June 9, 2015 - Cosby Nature Trail

The mushrooms from Sunday are already brown and now a whole forest of them has popped up next a tree near the toilet building. I wonder if a bunch of mushrooms is called a colony. If so, this is the colony I watched last year with multiple generations. This is clearly a good environment for them even though they are not that close to the toilet building or the septic tank.

Someone was being clever with the remains of a fat log in Site 1 and has burned it from the inside out.

 

Local and regular camper, Windy informed us that we need to be politically correct. He is no longer a hillbilly, but is now an Appalachian American.

Kathy’s one request while here was to go to the Applehouse because she wanted to buy some more stone-ground corn meal in their produce store. We went there for our dinner and enjoyed watching the horses with a youngster out in the orchard while we ate. Kathy bought some more produce and Andy picked up some seedless jam. Then we headed to Cosby campground.

I was aware that Cosby had the nature trail, but never got around to going there to walk on it. It was much prettier than I expected and a lot different than Big Creek, just over the mountain. The trailhead is next to the amphitheatre where we listened to the bluegrass music a few weeks ago.

We crossed many streams, or maybe just a few many times. The path was winding so it was hard to tell. The first crossing was over a stone bridge.

 

Andy did not bring his walking stick today. He did not have any trouble stepping on stones to cross water or on the many log bridges.

 

The path was in a small valley and was mostly level. It felt like a river delta with all the water. I guess it is the Cosby Creek Delta. One time we had streams on both sides of the path. There are only a few large trees there, but the vegetation is lush.

Andy paused to pose for me here.

When I walked across, I stopped to take a picture of the creek below my feet. The water was moving fast.

 

This is the view downstream from that log bridge.

This is a crazy tree trunk. I am tempted to call them roots. I recall that we saw another tree like this over in Sugarlands, near park headquarters the first year we were here. It was in a similar environment with flat land and plenty of water. I’m too lazy to look for the picture to compare them right now.

Kathy pointed out this mushroom tree.

I looked inside this hollow log and decided that it would make a good bed for a bear or some other creature.

June 8, 2015 - Abram's Falls

I don’t know if it was Andy or Kathy who got the bright idea of mounting the umbrella on the front of the car to dry, but it sure is funny looking.

Yikes! The couple in Site 11 showed us this monster spider on the tree next to their campsite. They said it had been there for days. They thought it was going into that knot-hole. It was so big, it looked fleshy. I don’t think I could sleep knowing it was so close. I would have to be checking on it every few minutes to make sure it was still on the tree.

Kathy perused the hiking trail book and we chose Abrams Falls Trail clear on the other end of the park. It did not look too steep on the graph in the book. It was a long drive, which meant stopping for lunch on the way, which meant Mellow Mushroom. Kathy picked the Holy Shitake pizza. It had mushrooms, garlic, cheese, and a spiral of aioli. It was fabulous.

Abrams Falls is a popular, five-mile, moderate hike. Spence had reminded us before we left that it is also where many people get hurt tripping over roots and rocks. I hadn’t thought of it before, but he was right. We regularly hear of  twists, breaks, and sprains at Abrams Falls on the radio.

The first thing I did was get in line. Kathy was not too far behind me. There were two doors, but only one of them could open. We hoped that didn’t mean someone had died behind the left door.

 

I turned around to see what Andy was up to. He was smirking because he had watered a tree along the road on the way there and didn’t have to wait in line.

It was a nice trail, but we did have to watch our step. Andy was doing fine until we got to a log bridge and he decided that he was not steady enough to cross it. He told us to go on ahead and he would wait at the car.

I spotted some Sweet Shrub (or Sweet Betsy) along the trail. It has been gone for weeks in Big Creek.

 

Kathy and I posed for each other on the log bridges.

After a while, I was glad that Andy had turned back because the trail had more rocks and roots as we gained elevation. Most of the trail was easy walking, but there were a number of rough spots. He would not have been a happy hiker.

This ridge is the halfway point, according to the trail book.

 

Here is where the trail goes through a notch in the rocky Arbitus Ridge.

I went first and waited for Kathy to cross so I could get a picture of her crossing over.

Abrams Falls was worth the hike. It has a twenty-five-foot drop.

There is also a large, deep pool beneath the falls. The book says not to swim there because of the swift undercurrent and there have been several drownings in it. If I recall correctly, the sign at the beginning of the trail warned that there have been seven deaths at Abrams Falls and warned us not to be the next one.

I can’t figure out how to get Photoshop to connect the pictures, so you’ll have to do it yourself.

 

Here is one more broad view of the falls.

It was already clouding up and Andy had set a time he expected us to be back. It was not enough time and we hurried back. I should not have hurried quite so much as it was getting darker. I was out of control and tripped on a root. My face hit another rock, but I was fine when I wiped the dirt off my cheek. I walked slower after that.

We were more than half way back to the parking area when the rain started. I put up my umbrella, that had been serving as a walking stick, at the first drop. Kathy kept using her umbrella as a walking stick and got soaked. It was a typical Smoky Mountain deluge. We met Andy somewhere after the first log bridge. He knew we were close because the couple just ahead of us told him we were right behind them.