searcyf@mac.com – Page 105 – Travels with Fred

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park – Day 3

1 November 2017

Happy 69th birthday to me! I decided to celebrate by folding camp and heading back home. I pretty much gave up on finding a trail that wasn’t under 2 feet of water. I was ready to leave by 10 am and had just started to pull out of the camping area and realized I didn’t have my Tilley hat. I had left it in the shower from last night, so I made a u-turn and grabbed the hat. I’d hate to lose that hat even though Tilley will replace it free of charge.

My opinion of the park is it needs a lot of work. The trails are very poorly marked and are really nothing more than road beds through the preserve. Unfortunately, most of the rangers seem to make their rounds in four wheelers which only adds to the ruts (and standing water) along the trails.

The park does have facilities for those people who have their own horses. They even have their own campground. Other than bird watching, there’s not a lot going on for one of the largest preserves in the state of Florida, but perhaps that’s the way it should be.

I made it home by 1:30 pm and immediately unloaded the car, started a load of wash, and then pitched the tent to get the sand from inside, let it air out, and dry out the fly. I spread the “garage” and the ground cloth for the tent so they could dry and then unpitched and packed everything again. So far today, that’s one breaking camp, one pitching camp and another breaking camp. I’m pretty tired and plan to hit the rack early tonight.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park -Day 2

31 October 2017

For my first night on a cot, it went really well. It was far more comfortable than the ground. The self-inflating air mattress was perfect insulation for the 44F temperature last night. More than ever I appreciated the indoor potty so I didn’t have to trudge to the public facility.

There were only 4 campers in the campground last night and one of those was the campground host. To me, this is perfect camping weather so I don’t know why there weren’t more people. At least the campground was quiet.

I used my Blue Bottle drip system for coffee this morning and it worked perfectly. Before I left home, I prepared several packets of sausage and biscuit and froze them for the trip. The idea was to warm them in the Coleman oven this morning. I forgot to take into consideration the biscuits would keep on baking. The bottoms were charred but otherwise very tasty.

I was warned on Facebook by Tracey to watch out for the crows – they would steal the food. Sure enough, two kept a close watch but a red shouldered hawk perched over the site and kept them honest.

The morning sunrise was magnificent. There were a set of low clouds in the distance that gave the impression of a mountain range.

Today, I intended to do some hiking. One thing I appreciate about parks is their warnings to hikers about the terrain. For example, they warn you it is very flat here and hikers don’t have any landmarks to find their way. They also warn you about wearing a broad brimmed hat to protect you from the intense sun. However, I have never been warned to look out for UNEXPLODED ORDINANCE! It should be an interesting hike.

The trail I intended to hike was the Kirkpatrick- Homestead Loop. I got about 30 feet down what I assumed was the trail and it quickly became obvious I needed to be able to walk on water like the Jesus lizard. No such luck. I looked for a way around the low part but quickly ran into a slough, so I turned around and headed back to the campground. One problem with the trails is they are supposedly marked by letters of the alphabet at junctions on the map. I have yet to see a junction marking on any trail.

I decided to look around the town of Okeechobee and have lunch. It’s 28 miles from the park with a speed limit of 25 mph for five miles in the park and mostly 40 mph until you come to Highway 98 so it’s a 45 minute drive each way. I had red snapper at the Tin Fish which was pretty good. It was grilled and placed on a ginormous bed of slaw.

On the way back to the park I saw another natural area listed and took a side road which pretty much dead ended to nowhere with no hint of the natural area. I returned to the campground and met one of three campers leaving.

I’ll try one more area tomorrow morning and if that is impassible, I may head back home a day early.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park – Day 1

30 October 2017

It was a two hour and 40 minute drive to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, north of the town of Okeechobee and the lake of the same name. Prairie is an apt description of the 54,000 acres of very flat, and since Hurricane Irma, very wet terrain.

I’m in campsite number 5 and fortunately there is no standing water. I think this park gets so few visitors that they really don’t stand on ceremony – checking you in, making sure you are toeing the line, etc. They are just glad to see you.

I pitched the 8-person tent and even set up the garage on the back in record time. Practice really does make perfect and even though it has been a while since I set this monster up, it went smoothly.

Tonight, for the first time, I am sleeping on a cot. After three nights on an air mattress, I find it more and more difficult to get upright from the ground. I purchased the cot from REI and it seems very sturdy and extra long. I also bought a self-inflating air mattress for the top of the cot to provide a little more insulation on cold nights. It really does self inflate and you only need to add a few puffs of air to top it off. I added a Hudson Bay type blanket and then my down sleeping bad and pillow, so I should be set for any cold weather. Tonight’s low is predicted to be 45F. The down bag is good down to 20F.

I decided to hike the very short Hammock Trail Loop next to the campsite. It was a 1.6 mile hike (according to my Garmin ETrex which may or may not be accurate). It was at least in the ball park of the stated distance on the map. About halfway through the hike, I stirred up Mr. and Mrs. Wild Hog and three little hoglets. Fortunately for me, they were more scared of me than I was of them.

On the way back to the campsite, I did a small detour by the office and met Mr. Six Foot Alligator. Wild life seems abundant here.

This trip has already been a success for me in that I got a photo of a caracara bird. I’ve been trying to photograph this thing for 35 years. Usually, I see them along the roadside when I’m traveling 55-60 mph and by the time I get stopped and turned around, they’ve flown. There were two sitting on some posts across the road from the visitor center and very accommodating with their poses!

Dusk at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park

This park is considered the best place in Florida for stargazing. The ambient light from towns is negligible and I hope to try some star photography tonight. There is a moon so it won’t be the best but it’ll be interesting to see the milky way again.

Tonight’s dinner is home made beef stew. Breakfast will be sausage and biscuit with Blue bottle coffee.

Fall Foliage Trip – Day 8

8 October 2017

The trip home was uneventful. I was routed I95 to the Florida Turnpike and then home. As I got closer to home, I was disappointed to see the debris had not been picked up. Wonder of wonders, when I rounded the corner, the debris pile in my front yard had been picked up, except for some old landscape timbers that they will pick up the next go around.

Unfortunately, they were not too neat with their debris removal. I filled a yard waste bin with the material they left behind on the swale and the street. It took me about an hour to clean up their clean up. Oh well, at least the grass can start growing again in the bare spot.

I traveled over 5000 miles on this trip. It’s now time to take the jeep in for servicing and continue preparations for the cross country trip this spring.

Fall Foliage Trip -Day 7

7 October 2017

I feel badly about getting Stephen and Jimmie up so early, but I needed to get off early in order to make a lunch date at Hilton Head Island. Jimmie fixed me a bagel and after excellent directions from Stephen, I was on the road by 6:30am.

I had followed Stephen’s directions to I73 which led to I74, which led to I95 and was on my way to Ashboro when my GPS said traffic jam ahead and did I want to re-route? Against better judgement, I said yes and I was soon directed to back roads through back towns for what seemed forever. I was finally routed to I95 which would lead me to the Hilton Head Island exit.

I’ve decided to name my GPS lady Cassandra since she prophecizes doom and I usually ignore her.

In any case, I pulled into Hilton Head Island and Moss Creek at 12:15 pm to meet Mary Ann and Terry. We met several years ago on a barge tour of Bourgogne and have remained in contact since. They had recently returned from a trip to Alaska into the waiting arms of Irma which had pushed marsh grass up to their doorstep with the flooding. Happily, the marsh grass is back in the marsh.

They treated me to lunch at their club and I had an excellent seafood chowder and a Ruben. I’ll have the other half of the Ruben for dinner tonight. It was good to catch up with them and get first hand accounts of their trip.

After a wonderfully leisure lunch, I dropped them at home and headed to Brunswick, GA for the night. I’ll make the final leg of the trip home tomorrow.

This has been a great trip and a much needed break from iguanas and hurricane Irma. Tomorrow begins the battle anew.

Fall Foliage Trip – Day 6

6 October 2017

Yesterday ended on a high note. I had left a message the day before for an old colleague from the college, Terry Hamilton, who had retired to Boone. I hoped to meet up with him, take him to dinner, and reminisce over old times. I had not heard back from him so I assumed I missed him this trip.

I had just walked into the motel room when my phone rang and it was Terry. He had just walked in the door from a 7 hour drive from Ohio. He picked me up around 6pm and we headed to the Peddling Pig Restaurant for some excellent North Carolina BBQ and a couple of beers. He filled me in on his travels and I filled him in on mine and we told old tales and laughed heartily. He insisted on paying for dinner and then gave me a guided night tour of Boone. It was really good to see an old friend and I agreed to come by next time in the area.

The trip to Greensboro was uneventful and I got to my cousin Jimmie and her husband Stephen’s house around 12:30 pm. After a brief reunion we headed to the Village Tavern for lunch.

Afterwards, they drove me through the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park where Nathaniel Greene lost to Lord Cornwallis but with such terrible loses to the British that it had an ultimate effect on the outcome of the revolutionary war. Then Jimmie and I did a short hike along one of the many trails in the park.

We returned home and continued to catch up. Jimmie and Stephen then prepared an excellent black beans and rice with vegetables and salsa for dinner. I really love visiting them. They are so easy to be around and yet you feel like the very close family we have always been. Jimmie and I grew up together and are like siblings. Stephen and I are also a good match and we get along great.

Tomorrow, it’s a trip to Hilton Head Island to visit more friends.

Fall Foliage Trip -Day 5

5 October 2017

What a difference a day makes! The fall foliage was more intense this morning than yesterday. I retraced my route back over the mountains to Cherokee from Gatlinburg in order to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Part of the reason for brighter foliage was the early morning sun highlighting the foliage and part was the temperature difference on the Gatlinburg side. I awoke to 51F in Gatlinburg and it was 13 degrees warmer once I descended Newfound Gap into Cherokee.

As I was heading out, I got a great view of Chimneytops which is far more visible since the fire. The fire is evident there and only a few places in Gatlinburg.

Chimneytops- you usually only see the very tips of the peak.

As I walked to the restaurant last night, across the river were several burned out homes. Hopefully, the park, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are well on their way to recovery. Gatlinburg was certainly busy.

They are not called the Smokies for nuthin’!

I stopped in Cherokee for breakfast and then headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Traffic was heavy but most people were very courteous and pulled off at overlooks to allow faster moving traffic to pass them by.

At first, it seemed the foliage wasn’t as brightly colored but I noticed that instead of the yellows on the Gatlinburg side, the Cherokee side of the mountains were mostly reds of maples and gums.

There are parts of the Blue Ridge that are amazing. I’ve done a lot of the overlooks but what impressed me more were the totally shaded areas with sunlight dappling through the canopy highlighting the colors. As I passed Grandfather Mountain I noticed an abundance of red colors on the side of the mountain. It was quite spectacular.

I really made this trip to get away from all the yard debris and if the colors were good, it would be a bonus. I got away and got the bonus, so it’s been a great trip thus far.

Fall Foliage Trip – Day 4

4 October 2017

MANY years ago, Crag Knox and I would get a wild hair and decide to drive all night to the Smokies from Oxford, Mississippi for a hike. We actually did this on several occasions and often left Ole Miss around 10 pm. Crag had a Ford Bronco then and we always had camping gear packed. He was in pharmacy school and I was in graduate school in biology, so we could tweek the class schedule somewhat.

I remember one night with Crag driving along highway 64 (one lane road) in a very dense fog. You could barely see the road in front of you. Out of nowhere a man appeared on the road and we barely stopped in time. This was around midnight. He asked if we had seen his hunting dog. Crag, without missing a beat asked what color. The man said black. We told him no and promised to come back if we saw him. As we drove off, Crag said if the dog had had a strobe light on his head and a flare attached to his tail, we still wouldn’t have seen it.

Around 1 am we pitched a tent, crawled in and slept the sleep of the dead. Crag awoke the next morning, got out of the tent and said “Damn, where did that river come from?” I told him he had been driving beside it all night long with no guard rails and a fifty foot drop in dense fog.

On another trip, again along highway 64, in the daylight, we noticed power stations built into the sides of the mountain. The Ocoee is dammed in three paces and water is funneled underground to the tops of the mountain. When TVA needs extra power, water is released down shutters and over turbines to generate electricity.

The reason for the previous discussion was I asked the gps to route me away from interstates and toll roads and it took me back in time along highway 64. It really brought back memories and I saw the same power stations, still in operation and still managed by TVA. Most people have little knowledge of TVA and neither did I until I moved to Ole Miss for graduate school and started paying an electric bill. The TVA bill was approximately 1/3 of the cost of the regular Mississippi nonTVA company.

I started the trip with the idea of seeing fall foliage in the Appalachians. Truth be told, I am about a week early, two at the most, but the leaves are beginning to change and the drive through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park is still spectacular.

I really do believe it is one of the most scenic drives in America and I never tire of it.

I did the obligatory stop at Clingman’s Dome and hiked the 0.5 mile trip to the top. The observation tower was closed and under construction but that was OK since I’ve climbed it many times. It was nice, however, to be at the highest point in the Smokies.

On a rest break to the tower, I saw two hikers. I asked where they were heading and they said the AT which crosses near the top and then they were headed to Fontana.

Crag and I tried that hike one winter and we began at Fontana. We had to have our packs inspected by the park rangers for winter camping. The hike from Fontana to Sassafras Gap is pretty strenuous and we both were lugging 55 lbs packs. We made the campsite and pitched a tent. The next morning we got up and our boots had frozen and Crag had the beginning of frostbite on his toes. I remember going to the creek for water for coffee and the pail of water froze before I got it back to the campsite. I had to threaten Crag within an inch of his life to get him back down the mountain so he could keep his toes. His boots didn’t thaw until we got the heater going in his Bronco.

The hikers I met today came from Davenport and were headed to Fontana opposite of what Crag and I had intended. I didn’t tell them but if they had to hike this segment, they were definitely on the downhill portion of the trail.

Next I stoped at Newfound Gap and snapped a few shots and straddled the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina.

I then headed to Gatlinburg and passed Chimney Tops, my favorite day hike in the Smokies. Crag and I, Charlie Cooper and I, and even some students from Itawamba Junior College and I have made the hike. The trail was closed because this was the start of the devastating fire that damaged so much of the park, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge. The chimneys stood out in stark relief since the trees were gone.

I checked into another Choice motel, this time a Quality Inn on the main drag. I then walked the strip, purchased my taffy quota for the year and then headed to Peddlers Steakhouse and had a great filet mignon with 2 martinis.

Tomorrow, I head to Boone, NC with a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Fall Foliage Trip -Day 3

I can safely say I’ve had the worst meal of my life for lunch today. TripAdvisor rated Geneva’s in Rising Fawn, Ga as number 2 of 8 restaurants in the town. Number 1 opens only for dinner. The people were very nice and I even met Geneva, but the food was very, very bad. I ordered fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pinto beans and fried okra. First, I didn’t know you could get fried okra that greasy. The mashed potatoes tasted like a mix and the pinto beans were from a can -all unseasoned. The chicken was the worst. It looked delicious but had an off taste – either the batter or the chicken or both. They served sweetened ice tea and for desert, I had Watergate Cake, whatever that is. The price was a bargain at $9.20.

I should have realized something when I was the only car in the lot. They had just switched over to the lunch menu and were still cooking lunch when I arrived. Only one other person came in for lunch while I was there. Live and learn.

I slept well and woke up sore from yesterday’s hike. I did not plan anything extensive today and so started out for the two main overlooks in the park – a mile loop trail

I could tell my knee wasn’t going to let me do a lot of downhill walking, so I called it quits after that hike. I intended to do another 2 mile loop but decided instead to head to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain.

Over they years, I’ve been to Ruby Falls and Rock City twice and had no interest in seeing them again and instead, thought to find a cheap overlook to view the city below. Apparently, the locals are fed up with tourists and there are no non-paying parking sites anywhere on a lookout Mountain nor any free overlooks. I found some parking at the Chattanooga National Battlefield and Park Point. In my opinion, it’s the best view on the mountain.

Parking is $3.00 for the first hour and if you have a annual or national pass, the entrance is free. However, I ended up paying $5 for admission since their machine would not recognize my lifetime pass. Only later did I see a sign saying those with passes to go on in well, the park service needs all the help they can get.

Be sure to go to Park Point and descend to Ochs’ Obervatory. This has fantastic views of the valley below, the Tennessee River and the city of Chattanooga. You can only imagine the horror of Union forces storming Lookout Mountain Under fire from confederates. There is a story that the rebels could not aim down at Union soldiers for any length of time because the Minnie ball rolled out the barrel. They had to put a patch on top. Also, they couldn’t aim cannons down the slope. The Union army had no such trouble with their rifles and cannons.

I came back to the cabin around 2 pm and simply chilled out for the rest of the day with a nap added in.

As I write this, I’m having a glass of wine in front of a roaring fire to take the chill out of the room. Tomorrow I drive to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park for the foliage and a night in Gatlinburg.

Fall Foliage Trip – Day 2

I have to admit the Comfort Inn was comfortable. I had an excellent night of sleep -and then awoke to the shootings in Las Vegas.

I was on the road by 9 am and made it to Cloudland Canyon State Park a little after noon. The park ranger surprised me with a ready cabin even though check in is 3 pm. I had intended to settle accounts and simply start a day Hike but I was able to dump luggage at the cabin before I started off.

The cabin is great and fairly isolated from the other cabins. It also has a workable fireplace that I intend to get lit before the trip is over.

The park was established in 1938 and is comprised of 3,488 acres along the western edge of Lookout Mountain (Chattanooga is only a few miles away). My intention today was to hike the West Ridge Trail Loop and do the falls tomorrow. Right!

The West Ridge Trail Loop is a five mile trail that Backpacker magazine once rated as one of the top ten trails in the U.S. After today, I can see why. The magazine this past month rated it as the top trail in Georgia.

Most of the trail follows the ridge of the gorge and is well marked (with one exception). Switchbacks are well designed and there are several overlooks that are well placed and well maintained.

At a certain point in the loop, you can break off and go the the falls. There are two in the gorge: Cherokee and Hemlock. Cherokee has a 60 foot drop and Hemlock has a 90 foot drop. You start the trail down to the falls at the top of the ridge and drop to the canyon below, a distance of 1000 feet.

Cloudland Canyon is the deepest gorge in Georgia. Of course, you retrace your steps up 1000 feet! The trail down is 1.8 miles. At one point, to reach Hemlock, you have to descend 600 steps. I can honestly say I would rather walk a steep, rocky trail than to walk up 600 steps.

Both Falls had a decent water flow and I got some great photos.

On the return trip, I retraced my steps back to the loop trail and headed back to the cabin. As the West Ridge Loop wound back up, as you passed cabins, a sign on the trail marked each one. Except for one. Cabin 6 was not marked and the side trail so indistinct, I walked about a mile further than I needed.

I have to brag. My tracker measured over 8 miles for the trip today with maximum elevation and elevation gain and loss of over 1600 feet. I only started getting tired towards the last so I guess those hot yard work days paid off. However, the stairs were a killer.