lambertiana
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2000
- Messages
- 8,393
Now for something completely different from what I usually do...my brother lives in east Tennessee, and he planned a seven day 84 mile backpacking route in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, doing the entire Appalachian Trail in the park plus a side trip to Mt LeConte.
On day one, we started at Fontana Dam and worked our way up through the typically green eastern hardwood forest:
One of the big differences for me is that the park only allows camping at specific locations. And the locations on the AT are all shelters like this one, so I didn't have to carry a tent (the downside is that you inevitably share a shelter with loud snorers, and I am a light sleeper):
There is a lot of Rhododendron in the park, and it often forms impenetrable thickets and tunnels like this one:
Eventually we made it up to the forest that I really like, the spruce/fir (red spruce/fraser fir):
To me it was like something out of the Lord of the Rings because it was so green and everything was covered with moss:
Occasionally we would get to breaks in the trees and have views of nearby peaks (and it was cloudy and raining the first two days):
Detail of moss on a tree:
On day one, we started at Fontana Dam and worked our way up through the typically green eastern hardwood forest:
One of the big differences for me is that the park only allows camping at specific locations. And the locations on the AT are all shelters like this one, so I didn't have to carry a tent (the downside is that you inevitably share a shelter with loud snorers, and I am a light sleeper):
There is a lot of Rhododendron in the park, and it often forms impenetrable thickets and tunnels like this one:
Eventually we made it up to the forest that I really like, the spruce/fir (red spruce/fraser fir):
To me it was like something out of the Lord of the Rings because it was so green and everything was covered with moss:
Occasionally we would get to breaks in the trees and have views of nearby peaks (and it was cloudy and raining the first two days):
Detail of moss on a tree: