was a good day.
View from the back porch of the dining hall.
Endless streams and forests 