A Kephart in the Smokies

PolRoger

PolRoger

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2007
Messages
1,310
My family and I recently took a little vacation time before my two children start back up with school again on the 8th. We went up to my parent's summer lake house in Connestee, NC which is not too far from Brevard and did a little mountain biking and swimming. We also traveled from the Brevard area over to Gatlinburg, TN and stayed in a Hotel/Lodge for three nights to do some hiking in the Smokey Mountains National Park.

We took the Blue Ridge Parkway over to Cherokee, NC and then took 441 up through the Smokies and back down into Gatlinburg, TN.

The Blue Ridge Parkway from the Brevard area: Pigsah National Forest to Cherokee, NC is a fantastic scenic drive with many fabulous overlooks along the way. :thumbup:

Flowers and Butterflies from one of the scenic overlooks.











We stopped at a scenic overlook in the Park right off of 441 along the NC/TN borderline that runs along the Smokey Mountain Ridgeline just after a rain shower.





The Adirondack Trail also runs along this Mountain Ridgeline through the Park.



It wasn't too long before the "smoke" had cleared.



The view towards the Smokies from our hotel/lodge restaurant/dining area in Gatlinburg, TN after we had finally arrived.



At the trailhead of our first (long) hike up to the Ramsey Cascades Waterfall.









My daughter was carrying a Fiddleback Lonestar for our hikes in the park.




It was a pretty long climb/hike up to reach the Ramsey Cascades.



A couple of "old growth" trees and small salamander in the moss at the base of one of them.











The colors of this thing were actually more intense then the "flames" of the box elder burl scales on my Kephart!





The Ramsey Cascade Falls.





We saw this little guy (shrew) on the way back down.





Cool flowers, trees, and moss were all around us for the hike back down.















A log bridge we had to pass over during the hike.








A couple of unusual looking things growing out in the forest.









My Kephart with pants.

 
Last edited:
Awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing, looks like a beautiful area.

The first mushroom is chicken of the woods or sulfur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus). A sought after edible mushroom when young, that one looks just about perfect I think. We don't get them in Colorado so I don't know a ton about them aside from how to ID them. The second mushroom, the yellow fingery looking things, are some sort of coral fungus, probably yellow club fungus (Clavulinopsis helvola). Finally, the white flower is 'ghost plant' (Monotropa uniflora) a myco-heterotrophic plant. Super interesting!
 
Beautiful scenery & pics......thanks for sharing your family adventure !
 
I miss that area so much. Thank you for sharing and bringing back some good memories. Looks like you have a fun filled family trip.

That is a great custom shop keppie too, beautiful handle on that one.
 
Oh man. That chicken is prime! Luckily over in this neck of the woods we have very little that can be confused for laetiporous. Maybe Jacks but as long as you know the difference between gills and pores you're golden.

Wild abundance for sure!

Hope you enjoyed your time over here. If you and the family ever want to do a plant/mushroom walk while you're in town let me know. I'd be glad to take you out.
 
Wow! Those are great pics. Looks like y'all had a lot of fun.

Being from Atlanta, please know there is an open invitation to come up and tour the shop. I love seeing a Fiddleback on your daughter's belt, so be sure to bring the kids when you do.
 
Great post and awesome photos! I love the smokies! We have reservations for four days there next weekend...I had to find some way to salvage some sort of vacation this year after having to cancel our trip to Florida. It's ok with me though, personally I would much rather spend a week in the smokies this time of year than a week in Florida any day. The amount of fungi and the brilliant colors there is always impressive to me. I'm looking forward to roaming the woods there with my S35VN Kephart as well :)
 
Mist I'll PM you a nice easy hike I would recommend with about 5 nice waterfalls,
 
I like the tree that is growing out of the rock below it. Very cool photos as well. Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for the positive comments everyone...

It was a very good 3-day/night trip. For the the first day the hike was up to the Ramsey Cascades. On the second day, in the morning we drove over to a NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) Outpost and took a white water rafting trip down the Pigeon River and later in the afternoon we went back to the Smokies and hiked up to see the view from the Chimney Tops. On the final day in the park we went to Clingmans Dome and hiked a short ways along the Ridgeline following the Adirondack Trail before turning around and then hiking down along the Forney Ridge Trail to Andrews Bald which had an amazing view back down along the Eastern (NC) side of the Smokies towards Fontana Lake.

Here are a few more pictures from the Chimney Tops and Andrews Bald hikes...



We saw couple of these smaller (mountain) brown squirrels... A bit different from the common grey squirrels that we have in Atlanta.



I saw this big burl on a tree and it made me think of the blocks of scales at the forge waiting to be applied to knife handles.



























 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top