more»
I just got back from a snowy trip at Tellico. I hiked down the McNabb Creek trail and up the Long Branch Trail. Both trails were incredible. The creeks had some awsome features that made them both well worth doing. The views from Long Branch were phenomenal. At one curve in the trail there is a short hike up to a ridge top that just begs for boot prints. A small spring is just below on the trail. I dropped my pack and climbed up to the top of that ridge and the view to NW was incredible. The tees on the ridge were gone except for a few stumps and it would make an incredible campsite. I hung an old coke can from a small limb (someone else must have walked up there and had a coke) so I could find it again. I came back watered up and hiked on. The snow started at about 2pm and fell about an inch an hour. It slowed my pace, but I guess there was no hurry anyway. I did not get to a good campsite until 9:00 pm due to my sightseeing and the snow. But it was worth it, wet feet and colds and all. I am not much on reports so let me just say - You gotta do them both if you are in the area.
And here is my Mountaineers Incident Report - at the bottom of Mcnabb, way past dark, second to last crossing, I was log walking to avoid taking my boots off and a little off balance move caused me to do the funky chicken dance-- and splash, my headlamp fell off my head, mid stream. I could see it floating and rolling downstream. It was an acrobatic crossing, but I am sure I would have made it, except for the "incident" . It was more than an hour past dark, so the headlamp was very easy to see. It glimmered like a shad in the sunlight everytime it flipped over. Also it was brand new. So I had to climb off the log, into the creek and blindly chase my headlamp down the creek. So after I got to the bottom of the trail and set up camp I built a fire and it took hours of sock drying and boot drying to get things resonably dry for the next day. But since I seldom ever build a fire it was nice to sit there and watch the flames, listen to nature and relax. Embarrasing, yes, but it had to be told.
