Christmas Day in Cades Cove

Every year we try to go hiking on Christmas Day and this year's hike was in Cades Cove along Cooper Road Trail.

It was a nice day in the Cove, temps in the low 40's with cloudy morning skies that cleared in the afternoon. A little drizzle did not dampen our spirits but recent rains had water levels up and we did have minor difficulty crossing Arbutus Branch along the way.



Stopped by the pond to check out the water level.... not a lot, but for winter pretty good I guess.



I always enjoy visiting the little cemeteries in the open fields. Feels so good out under the sun when it's chilly.




There was a lot of traffic in the Cove on Christmas. Despite the fact that bear madness is done for the season we were still caught up in multiple deer-jams, especially on the notoriously clogged far end of the loop. Inevitable. Not sure what goes thru people's heads once they get on that side..... maybe they are desperate to see a bear before they leave the Cove (because you always hear "Cades Cove is THE place to see bears!!") and they are scanning the forest as they roll along at 0.2 miles per hour.


All in all, it was a very nice Christmas in Cades Cove!

Thanksgiving Hike

Hope everyone had a great holiday :-)
We woke up to a foggy, cold morning.


We took a Thanksgiving hike on Brushy Mountain Trail. We had done the summit before from the other side, and have hiked the lower/mid portions multiple times but I've been wanting to complete Brushy Mtn to Trillum Gap for a while and finally had the chance yesterday.
Started out on Porters Creek Trail at 11:30am, quite a few others were out enjoying the Smokies on a holiday morning.







Always have to stop by the old hiking cabin when passing by.....






The hike was quiet and mostly uneventful. Recent rain and a bit of horse traffic had made some muddy spots in the trail. Coupled with deep leaves and slick rocks, constant alertness was vital. We kept a rapid pace so were alternately sweaty then cold as we wove in-and-out between shady hollows and sunny ridges, pushing ever upwards.




View of Greenbrier Pinnacle through trees and tangle of grapevines. I want to get back up there again sometime this season.











1st crossing of Trillium Branch. Heavy rain a couple days before had waters running higher than usual, but had subsided enough to allow a doable rock-hop. We did see a handful of kayakers running the Little Pigeon River as we drove in, river was still flowing pretty high down there.










This tree disapproves.

I think he may be related to Plankton.






Three hikers coming down from Mt. LeConte passed by. This is the only time we've ever seen anyone on this trail.









Second crossing of Trillium Branch, a nice little cascade here and a quick leap across the water.



Almost there...... relentless pace continues.....










Trillium Gap, at last, in 2 hours 40 minutes. From the Porter's Creek parking lot to Trillium Gap the elevation gain is around 2,700ft. Arrived at 2:10pm to complete silence. The lodge is closed for the season now, so way less foot traffic. It was boisterously loud when last we were at this gap via Trillium Gap Trail, lots of hikers were passing thru then.


 





We briefly debated continuing on to the Brushy Mtn summit (which btw is 0.4mi not 0.2mi) but decided against it. Safer not to push too close to sunset, especially since it was much colder up there and we had hoodies and not jackets plus were already tired. Back down we went.




Arrived at the parking lot at 4:15pm, still quite a few cars were there.






Back in Pigeon Forge, we saw this homemade 3-wheel-madmax-motorcycle-dunebuggy-2-seater-thingy.






Happy Thanksgiving!

Harvest!

Yesterday I picked the 1st ear of the bucket sweet corn.
Last night I boiled it and we ate buttered corn on the cob, it was pretty tasty, can't believe I grew that in a 5-gallon bucket!




























Sadly the watermelon that grew to the size of a junior football started to shrivel at one end, made an icky spot. We cut it open and it was mostly rind with a red star-shaped center and some tiny brownish seeds. Oh well.... since I picked it off the vine, a few more tiny melons have started to increase but the vine itself is dying off due to the season/weather, so I don't expect anything from them.
Also, the female flower has shriveled and dropped off the pumpkin vine before blooming, just like the last one.
I totally have to get an earlier start in the garden next year and hopefully it won't be so darn dry!

How does the garden grow?

The garden is growing very well now that the weather has cooled off a bit and it rains sometimes.







The bucket sweet corn is getting big and has a lot of ears.










I can't help but think this tuft of corn silk looks like Wembley Fraggle is hiding in the stalk.
































The watermelon is slowly expanding and the vine has made two more attempts at melons - one appears to be shriveling and the other looks to be growing. I'll start monitoring that one more closely.













Beautiful watermelon flower.




A female pumpkin flower starting to form. I'll have to watch and when it opens I'll need to polinate it with one of the male flowers. This is only the second one I've seen on the vine and I didn't try to polinate the other one and it shriveled up.

Caterpillar season

It's caterpillar time again! I found the usual gulf fritillaries on my passion vines and have discovered some caterpillars that are new to me - tomato hornworms:

Three of them were working on decimating my scant bell pepper plants. I never got around to googling them until today and I only did that because, upon checking their status this morning, I discovered 2 were gone and the 3rd was forming a cocoon so I figured I better find out what is it.




At 11:30am, tomato hornworm was doing this. Kinda looks like in Men in Black II where the alien takes over the guy's body & the skin doesn't fit right, heheh.

I got all excited & thought I'd be in for a chance to watch the transformation up close, it's hard to time these things right so I usually miss them.
When I checked on the caterpillar at 1pm sadly the hornworm's typical enemy, the wasp, had found it and eaten most of it. Perhaps that is what happened to the other 2 caterpillars as well...... A shame, the hummingbird moths are so beautiful. Anyway, it is always interesting to witness part of the cycle of nature.

New Blog

Not that I keep up with this one so great! But I started a new blog that is specifically for basic records of future hikes. If only I'd kept totals during our whole hiking career..... I know we have done over a thousand miles, it would be interesting to know just how much. Maybe I'll get a chance to look back through my pictures and add some more totals from past hikes.
http://outposttraillog.blogspot.com/

Garden again

Seems like all I do is talk about the garden!
Here I go again :-)


I'm growing corn in 5-gallon buckets on the back patio. The tassels are emerging and I'm excited! I currently have 10 healthy stalks, been having to water them like crazy due to the small-ish containers and the super-dry weather. They're pretty happy so far.





This morning I picked the second cucumber to grow on the vine in the front flowerbed. It's a fatty!

I think one of the shadier vines has a cuke the size/shape of a golf ball, will have to crawl under the elephant ears to find out.


Behold: Baby watermelon.
Cute!
It's about 3/4 inch (2cm) long.













Lastly, the mango tree growing by the patio door. It is thriving and periodically puts out a new segment of leaves.