June 04, 2015 - Preening Bird Over Creek

Every year I try to get a picture of this tree in our campsite with the sun lighting the moss. I have not yet captured the brilliance, but will keep trying.

Only Site 4 was empty when we walked around the campground, but two fishermen told me they got there while the two women had packed up and were eating their lunch at noon. We did not hear dispatch call for a vacancy report today.

There are a lot of children in the campground today. This morning, they were jumping on the rocks separating the parking lot from the campground. They also played in the creek with a small orange inflatable boat.

The father from Site 6 and the mother from Site 3 both showed me bothersome bee nests near their campsites. I mentioned them to Maintenance Richard when he and Linda came here to clean. Richard said that it is best to spray them early in the morning when they are cold and not moving too much. He’ll be over here first thing to take care of them and Andy will have the coffee pot ready.

The group of Appalachian Trail maintenance volunteers camped in Sites 5 and 7 have five tents on Site 5 and one tent on Site 7. The legal limit is two tents per site, but we don’t call a ranger for that offence. Besides, they are volunteers.

The drowned out family from Illinois in Site 12 that stayed in a motel last night bought new, dry tents this morning. The man said they spent $400 on dry stuff. They asked me where they could find a dryer for their sleeping bags and I gave them directions for Standing Bear on the other side of the interstate.

Site 12 Drying Out

It was a beautiful, dry day today so maybe some things dried out.

We stood on the bridge watching the water flow by for a long time. I spotted a bird in a tree next to the bridge. I can’t figure out what it is from my bird books. It is close to a vireo or a flycatcher. I took 78 pictures of that bird. It was busy preening and had its head buried in feathers in most pictures. The feathers were so fluffed up; it looked as though it had just come out of the dryer. Four or five of the 78 pictures came out well.

We were expecting campers in the horse camp, but no one was there early in the day. I filled out registration forms and put them on the board for them. I saw a tree with a ring of rocks around the base behind the registration board. That set me to wondering who put them there, why, and how long ago.

Ring of Rocks

One of the horse campers was there in the afternoon and said the other was on the way. I should say they are mule campers. I asked the woman what is the advantage of mules over horses. She said mules don’t get spooked and start running through the woods and hurt themselves. Her mule is Lulu.

Lulu

 Lulu started making a terrible racket several minutes before this horse trailer pulled in with a mule friend of hers. We watched the man backing into his site and continued our walk.

Ledge on Big Creek

Wildlife

Walnut Leaves Over Our Campsite

On the Radio

This is the first night of the official firefly viewing at Elkmont that it has not been raining (at least here in Big Creek). The radio has been abuzz with talk about parking, trolleys, and who is where. The Knoxville TV station came in again tonight.

There was a motor vehicle accident at the Laurel Falls Trail parking area at 0945. The man was hit in the head and got arm lacerations when the trunk hit him on the head on impact. We guessed it was a hatch back.

About 1500 a phone call came into dispatch reporting that a heavy woman had fallen and broken her arm at Abrams Falls. She did not think she would be able to make it out by herself. At 1550 they were assembling a litter team at the trailhead. Rescue 2 was at the trailhead at 1722 and would be on the trail with the litter in five or ten minutes. Then they reported that they were on the trail at 1729. They got to the patient at 1818 and were heading back down the trail in just a few minutes. They requested an ambulance at 1905, when they thought they were about half an hour from the trailhead. There must have been more than a broken arm; I don’t see how that would prevent her from walking out.

Three-five-nine and another vehicle reported that they would be at the Abrams Creek trailhead overnight netting bats.

As usual, there were a number of bear incidents. One man called for a ranger when park visitors were getting within 20 feet of a bear. They shoo the people away from the bear and then they shoo the bear into the woods to keep others from getting too close.