Citico Creek Wilderness--Jake Best Falls and Crowder Branch Cascades

Trailing arbutus along the banks.

Citico Creek Wilderness

Jakes Best Falls and Crowder Branch Cascades

March 30, 2014

Dana & Kenny Koogler

 I continue to get well  over Miller Fisher syndrome's damage to my brain and nervous

system.   I am now driving without an eye patch.  My vision is 99% healed.  The biggest

problem I've got to work on and overcome... is getting my proprioception back.  

Proprioception is one of our senses we don't ever think about it.  Even when it is messed up it is hard to tell someone what the malfunction is.  Why? Because it is one of our deepest rooted, earliest evolutionary senses.  We rarely, conciously think about it.  What is the position of my body and my limbs in space?  If we had to consider this we'd not be able to do things like drive and keep our eyes on the road.  Eat popcorn while watching a movie, etc.  

        Kenny had said and I agreed that he felt I needed as much hiking as possible.

It would re-train my brain. One thing I noticed was that anything I'd done before... got easier the next time!  The stairs at work were horrifying to me at first. So was trying to find my way around in the building in the new part I was working in.  It is better now!

My brain is learning to re-wire itself and what a wonderful feeling that is!

 I am playing piano daily to help with that too.

       Today we wanted to do something close to home.   It was rainy and kinda cold.

We had decided while the weather was still cool we'd try to locate an off trail waterfall in Citico.  The good news is that the forest service has cleared out the downed trees from the back roads.   We managed to drive close to our destination.  We had to park and walk the rest of the way because it is gated, but the road itself was an easy walk to where we could see the falls down the bank.    

          We managed to make it down over the steep, slippery bank to this beautiful falls.

This is a 35 ft drop on Jakes Best Creek.   We did not yet figure how to reach the 100 footer below this one.  I was still too dauncy for that.   I need to go back and try again

in cold weather when my senses are 100%.   It is serious rattlesnake country

and the terrain is far too steep to fret with avoiding snakes while trying to hang on to trees, limbs, rocks or whatever you can to climb.   I did see the brink of the 100 footer just beyond this.  Kenny thinks he sees a way around the mountain to it during cold weather.

I was climbing up out of there and saw one of these.

 

This was new to me... a red bellied snake. He was crawling out from under

the bark on an old rotten log.  They are harmless.  The scientific name

for them is Storeria occipitomaculata.   They eat slugs and worms and stuff like that.

Here is the pool below the 35 foot falls.. with the brink of the 

larger falls just barely visible at its edge!

I climbed huffing and puffing back to the road above me.  I was on all fours like a dog when I finally got up there.  It was hard for me.  Kenny laughed and said he wished he had a picture of it. Now you see why it is imperative to be the camera handler in a group?

It began pouring rain on us.  By the time we got to the bottom of the road it had quit though.    We decided to chance another short jaunt.  We went out Doublecamp Road.

We hiked Crowder Branch trail to the cascade along it.  It is quite pretty and not a hard hike.  We did have to cross the creek seven times in a little less than a mile.  It was GOOD for me!  I only had one small melt down on some slanted slippery rocks.  I will never take

my brain's ability to sense my position for granted again after this! 

    We made it to this pretty, smallish cascade. 

Someone had built a cairn on a log right in front of it. 

This was not the most spectacular hike, but it was pretty and accomplished my purpose.
We got to see something new. Got some exercise and fresh air.  It did not take a long time.
And got us out of the house for awhile.  Back home it was good to be dry and warm and rest.   

Hiking Rhododendron Creek With Michael

Hiking Rhododendron Creek With Michael

Sunday March 9, 2014

Dana & Kenny Koogler and grandson Michael

1.5 miles round trip.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Photos are here starting with frame 312
Rhododendron Creek Pix 

   We had been wanting to take our little grandson Michael out to visit

Rhododendron Creek in the Smokies.   He had asked Pawpaw after preachin

on Sunday what we were doing? Pawpaw answered "going for a walk". He burst 

into tears saying "I want to go!". He was highly put out that he had not been informed in advance and asked to go.  We got the tears dried up and assured him

he was more than welcome to go along!  We ate a bite of lunch and packed some snacks to take and some toys.  We hit the road.

      The drive for us is 45 minutes to an hour to Pittman Center depending on traffic in Gatlinburg.  We soon arrived at the Greenbrier section of the Smokies.

We hit the trail letting him lead us. He had to check out everything and speak to folks.   We had to stop at the first crossing to sit down and play in the creek.

Michael plays with toys in the creek. There was playing with water, rocks, dirt and sticks!


Teaching Pawpaw how to do it. I was the creek wader in the family as a kid.
Me and Valerie were out in the creek  A LOT as kids. I was in trouble all the time
for wading the creek or stomping around in the mud wearing my good church clothes
and shoes.  To ME patent leather shoes were just as good as the next type shoe for wading in the water. I did not discriminate! See? Now you know there was no way
in this world I was going to be a Tupperware wife.  

I know that posture well. "Just a little bit further out here...." Michael has way more self control than I did.  I'd have been IN the water wallering at that age. It is not too cold.

Cheesing for the camera! One of numerous beautiful cascades along the stream.

    We visited some of the cascades along the trail.  We made it about 3/4 of a mile before he was ready to head back.  He talked about bears and snakes and bats and whats over there and were we lost?    We hiked 1.5 miles total.  We sat on the tailgate and ate snacks.
Watched the evening turn dusky.  We headed home and I could tell he was going to sleep good tonight.  Fresh air and sunshine and beautiful sights make for good dreams and peaceful sleep.  I am thankful for my recovery and my grandson and husband. 


Here is video #1 of Michael playing in the creek



And here is Michael dancing around

Taking Michael to Nemo Bridge and Tunnel

Nemo Bridge and Tunnel With Michael

Saturday March 1, 2014

Pictures are here starting with frame 306

Nemo Bridge Pix

Michael making a crazy face. We're on our way driving in the Peep.



Abandoned railroad tunnel at Nemo. We're about to drive through it.
It has water standing in it for most of the way. The rails have been taken up.
Its about 1/2 mile long and in the middle it is total darkness. We thought Michael
would like it, but he did not really care about it.  He was not scared, but he was bored.

     


He liked the road on the back side of the tunnel better. We broke off icicles and he slipped and slid on the old road. Pawpaw had to help him.


Nemo Bridge with Michael and Pawpaw.  It is the old bridge over the Emory River.
It is now open as a pedestrian bridge. You can see the new one to the right.


Emory River at Nemo.


Michael playing with a rope along the river bank.


Cairns built in the rivers edge

        He enjoyed playing along the edge of the river and digging in the sand and stacking rocks.  He did not want to visit Lily Bluff and the overlook or Melton Mill Falls as planned.   We went instead to Wal-Mart and bought an early birthday present. Spider Man who does stunts.  We finished the evening off at Nanny & Pawpaw's house playing with
toys where it was warm.  It was lots of fun! 

SNOW DAY in the SMOKIES

 

 Kügler Haus in snow! 

SNOW DAY FUN! 

Thurs. Feb. 5, 2014

Pictures are here: Snow Day Pictures

    The weather forecast called for some significant snow fall for Wednesday night

into Thurdsay.  Kenny decided to do something he rarely does and stay home from work

on account of the snow. We were all home together except Jason and Mike who had to work.   We got up and got ready and went out to play in the snow.  Here in Tennessee 

this doesn't happen often. It doesn't stick around long so you'd better enjoy it while you can.   

      First we got the RZR and went out on the hard road. We four-wheeled it from our house to Crystal & Adam's house about 2 1/2 miles away.  It was beautiful and fun.

Here is a short video. It shows the River Ford of Little River.  I videotaped until Coulters Bridge then I shut it off. 

    We played in the snow with Michael and Kenny helped Adam fix the garage door. Tessa was inside with Crystal. She is only 5 1/2 months old. She was wanting to look out the window and patting it. She liked the looks of that pretty snow. Later that day she took her first ride on a four-wheeler when Adam brought her up to Tee-Maws house              in the rhino.

 Michael at his house in the back yard.

  We loaded up and headed home to get Jared and go to the farm. We were all bundled up.
It was still snowing, but slowing down.  I had not been sledding since we moved to Tennessee.  We did lots of sledding and all sorts of crazy tricks on our farm in Virginia over the years.  Today was the first chance to act a fool in the snow in the Smokies.

      

 

Catch a snowflake on your tounge! 

   We went to Townsend to the farm and rode the RZR some more and went sledding.

It was beautiful.  The cows were all standing around. The dogs were playing in the snow and rolling on their backs in it! 

Cows in the snow

   
Looking over into Rudd Holler


Sledding safari! Jared, Crystal and Michael.

    I went down and wrecked the first three times in a row.  Wrecking when you are sledding in soft, powdery snow is actually part of the fun. I rolled like a ball head over heels.  It was hilarious and did not hurt a bit.  I defied any of the rest of them to do as well!  They never pulled it off.


Michael eating "yellow snow". Jared poured Mountain Dew on a snow ball. He said he liked it!


Jared, Adam and Chevy Rose. Carrharts, camo, and 4x4s.


Crystal fixing to slide.

      We visited the cave.  We went inside and dried off and visited with Tee maw Lindsey and Tessa.  Tessa is still too small to be out in the snow.  Michael had to be convinced to come indoors. He was soaking wet and cold.  He did not want to quit. It was a memorable day filled with fun and family! Hope there are many more such opportunities.

Jakes Creek Trail to the Avent Cabin--- Recovery Hike #2

Avent Cabin Hike for Exercise

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Sunday Feb. 9, 2014

A little over 2 miles

  Sunday afternoon we were sitting around complaining so I said we needed 

to get out of the house. I needed to work on my exercise and rehab program.

I suggested we hike to the Avent Cabin in the Smokies.  So that is what we did.

It was my first hike in the Smokies since getting out the hospital.

     

We hiked out Jakes Creek Trail and then dropped off the side down a manway to reach this cabin.   It is real pretty and secluded.   It was a fun hike and not too hard.  We had overcast weather, but no rain and it was not real cold.    The uneven ground was a challenge for me. I had to have lots of help. I need to remember to bring my trekking poles always. I need them more than ever now.

Hearth inside the cabin. 

Front porch on the cabin. 

 Above are the foot log across Jakes Creek to the cabin and the creek itself.


    I had a good leg stretcher and got some fresh air.  We both enjoyed the time outdoors.
I appreciate Kenny's patience with me as I recuperate. I am getting better, but my vision continues to be abnormal. It is getting better gradually.  I still have balance to work on.
My gait is not normal on uneven ground, but practice will help.

    I stood there on the foot log across the creek and soaked it in. It was not wasted on me how beautiful the place is. I feel very grateful to be able to get out and do this again.
Thanks be to God!

**Edited to add-- while I was grateful to be out I did not tell what I really acted like.  I'm not sure why.  It was so bad trying to walk on that uneven ground I cried.  It was nauseating, but I pushed on through it and did it.  Feel the pain and the fear and do it anyway. ** added 4/6/2021