|
The Tennessee Eastman
H
IKING
& C
ANOEING
NEWS
July 1993
HIKING
KONNAROCK CREW - DOLL FLATS RELOCATION
(Scheduled for 1-5 and 15-19 July 1993)
Leader: Joe DeLoach (615.753.7903)
Our second Konnarock Crew project for the year will
be a relocation of the Trail below Doll Flats near Hump Mountain. The existing Trail has
some very steep sections which are dangerously slick when wet. We will be relocating the
Trail to lessen the grade while preserving the scenic aspects of this part of the Trail. This relocation will be a two-year project, with two weeks and possibly three for this
year. We need a good turnout to finish this project in the allotted time period and to
ensure that we get good support from the Konnarock Crew in years to come. The turnout for
the first weekend on Pond Mountain was sparse (four people), and we need to do better than
that. Looking for something to do on the Fourth of July weekend? Come help us build some
new Trail! Call Ed Oliver (349.6668) or Joe for more information.
KONNAROCK CREW - BALDS CLEARING
(Scheduled for 8-12 July, 15-19 July, 22-26 July, and 29 July - 2 August 1993)
Leader: Joe DeLoach (615.753.7903)
Konnarock will have six weeks of balds clearing in
the Roan Highlands once again this year, primarily on Round Bald. They will be working
every weekend in July except for Independence Day weekend. The Southern Appalachian
Highlands Conservancy is planning to concentrate on Grassy Ridge this year. This is a good
opportunity to help keep these most spectacular of the Southern balds open. Club members
are encouraged to help on any weekend but there will be an organized trip on Saturday,
July 31. Remember, those who work at least five days with Konnarock get a year's free
membership to ATC as well as the highly coveted Konnarock T-shirt! Call Joe DeLoach,
753.7903, for more information.
LECONTE CREEK TRIP
(Scheduled for Sat-Sun, 10-11 July 1993)
Leader: Dewey Fuller (Phone: 615.764.7340)
Rating: Very Difficult
This is an off-trail hike, or bushwhack, up one of
the creeks flowing off of Mount LeConte. The trip is very difficult and involves a long
steep climb with very little time for resting. Let me know if you would like further
information about the trip or to be placed on the standby list to go up a trail.
LECONTE TRAIL TRIP
(Scheduled for Sat-Sun, 10-11 July 1993)
Leader: Steve Falling (Phone: 615.229.6621)
Contact trip leader for details.
FAMILY BACKPACK
(Scheduled for 17-18 July 1993)
Leader: Collins Chew (615.239.6237)
Various members of my family, minimum age, about 5,
go on a backpack each summer. We will probably go this summer on July 17-18 depending on
when we can schedule it; some of my family live in Germany. I am currently planning on walking from
Dennis Cove to Hampton, about 5 miles, and spend the night at the Laurel Fork Shelter. We
would be glad to have others with us with at least one adult in each family group. Call
Collins Chew at 239.6237 if you are interested in joining us.
HIKE/PICNIC ROAN HIGH BALD AND BLUFF
(Scheduled for 31 July 1993)
Leader: Gether Irick (615.239.5178)
Contact trip leader for details.
FUN FEST MOONLIGHT HIKE
(Scheduled: Thursday, 5 August 1993)
Leader: Steve Falling (615.239.5502)
Again this year the club will be helping the Bays
Mountain Park staff with the Moonlight Hike around the lake (about 2 miles). About 400
hikers turned out last year for this event so it gives the club some good publicity. Volunteers are needed to walk with the crowd and to keep the hikers on the correct trail. The hike begins at 8:00 pm and finishes up about 10:00 pm. If you are willing to help out
with this event, please contact Steve Falling as soon as possible at 239.5502 for more
information. The volunteer with the closest guess of the number of hikers will be awarded
a Bays Mountain T-shirt!
JENNINGS CREEK TO DALEVILLE
(Scheduled weekend of 21 August 1993)
Leader: Collins Chew (Phone: 615.239.6237)
August 21-22 and Friday or Monday - This will be a
three day backpack on the Appalachian Trail from Jennings Creek, to Daleville, Va. This is
about 30 miles although the days are not too even. We will drive up after work, stay at Wattstull Inn and arrange for a car shuttle. This will be a bit of a training hike for some
of us going to Wyoming and will be moderately difficult as backpacks go. If interested,
call Collins Chew at 239.6237 for details and to get in on the planning.
CANOEING
NOLICHUCKY GORGE
(Scheduled for 7 August 1993)
Leader: Dewey Fuller (615.764.7340)
Contact trip leader for details.
FOR
THE RECORD
BIG SOUTH FORK CANOE CAMPING
9-10 May 1993
(Ted Pridgen reporting)
100% chance of rain was the forecast as
four
paddlers left Kingsport early Friday morning. Paddlers were Tom Pridgen, John Faust, Brad
Dayvolt and Ed Montgomery. Depending on who one consulted (Park Service, local outfitter,
Army Corps of Engineers) the flow was anywhere from 2400 cfs to 8000 cfs. The local outfitter
was not renting canoes because of high water which told us something. We reached our
planned put-in at Leatherwood Ford and there was already plenty of water and the 100%
chance was every bit of 100%. It was raining steadily. We discussed the situation briefly,
consulted the outfitter and changed rivers to one of the feeder streams of the Big South
Fork of the Cumberland, namely the Clear Fork River - a much smaller stream, only runnable
in wet weather. And none of us had ever paddled it! High water, unfamiliar river, only two
boats and loaded with camping gear...a prescription for disaster? NAAAAA! Working in our
favor, we had experience, a guidebook, good equipment, good judgment (quit laughing) and
excellent attitudes.
At some point we decided to dedicate this trip to Mary Mathis who was
not along but who was with us in spirit. We would credit her with all auspicious events
occurring throughout the trip. Are we campaigning for her to get Paddler of the Year? You
bet! After a lengthy shuttle we finally put in at Peters Bridge just inside the BSFNRRA
(Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area). The water here was very runnable,
certainly not too high. We did no scraping on rocks but it was not pushy. We paddled in
rain but the scenery was superb, even in the rain - banks/cliffs of sandstone and
limestone draped with hemlocks and rhododendron - no roads, no railroads, no houses, no
other boats, no trash - it was great! (Thanks Mary) Veteran river clean-up man, Ed
"Brace" Montgomery commented that one trash bag would do it all! The Clear Fork
is appropriately named. The water was clear, cold and fast - beautiful!
We passed under highway 52 (Brewster Bridge) and did see two fishermen
but that was all. Up to this point all whitewater had been class I or I+. We did have a
river wide strainer (deadfall) but it fortunately had a couple of clear passages. (Thanks
Mary) The guidebook warned of a class III after Brewster Bridge (but did not say how far). The book implied it was close so we kept our eyes open for "decapitation rock". We kept saying, "that was no III, maybe a II" until we finally reached (about 3
miles down from the bridge) what was unmistakably "decapitation rock rapid" - so
named for a prominent undercut rock jutting several feet from river right. The
"obvious route" was to steer clear of the rock. The book warned that this led to
a grabby 3 foot drop/hole on river left. We scouted. Hair boaters Brace Montgomery and Bradvanced Dayvolt plotted strategy with the trip leader - best route appeared to be to
head straight for decap rock, barely miss getting decapitated (impaled at this level)
while skirting and then make a quick right turn during the descent into a less grabby hole
on the right. Brad and Ed approached slowly with loaded boat while non-hair trip leader
Pridgen stood below with a throw rope - perfect steering by Brad and a good
"Brace" at the bottom - clean run! So clean that John and I talked them into
running our boat through also! (Trip leaders are lazy and sly.) Mary was with us!
We immediately celebrated by pulling our boats to shore and setting up
camp. The rain stopped (or slowed) long enough for us to pitch our tents and prepare
dinner and eat it. The Brace provided German sausages, kraut and potato salad from the
German restaurant in Weber City - delicious! One must drink beer with sausages
(non-alcoholic of course - HA!) and Bradvanced supplied the appropriate German nightcap -
schnapps. We slept well and the rain stopped sometime during the night. We were greeted
with bright SUNSHINE the next morning and the river had risen about 6-8". (Ave
Maria!) It doesn't get any better than this - 8 miles of pristine, optimum level,
virtually continuous class II water lay between us and our take-out. The previous day we
had observed beaver activity, green-backed herons, great blue herons and two vultures had
given us quite a show as they sat in a tree and preened. Saturday, we saw an Osprey with a
fish, two unidentified raptors soaring high and one of the best looks at a red-tailed hawk
that I have ever experienced. (Thanks Mary). This trip report is already too long so I'll
close - great lunch spot, "shortcut" shuttle (never again) and a pleasant drive
home arriving back in Kingsport approx. 7:15 PM capped off a GREAT trip!
NOLICHUCKY RIVER CLEANUP REPORT
15 May 1993
(Mary Mathis reporting)
On Sat. May 15 Brad Dayvolt, Dale and Mary Mathis
joined 25 other volunteers organized by the Pisgah National Forestry Service to do
Nolichucky Gorge river cleanup. Nolichucky Expeditions supplied rafts and guides to take
the group through the gorge. Others participating in the cleanup, paddling their hard
(real) boats, included Dewey Fuller, Bill Temple, Nathan Coggins, Carmen Howell, and his
brother-in-law. We had sunny, clear skies and a water level of 2.70 feet on the gauge at
Poplar and 2090 CFS at Embreeville. B, D, and M were in a raft together with a young
Scottish girl, and 2 expert NE guides who were wild men and capable of taking that raft
through the most exciting routes on the river. We had the only raft brave enough to
side-surf in the most famous surfing rapid in the world, AKA Jaws. At this fairly high
water level Jaws was sufficiently grabby that it did not want to let us go, and we were
finally pulled out with a rope after a great ride. Aside from having a fun raft ride through the gorge we also did a lot of river
cleaning. We stopped 7 or 8 times along the banks, where trash gets deposited by the
river, and filled multiple garbage bags with trash, picked up old scrap metal, wooden
pallets, tires, etc. We had to haul it all up a fairly steep climb to the railroad tracks
for subsequent pickup. One of the more interesting finds of the day were 3 loaded pellet
rifles, a little rusted, but in working order. Another memorable experience we had was
watching B ride the bull through Souse Hole Rapid. Our guide convinced him that it would
be fun to sit up on the bow of the raft, while holding on to a rope (the reins), as we
paddled through this series of large standing waves. Big B almost made a clean run, but
fell off the bull (backwards into the raft) as we crested the biggest wave. We arrived at
the take-out at NE at about 6:00PM after a day of hard work and great paddling. Although
it was disappointing to see all of the trash in the gorge, it was also very inspiring to
see so many people working together to clean up one of our beautiful Tennessee rivers.
HIAWASSEE/OCOEE RIVER TRIP
21-22 May 1993
(Ed Montgomery reporting)
The river paddlers had two great days of boating on
the Hiawassee and Ocoee rivers. T & I arrived at Gee Creek campground on May 21st under
partly cloudy skies and met the rest of the hard core group which had camped the night
before. We proceeded to our put-in and were surprised to find very few other boaters on
the river. After getting rained on above and below Stair Step Rapid we realized that other
boaters had checked the local weather report and decided it was too cold and wet for
normal humanoids. We did have a dry lunch break and got in a little playing time at Stair
Step before the heavy rain and wind pushed us on down the river. The weather finally
cleared at Funnel Rapid and the group's attitude improved greatly. The
"Funnelmeister" and his purple yakked sidekick (E & T) played hard while the
rest of the group watched this whitewater rodeo style exhibition. The next stop was at
Devil Shoals Rapid where Big B tried to tame M's HOT PINK XL11. He took a cold swim for
his efforts, but the big guy looks good in pink. He says it is his favorite color and is
interested in purchasing any used pink equipment from fellow club members, call
1-800-HOT-PINK. We then proceeded to the take out and back to the campground to enjoy
brother D's EX campfire, primo food and more river stories.
The next day we headed to the Ocoee to meet the NOC rafting folks for
our run down the BIG O. Ocoee is believed to be derived from the Cherokee word meaning
"apricot vine place". We were assigned to raft #32 and Dan the wild man raft
guide. Dan (NOC raft guide) soon realized that he had a boat full of playful paddlers that
would follow any order that he issued and the trip proceeded to get very interesting. He
took us down all HERO routes, performed 360s in Slingshot and Table Saw rapids, did raft
wheelies, and emptied the raft by dumping it over in the middle of the river with us in
it. M did some heavy duty screaming during the run and she loved every minute of it! T was
thinking that the first few rapids were runnable by our group until we encountered Broken
Nose Rapid; he quickly had a change of heart and could have used a change of shorts. The
hottest ride was when B & I rode the BULL through Hell Hole. It was a very exciting and
rewarding experience. Dan did a super job of entertaining us with river stories and raft
rodeo style maneuvers. At the take-out, D interviewed a couple of bathing suit beauties
for the first-ever Ocoee Wet Swim Suit Contest. Nothing developed there, but D did provide
technical assistance as E purchased his first decked boat (Corsica S) from Roger Scott. Most of us departed the Ocoee area and headed for the Nanny; it was virtually deserted -
weather too chilly for rafters. The Sherpa rice and desserts were EX and enjoyed by all. The roadside near Lesser Wesser (LW) has been much improved. USFS has built 4+' wide
deluxe walkway and rail with STEPS down to LW. We scouted LW and talked about running it
soon. Big B and Mike (nephew) stayed over and trout fished the area the next day. This
multi-river/camping/fishing/boat purchasing trip was better than "GREAT"!
Paddlers, campers and fishermen enjoying the trip were Mary & Dale
(M & D) Mathis, Tom (T) Pridgen, Brad (B) and Mike Dayvolt and Ed (E) Montgomery.
SOUTH BEYOND 6000 - GREAT BALSAMS
22 May 1993
(G. S. Luttrell reporting)
The Shining Rock area of the Great Balsams is a long
drive from Kingsport, but well worth the trip, especially on a day when you have cool,
sunny, hiking conditions and good hiking companions. We spotted a car at the parking area
between Sam Knob and Black Balsam Knob, then drove to a parking overlook on the Blue Ridge
Parkway between Mount Hardy and Buckeye Gap. From here the new Mountains to Sea Trail can be
accessed via a .25 mile connector trail from the Parkway. The Mountain to
Sea Trail parallels the Blue Ridge
Parkway to Silvermine Bald and allows easy access to South Beyond 6000 Peaks, Mount Hardy
and Chestnut Bald. Also, this portion of the Mountain to Sea Trail passes through the Middle Prong
Wilderness, so trail maintenance and signs are minimized. After bushwhacking through
briars to the summit of Chestnut Bald, we followed the Art Loeb Trail to Black Balsam
Knob, then finished on side trails to the summit of Sam Knob. This route maintains high
elevation and offers outstanding views all along the way, including waterfalls and
cascades. Participants in the 13 mile hike: Paul Dean, Don Baker, Gether Irick, Owen
Holbrook, Lowell Toof, and Garry Luttrell.
FOR THE RECORD - DEEP SOUTH '93
12-18 June 1993
(Joe DeLoach reporting)
The biennial meeting of the Appalachian Trail
Conference, Deep South '93, was held from June 12-18 in Dahlonega, Georgia. We had 16
TEHCC participants, including spouses and children. Several Club members played an active
role in this conference. Ted Malone played a key role as Workshop Chair. Ted did a
great job, as evidenced by several comments about this meeting having the best workshop
program ever. Three Club members presented workshops: LuAnn Mack-Drinkard on
Hiking/Backpacking for Women, Joe DeLoach on Recruiting New Trail Maintainers, and Collins
Chew on Geology Along the A.T. LuAnn's workshop was one of the best-attended workshops of
the entire meeting, and from what I heard one of the best overall. Many Club members
helped put together a slide show that was used in the workshop on recruiting trail
maintainers; these include David Allen, Cris Moorehouse, John Kiefer, Collins Chew, Dewey
Fuller, Joe DeLoach, Garry Luttrell, Ed Oliver, Kevin Edgar, Greg Kramer, Ted Malone, Eric
Middlemas, and Steve Perri. Thanks to all who helped with the slide show; we will show it
at an upcoming dinner meeting. We also have a new Club brochure and a new display which
received several favorable comments. John Hurt in B-78 put together the display, using
maps and photos supplied by Garry Luttrell, Ed Oliver, and Joe DeLoach. A special thanks
to John for making a display that we can all be proud of, and to Ed and Garry for making
the photo enlargements that were used. We'll keep the display, and the Club brochures, in
B-310 and set the display up for the Fall Dinner Meeting.
The next biennial meeting will be held at James
Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1995. If you get a chance to visit this, I
think you'll find it most enjoyable. There were an astounding number of hikes, workshops,
discussions, and excursions in which to participate at Deep South '93.
To
contribute an article or hike notice to the TEHCC News,
contact the editor, Bob Tonnies,
B.65, TED (Home Phone: 615.477.8126). All contributions
should be received by the 15th of the month to be included in
the following month's newsletter. |
TERC HIKING & CANOEING CLUB
P.O. Box 511
Kingsport, Tennessee 37662 |
|