trip report-GSMNP

“My associates and I finally got to do our winter hike in GSMNP last weekend, having been delayed by every excuse you ever heard and some good new ones. We left last Friday from Cades Cove up Anthony Ck to CS-10 and used Rusell field tr to get up to the AT. Broke trail all the way up. Very pretty snow sticking to the trees all weekend. Snow was about 4 inches at 3,500 feet and about 7 inches on the ridge at Russell field, clear Saturday with very prety views. Overnight temps at CS-10 were about 17deg. Nice fire, high quality bourbon, and some good story telling, made for a nice weekend. The trail conditions were poor from 2 miles outside Cades Cove to about 4,500 feet, with lots of small hemlocks/laurel leaning over the trail, lots of detours. This seemed to be from a separate recent wet/heavy snow, possibly the big one that nailed Nashville a few weeks back. Still very nice to be out.”

“Nice report. The whole region was socked in for 3 days last week. THat's probably what caused your trail conditions. Lookrock rangerstation's camera recorded nothing but white for 3.5 days.”

“Way to go, mtnman!”