When we last left off, we were at a beautiful sunset at Cliff Tops. After that, we returned to the lodge and settled in so we could get up at 5:45 and hike 3/4 miles out to Myrtle Point and be there well before sunrise. None of us slept particularly well until we all got up at about 1AM to trek to the bathroom. The Lodge has SWEET flush toilets for overnight guests. I realize how ridiculous it sounds to describe a toilet as being "sweet," but if you've ever fallen back in your own pee while trying to pee in the woods (I don't need any comments from you men, thankyouverymuch), or even if you've used a backcountry privy, you know that this is a crazy backcountry luxury that was much appreciated. Anyway, after the bathroom trip, I think we slept a little better, but I'm comfortable that I speak for all of us when I say we were pretty exhausted by the time we got down the mountain the next afternoon.
Anyway, Latisha, Kristy, and I headed to Myrtle Point the following morning. Stacy was not up for such shenanigans before coffee, and they didn't start serving coffee at the Lodge until 7:30. I have never actually used my headlamp for hiking, so I was pretty excited and/or apprehensive about our pre-dawn trek. We were the first ones to Myrtle Point and grabbed a good vantage point. It was still dark, and really windy, and there were huge clouds rolling up against the south side of the mountain. The mountain was holding most of the clouds back, but the wind pushed wisps of them up and over the top to the north side.
The wind was blowing so hard that we didn't have to worry much about whether clouds would disturb our view because they never stayed in one place for long.
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| Pigeon Forge and Sevierville are the light clusters to the left. |
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| Douglas Lake is the long, narrow water in the back (it kind of looks like a lower band of clouds). |
I know we were supposed to be watching off the north side for the sunrise, but I was still enthralled with the endless sea of mountains off the south side.
This is me standing up for about the 20th time to walk from our sunrise-spotting seats to a better vantage point for viewing the south side:
Ultimately, it became clear that there would be no magical rising ball of fire photos, as the clouds were going to obscure the sunrise itself (although the views were still amazing). At that point, we headed back towards the Lodge but still stopped at all the viewpoints along the way to check the sunrise progress.
I'll point out here that the Myrtle Point trail walks a mighty thin little ridgetop in many places. There were steep drop-offs on both side of the little piece shown below. When I hit it with my headlamp on the way out to Myrtle Point in the dark, it was a little bit of a gut punch:
But back to the sunrise:
Between the Lodge and Myrtle Point is High Top, which is the official summit of the mountain. Cliff Tops and Myrtle Point are other "subpeaks" that look more like peaks than High Top (which is the highest point on the mountain but is more like a round knob). There is a fourth "subpeak," West Point, to which there is not a maintained trail. Anyway, there's a huge pile of rocks on High Top, and I've heard it's because LeConte lovers are trying to build it up so that it's the highest peak in the Smokies (it's currently the third highest behind Clingman's Dome and Mount Guyot). I think they have a long way to go. 😆
When we got back to the Lodge, we had some time to pack up most of our stuff while we waited for breakfast service to start at 8:00. I stupidly forgot to take a pic of breakfast, but it was scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, grits, a homemade biscuit with apple butter, and...PANCAKES. Get in my belly, you fluffy syrup carriers.
And speaking of fluffy, Sammy the Squirrel also knows when it's breakfast time, so he came back out to play.
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| Sammy helped himself to Stacy's chair. |
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| Then he thought she might be equally generous in sharing her breakfast. |
After breakfast, we finished packing up our stuff, said goodbye to Sammy, and headed back down the mountain via the Rainbow Falls trail. The upper part of the trail was hit pretty hard in the 2016 wildfires, and although it's been almost five years, the damage is still stunning.
As you can see, though, the destruction of the taller trees has made way for new growth in the understory, which is always such a great metaphor for triumph out of tragedy (especially when it's flowering and beautiful).
There were also some great views and some nice water features coming down the mountain.
And THEN we got to Rainbow Falls itself, which is incredibly impressive.
Unfortunately, it was packed with people and was a very rude reintroduction to society after our peaceful mountain trek. And from that point on, the hike was very slow-going because we were constantly having to step off the trail to let a steady stream of people pass in the opposite direction. And some of the people, wow. One guy asked us at one point how far he was from the falls. We told him about 1.5-2 miles. "Oh, so about 20-30 minutes?" Umm, not unless you're about to start moving a lot faster than you were just now, friend. Then there was the guy who thought he was super smart, saw my puffer jacket hanging on the outside of my pack, and said, "I guess you didn't need that coat, heh, heh, heh." No, dude. I realize that it's really warm down here at the bottom at noon, but meet me at 6,593 before daylight and you'd be paying me for that coat. Obviously, I did not bring a puffer coat on a 5-mile hike to Rainbow Falls on an 80-degree day. And THEN (and, honestly, this takes the cake for craziest thing I've seen), when we were within about a third of a mile from the bottom, a dude comes "pushing" (I use that term loosely, because it was more like "manhandling") a jogging stroller up the trail! I mean, what?
Anyway, aside from the hordes of people on the trail below Rainbow Falls, the trail continued to be very pretty.
Obviously, we made it back to our cars, not much worse for the wear. I say not much worse because I think most of the ladies' legs were about done with hiking at that point, and my shoulders were pretty much killing me. Yes, I climbed 4,000 feet the day before and descended as much on my old lady knees this day, and yes, it was my upper body that was dying at the end. I bought a new pack for this trip because my 18L pack wasn't quite big enough for extra clothes and extra food that comes with an overnight, and my 65L pack was very much overkill for an overnight in a cabin. I've been toying with the idea of getting an intermediate-sized pack for a while, and this seemed like as good an excuse as any. So I went to REI and picked up a 32L. It's an Osprey (as are my other packs, and I love them), and I was excited because it has an adjustable torso so I could hopefully get the waist belt to sit more on my hips than in the middle of my belly (my 18L is a one-size, and it sits higher than I really like, although it's never abused me like this new 32L did). Anyway, I must have gotten the adjustment wrong or something, because the frame of the pack hit me in a weird spot on my shoulder blades and pushed my shoulders forward, which then made the shoulder straps hit right at the end of my clavicles, and those spots were pretty inflamed and bruised by the time we were done. I have huge knots there and am somewhat deformed. So I'm going to have to go back to REI and get some help with the fit of this thing, or maybe return it (which is the absolute greatest thing about shopping at REI).
All shoulder humps aside, though, this was a fantastic trip, and I'd do it every dang week if given the chance.
Unduplicated Smokies miles: 205.0 (woo-hoo for breaking 200!)
Total Smokies miles: 253.4
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