LAST CALL

Alas, the old blog site, having served its purpose, is not longer being updated. But the good news is we have a brand new and even better Blogsite over at Wordpress where we plan to continue and expand our posts! Check in at www.becauseitzthere.com for a preview.

-Brian & Sylvia

We'll soon have a new home! The new and improved BLOG 2.0 site, BecauseItzThere, will be making its debut shortly! Check back for details.

THE JUMP OFF, NEWFOUND GAP, AND OTHER PLACES WE SORT OF SAW…

For the second day of hiking in the Smokies I decided to make the hour long drive to Newfound Gap, where we would do the Jumpoff. This is the second most popular hike out of Newfound Gap, after Charlie’s Bunion, which is probably the second or third most popular hike in the entire park. I had done the bunion; now, I wanted to see the Jumpoff as well and I was bringing Sylvia with me.

Newfound Gap sits in the spot where US Highwat 441, which is the heavily travelled main east west route through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is also located directly on the Tennessee-NC State border, and every day thousands of people stop to queue up and have their picture taken next to the famous sign…

 

Look! I'm on the border!!! Taken in 2011 in better weather.

…what many of them perhaps don’t realize is that the Appalachian Trail runs along the Tennessee-NC border throughout most of its distance through the park, so there is nothing at all unique about that spot at all, except there is a sign there.

We left Cosby campground where it was an overcast but still mild day. Once past Galtinburg, the clouds began to move in; by the time we had reached the gap, it was a full on freezing rain storm. We suited up in rain gear and began the hike anyway, knowing that the chances of seeing anything more than clouds today was likely very low.

Newfound gap is heavily visited at any time of year. This was a Saturday in the early part of fall leaf season, and so it would have been overrun on a clear day. As things were, it was merely packed. There are few sections of any major city that are as busy as the most heavily visited sections of GSMNP at peek season.

The Hike out to the Jump off is almost entirely on the Appalachian Trail, only moderately difficult through this section. The trail rises steadily before levelling out, and barring a few rocky scramblest he foot path is mostly easy. This, and the proximity to the parking lot, make it a very popular hike with people who otherwise never travel by foot in the wild at all.

Maybe it is my own bias, but coming from New England, it seemed like there were a LOT of great viewpoints that could be hiked to. The Smokies, for all its splendor, is mainly devoid of sweeping vistas. And even when you get them, bad weather or the haze in the air (partially pollution, partially pine spores) degrades it. At any rate, you have to hike an awful long way to get a great view in the Smokies. But this does not stop it from being the most heavily visited National Park in the US.

The trail continue until an intersection with the Boulevard Trail…there are no views on this section, except for a few blowdown patches which can be reached via side trails. At the Boulevard Trail goes straight, and the AT breaks Right, headed away toward Charlie’s Bunion, another mile and a quarter down the way.

We followed the Boulevard, which will eventually take a hiker to the impressive views atop of Mount Leconte. We climbed it earlier this year by a different trail. (Both of the parks most famed mountains, Le Conte and Clingman’s Dome, are a relatively long but doable hike out of Newfound Gap.) Very soon the side trail to The Jumpoff came up. This is somewhat rougher than the preceding sections of trail, and seemed long, though it is less than a quarter of a mile. The slippery rocks didn’t make it any easier.

Finally, we arrived at the view! It looked like this…

…stunning views of nothing but cloud! We lingered by this magnificent view of nothing in a sheltered spot, out of the drizzle, had some snack bars before making our way back to the car. On the way, we passed a pair of young men at the AT junction who were backpacking, and seriously considering making an attempt at the Mt. Leconte summit. I advised them as best as I could and walked on. Later, we encountered another much less well prepared man asking the same sorts of questions, whom I dissuaded from the attempt (13 miles round trip begun late in the day, for a guy wearing tennis shoes. Ill advised.)

…and then back in the car and the swarms of people, and Sylvia chiding me for my complaining about swarms of people.

We would recommend the Hike out to the jump off for any fit hiker, and maybe even a less fit one in search of a challenge. Experienced hikers will not find it challenging. But do it in good weather and come either mid-week, or off peak. This trail is CROWDED and there is very little room at the overlook, which in clear weather will be mobbed. It is entirely possible to do both this and Charlie’s Bunion in one hike, as the entire distance would be less than nine miles and the challenges not that serious; but realistically, the view from the Bunion is similar but more open and held to be better, so it is debatable if doing both is worthwhile. I would recommend the Bunion over the Jumpoff, but in clear weather…personality I do not think either compares with Mt. Chocorua in New Hampshire, to name but one place.

NEXT UP: Auto touring on the BRP!!!

At last...the Old Rag Rock Scramble Video!

It's a log one...some shaky cam.

https://youtu.be/8yUM9WlrzkQ

Old Rag Hike is a blast!!!

Mt Cammerer Hike

MT. CAMMERER FIRE TOWER

The second week of October seemed like a promising one for Fall Colors and for great hiking, and so we packed up the car and headed for Great Smoky Mountain National Park for a 4-day weekend. We had an open agenda for the trip, and only at the last minute did our plans congeal and we set on Cosby campground for the stay. Just 30 minutes East of Gatlinburg, on the Tennessee side, his is one of my favorite campground in the smokies (the other being Deep Creek on the NC side) and one of the few where one can hope to find some degree peace and privacy on a busy fall weekend in this, America’s most visited national park.

Cosby Campground. 

Cosby is the jumping off point for the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower Hike, which I had originally done back in 2008. Though it is one of the best views in the park, I had not planned on doing it again. Sylvia, who had gotten tired of hearing me rant about Gatlinburg,  convinced me to do Cammerer again with her, instead of another hike closer to town. And I am very glad that for the second time in my life, I listened to her.

The Mount Cammerer Fire Tower sits perched atop a rock outcropping at the top of a 4928 foot mountain of the same name. Cliffs drop off impressively on two sides of the summit, giving unobstructed views to the North and East, as well as good vantages of the adjacent higher ridge lines on the south and west. In Fall, there is no better view in the Southern Appalachians. We set out for the summit hoping for good weather.

Photo courtesy www.hikinginthesmokys.com

The summit lies just a half mile off the Appalachian Trail, which comes up from Davenport Gap on its way to the summits of Mounts Guyot, Leconte and Clingman’s Dome. The AT itself is reachable from Cosby campground via the badly misnomered Low Gap Trail. Folks, there is nothing low about this gap…the hike up to it via a well graded horse trail is a steep, unrelenting slog. There are no flat areas at all along this section of trail.

Sylvia and I walked directly out of our campground to the trail. After crossing Cosby Creek the trail begins its aggressive climb. The first few miles to Low Gap are quite steep, but the footing is good, being intended for use by horses. At about three miles the intersection with the AT is reached in a col full of wilted, late-season wildflowers, abuzz with bees and flies. (in 2008 when I did this the first time it was positively swarming; less so this time.) Past the gap, the AT climbs at a modest grade, and then levels out entirely. Excepting a single blowdown patch there are no views on this section trail. There is in fact only one view to be had on the hike, and that is a great one, but it is still to come.

The Appalachian Trail

Two miles beyond Low Gap the Mt. Cammerer trail diverges from the AT, and here we passed a large group apparently coming up from Davenport Gap. Just past the junction is a horse hitching post – this being the furthest point you can take a horse, if a horse you’ve got. The trail becomes a bit more uneven, though still short of a rock scramble, then breaks out into the clear where the first views of the tower is had. After this it is a short walk over a few outcrops of rock to the foot of the tower.

The tower itself is quite different than the usual fire towers that can be seen throughout the eastern US. Instead of being a tall, steel framed structure, this thing looks almost like a garden gazebo. I know of no other tower quite like it. It has an impressive stone foundation of quarried granite atop which sits a wooden-decked one room octagon with windows. Originally built by the CCC in 1930, the tower fell out of use in the 1960s, but has been maintained since then by volunteers.

Add caption

The Mount Cammerer fire tower is a 'western style' fire tower.

The volunteers had been at work recently. During my first visit the deterioration of the tower was quite apparent, especially the interior which was little more than a trash strewn abandoned building. This time there was a marked change; not only had the roof and deck been repaired, but the interior had been cleaned out and restored as well. Instead of garbage, rot and gaping holes in the floor all was in good order. There was even a broom leaning against the wall for sweeping...which of course my wife insisted on doing. It appeared however that in some respects the workers had been perhaps too enthusiastic, as of roofing material had been hurled off the side of the tower down the cliff…much of which was caught in the surrounding shrubs in plain view. I am not sure the National Park Service approved of that but, you can’t fault the obviously fine job whoever it was did on the tower.

Here is an interesting website about the historical fire towers of Tennessee, most of which are no longer in operation. Technically, the Mt. Cammerer summit is right on the Tennessee-NC state line, but the tower was maintained from the Tennessee side, probably because the best vantages are west.

The deck of the fire tower.

The view from the tower and surrounding rocks speak for themselves. Though it is a small summit, the long hike in acts as a crowd control buffer. This is a place for serious hikers. There were three or four other groups present at the same time we were there, many of whom simply collapsed inside the tower from exhaustion and scarcely emerged. We had no issue finding a spot to have to ourselves.

There is more to see at the summit of Mount Cammerer than just the fire tower.

The trip down was mostly as I remembered it, a knee-pounding two-hour slog back to the campground. On the way Sylvia did do her best to liven things up by attempting to fall into a stream, but emerged scarcely more wet than when she entered.

We found the Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower Hike via the Low Gap, Appalachian and Mt. Cammerer Trails to be a very challenging hike, just the very thing for a pair of hikers trying to condition for the major ups and downs of the Alps. The trail itself presents no serious challenges apart from its length and, in the two miles before Low Gap, unwavering grade. Most hikers will require a good six hours, at least, to make the out and back. It is a long and exhausting day to get to one view, albeit a stunning one. If care is taken to avoid the summit and the approaching ridge when thunderstorms threaten, this is a trail that can be done in any weather without significant danger of exposure. However, it is also a trail to save for good weather. It’s an awful long way, so you want to make sure there’s a payoff at the end of it.

In our opinion the Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower Hike is suitable for all fit hikers looking for a challenge. It is roughly comparable to Alum Cave Trail/Mt. Leconte in terms of difficulty, but we liked Mount Cammerer better. Alum Cave Trail is more publicized and does have more interesting things to see on the way up, but is also FAR more crowded, and Sylvia and I both think the view from Camerrer’s summit is superior. We recommend this hike as the best we have done so far in the Smokies.

NEXT POST: More from the Smokies!!!