Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park

On previous trips to the Smokies during family reunions or just driving through, we hadn’t ever undertaken a long hike. So, I remedied that by taking three hikes. First was a warm up for our mountain hike the next day. I wanted to hike along Rhododendron Creek, for the namesake plants, but the trail was closed due to nearby road construction. We also found out later, that the “rhodies” don’t bloom in this area until late May or June. So we settled for a 5+ mile hike in the woods where spring was just arriving.

Trilliums are an early spring flower that we had seen some years on our training hikes around Nashville, but never in the numbers and varieties that we found in the Smokies.

Yellow (as above) and red trilliums were quite striking in their differences, from the more common white variety.

And the best was the Painted Trillium:

I know… you’re already tired of flowers, but one last one, of a Yellow Trout-Lily. We saw only this one specimen during our entire hike. In the background you can see the variety of flowers we enjoyed -

It was a very pleasant walk in the woods.

Of note, it was fascinating to have come from Charleston, where it was deep into spring according to the plant life, and then be transported back to the very beginning of spring in the Smokies.

My main objective for hiking in this park was to climb Mount LeConte. It was described in the AllTrails app as being one of the most popular hikes in the park due to great views along the way, as well as nearly 360 degree views at the top. Also, uniquely, the only overnight enclosed lodging in the park was on top. LeConte Lodge is only accessible by hiking, and we chose the 5 mile Alum Cave trail to get there.

For the first mile or so, we followed that creek upstream, until we came upon the “Natural Arch” -

Looking back at it gave a totally different perspective:

About halfway up the mountain was Inspiration Point -

The trail’s namesake - Alum Cave was just a bit further on:

It’s not really a cave, but is apparently a nice place to wait out inclement weather. As is hinted in my pictures, we had an absolutely stellar day for hiking with clear blue skies and a comfortable light breeze.

As we climbed higher, we were treated to views with ranks of blue “smoky” hills in the distance.

After climbing 3,000ft in 5 miles, we reached LeConte Lodge.

From the Lodge brochure: “Guests are housed in hand built rough hewn log cabins with propane heat, kerosene lanterns, clean linens and warm Hudson Bay wool blankets.”

After eating our lunch of leftover BBQ in the rockers on the porch, we walked another 2 miles checking out the trails on the mountaintop, as well as enjoying the views.

The ranks of blue hills kept drawing my eye -

This was the actual high point on the mountain, at 6,593 ft:

This was just off to the side of a trail, and you could climb up the pile of rocks to say that you stood on the summit. :)

One of the main reasons for spending the night on the mountain was to catch one of the incomparable sunsets or sunrises. With the great weather we had, we were in for a treat -

For the curious among you, the “lodge” (I still find the name funny, as it’s just a collection of cabins; there’s no main lodge) provided dinner of beef and gravy, with mashed potatoes, green beans, cornbread, stewed apples, peach halves and chocolate chip cookie bars. For breakfast, we received scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, grits, pancakes and coffee. There are no showers, but they do have flush toilets in a separate building.

As the sun went down, I just kept snapping away.

We had followed the weather reports, and knew we weren’t going to have very nice weather for our hike back down the mountain. We awoke to fog and snowflakes on our porch:

Even though I thought I had brought everything we might need, I neglected to include gloves. So, when in need, improvise:

That picture was actually taken back at the bottom of the mountain, where it was snowing large wet flakes as we ended our adventure.

The peace and beauty of the mountains will stay with me for quite a long time.

South Carolina

Our trip originated as meeting friends in Charleston for a long weekend, so on the way there, we stopped at Congaree National Park. It is located in the center of the state, and preserves “the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the US”. On our first afternoon there, we walked along the elevated boardwalk getting acquainted with the terrain.

Bald Cypress trees have “knees” that jut up from the ground, but scientists aren’t totally sure why. The prevailing theory is that they provide stability to the tree.

One of the signboards we read said the mud layer throughout the area is 8 feet thick!

These are Dwarf Palmettos (and you can hopefully see the brown mud line marking high water) -

For our full day in the park (and my 60th birthday!), we rented a canoe in Columbia, SC. We tied it down firmly on the Fit…

…and drove 20 minutes to the put in on Cedar Creek -

First, we paddled upstream for about 45 minutes…

…finding gorgeous reflection pictures…

…around every bend -

After managing a comical “near portage” of backing up, maneuvering forward around and between tree trunks and cypress knees, we reached a nearly complete blockage of the creek by a fallen tree, so turned around, to check out what downstream was like. This was our original put in point:

…and downstream we found - surprise! More water and trees!

Oddly enough, there was hardly any bird song, but we did find a couple of buddies hanging out:

Yes, there are two snakes sharing that branch. We only found out later, after I google searched and compared images, that these were harmless Brown Watersnakes, and not cottonmouths.

More reflections -

…and cypress knees -

Floating downstream amid the beauty, and peace and quiet was a great birthday present!

Shifting gears, we met up with our friends in Charleston, and one of our excursions was to visit Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. The House tours were essentially booked up, so we strolled the gardens for several hours, definitely enjoying ourselves. There were some azaleas still blooming -

…and the Spanish moss dripping…

Another buddy approached us as we walked around a pond -

…but we ignored him.

This is an Anhinga, and he was obviously quite proud of the figure he cut:

Live oaks have interesting twists to their branches…

…and even azaleas get Spanish moss -

OK…next stop, the Great Smoky Mountains.

Friday Night Lights

As we were getting ready to leave Friday morning, I peeked outside to see a beautifully clear sky before sunrise. My mind started racing about all the preparations we’d made for this trip, and when would we ever get around to another one, when we’re literally handed perfect conditions for Aurora viewing. And we were already here. So… after a few phone calls, we were able to push our departure date by a day, including flights and accommodations without any extra charge, other than paying for an additional day on the rental car! (I cashed in points at a chain hotel in Fairbanks, as the lodge we’d been at was booked for that night.) Now, it would just depend on the weather remaining good, and the Aurora choosing to show up.

So this is how it started, before 10 pm, and we were excited and hopeful, due to the clear sky, and my literally duct taping my focus ring on my camera. :)

It looked like a spotlight shooting up from behind the trees.

In the next picture you can see the red above the curtains on the right, as well as shooting vertically in the bands on the left:

We were surprised to learn that the vast majority of the lights are green, with only rare appearances of red, blue, pink, violet and yellow. I had always seen images of this rainbow hued phenomenon, when what we saw that night was pretty uniformly green. It was only looking at my pictures later, that I saw I had captured the traces of red. We couldn’t appreciate that in the sky ourselves.

The “spotlight” got bigger and brighter -

…until it stretched from one horizon to the other -

I was getting really cold, but I just couldn’t make myself go inside, as the sky was just lit up…

…and the curtains started dancing.

I thought that was going to be my favorite shot, but then the swirling started -

Unfortunately, we couldn’t capture this on video, as my camera was too cold to do it, and for Steve’s phone, it was too dark. Steve was able to get a few tries at video, but unless you were there, you really can’t tell what’s going on, so I won’t torture you.

The light was so bright by this point, that the center white area in the picture above shows that my timed exposure was too long, where earlier, on the same settings, you could just make out the faint glow.

The Big Dipper straight overhead:

As I was writing this blog, I suddenly remembered that the owner of Aurora Pointe, where we were based for our viewing and photography, had sent me a link to pictures he took of us, as well as photos and videos he shot of the Aurora. In this first one, it started well, but then went out of focus, so i stitched two parts together:

In the second one, a girl walked up when he started shooting, so I trimmed the first few seconds, but you can see her gesturing at the bottom of the picture. If you just watch the right end of the ribbon of aurora, you can see it dance. You might want to watch this several times, trying to ignore the person in the bottom center of the screen. ;)

I just kept taking picture after picture because it was constantly changing…

…and lighting up the whole sky -

Another from @AuroraPointe:

…and me in action, on the right side of the picture:

it was hard to capture the “verticality” of the lights, because the constant movement in a prolonged exposure tends to cause it to blur together, but I captured some here, as well as getting a glimpse of yellow and red at the horizon -

As the night approached 0130, and my feet were ice blocks (with ice sticks for toes), the light was fading, so we reluctantly called it quits. Hope you enjoyed as much as we did!

Winter fun in Fairbanks

I didn’t think I needed to put in the title, that Fairbanks is in Alaska.

We had a number of friends and family question our sanity on heading north in the winter. Since we retired, we’ve always headed south in Jan. and Feb., and I’ve been very happy. Well, seeing the Northern Lights is one of the few things that were truly on a bucket list for us.

The picture above shows sunset on our first day. I was happily surprised to find that in Feb., there was about 8 hours of daylight. And even on the winter solstice, there’s still about 5 hours of light.

That first night, we had to really bundle up when going out to see the lights, as it was -25 F air temperature (no wind chill). This was the best picture I got:

Hopefully, you can appreciate the faint green glow. Then, I must have bumped my focus ring, and the rest of my pictures looked like this -

So, that was our first night. We stayed up until about 0100, but the lights didn’t get any better.

The next day we went dog sledding, and that was pretty cool (no pun intended).

The dogs were lunging and jumping in their harnesses, despite the musher/guide having the brake or lock on the sled. This was Steve getting his mittens on, just before I joined him in the sled -

It was relatively warm that day at “only” -5 F. We were actually pretty comfortable after they covered us with a sleeping bag. The views were gorgeous -

Halfway through our hour trip, during which the dogs covered 10 miles, our guide stopped the sled to get pictures of us, and give the dogs a little breather.

We had pulled down our balaclavas for the picture, but they were absolutely needed when the dogs were running.

the time was about 1230 pm for this shot

The terrain was beautiful…

…but an hour was plenty at those temps.

We had a team of 10 dogs pulling us, and we were surprised at the size of the dogs. These are lean, running machines (and they only came up to our mid-thighs in height).

To run the Iditarod’s 1,000 mile length, they start with a team of 16, and can’t trade in any new dogs. In fact, most mushers end the race with 10 or 12 dogs.

The second night was so cloudy, that we stayed inside, watching the “Auroracam” to see if the lights might end up showing, or if the clouds would clear. This is a website that has a camera trained on the northern sky, so you could stay inside and warm, until the show got started. Most of the time, the lights are most active between 10 pm and 2 am.

I dropped out early and went to bed before 11 pm, while Steve stayed up, hoping for clearing. Just after midnight, he woke me up and said the green bands on the webcam were becoming brighter and staying there, so we quickly got dressed in 3-4 layers, and hustled out to the field behind our lodge. We looked up into the northern sky and saw…

a cloud filled sky. No aurora. The webcam is located a number of miles away from where we were staying, and is more sensitive than our eyes.

This was sunrise the next morning, just before 0900.

As we had breakfast, I was mesmerized by the colors of the Alaska Range to our south -

We had a “hybrid” car -

No, actually that was how we plugged the car in each night to an engine block and oil pan heater. Also, remote car starters are a real thing in Alaska. The guy who rented the car to us said he sees people on the plane hitting their remote starters right after they land, so the car is nice and toasty when they reach the parking lot. We used ours each night in the restaurants, as we asked for the check.

Those are modern snowshoes. I was a little disappointed. I wanted the kind you see in pictures of old that look like tennis rackets made out of rough wood. These worked well though, and we had our own personal guide for snowshoeing around the lodge property:

We were surprised at how much snow they kicked up in the back. Check out Steve’s feet, and also how well we followed our guide:

Well, you’ve already seen the dog butt pictures from the dog sledding (to add to my butt collection of pictures, that I started in Africa), so here is one for my shadow collection, that I’ll be curating in the future:

So, our third and final night in Fairbanks, we went to the Aurora viewing lodge again…and waited…and waited…until at 0200, we called it a night (after NO aurora activity at all) and started snowshoeing back to the lodge (just 1/2 mile away). I thought I could see just a faint green glow, so had my companions stop while I set up my tripod and took a few pictures.

That was it. Our Northern Lights experience. We were already discussing how/when we might try another trip (to AK? Finland? Iceland?). We’ll keep you posted.