One of the first hepatica flowers of the 2018 season!
Little Laurel Branch Cascade
Saturday March 3, 2018
Dana & Kenny Koogler
Life has been exceptionally challenging lately. Kenny working out of town. Son in law getting ready to deploy. Helping my daughter with her children and family. Trying to help a son rehab.
Us being back to the parenthood at our advanced ages. Kenny got to come home for a weekend off which was an excellent surprise. He was homesick for us and we for him. It was great to spend time
with him. It was really beneficial to Gabriel having him around. Saturday Gabe went to stay a couple nights at his other grandparents home. We had all day Saturday and Sunday to be adults and do what we wanted. We were hungry for the woods and trails, but we got a late start for a Saturday.
We wanted to pick something fairly close to avoid wasting time driving and not hiking.
We picked an adventure in the Great Smoky Mountains. I looked at my running wish list of hikes
in the Smokies. Nothing on there made sense for today with a late start.
I got on Tennessee landforms Smoky Mountain section and found a good one. I had long wanted to see a waterfall on Little Laurel Branch. It is in the Greenbrier section of the park near the Ramsey Cascades Trail. We packed some lunches and headed out. I have hiked to Ramsey Cascade three times and up beyond it two of those times. I have hiked the Cat Stairs ( off trail) three times.
I have done lots of hiking in this section of the park, but it had been a long while. I recalled the last time I hiked back down the trail from Greenbrier Pinnacle looking up a small stream and thinking " I wonder if there are any waterfalls up there?" I later realized while looking at Tennessee landforms there was indeed a falls up there! It has taken me a decade to get round to trying to see it.
I plugged in the way point and let the GPS start orienting itself. Finding a parking spot on a busy Saturday was a challenge, but we managed. Ramsey Cascade is a popular hiking destination. Neither of us was in the mood to deal with crowds today on the trail. We were ravenous to get into the woods and longed for an off trail adventure to satisfy that yearning. I walked the parking area
and vetted the waypoint before we set off. I was tickled to see it was right on target.
The day was sunny and warming up nicely. Skies were blue with a few puffy clouds.
The air was cool and fresh. The streams were flowing powerfully thanks to all the recent rain as well as snow runoff. We began our off trail up the stream on a very rudimentary "fisherman's path".
It soon disappeared and we just had to chose the path of least resistance. Trying not to give in to every urge to go around things. That can make off trail hiking take way longer than it should.
The woods were pretty open and thanks to the Winter vegetation was much easier to cope with.
We still got scratched up by briars and dog hobble a little bit. The huge trees, mossy logs and few waking Spring wildflowers really made the woods extra special today.
A few long spurred violets getting started.
I let myself stop and take pictures of everything I wanted. I had been too long between hikes.
I was thrilled to see forest and flowers and streams! As we climbed we crossed and recrossed the stream a couple times. We thought we were picking the easier side of the creek,. While it was necessary in at least one spot, the return trip showed us only one crossing was really needed.
It is possible to get on the left side and stay there. We had to go around a couple spots where trees had fallen leaving massive piles of laps. ( laps are the tops of trees and they are no fun to try to go through) Another spot was a huge rhodo thicket we were able to go round and avoid that struggle.
We began to see large rocks sticking up like fins and some boulders the size of houses.
The headwaters around the falls is flanked left and right by huge rock formations. The trees higher in the headwaters give way to yellow birch, beech, buckeye, and hemlock or fir. We began to see
more and more pretty cascades along the creek as we climbed.
There is something very soothing to my eyes about the back country streams in the mountains with all the mossy logs and jumbled debris. It lacks that manicured look that I find at some touristy waterfalls.
First dutchman's breeches of the season! Saw this and some very tiny quirrel corn just getting started. I was hollering for joy!
Top of the same big tree.
Once we got up pretty high in the drainage you could see the Greenbrier Pinnacle in the distance!
Cool to think of all the times I've been up there!
One of the cool features of this off trail was that the route we chose had a squeeze through a crack in the rocks. A couple spots were like natural stair steps up a boulder field and through a headwaters spring area. I love headwaters areas when the water is spurting from under every rock and root.
We passed one massive boulder that looked like a building!
Huge boulder capped with ferns
First good look at the falls. Hard to tell from here of the scale.
The grapevines in this area were big around as a man's arm. I also though of the Page sisters who trek the mountains with David Sands, Erica Burnette and Co. I swear they been hanging laundry out in them woods. We ran upon a double strand of twisted Dutchman's pipe vine that looked for the world like a clothes line! Like it was placed there on purpose! We encountered a set of 10 foot twin falls below the main falls. My concern on seeing them was that this was the lower drop of the falls as pictured by Tom Dunigan. I had been praying the falls were ruined with too much downed trees falling in them. Turned out not to be the case so it was all good.
We clambered around in the falls and viewed it from various angles. It was fun. It is possible to get lots of different vantage points of this one, but it is work. It is a hard one to photograph and show its size and shape. It has about a fifteen foot chute at the top where it gushes down off the mountain then runs a short distance before running down over the squared off rock face. Some of the stones back here today near the falls looked like man made structures, but we knew better.
The only signs of man we encountered was the rock pile walls and tater hole of a cabin down low in the drainage. Aside from that the old logging road we glimpsed down low was it.
Isolation shot of the frothy cascades below the main falls.
We slowly headed back down after we enjoyed the spectacle of the falls. It was a short, relatively easy bushwhack. It felt extra special to have seen a little known falls when we got back down to the main trail and began encountering lots of people returning from hiking the Ramsey Cascades Trail.
Below is a shot of Ramsey Prong with that blue green snow water color to it. Today we got a dose of exactly what we needed and it was glorious! We capped off the evening with a stop at Calhouns for eats. I love going in there with my butt dirty and sticks and leaves all in my hair. I expect to be taken seriously. ;^D
Last of all is a short video of the falls. It shows it better than my photos. Note to myself. Today I found diapers and fanny wipes in my backpack! I could hear Jenny Bennett's laugh had she been there and seen that. The spirit of the Contrarian was with me today in them woods! Dearly missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for reading and commenting. I enjoy hearing from those who read & make use of my blog. I have made some wonderful friendships through emails from readers. I respond to all comments and emails. I appreciate folks reaching out to let me know when my blog entries are not functioning correctly or if the situation somewhere has changed. Many Blessings to you!
Dana 🐝