Charlie’s Bunion & The Jumpoff
LyttleBryan August 9th, 2010
This weekend I was originally supposed to lead a hike up Snake Den Ridge, but decided to cancel it because of the heat at the last minute. As luck would have it though, Dale was hosting a hike at elevation to Charlie’s Bunion and The Jumpoff. This was a good opportunity to hit the last 3 miles of the Eastern Smokies AT segment between Newfound Gap and Icewater Springs Shelter. It wasn’t much, but hey, 3 miles at a time it would only take 300 hikes to cover the entire park!
There wasn’t too much to say about this hike, the pictures do all the talking for me. Let’s just say the weather was perfect (a cool 80 degrees), and the terrain comfortable. It was great!
I will take a moment to jump on my soapbox though. While on the trail I came across a couple that had stopped for a rest. I offhandedly mentioned that we were a hiking group, and there was a string of us coming up the trail. The woman got a little upset and she and her friend made a snide remark and then stormed up the trail. I can understand and respect the desire for some peace and quiet in the Smokies. What I can’t understand is going on one of the most popular trails in the park, and expecting to be alone. Seriously? Are people that naive to think they will be the only ones at one of the most well known places in the park? Sad. There are hundreds of miles of trail that can easily be day hiked in which you will never see another human being! Use them.
Okay, soapbox off.
This weekend I’m going to Kure Beach in North Carolina with that wonderful woman who puts up with me. Looking forward to it and hopefully going to get some good beach sunrise photos.
Peace,
LB
Charlies Bunion 8-8-2010
- Hiking
- Comments(3)
Regarding your soapbox… I’ve often thought about this and have conflicting emotions. First, I totally agree that there shouldn’t be an expectation of solitude on the most popular trails – that’s simply impractical and unrealistic. BUT, I also wonder about whether or not organized hikes that have large groups are a good idea or not (I’ve led hikes for the Annual Wildflower Pilgrimage with 20+ hikers).
The park has regulations about the size of camping parties (no more than
and Leave No Trace principles advocate for small groups of hikers. Large groups DO negatively impact other people’s wilderness experience. I guess this is all part of the conundrum of “loving our parks to death” – we want more people to experience the Smokies so they can understand the importance of them, yet we want to be able to enjoy the solitude and grandeur of the park without feeling like we’re in the middle of a shopping mall…
I don’t have a great answer to this problem, but I do think that minimizing the size of groups is a good idea.
Anyway – great pics as always! Someday maybe I’ll see you out on the trails. I was hoping to do the eastern half of the AT through the park this summer. I did the Newfound Gap – Fontana dam section a few years ago, and want to finish up the eastern half sometime during the summer/early fall, but time is slipping away…
not sure why there’s a sunglasses-wearing smiley face in the middle of my comment – that was originally an “eight”.
You make a lot of good points, Randy. I will say that the advantage of a hiking group is that you can teach people about responsibility and proper care of the park. Additionally we organize our events so that there is a limit on the number of people that can attend the hike. In the cases where there are enforceable limits (backcountry sites) we use those, when there isn’t an enforceable limit, we use the ranger advised soft limit of 20 people.
The Smokies are a lot like a neat toy. If you misuse it, you risk breaking it and not getting to enjoy it. At the same time you don’t want to put it on a shelf because they you don’t get any enjoyment out of it.