June 17, 2015 - More Rain

It was a quiet day for us even though there were plenty of day visitors streaming in and hiking up to the Midnight Hole. We saw a parade of eight cars driving up Big Creek road in the morning. Later, we noticed a lot of Louisiana license plates in the parking lot. They must have all been together. It was a beautiful day and I was moved to take a picture as soon as we left Sao.

 

Spence was mowing the lawn in the parking lot.

 

The group that has been here for nearly two weeks in the group site left about noon. Another Camp Carolina group of 16 arrived in the early evening. It was pouring rain and we watched them running to the swimming hole under the bridge.

The crust on the blueberry cobbler had turned to mush overnight. I stirred it up, put in a third of a cup of self-rising flour, and baked it for 30 minutes. It was delicious and not soupy. It didn’t look like cobbler any more though.

Boss Larry dropped by with updated reservation reports just as I was mixing up the blueberry stuff. He said he had posted my pictures of the raccoon on his Facebook page and his friends liked them. He started to leave, but I convinced him to stay just a few minutes longer with some of that blueberry stuff. He also gave me some more Smokies Guides newspapers to hand out.

The cell phone I found at the campground kiosk yesterday belonged to the camper in Site 3. He was thrilled to get it back. It is a 10-year-old Blackberry-type phone that he is hoping to keep alive indefinitely. Why?  He does not have to pay for a data plan. I wish I had known that data plan thing before I traded in my old phone years ago. I still remember how shocked I was when I couldn’t plug the new phone into the computer to get on line. Moreover, it was unlimited minutes after 2100.

The camper in Site 1 told Andy the big motorhome in the parking lot left about 1930. Another camper said it was interesting to watch them maneuver to get it out of there.

Spence arrived at the RV with Randy and Lynn Graves, who are the October hosts. We chatted and swapped camp host stories for a while. They requested a performance of Smoky Mountain Maintenance Man and we gave a rousing rendition with the addition of the new last verse.

We had passing dark clouds all day, but the daily deluge did not start until after 1700. I was working on my log and asked Andy if anything happened today. He did not come up with much. Then I saw the young men running back to the group site. One of them fell and hurt his leg. I saw him go down and think he stumbled in the little drainage ditch across our road. Andy went out to investigate. I stayed inside. The poor fellow had a nasty gash on his knee. The trip leaders were prepared with first aid materials, but they borrowed some tweezers to dig some gravel out of the wound. I didn’t look. Then they packed up all their gear and all of them left to take the boy to the hospital to get stitches.

There was a pond in the parking lot after the heavy rain.

 

We were talking with the couple in Site 8 when I looked up and took this picture of the wet trees and the mist above us. That’s the Smoky Mountain smoke mixed with a bit of campfire smoke.

 

The couple in Site 1 did not have any twine to tie up their tarp, so Andy took the man to Sao to give him some of ours. He was so grateful.

The family from Michigan in Site 4 took our advice and went to the Mellow Mushroom for pizza today. When I saw them in the evening, they were raving about it and thanking me for the recommendation. Even the little kids were excited about it.

I finished walking around to the campsites and then met Andy in the picnic area. The water level was up a little in Big Creek, but not dramatically. Two Hispanic boys were in the swimming hole bouncing a soccer ball from one head to the other. The mother was standing on shore watching them.

 

On the radio

A woman called dispatch from the Rainbow Falls trailhead to report that her 16-year-old nephew had fallen on the trail and broken his collarbone and perhaps some toes. She had come down the trail ahead of the rest of the party to make the phone call. Ranger 412 went to meet her at the trailhead. At 1604 dispatch reported that the 185-pound nephew was about a mile up and hopping down the trail on one foot with the aid of two uncles. After they had been calling around trying to form a litter team, Ranger 412 got to the trailhead, but found no aunt or nephew. Dispatch called the cell phone number and the aunt said he had made it down the trail and they were taking him back to their cabin. They would take him to the hospital later, if necessary. They could have called to let the park know. Several rangers stayed overtime to be part of the litter team.

June 16, 2015 - Dog Sitting Maduro

We spent a good part of the morning in the tent campground talking to campers. The men in Sites 4 and 6 invited us to stop in to see them in Sawyer, Michigan on our way to Wisconsin. They said they are only 12 miles off the interstate. One of the men owns a brewery, but he was drinking a Miller. He said he needs a change once in a while.

I was so frustrated with the internet access yesterday that Andy suggested that we go to Subway today and try again. I went through all my bounced mail messages and resent to those people. After I finished my veggie sub, I did a send/receive and everything seemed to go out just fine. I’ll know for sure the next time I get on line and count the undeliverable email messages.

I bought a huge box of blueberries at Costco and made a blueberry cobbler with them. Something went wrong. I doubled my crust recipe to account for extra blueberries, but was still extra juicy. It was the first time I made a cobbler in my new oven too. I used the taller rack and got an unusual crust pattern. It was super thin and crispy in a circle. Maybe I should have tripled my crust recipe. It was still delicious.

 

I noticed a man and woman walking a dog past the motorhome. They looked to be heading to the Big Creek trailhead, but I didn’t go out to stop them. Then a couple minutes later, I saw them walking toward the picnic area. I went out and asked them if they wanted to go up the Big Creek trail and offered to dog sit. He is a labradoodle named Maduro. That is because he was the color of a Maduro cigar wrapper when he was a puppy. One dog treat and he was mine.

 

Sometimes he would come sit by my chair and other times he would go sit next to Andy.

 

When his owners returned, I asked if he had the personality of a lab and the non-shedding virtue of a poodle. They said, no. He has the lab personality, but does shed a bit. He is the first generation. They said that subsequent generations shed less and less, but they also get more wiry like a poodle.

Spence and regular-camper Junior arrived about 1500 for blueberry cobbler. We knew Ranger Heath would arrive when I pulled the cobbler out of the oven. However, we heard Ranger Heath on the radio making a rescue on one of the Cosby trails. When he finished saving the woman, he signed “out of service” at 1800.

Andy wrote another verse for Smoky Mountain Maintenance Man.

He’ll be golfing on the golf course when he’s gone.

He’ll be golfing on the golf course when he’s gone.

With his woods he will be smackin’. With his irons he’s weed whackin’.

He’ll be cussin’ on the golf course when he’s gone.

I didn’t like the present tense for weed whacking, but haven’t come up with a better alternative yet. Maybe “with his irons a weed whackin’.”

Hikers were still streaming up the trail to the Midnight Hole at 1611.

We saw this huge motorhome in the campground parking lot when we walked around in the evening. The generator and air conditioner were running. The man in Site 1 was rather unhappy about it. He said he came to this campground to avoid generator noise. I put a courtesy note on the windshield to remind them that this is a non-RV campground. I also reminded them that the campground parking lot is for campers only. Not that anyone else pays attention to that sign. Andy called it in to dispatch, just in case a ranger might feel inclined to drive to Big Creek.

 

On the radio

About 1534 a 250-pound woman was hurt on the Trillium and Grotto Falls trail and was having trouble walking down. They were organizing a litter team to go up and carry her down. Another ranger came on to report that cars were blocking the road and they might have trouble getting the emergency equipment to the trailhead. At 1700, the man on the scene told the litter team to stand down. The woman had a sprain on the ball of her foot and did not need a litter.

At 1542 a girl tubing in Deep Creek hit her head on a rock and needed medical attention. The ranger on the scene reported that she was not conscious. Swain County EMS picked up the girl at 1601.