A Smidge of Smokies

Look, it's been so long since I have made regular posts on my blog that when I opened it up yesterday I couldn't remember how to do it!

Smokies during the early spring rains

But, as of April 16th I am DONE WORKING! And Wayne was done working last week!  We still have a lot going on in the next few weeks, but I finally have time to post photos I took down in the Smokies 2 months ago.

Knowing that trips to the Smokies might become a thing of the past I wanted one last short trip to say good-bye.  It ended up being almost all driving, and most of that in the rain...but I was glad I went.

I stopped for a look around Bud Ogle's Place, liking the moodiness of the misty rain.

Who lived here in days gone by?

And any Wisconsin resident would stop in awe to see Daffodils blooming in February.  Ours just opened up a week ago, and then spent a day snowbound when the weather gods dropped half a foot of snow just for the heck of it.  Never mind I'd been wearing shorts for a few days.

fascinating fungi

The weather will be less finicky than that in Newfoundland.  I get asked about the weather there a lot, especially what the winters are like.  I'll soon know for sure, but what I tell people is that winter is a little longer with temperatures still only in the 40's and 50's by mid-April, but it doesn't drop down as low at night and you don't get the deep cold that the Midwest has to live with.  Winter temperatures tend to hover right around the freezing mark which is November or late February weather in Wisconsin.  So, no more deep cold and less snow! I won't get a break in the wind department, but you can't have everything.

Left behind to age gracefully

Summers are mostly in the 60's and 70's especially once you get into July, August and September.  Now that's my sweet spot for weather! Might be staying put every summer!  But as I have done in years past I plan on traveling in January and March to break up the winter blues.

Spring rain makes for roaring creeks

Another trail I hiked was Chestnut Branch which is located in the Deep Creek section of the park just over the North Carolina border.  I like this part of the park because it's less visited.  It's about 2 miles up and 2 miles back down with a little over a 1200 foot elevation gain, which was more than enough for someone who spent her winter behind the wheel of a car and getting no exercise at all.

When I make those trips back I probably won't be going to the Smokies anymore, so this was my farewell in my heart.  There are a lot of places left to explore, and now I have 2 countries to call home and it's time to branch out and find new trails to love!

Chattanooga - A Complicated Past

This past trip down through Tennessee I stopped in Chattanooga for the first time.

Chattanooga’s first sky scraper, the James Building 1906, Sullivanesque style

Ruby Falls and the Chattanooga Choo Choo are the big attractions here, but I came for some Starbucks wi-fi and to see the downtown architecture.  On my way I drove along the Tennessee River, where Cherokee Chief John Ross started a trading post, warehouse, and ferry back in 1815.  Ross's Landing is now a public park along the river just below the Tennessee Aquarium, I wish I had known so I could have visited the site!

The area would remain known as Ross's Landing until after 1838, when the Indian Removal Act was executed, thanks to President Andrew Jackson.  The area around Chattanooga was a staging point during Indian Removal; more than 16,000 Cherokees started their long journey to Oklahoma from this part of the state.

Reflection of 1926 Georgian style Read House Hotel, designed by Chicago architects Holabird and Roche

Chief John Ross was only 1/8 Cherokee by blood, but in the Cherokee Nation of old that did not matter, what mattered was that you belonged and you were part of the people if they said you were.  Before opening that trading post on the river he fought in the War of 1812 and in the Creek Indian War along with General Andrew Jackson and 1000 other Cherokee.  The Cherokee fought in both wars without pay and still were not considered true Americans.  Oh, what irony.

Volunteer Life Building, 1917

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He was noticed for his ability to negotiate and made his way up the ranks to become Assistant Chief of the Eastern Cherokee over the next few years.  He participated in the drafting of the Cherokee Constitution in 1827 which was modeled after the U.S. Constitution, including a Senate and a House of Representatives. John Ross was elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1828, a position he would hold until his death in 1866.

Andrew Jackson above doorway of Volunteer State Life Building

The story is an old one, in 1828 gold was discovered nearby in Georgia and the government wanted the Cherokee and other nearby tribes gone so they could have the rich land to themselves.   Chief John Ross and the majority of the Cherokee people remained adamantly opposed to removal.  A separate party believed removal was inevitable and started negotiations without approval from the majority. In the end, 500 of the Cherokee (out of thousands) supported a treaty to cede the Cherokee lands in exchange for $5,700,000 and new lands in Indian Territory in what we know as Oklahoma. 

From Legends of America website: Chief Ross and the Cherokee National Council maintained that the document was a fraud and presented a petition with more than 15,000 Cherokee signatures to congress in the spring of 1838. Other white settlers also were outraged by the questionable legality of the treaty. On April 23, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson appealed to Jackson’s successor, President Martin Van Buren, urging him not to inflict “so vast an outrage upon the Cherokee Nation." But it was not to be.

Read House behind sculpture under construction

 Along the 2,200 mile journey, road conditions, illness, cold, and exhaustion took thousands of lives, including Chief John Ross’ wife Quatie. Though the federal government officially stated some 424 deaths, an American doctor traveling with one the party estimated that 2,000 people died in the camps and another 2,000 along the trail. Other estimates have been stated that conclude that almost 8,000 of the Cherokee died during the Indian Removal.

Hamilton County Courthouse

I didn't mean to turn this post into a history lesson, but sometimes one little fact leads you somewhere you didn't intend to go.  As for the architecture I saw, it turns out much of it was probably designed by Rueben Harrison Hunt, Chattanooga's version of Louis Sullivan.  He built the above Hamilton County Courthouse, a Neo-Classical design of Indiana Bedford limestone that sits solidly on a hill.

He also designed the Maclellan Building, now a luxury apartment building as so many of the old ones in Chicago have now also become.  It was built in 1924 in the Beaux Arts style.

Here I will add that information on all the buildings in Chattanooga was hard to discover on the internet.  Most of them weren't even on Wikipedia, but I did find a link to this architectural walking tour - almost an exact replica of the walk that I aimlessly discovered just letting my eyes take me along.  Unfortunately it did not give much beyond the barest of details. Above is the Dome Building which dates back to 1892 and its dome roof is made of sheet copper weighing about 1,300 pounds and was gilded in gold.  I was so busy admiring it that I missed the Carnegie Library across the street!

The story behind the Tudor Gothic church tower of the First Methodist Episcopal Church was more easily located.  It was constructed on this lot in 1927 by R H. Hunt - Stone for the church was quarried on the Joshua Beck farm, loaded on barges, was floated down the river and carried by ox cart to the location.   The church was demolished when they merged with another church but the steeple was left intact.

Designed by R. H. Hunt the Tivoli theater was said to be an exact replica, but smaller, of the Tivoli

in Chicago.  Noticing a theme here?  No wonder I felt so at home walking around Chattanooga, much of the architecture is Chicago influenced. I also passed families on their way to see Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, the children chattering excitedly about the outing.

Besides families on their way to the theater I also saw quite a few weekend afternoon joggers and folks walking their dogs.  For a Saturday this area of town actually seemed quite empty, something must have been going on elsewhere that kept residents away or perhaps everyone left town for Spring Break.

Strangely empty streets

Built in 1971 the "Gold Building" was erected for Blue Cross Blue Shield but now is home to the Westin Hotel. It features live music on an open-air patio, mountain views, an atrium and a sky bar.  It turns out to be the only building I feel like I should have walked inside to poke around, but by that point I had been walking well over an hour and was ready to head back to the campground at Foster Falls.

Westin Hotel's gold exterior

I should have done a little research and not missed Ross's Landing, and I'm sure there is more I missed as well. If I drive past again I'll check it out and perhaps the famed Ruby Falls and Chattanooga Choo Choo as well. Keep your eyes open when you are in a new town, you never know what you might be missing!

Entranced by the Magic of Fiery Gizzard

I could have hiked 13 miles from Foster Falls to get to the Fiery Gizzard trailhead in Tracy City, but of course I'm not in that kind of hiking shape!

Probably built by the CCC

Instead I drove to the parking area in Tracy City which was well signed and easy to find.  A few minutes later I was walking down the stone stairs into the gorge.

The Fiery Gizzard trail was once voted one of the 25 best hiking trails in the country by Backpacker magazine, and it wasn't hard to see why.

Little Fiery Gizzard Creek

Laurel, Rhododendron and Hemlock closed the forest in around me, and even though it was a Saturday the threat of rain had me on the trail alone.

It wasn't long before I came to Blue Hole, where a gentle 9 foot falls is so unremarkable they don't even have a sign up.  In Wisconsin it would be plastered on billboards as a tourist attraction!

Blue Hole

Tennessee never fails to amaze me with its boundless natural wonders!

Black Canyon

A little farther and Black Canyon appeared with its small falls.  I climbed down its eroded sides for a close up view of the rushing water.

How far had I gone?  What else was there to see?  This trail definitely had more treasures than I had seen outside a major national park!

The carved walls of the gorge reminded me of the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, as did the creek's  blue-green hue.

I came to what I assume was the "Fruit Bowl", where the CCC had strategically placed large stones to make stairs and a path.

CCC steps in the "Fruit Bowl"

View of creek near Chimney Rock

A sign pointed to Sycamore Falls, ignore that spur trail because it takes you to the top of the falls where the view is terrible.  Instead it's a short and easy scramble down to the bottom where you can sit on a large boulder and see this...

Sycamore Falls

The rush of the water echoing off the rock in my little alcove had me mesmerized, the cool air felt wonderful and if not for the no camping signs I could see this as the world's best place to spend the night!  There are backcountry sites along the trail, but sadly this is not one of them.

Toadshade trillium

The cliff walls pushed back, and I started looking for signs of spring in the more open areas along the creek.  Sure enough, trillium were blooming!

I think this is Snow Trillium

A few of the fungi from the fall were still in place, gaping hole where the spores had released were visible.

But the hepatica stole the show, it was literally everywhere, poking up through piles of leaves and from out of cracks in the rocks strewn along the trail.

So wonderful to see the flower that heralds spring in Wisconsin in March instead of in May!

My eyes were sharp and I found snail shells...

And bellflower struggling to come out and greet the day.

Finally people started to cross my path and I decided it was time to turn around.  I'd been on the trail for hours and by the time I got back I estimated I hiked 6.5 miles roundtrip. Fiery Gizzard is one trail  I hope I have the opportunity to return to soon!

Foamflower

In the meantime here's a quick video clip of Sycamore Falls, it will have to do to remind me why I should go back and hike the rest of the trail.  Mark from BCB mentioned hearing the roar from Foster Falls in the last post, this one will have to do!

Foster Falls

On my way down to Georgia I stopped to camp overnight at the Foster Falls campground in Tennessee.

Foster Falls 

Not only did I neglect to get a photograph of the campground and my campsite, I didn't have my battery charged on my DSLR so all my photos come from my new iPhone X.  The campground had 26 rustic campsites ideal for tents or small trailers, is open year round and had a shower house that was in very shaky condition but better a run down shower house with flush toilet than none at all.  No electricity, but reservations can be made online through the South Cumberland State Park website and you couldn't beat $8 for a place to sleep!

Of course as soon as I set up I used the short connector path to access the trailhead that leads down to the base of the 60 foot falls.

Picking my way down the slope was slow but not difficult, winding along the edge of the pool was much easier.

I had lots to see at my feet as I hopped from rock to rock, and I got pretty close to the falls before turning back and crossing the bridge.

After crossing the bridge I headed to the left to see where the creek led.

It's not hard hiking, but you have to keep watching where you put your feet, obstacles are plenty.

I could have kept going, but it looked like rain might be on the way and I was happy to have gotten some exercise after being in the car all day.

River on the left, lichen everywhere!

I shared the campground with a couple of groups of rock climbers, you can't miss 'em with their gear hanging off their waists.  They all seemed pretty happy to be there, rain or no rain.

Climbing gear at base of cliffs

After crossing back over the bouncy bridge I eyed to rock "stairs" skeptically.

I turned back for one last look at the falls and caught sight of some children playing, who knows what adventures they imagined they were having...I used to pretend I was being hunted by Nazis!  I must have been reading too much historical fiction even back then.

When you're done hanging around at Foster Falls nearby Tracy City is only a 15 minute drive away and I can recommend the Dari Delight, believe it or not.  Their "half" panini was twice the size of any sandwich I normally eat and was only $3.99!  It tasted great too!