Overmountain Hike

Hiked a portion of the Overmountain Victory Trail and connected to the Appalachian Trail to hike across Hump Mountain with Clifton, Taco, Mike and Jason. Awesome weather, clear sky, snow on the ground, cold night and a hot shoe melting fire.....here are a few pics

Clifton and Taco

Mike

Jason

Hump Mountain

Jason coming down Hump Mountain

Mac Alasdair

Mike "crossfitting" a 100 lb load of wood that was hidden a few weeks before

view from our campspot

Taco getting warm by the fire

the snowman who doesn't melt 

Jason

Clifton and Taco climbing Hump

Mac Alasdair...lunch break on Hump

Snowman's new home

Thanks to Mike for the last 5 pictures...for more of his pics go to Mike's Photobucket

Back Road Exploring

Took Robins car out for some back road exploring and a few pics....

Uncle Nick Grindstaff Monument

Noah, Bradley and I hiked to the Uncle Nick Grindstaff Monument on the Appalachian Trail. We were just about to the monument when we saw a group of bears in front of us. 2 cubs and an adult ran to the left and then a cub and an adult climbed a tree to the right. The adult bear was looking towards us and then started coming down the tree pretty quickly. We backed up further and waited until the cub came down. We couldn't see them after they climbed down so we waited for a few before continuing to the monument. On the way back we saw another bear running top speed past us off to the side and ran towards the direction we were headed.....didn't see it again though.

Bear Alert!

Noah and Bradley at the Monument

Taking a break

Mountain views beyond the trees

Shadow People

Roan Mountain Shelter

Hiked up to Roan Mountain Shelter (the highest shelter on the AT) from Hughes Gap. Met a group of hikers heading the same way.....tough hike (lots of elevation gain in a short distance).

old chimney on the trail

Cloudland Hotel location

near Hughes Gap

apparently i picked up the wrong set of hiking poles as i left the shelter and didn't realize it until the following Monday when i went hiking after work....this is a close up from the 1st picture posted....i picked up the orange pair shown here....mine where the orange pair behind the post (you can see the bottom of them behind the post)....same poles except mine where beat up pretty bad and the grips where pretty well gone.....sorry to whoever's poles i took....if you see this post, contact me and we can switch back....

Apple Festival Photo Contest

3 photos placed in the Apple Festival Photo Contest......

1st place "People"

2nd place "Inanimate Objects"

3rd place "Water Features - Black and White"

Rocky Fork to Birchfield Camp Lake

9/28/13 - Decided to see if I could find the lake on top of the mountain in the Rocky Fork tract....began the hike by walking along the stream for about the 1st mile... passed a couple walking down who said they went about 2 or 3 miles up and saw a couple of coyotes about 20 yards in front of them. The trail breaks away from the stream and begins to go deeper into the Rocky Fork tract. Lots of evidence of bear activity in the area. Beautiful area...11 mile round trip.

awesome water features in the lower Rocky Fork area

finally got to the lake!

beautiful day to go...nice bright sky for water reflection

very secluded....no one for miles!

would love to have a small boat....have no idea how i would get it there though!

the trail goes all the way around the lake....

thanks to Hiking Bill for the great directions! Click here for his directions....hikingbill.com