A Trip to the Park Between Christmas & New Year's
April asks a few questions about planning a trip during the 12 Days of Christmas, which is a great time to see South Cumberland.
What about water? As noted in the Friends newsletter last week, Ranger Jamie reports that most of the normal watering holes have water again. Carrying a little extra water as a precaution would be a good idea.
Is it possible that the Connector Trail between Stone Door and Hobbs Cabin could be made impassible as the result of a big rain? Yes this is always a possibility, but the bridges built in the past several years have improved the passability in all but the most extreme conditions. A safety note about high water crossings the hard way: don't. Wait for the water to recede to a safe level. The Rangers will come looking for you. Stay on the trails.
Are there deer hunters on the North Plateau this year? No, the Park is closed to hunting this year. The North Plateau has been open to hunting in recent years, but not this year, the dry weather conditions being one of the reasons.
Best wishes for the holidays and Merry Christmas,
Ron Castle
What about water? As noted in the Friends newsletter last week, Ranger Jamie reports that most of the normal watering holes have water again. Carrying a little extra water as a precaution would be a good idea.
Is it possible that the Connector Trail between Stone Door and Hobbs Cabin could be made impassible as the result of a big rain? Yes this is always a possibility, but the bridges built in the past several years have improved the passability in all but the most extreme conditions. A safety note about high water crossings the hard way: don't. Wait for the water to recede to a safe level. The Rangers will come looking for you. Stay on the trails.
Are there deer hunters on the North Plateau this year? No, the Park is closed to hunting this year. The North Plateau has been open to hunting in recent years, but not this year, the dry weather conditions being one of the reasons.
Best wishes for the holidays and Merry Christmas,
Ron Castle
Labels: Connector Trail, Hunting, Water Sources
posted by Ron Castle @ 1:14 PM
1 Comments:
At January 1, 2008 8:55 PM ,
tnsabregirl said...
Just a quick follow-up regarding our trip to the Gulf this past weekend. We arrived Friday night and camped at the Savage Ranger Station, then spent Saturday night at Stage Road Campground. It had been raining on Thursday/Friday, so we were hopeful about the water situation.
Although there were some flowing streams along the South Rim beside Savage Creek, surface water pretty much petered out as you approached the Stage Road campground. The last good stream is crossed at .7 miles from the campground -- my advice (at least until we return to move normal levels) is to fill up all your water bottles there (and at any other flowing stream you encounter). The two streams closest to the campground are completely dry. The spring at Stage Road looks dire -- it is depleted and stagnant looking. We moved closer to the cliffs and found a small bowl-sized pool of clear flowing water there, but it was very silty and we had to be patient to eek out enough to cook with and to top off our water bottles. A silt filter here is helpful. I advise using iodide or chlorine drops to be doubly sure of the water's safety.
We then moved down to Old Stagecoach Road to the Connector Trail and moved up it to Hobb's Cabin. There was no measurable surface water at any point along our route up to Hobb's (although we could hear water flowing in Horsepound Falls as we came down the mountain that morning). The water in all the major streams is still sinking very high up, so it is not readily accessible from the trails at this time. At Hobb's, the spring was not replenishing very rapidly, but there was still a good sized pool there, ample enough to support moderate camper traffic. From Hobb's along the North Rim, the nearest flowing water was at the little waterfall (this is listed at mile 4.3 on the trail map's description of the North Rim trail), about 2 miles away from Hobb's Cabin. From there, the next small stream you crossed also had a tiny bit of water, but there was nothing at Jumping Water branch on the North Rim trail. However, we did discover some good sized pools of good water along the Big Tree spur trail off of the Mountain Oak trail. You cross a stream (I believe it's Lick Creek?) just before reaching the Big Tree loop and here we found water.
From there, the next water we found was at Meadow Creek, which appears to be running fairly well. We did not encounter any water closer to Dinky Line Campground than that at Big Tree spur trail, although I suppose it's possible there could have been something futher along the North Plateau trail. And, of course, there was nothing flowing between Meadow Creek and the Savage Ranger Station.
We appreciated the information you gave us prior to our trip and thought it would be appropriate to follow-up with what we learned. I am posting a few photos from our trek to my myspace directory -- just go to: myspace.com/tnsabregirl/.
--April
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