I have come to a realization over the past few months of forgetting my pedometer and not keeping track of miles. I'm terribly unorganized. So I am NOT going to keep track of my mileage. Instead I'm going to focus on the journey and the important things on the trail. I've been doing a lot of hiking lately and plan to continue after I move to Ohio next month.
Smokys 6/5/14
Smokys 6/5/14
While hiking in the Smokys my brother and I came across a mamma Black Bear and her three cubs. We had been warned by other hikers that they were there but there is no feeling like rounding a bend in the trail and seeing cubs playing. After checking to make sure we were a safe distance from the bears we stopped and observed. We were briefly interrupted by a group of kids who were very excited to see the bears. I suggested to my brother that if we stayed towards the back of the school group that if they ticked mamma bear off at least she'd probably get one of them first and we'd be safe. Later when we came back towards the trailhead we had even better views of these beautiful creatures and then they ambled off down the trail. We actually ended up seeing 9 bears that day and 2 the next!
While in the Smokies we also found a few plants of note. The first of which was the Rosy Twisted Stalk (Streptopus lanceolatus), a rare plant in TN. This plant at first glance closely resembles Solomon's Seal or False Solomon's Seal but the zigzag stem and rose colored flowers set it apart. The flowers are nodding and bell shaped hanging under the leaves. I was very excited to find this plant because of its rare status and because it was the only one I found that was still blooming. I almost felt as though Father himself had held his hand over this plant and kept it blooming for me to find.
Another exciting and unexpected find was the Rosebud Orchid (Cleistes bifaria) another rare plant in the Smokies. This small delicate flower grows about 8-12 inches tall with a single light pink tube shaped flower.
One evening we decided to explore the Nature Trail at the Cades Cove Campground at dusk. Normally anything called a nature trail is fairly easy but not this one, in fact I would not recommend hiking it as we did (with no flashlights in the almost dark). However just before it got too dark to see things off the trail we stumbled upon these beautiful parasitic plants, Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora). These ghostly white or light pink plants live off the nutrients it "steals" from nearby trees.
More to come... Good hiking everyone!