Well, Pete, the Hiking Machine, here and I am back on my home...the Appalachian Trail (AT). Well, the Big Lummox didn't want anything hard and wanted to go to Hot Springs, so we did the split hike to Mill Ridge and Lover's Leap Loop. the first part isn't too hard and the Lummox enjoyed getting to see some new spots. Anytime I can get on the AT makes me happy.
Once we got to the pond at Mill Ridge we got back to Tanyard Gap and then drove into Hot Springs to hike up to Lover's Leap. I had the idea to do it in reverse order, going up the Lover's Leap Trail and then south down the AT. It was funny to see the Lummox knees knocking when we ventured out on the Lover's Leap. Overall it was a good day and I didn't hurt my back either.
On Thursday, I returned to the area around Hot Springs for an Appalachian Trail (AT) hike. While I have done the whole AT section from Hot Springs to Allen Gap the two parts I was doing on the Winter Solstice was Tanyard Gap to the Mill Ridge Pond and the Lovers Leap Loop.
I have done the hike out of Tanyard Gap two times and all or part of Lovers Leap three times and talked about them here. There were a number of reasons I decided on these hikes. One was I was finishing my personal AT challenge...to hike this famous footpath in every month of the year. Another I wanted to see what the Mill Ridge section was like in winter. I had hiked this part the previous two times in High Summer, but trails look different from summer to winter, but I was even more surprised by what I found.
First I got an interesting viewpoint of the Tanyard Gap bridge from a spot that is overgrown in summer. Then there is an old home site that I got to see more of and then the had cut the fields which opened the whole area of Mill Ridge up. When here in the past it had been grown up with sunflowers and other foliage, it was now cleared. I guess part of the reason was for hunting because one of the side trips off the AT I took up an old road I found shotgun shells.
The other side trip I took was even cooler. When the AT cuts through Mill Ridge it follows a gravel road, but at some point, the AT cuts right, but on the map, it showed a turnaround about two-tenths up the road. With the trail grown up in summer I really couldn't tell what was up to the road, but with the area cut down I could and this turnaround led to an overlook. This made a welcomed surprise.
The next half of the hike took me to Hot Springs and up to Lovers Leap. The only time I did this previously in winter was the longer hike to Pump Gap. The hike I did, the Lovers Leap Loop, I had down in summer and gone northbound on the AT. While I started northbound, I hiked the road to Silvermine and then headed up the Lovers Leap Trail. This would bring me back southbound on the AT which made the hike different, and I also missed the main Lovers Leap.
The other big thing I noticed on this hike was how much the French Broad River was up. The previous times here it looked like I could wade across it but not today. Because of this, I saw more people there to "ride the river" than all of the previous times I had been here combined. Overall, it made for a different day on hikes I had done before.
It is Pete here again and what a difference a day makes. The Hiking Machine carried the Big Lummox on two straight days, last Friday and Saturday. On the hike Friday, we headed to Buffalo Mountain Park in Johnson City. While the forecast was for clear skies it was cloudy, cold and spitting snow (plus snow on the ground), just like I like it. A course the Lummox was whining about how it was steep, slick and cold...what a wuss! So while I wanted to head out to Tip-Top the Lummox just wanted to head to the car, but at least we got to do a new trail on the way back, Tower Ridge.
So, the next day when we headed to Panther Creek State Park it was totally different warm, no snow and not too steep. So, I will cut the Lummox some slack on this one because he is right that the trails are blazed terribly and the map was worthless. If it wasn't for me accurate trail sense he would have got lost. Anyway, it was a nice easy hike that he again cut short because he had to get back and cook. Well, it was better to get out than not that is what old Pete says...
