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Crowder Branch 08/24/10

Since I had not hiked the Crowder Branch Trail in about 15 years, I needed to scout it for the upcoming Gourmet backpack. I wasn't sure if the campsite could accommodate all the folks who have signed up for the Gourmet backpack, nor was I sure the water supply to the site was adequate. Linda S. joined me on this 7 mile loop hike up the Crowder Branch Trail, down the Mill Branch trail, and back to my car at the Crowder trailhead. It was a great day, the coolest we'd had in some time, with no threat of rain. We found that the Crowder Branch trail, though not particulary steep or brushy, was a bit difficult to follow. The Mill Branch trail, by contrast, was well maintained and easy to follow, with good footing all the way, though is is steep in places. All in all, it was a very nice hike, but i decided to move the Gourmet Backpack over to the North Fork Citico Creek trail, where the campsite is much better for our large group.

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Sugarland Mountain Trail 08/04/10

This hike was an impromptu mid-week excursion to the Smokies. Only three of us went, but we picked a great hike for a hot day. (The heat index was over 100 in Knoxville.) The distance was a bit over 11 miles, down the Sugarland Mountain Trail from Clingman's Dome Road to Huskey Gap, then out the Huskey Gap Trail to US 441 and our shuttle vehicle. Participants were Priscilla, Gary, and Ron.

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Roan Highlands Backpack 7/24/10

This Sierra Club classic backpack , led by Will Skelton, took 11 hikers to the Roan Highlands to hike 14 miles of the A.T. between Carvers Gap and US 19E. Though the lowlands were sweltering in high 90s heat, we enjoyed the cool breezy airs of the highlands, being mostly above 5000 feet elevation. We had very nice weather both days, with only a brief shower overnight. It was painful to return to the heat and humidity of the low country!

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Clinch River Float 07/11/10

Eleven participants enjoyed a beautiful summer day in this Harvey Broome Group outing on the Clinch River. We paddled from Millers Island to the Highway 61 bridge access point (11 river miles). We started the float about 10:00 am, and were ahead of the Norris dam release schedule until we stopped for lunch, when it caught up with us, but we outran it after lunch, finishing in low but floatable water. Probably because of the season, we did not encounter as much wildlife as we had hoped we would, but did see a number of great blue herons, Canada geese, ducks, kingfishers and a couple of green herons. But we had a great time on the water, and enjoyed an unexpected lunchtime treat in the form of blueberry cake prepared by Barbara. After the trip, a number of us enjoyed dinner together at a local restaurant.

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Injun Creek 6/5/2010

Our backpack this weekend took us to Campsite 32 in the Smokies. We hiked Injun Creek and Rhododendron Creek, with a just short stretch on the Grapeyard Ridge Trail, so much of the hike was technically "off trail," though these are well traveled trails and easy to follow. On day 1, we saw evidence of the pre-park landowners who made their homes in the Greenbrier section, in the form of a spring house, several rock walls, a family cemetery, cairns used to deposit the rocks that farmers cleared from their hard-won fields, plus the old steam engine ("injun") that the creek is named for. Day 2 was more about the beauty of the waterfalls on a classic Smoky Mountains stream, Rhododendron Creek.

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Rankin Float 05/22/10

Led by Michael Sledjeski and Leslie Gibbons, 15 paddlers on this Harvey Broome Group Outing paddled and floated around the Rankin Bottoms area in the late afternoon/early evening. The lake was at full pool (993 feet). We saw Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Baltimore Orioles, many ducks, Canada geese, Ospreys, Redheaded Woodpeckers, and several other species of birds, and enjoyed pleasant temperatures and a placid lake. A great afternoon.

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TN Sierra Club Chapt Meeting 05/16/10

From May 14-16, the Harvey Broome Group hosted the Tennessee Chapter meeting at Camp Wesley Woods, in Townsend, TN. After conducting a long day of club business, the attendees were honored to have Dale Ditmanson, 15th Superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park as a dinner guest, and as guest speaker. Superintendent Ditmanson discussed opportunities and issues faced by the Park, both long and short term. As the photographer whose pictures are shown here was assigned to KP for the evening, they picture taking was rather limited. Perhpas some others who took pictures will share theirs with us.

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New River Segment of CT 4/17/10

Warren Devine led this backpack on this segment of the Cumberland Trail State Park, which, when completed, will span the cumberland plateau section of Tennessee from the Kentucky to the Alabama Border. The 17-mile hike spanning two days was challenging, but quite rewarding, especially since we did it during wildflower season. We enjoyed hiking in mature forests, seeing mountain streams, and even an elk. We had great weather, with a chilly night in the upper 30s, but delightful daytime temps. The campsite was very nice, close to a stream, and many wildflowers. But we also witnessed the legacy of environmental destruction left by coal mining that took place decades ago. Although some of the mining sites have recovered significantly, others are still not only and eyesore, but a threat to our mountain streams and lakes.

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Porters Creek 4/7/10

I missed Linda's outing to Porters Creek Saturday, due to being out of town, so I thought I'd better get over there and get my "flower fix" before it was too late. I went alone, since I knew I'd be spending the majority of the time there taking pictures, rather than hiking -- I only made it a little ways beyond Fern Falls before running out of time and turning around. But there were loads of people on the trail. Had the good fortune to encounter a beautiful black bear on the return. The flowers were great, I guess about what I would have seen last Saturday - maybe even better, since we've had a couple more warm days since then. Since most of you know these flowers, I won't worry about naming them. All but the first two were taken with my Canon 100 mm f2.8 lens, most using a tripod.

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Piney River Section of CT 3/24/10

This was a Smoky Mountain Hiking Club Outing, but since several of us are also Sierra Club members and this was our "midweek" hike this week, I am taking the liberty of putting the pictures on the HBG Outings site. This 10 mile hike was on a georgeous spring day, to a beautiful Cumberland Trail segment. There were 6 hikers: Michael, Jean, Joy, Elfie, Barbara and Ron S.

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Virgin Falls 030610

14 hikers had a great day on this Harvey Broome Group (Sierra Club) 9+ mile (round trip) hike out to Virgin Falls, the major feature of the Virgin Falls State Nautral Area near Crossville, TN. We had a great day, the only downside being the scores of other hikers that we shared the trail with, including two boy scout troops, several smaller groups of backpackers, and loads of dayhikers.

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SierraClubLogos

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Tubb Spring 022010

This is billed by Harvey Broome Group as the "Spring Breakout" backpack. We always hope for signs of spring by late February, and we got some on this trip, with temps in the upper 40s and 50s during the days, and the morning low on Sunday in the upper 30s. But beyond that, the trip had the trappings of a Winter backpack, because we had a fair amount of snow. But the snow was beautiful, and contributed to our enjoyment of the outing, even though it did make the 8-mile trek in to the campsite (via the Bird Mountain and Lookout Tower trails) a bit more difficult. We had a nice evening with a great campfire in the stone fireplace at Tubb Spring, and slept late the next morning before returning to our cars via the South Old Mac trail.

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Cucumber Gap 02032010

The destination on what was supposed to be a sunny day was a loop hike up the Jakes Creek/Cucumber Gap trails and down the Little River trail back to Elkmont. Total distance including the walk along the road between trailheads was about 5.5 miles. The sun did not show itself until we were headed back through Townsend on the way home, but it was still a pretty nice day -- no rain!

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Ramsay Cascade 1182010

The good news -- the park service finally opened Greenbrier Rd, and we made it to Ramsay Cascade. The not-so-good news -- most of the ice was gone! But some ice was left, and Duane, Mike, and I had a beautiful sunny day for the hike.

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Rainbow Falls 011110

Wanting to get some pictures of frozen waterfalls, Duane called Sunday afternoon to see if I was up for a hike to Rainbow Falls on Monday. Since we are expecting a warming trend, we both thought we better go while we had the chance, even though the closure of the entrance road added about 1.5 miles to the round trip hike, making the roundtrip distance about 7 miles, with 2,400 feet of elevation gain. Although it was a pretty cold morning, about 14 degrees at my house, and no doubt a few degrees colder where we began hiking, we were soon sweating. But it was a great day, with about 6 inches of snow on the ground at the falls, and a fair amount of sunshine.

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Abrams Falls 010510

Mike, Duane and I wanted to go to Ramsay Cascade, but the Park Service decided to close Greenbrier Road. Then we decided to go to Henwallow Falls, but they closed the road into the Cosby area. Then we were going to go to Charlies Bunyon, but they closed US 441. So we settled for Abrams Falls, which turned out to be a very pleasant hike. There really wasn't much in the way of ice formations around the falls themselves, but there was a nearby tributary creek that offered some interesting ice formations, albeit on a less ambitious scale than we had hoped for.

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HBG Holiday Slide Show (cover slides)

Cover slides for introducing the slide show.

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