O & W Bridge

(I did this hike on 10/19/15, selected the photos for the blog post, and never did the writeup! I was able to fill in some of the gaps by looking up a chat where I told my sister about the hike.)

This hike was fun, but longer than I expected, so I was pretty tired by the end of it! It was a beautiful walk, though, on the O&W Trail. It starts at Leatherwood Ford, walking 2.3 miles along the river to the old 0&W Railroad Bridge. The fall colors were really gorgeous.

I went out on the river bridge and took photos downstream and up before I started on the trail.

Fall Rush

(Written 10/18/2015, posted retroactively 10/24/2020!)

It got incredibly busy at Big South Fork this week, and I really got blindsided by it! I knew visitation was going to pick up as the fall colors started to show, but it's been so very quiet up til now that I wasn't ready for it.

Thursday I was staffing the visitor center by myself (usually we have at least two people) and it got very busy. Part of that was that it was just me - if I was talking to someone at the desk and the phone rang, I had to let it ring - but there was very little down time during the day. I called over to the campground and found out that it was completely booked for the weekend! I'm sure it's the same for next weekend, too - everyone plans to come out starting in the middle of October. Over the weekend it was the same - busy, busy, busy, with very little time in between the people that came in, and we needed two and sometimes three people out front most of the time! It finally wound down on Sunday afternoon, when everyone was going home, but I'm sure it's only going to get busier from here.

It's strange, because other places I've worked start to die down once the summer is over - but here, fall is a big season, so it's getting as busy as I've ever seen it, just before I'm getting ready to leave!

Honey Creek Trail

(I wrote this just after the hike but am posting it retroactively on 10/24/2020!)

Last week I did the toughest hike I think I've ever done.

The Honey Creek loop trail is one that I had been told is difficult, poorly marked, and has a lot of side trails that could take you a long way in the wrong direction. It's also absolutely beautiful, and I really wanted to try it. I planned carefully - I didn't do the entire loop. The road cuts it in half, so I would just do half. I even brought my bicycle so I could ride the section along the road and save some time.

I don't usually bother bringing a backpack on the day hikes I've been doing here, but this time I did. I used my Camelpak so that I wouldn't have to carry a water bottle, and would have my hands free. I brought my little emergency kit (poncho, thermal foil blanket, whistle & compass) and a first aid kit, including ace bandages. (One of my worst fears is spraining an ankle on a hike. Partly because I actually did that once, when I was by myself, and hadn't thought to tell anyone where I was going...) I had told several of my coworkers that I was going to do this trail, and they were all somewhat startled to hear that I was going to tackle Honey Creek...

I copied a walk-through from one of the hiking books that we sell. I even planned my route so that if I did get lost, I could follow the creek downstream to the river, and hopefully find my way back to the trail there!

After all that preparation, I did something stupid - I got a very late start. I didn't get up very early, and then I remembered I needed to give my half of the dorm a good cleaning because some new people were going to be checking in, and my side always gets checked as well. Things just took longer than I expected, and it was 10:45 by the time I was ready to go.

In an alternate universe, I would have realized that it was really late to be starting this hike, and switched to another one, saving Honey Creek for another time. But I was so committed to the idea at this point that I went anyway. I turned out to be lucky, but I will definitely be more careful of that in the future.

The drive out took a while, but it was beautiful. I parked the car at the very end of the road, by the Honey Creek overlook. Of course I went to the overlook first. It was worth the drive just for that view.

Halloween decorations

The bookstore in the visitor center has some Fall/Halloween decorations up, including fake spider webs in the windows. This week I noticed that a real spider seems to have taken that as a signal that this is a good neighborhood, and built a web on the outside of that window! It's a fairly big spider, and I have been looking every time I go out that door to see if it is still there.

A day or two ago I spotted what was probably the same spider, lowering itself from the eaves just outside and in line with the door! I knew someone was probably going to walk into it there, so I swooped its thread away and deposited it on the railing next to the bookstore. I'm glad to see it took the hint. It's fun having such realistic Halloween decorations!

North to Kentucky

(Mostly written the week of 10/6, posted 12/3!)

Somehow there is a huge difference between "I have a whole month left!" and "I only have three weeks left!" I made a list recently of all the places I still want to see, and since I'm running out of time I decided to do something on each of my days off this week, instead of just one. I did Angel Falls Overlook yesterday, and today I drove up into the Kentucky section of the park. I wanted to go up to Blue Heron and actually look at the exhibits - both the other times I was there it was for work, so I didn't get to spend much time looking around.

On the way up I took a side trip out to the Bear Creek Scenic Area. I knew there was a river overlook there, and a short hike out to Split Bow Arch. I got a little turned around on the way there but I found it easily enough, and it was a beautiful drive. I just forget sometimes how long it will take to get to places on these twisting roads!

At the Bear Creek parking area, I went to a picnic table to change my shoes, when I looked over and saw an enormous black bird sitting in a tree just beyond the car with its wings all spread out! I hurried back to the car and was tramping around with my shoes untied, trying to get a good angle. The vulture (I assume that's what it was - it wasn't an eagle, and it was too big to be anything else) was evidently sunning itself, and that meant the sun was shining into the camera as well, so it was tricky to get a shot.

River Rise

It rained a lot last week, and the river's been up. It's not really flooded, because it was quite low before the rain started, but the water has been high enough to change the view from the bridge. I stopped at the bridge on the way home from work yesterday to get a few pictures.

This is a view out of the car window about halfway up the road to the top. This little waterfall is only there after a rain - and when I remember to look for it, and see it pouring down like this, I try to wrap my mind around the fact that this same thing is happening everywhere along the gorge, we just can't see it - and that is why the rocks in the river are covered up right now. (There was one day a few months ago, after a solid week of rain, that I looked over and realized I couldn't even see the trees growing out of the rocks... and yet they're still there!)

I stopped at the bridge again this morning on my way to go hike, and again on the way back in the afternoon. The water levels were about the same but it was interesting how the light changed.

Angel Falls Overlook

Finally, I got out on another hike! I didn't want to waste any more time. I drove out to where I rode my bike the other day - very slowly, because the road is narrow, winding, and rough in places. I didn't have any trouble, although I did have to line the car up very carefully to go across the one deeper rut. I parked at the end and headed out toward the Grand Gap Loop.

I've been telling people all summer how to get to this trail, and I'm so glad I finally made it myself! People often hike up from the river level, or through the woods behind the campground, but that would just be too long of a hike for me to manage. (I'm always amazed when people can do thirteen miles as a day hike, or as one leg of a backpacking trip. My limit is about 5 miles, usually.)

I was starting on the inner section of the loop, which snakes around the edge of the gorge and then sort of doubles back on itself. The part I did today took me through the woods to the edge, and then a little way along the edge before I turned around.

It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny. The sunlight at this time of year is just golden, and since I was up on top there was a lot of light coming through the trees - at the bottom of the valley the light is filtered through a lot more leaves before it gets through!

It rained a lot recently, and I kept seeing all kinds of moss and lichen.

It looks like tiny fern fronts and soft spiky balls...