Rocky Top

(Traveling Stories for Saturday - part 9)

The crows woke us up, but didn’t get us up this morning. Every morning, just as the sun starts to turn back the night darkness, the crows cawing cries echo through the sky. The bed was warm with the extra blanket we added last night and there was no reason to rush; there were no appointments to keep, email to answer, business to attend to. We had plans – generally speaking, but none that we had to meet with any particular time constraints. Add to that, because there is no cell service here, there is no technological pull. Cut off from the world of information and tech, things we have come to believe are vital for modern life, isn’t such a bad thing once in a while. Something of a tech detox.

What we thought we might do once we got around to doing things is hike. We didn’t want to drive anywhere to get to a trail head, and we did Cave’s Cove Loop yesterday along with the Adam’s Falls trail hike. So, after looking at the trail map I picked up at the Ranger Station on our arrival, the most likely option was to hike the Anthony Creek Trail. The trail head, I discovered, was fairly close to our campsite, but there was a creek in between us and it. We could wade across but that would mean starting the hike with wet shoes, and that didn’t seem wise. The other option was to walk out of the campground, up the road a bit and into the picnic area where the trail head was located. It would only add a half mile to our hike, so we decided that would be our best option.

Not knowing anything at all about the trail, I decided to walk over the Ranger Station and ask about it before we went off half cocked, as they say. Plus, I still owed them a dollar for the trail map they gave me when we checked in. They are strong advocates of honor here. When I asked about a trail map on check in, the young Ranger pointed to a stack of them in a wall rack.

“Just put a dollar in that box,” she told me.

“All I have is a twenty. Can you give me change?”

“That’s okay. When you get change just come back by and put your dollar in.”

The maps were on an honor system. The firewood stacked behind the store was on the honor system. The ice in the ice box, also behind the store, was on the honor system. Nothing to stop you from taking it, but you are supposed to go into the store, tell them how much you took, and pay for it. I like a world where we can function on honor and trust.

I was a little confused when I got to the station and the door was locked. The previous day they said they opened up at 8:30 and it was almost 9. I walked across the parking lot to the store because I wanted to buy some extra water bottles to take with us on our hike. They were still closed too. That’s when a woman, seeing the confused look on my face, informed me that there was a government shut down and the Ranger services would be cut way back.

She told me that they closed Cades Cove Loop down as well. I was glad we went yesterday, but feel for people who drove a long way and wanted to experience that and won’t have the opportunity now. (Note: they did open it back up after some confusion as to what and what couldn’t be opened).

I went back to the campsite and told M the news. We decided we would go on that trail anyway. Looking at the trail map, we thought we might, if we got brave enough, hike the Anthony Creek Trail, and then the Bote Mountain Trail which would connect with the Appalachian Trail. Then, if we were really rambunctious, we could do a little more and get to Rocky Top! I’ve known the song “Rocky Top” since I was a boy, but I just learned looking at a trail map that it is a real place and it is on the Appalachian Trail.

I packed up my backpack with water, snacks, some lunch bits, my camera, binoculars, and a few other things we thought we might need. My rucking exercises were going to be put to use today, as the pack ended up weighing around 25 pounds.

We walked around to the trail head. The picnic area was closed, gated off, but we didn’t think they would mind if we were just going in to do a hike up the trail. No one tried to stop us or ask us what we were doing, so we entered the trail at the back side of the picnic area.

The trail starts of deceivingly easy. A broad gravel lane, it was more like walking down a small road than up a mountain trail. That lead us to the horse camp; a place where horseman can set up a camp and have stalls to keep the steeds in. The Anthony Creek Trail is one of the trails designated for horseback riding as well as hiking.

Once you get past the horse camp it becomes more of what you might expect of a mountain trail. Uphill all the way. Without a break. It was a beautiful hike in spite of that. The trail follows along the Anthony Creek which is flowing down the mountain, and the only sound you hear is the water making its way down, cascading over rocks and boulders, settling into small pools, and then continuing its downward descent after those brief respites.

This trail, like the Fall’s Trail we did yesterday, had several stream crossing bridges built of hewn timbers. It was certainly a physical challenge for us to make the climb to the Bote Mountain Trail connection. Once there we stopped for lunch and it was time to make a decision as to whether we would continue on up to the Appalachian, or head back down.

I made some time calculations, and thought that we wouldn’t reach the top until around 2 and it would take us four hours to get back down. That is without any unforeseen problems cropping up. We decided the wise move was to head back. But with one slight variation. Looking at the map, we saw that we could start down on the Bote Mountain Trail, connect to the Lead Cove Trail, and the Crib Gap Trail before reconnecting with the Anthony Creek Trail. This would add a little on to the distance and we would get to experience different trails than the one we had just hiked.

Photo by liam matthews on Unsplash