Being hard to reach (distant and with 3 miles of narrow, twisting, turning unpaved road) results in the beautiful Cataloochee area being far less visited than most other parts of the Smokies. It has historical structures, an elk herd, numerous trails, beautiful views, and many wonderful old and new growth tree specimens. Consequently the people who attended this carcamp headed for it as early as they could on Friday (many leaving around 8:am) so they could hike as many of the trails as possible. With the different arrival times, and hiking destinations, at least 14 different hike options were logged during the 3 days. Everyone got to see elk (and some even heard bugling.)
Everyone also got to experience the cold evenings, clear starry skies, and nights in the upper 20s. Thanks to the big supply of wood Hayden and others brought, we had big warm fires around which everyone gathered in the evenings and mornings. Saturday evening included a leaf quiz, demonstrations of the right and wrong ways to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, and a confusing discussion of what time it would be in the morning and when people would get up, and leave for various hikes (since we changed back to Standard Time during the night, allowing us to enjoy and additional hour of nighttime cold). - - Those attending this fun outing were Wayne Chambers, Doug Cooper, Kendra Cross, Joel Gollop, Owen Holbrook, Lin-Fa Lee, Melissa Moreau, Tim Nickolson, Elizabeth O'Connor, Spears McAllester, Betty Petty, Nancy & Mike Robinson, John Rowland, Mayra Steiner, Ralph VanPelt, Hayden Wilson, Susan Faidley, trip leader, and Donald Box, reporting.
We explored an interesting old home place, marveled at the elbow-to-elbow heaven-reaching tree trunks in the ‘Big Poplars’ area, and enjoyed the steep hillside scenery while crossing over Big Fork Ridge. But the highlight of the day was watching and photographing eight bull elk in the field just beyond where we returned to our parked car around 5:15. We saw a total of twenty-three elk before we made it to the campsite! Enjoying the hiking and elk-watching were Melissa Moreau and John Rowland.
After a very cold night, those of us who were doing this hike on Saturday elected to wait until around 10 to start our hike. Still,it was quite cold and a little dark on the trail. As the sun came up it gradually got warmer and the colors backlit by the sun were spectacular! his trail has plenty of evidence in the way of old artifacts to demonstrate the way of life of the former inhabitants. When we came off the trail someone was waiting to greet us! Lin-Fa Lee who also camped with us, had chosen to do his own thing and ride his bike around Cattaloochie Valley. On this hike were Kendra Cross, Joel Gollop, Melissa Moreau, Nancy & Mike Robinson, and Betty Petty.
On the day before Halloween, Mother Nature ‘treated’ us to a picture-perfect fall day. The colorful leaves sparkled in the rays of the low-hanging sun, with a clear, CLEAR blue sky as a backdrop. Often we hiked for several minutes without speaking. Elizabeth summed it up perfectly, “Do you feel it? Do you feel the magic of the Smokies?” Hikers who certainly did feel the magic were Elizabeth O’Conner, Spears McAllester, and John Rowland.
Flynte the deerhound went to the carcamp. Since the Smokies does not allow dogs on trails even on lead, she was limited to walking around camp on lead. Apart from freezing her toes off (which she demonstrated by prancing like a show pony every time she got out to walk) she appeared to enjoy it. She stayed warm enough in the van but was too cold to settle down in the tent. She never did develop enough nerve to sit by the fire however. All that popping and sizzling and all the people about was more than she could handle.
Cataloochie Backpack -Sept 1-3, 2001
Cataloochie Carcamp/Hikes -June 28-30, 2002