April, I am shocked at your behavior! I’ve come to expect this sort of thing from March, but not from you. On Thursday it was a muggy 75 degrees. Friday brought severe thunderstorms. Saturday was 70 degrees, clear, and windy. By Sunday there would be increasing clouds and a chance of snow. What has gotten in to you?
Saturday – clear but windy – would be my only chance to hike to Andrews Bald. I would walk there in the evening, watch the sunset, sit while darkness settled in, then walk back to my truck under a waxing half moon, meaning that as the sun set, the moon would be directly overhead. If the clouds cooperated, then I’d have a moonlit walk back to my truck.
A night-time hike is not as foolish or unnerving as it sounds. It’s not easy, mind you, but it can be safe and memorable, even magical. But the moon and weather (not to mention your job) have to align because in hiking, as in comedy and fishing, timing is everything. There is a window of opportunity that is only a few days or hours long. So when the window opens, you’d better jump through.
After doing chores around the house for most of the day – with an eye on the sky – I drove through Pigeon Forge with only a moderate amount of traffic. There would be, I was told, a hot rod show the following Saturday; US 441 would be shut down and crowded for hours. I was glad to have dodged that bullet, but I knew that I had just used up several pounds of good luck. My account was severely overdrawn already, so I knew I’d have to pay some dues in the near future. The clouds on the far western horizon suggested that maybe I’d be struck by lightning tonight – a small price to pay for avoiding a crowded hot rod show in Pigeon Forge.
A sunny Saturday in mid-April should be fairly crowded in the Smoky Mountains, but since it was getting late in the day, most folks were either at the picnic areas, or in restaurants, or driving through Cades Cove looking for wildlife. I pulled into a half-full parking lot at Clingmans Dome around 6:30pm. A few people were starting their half mile walk to the concrete observation tower at the top of Clingmans Dome. They were, I presume, planning to enjoy the 360 degree view, followed by a sunset, all from the highest point in the park. It’s a pretty good plan for this time of year.
Of course, none of that matters to me tonight because, like Robert Frost, I’m going to take the path less travelled, hoping it will make all the difference. So, at the start of the paved trail to the top of Clingmans, I’ll veer off to the left onto Forney Ridge Trail which will take me a quick and easy 1.8 miles to Andrews Bald. I hesitate to even call it a hike. It’s more of a walk, almost a stroll. Yet, two miles is more than enough to deter virtually everyone who visits the park. This is enhanced even further by the fact that Clingmans Dome – the highest point in the park – acts as a magnet which draws most visitors to it and away from Forney Ridge Trail. Ask the typical Smokies visitor, or even experienced locals, about Forney Ridge, and they’ll have no idea where it is nor why anyone would care.
When I arrived, there were maybe 50 cars in the parking lot, but on my walk to Andrews I saw only five small clumps of people who had just ended their afternoon on the bald and were hiking back to the parking lot. That’s five cars belonging to Andrews Bald hikers. The other 45 cars belonged to the Clingmans visitors. Yes, taking the path less travelled does make a difference. [To be continued.]
No comments:
Post a Comment