A geek walked into the woods..

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

LyttleBryan December 9th, 2009

A few weeks ago my friend Chuck asked me to put together a hike for the group that he runs. He’s an organizer for a facebook group called KAPS, Knoxville Area Professional Singles. I’m always eager to get people outdoors, so I gladly agreed. Knowing people the way that I do, there are two things to get the most casual people out of the house. First, don’t make the hike very difficult. Second, make sure there’s something cool to see at the end, like a waterfall. So with those two things in mind I set about finding a good trail.

I thought about it for a couple of days before deciding on Big Creek Trail to Mouse Creek Falls. I decided that the ever so slight incline of the trail was easy enough that anyone could go. I really like that side of the park as well. I’d done the Big Creek->Low Gap->AT->Chestnut Branch loop once when I was by myself and feeling completely nuts. I figured this would be a good opportunity to get out and really enjoy a stroll and maybe meet some new people. Unfortunately mother nature had other plans for the trip!

The general plan was pretty typical, meet about 8:30 or so to carpool down to the trail head, hang out there to wait for late folks, and then hit the trail. I wasn’t really concerned with the times or anything since it was only a 4 mile round trip hike. It’s funny, I can remember a time when 4 miles was about the max I’d do. The 4 quickly became 7 which not so quickly became 11 which has somehow grown to 15 and then 20. Life is good! Anyway, when I woke up I walked to my kitchen and was greeted with about half an inch of snow. Now, I grew up in St. Louis. Unless that half an inch of snow is accompanied with ice, it doesn’t mean much. Well, I’m not in St. Louis anymore, and in Knoxville, snow means just about everything and everyone shuts down. I knew immediately the hike was going to be much smaller than I anticipated. I’d checked with Chuck before and made sure he was in come rain or shine. Fortunately the rain part extends to snow! He and I met to carpool, and as it would turn out, he and I were the only ones. Since it was just he and I we decided to extend the hike a little further than originally anticipated.

The hike itself was absolutely gorgeous, unfortunately I managed to forget my camera at home. I sat down with my cat in the recliner for a bit before leaving and it slid out of my pocket and into the chair. I didn’t realize it was missing until I got to the trail head. Fortunately Chuck had a spare camera, so if the pictures below are terrible, blame him. The snow fell pretty steadily the entire trip up. The midnight hole was rushing so much that you couldn’t see the portion for which it earns it’s namesake! Mouse Creek Falls were absolutely amazing. It was almost more of a falls than the usual cascade. All told we wound up hiking around 11 miles total. We stopped at campsite 37 for lunch. I was really hoping we could do a longer loop, but unfortunately Chuck had to be back by 6pm for a friends birthday. It was probably for the best, Chuck has complained about his knee hurting for a couple of days now. Sorry man! Anyway this weekend I’m returning to the first trail I hiked in the Smokie Mountains. Actually, it’s not a hike a trail at all. How funny is that?