Crooked Arm Ridge Trail, 2007

Just after noon on the last Saturday in May 2007, I pulled out of Columbus, Mississippi, headed for the Smoky Mountains and the Cades Cove area. My goal was to hike a ridge I had not hiked before ... the Crooked Arm Ridge Trail on the north side of Cades Cove.
After a frustrating drive around the Cades Cove loop (way too much traffic and people stopping all traffic to see any wildlife ... rumors of a bear will stop traffic for 45 minutes), I spent the night at the CC campground where I had made a reservation many months ahead. I did get some shots of cabins and such around the Cove. I have driven this loop many times, and during the middle of the day it is almost unbearable with the traffic. I swear I will never drive it during the day again, but I often do because the scenery is so lovely. The best time to drive this is early in the morning. Memorial Day weekend is NOT the time to try to get around CC or to catch an empty slot in CC. Camped next to a "mountain photographer" who had more gear (including a Range Rover decked out with every gadget known to man) than should be allowed--proving that the photography business must be doing very well.

Monday morning I headed up Crooked Arm Ridge Trail with my immediate goal of turning down the Scott Mountain Trail after a little over two miles, to Turkey Pin Ridge campground for the night. I wasn't sure about the subsequent nights ... figured I'd decide that when I got up the next morning. Since it was only a few miles, I figured that even an old man could survive the climb, even though trail descriptions speak of dozens of switchbacks and lots of dust. The Crooked Arm Trail is not wonderful. It is a horse trail and the hiker is constantly having to watch his/her step. Horses are the scourge of any hiking trail, and this one was not exception. Also, once, when passing a horse train, the wrangler asked me to hike 50 meters off the trail so I wouldn't "scare the horses with my pack." Dang! I thought about Robin and Little John on the log, but decided to take the high road ... One would think that mountain trail horses ought to be used to hikers with packs ... however, I obliged and moved up the side of the mountain off the trail. The wrangler--a real mountain woman, if I've ever seen one--did nod a thank you to me.

I took it easy up the trail and around the switchbacks ... saw a 3-foot rat snake that was still limbering up from the cool night before--cool for a snake, but not particularly cool for me. I stopped often trying to get a view of the Cove, but couldn't get a good vantage point from this trail. I did get some nice shots of a flame azalea, some mountain laurel, and a couple of other wildflowers. I took a picture of a sourwood tree, since it is used for several things by mountain folk.
When I arrived at the Scott Mountain trail, I turned right and headed down it, not sure how far I would have to go for the Turkey Pin Ridge knob. It must have been only a few hundred yards, because I hardly had time for my mind to escape the present as it often does when I hike alone. Suddenly, the trail marker for the campground appeared and I turned off the trail for this little campground. I was glad to see a cable system for raising packs and food bags, since the ranger at CC had warned me about bear sightings.
The campground turned out to be a delightfully grassy knob above a bare area in the lower saddle area. The bare area had a well-used fire ring, but the grassy knob wasn't heavily used for some reason--although much more attractive to me. I quickly threw off my pack and started pulling my gear out for afternoon coffee and a power bar. After setting up my tent, I pulled my sleeping pad out and leaned it against a nearby log to read Bill Bryson ... always entertaining.

After an hour or so respite, I decided to hike back to the Crooked Arm trail and head farther up to the ridge where old topo maps show a fire tower. I hoisted my entire pack up on the cable system, took my fanny pack with camera, and headed out. After a couple of hours of photographing blossoms and interesting lichen, I got to the place where there had once been a fire tower looking over both sides of the ridge ... nothing left except the four concrete corner post foundations. I sat there for a few minutes and rehydrated, then headed back down the trail. Not a terrifically memorable dayhike, but nice enough to think about sometime.
I returned to my campground late in the afternoon thinking that I needed more water before dark. I checked my topo to see that it showed a stream down the Scott Mtn trail, but I couldn't tell how far. Luckily for me, it was only a few hundred meters down the trail. My SweetWater system quickly filled four water bottles for the night and morning, and I headed back up the trail.
Sometime around 9PM or so, two guys came down the trail and decided to camp in the lower area of the campground. The were hammock guys, and found trees to string their gear up ... looked comfortable to me! I felt badly for them in that I had brushed my teeth that night down in their area, spitting my toothpaste in their fire ring. I hoped that they would not be bothered by critters. I was quickly back to sleep and didn't even hear them come up and run their food bags up the cables. Sometime early in the morning, while it was still very dark, I heard the unmistakable noises of a bear coming up through the woods. I listened as he snuffed around my tent, then over to my water bottles, as I hoped that I hadn't gotten any toothpaste on them the night before. When I heard him/her turn over a bottle, I shouted for him to go down the hill and bother the hammock sleepers ... he seemed to mind my command voice, and rambled down the hill. Shortly thereafter, I heard the guys whacking the ground underneath their hammocks with their trekking poles. It must have worked--he went on down the hill. Fortunately, for them and me, we had put all of our odorous stuff up in packs and food bags. I was quickly back to sleep with a little smile on my face thinking about the toothpaste in the fire ring.
Tuesday morning brought