Take a Hike! Hell, Take Two!

Megan got in touch with me last week and told me that she was available to go on a hike this past Saturday. The leaves are almost peaking and I haven't seen her in weeks, so this would be great.

In the meantime, Sean emails me that he wants to hike this Sunday. Well, we have been unsuccessful in trying to cooridnate schedules for a couple weeks now. It turned out that Melissa was available after church, so that was a "go" as well. This would mean I would be one sore puppy come Monday, but that's okay.

Megan had to take a test in the morning but told me she should be done around noon. Melissa had to go into her weekend job and would need to leave a little before 4:00. I could get away with leaving Dad alone for an hour, but don't like to leave him more than that. That would give us 5 hours.

I was a little late getting to Megan's house, but she was real late. Her test took her until about 1:30. By the time we would have got *to* where the hike was it would be nearly 2:30 -- that leaves but an hour and a half to do the hike. That's not nearly enough time.

We scrapped that idea and were trying to think of a plan B. With neither of us having money to spend, that severely limited our options. Her roommate's dog is hyper -- she's all-puppy! We came up with the idea of taking her to a state park and walking off some of that energy.

Panther Creek State Park is close by but is a rather dull hike (to me). However, it was more about tiring out Kaya and spending time with Megan.

We hiked about 3 miles I would say and it was an enjoyable afternoon. I had the camera but never really found much to point it at. We then took Kaya back to Megan's apartment, then she packed her clothes to come and spend the night.

Sean was due to show up at noon on Sunday. Again, Melissa was scheduled to work and due to go in by 5 PM. The place Sean suggested was along some nature trails that he used to hike as a kid. He was unsure where this trail was nor how to get to it.

Sweet! it's always an adventure -- this sounds fun! Let's go get lost!

The destination was a place called Sutton's Ridge. Apparently, there was supposed to be an overlook that afforded a good view. Now that the colors are changing this should be good.

The sun was shining, the sky was a brilliant blue and the temperature was a brisk 60*. Perfect hiking weather!

Well, finding the trail to it was not difficult at all. The foliage was brilliant in places and lacking in others.

We trudged along with the crunching of leaves under our feet. The spur to Sutton's Ridge was 1.5 miles from the trailhead where we parked. The hike wasn't too strenuous. There was a stretch that climbed rather rapidly, but for the most part it was relatively easy to traverse.

















Before long, we were at the spur that we figured we would be unable to locate. The view at the top was marred by a stand of pine that has grown rather tall and has inhibited the view of the mountains in the distance.

It was still pretty and awe-inspiring, but the camera does not do justice to the scene. We hung out for a bit taking it in and snapping some pictures.

Sean positioning for a picture

This is what he was trying to get a shot of

This is wider view of what he was snapping a shot of.

Not sure what type of plant this is, but liked the color

It hadn't taken long to get here and we still had to time to kill and energy to burn. We decided to head back down the trail to an earlier side trail we saw that was only a mile off the trail we had been on.

Playing with exposures

.... and again

a wider view of the cascade photo-ed above

There were a LOT of downed trees along the trail -- some LARGE ones too as you can see below. Sean is about 6' tall. that root ball has him by an extra foot. Look beyond him ... another mess of trees lying down! It was that way for much of this trail. 

Quite the contrast from the trail we had just been on! The name of the trail we were now headed to was Snake Den Ridge Trail. Why is it called Snake Den? I guess we're going to find out ... or not!

The Snake Den Ridge Trail had nothing to do with snakes -- or if it did we didn't find any. This is probably not a bad thing.

It basically was a short trail that just came to a dead-end. It was wide enough for a car to drive on but not sure how it would get *to* the trail to do so. There was a cemetery on this trail with most of the folks buried there (about 9-10) born in the late 1800's.

The people buried there lived from the ages of 2 years old to about 85? I think. The 85? year old was WWI and WWII vet and was listed as "poet laureate for the Smoky Mountains". I should've snapped a photo to help my failing memory, but I did not.

With no further to go on this trail and the hour getting a bit late, we turned back. When we returned to the photo spot of the cascade and bridge above, we both spied a log crossing the creek. I thought about it, but it looked damp, so I whimped out and took the bridge.

Sean was undeterred by the wet log and decided to cross it. It kind of surprised me because he and I have hiked before and he has told me he doesn't trust his sense of balance.

Sean looked over and said "You're just waiting on a splash, aren't ya?"  Heh!

Luckily, he didn't fall in as it was just chilly enough to foster getting sick. We got back to his truck by 4 and I arrived home about 10 minutes before Melissa had to leave for work.

What a great weekend it was! I got to get out in the woods, and spend time with some great company.