Standing Indian Mtn Loop Trip Report

“Stayed in Cleveland, TN the night before and headed to the Standing Indian Campground in the morning.
The drive along the Ocoee is neat, all the whitewater outfitters, the river, and the views are awesome.

Got a late start on the Kimsey Creek trail, but headed up the ridge and it leveled out nicely with a few climbs once in awhile. We then start to follow the Kimsey creek and the flowers and water tumbling over the rocks are gorgeous. It's not too hot, but the trail is hard to follow in spots due to the summer vegetation. The trail is blazed well except where it follows an old forest road..and we lose the trail when it leaves the road..we end up bushwacking down off the road to the creek and ford it at a campsite and get back onto the marked trail. We go along great till we hit a parking lot and a closed gate...we end up following the road cause once again the blaze is covered in vegetation and hike down a winding uphill road for about .5 mile..we head back..irritated..and find the blaze.
We stop for lunch around 3pm and we have lunch laid out, talking, relaxing..ya know comfortable..and woosh!..the bottom drops out of it, and we can't get pack covers and rainsuits on before everything is SOAKED!!

We continue towards the AT at Deep Gap and come up to a campsite with 3 small tents..and 2 clotheslines...with about 3 million pairs of socks..too bad the camera was deep in the pack..this was funny!!

We crash at the parking lot that the AT crosses and rest and de-raingear ourselves, and decide that we will camp at the Standing Indian Shelter tonight. Only .9 of a mile to go..and we are stoked cause it's our first time on the AT!!!!! We start to get a lil elevation and then find the shelter..it's empty..so we lay out all our wet stuff, set out our sleeping bags, and a couple from ATL and their dog show up, we tell them that we haven't taken over the place..just trying to dry out.
We all contemplate staying in our tents or the shelter and about this time..8 or so 12 year old boys and Derrek their 19 year old counselor come into camp...We all decide to let them have the shelter and we'll stay in our tents. (cont)”

“ATL... is that 'Atlanta' or 'Appalachian Trail List'?”

“I set up our tent, and the ATL couple set up their megamid.
The boys start looking for wood. I set up on the table to cook our spagetti enertia meal, and the rain comes in again with one crack of the loudest thunder i've ever heard...and whoosh..you can't see 5 feet out of the shelter. Everyone huddles in. I'm cooking on my whisperlite, the ATL guy is on some tech alch stove..and the boys are asking derrek how they are gonna cook on a fire in this kinda rain..or do they have to eat tuna for dinner again?..after 30 minutes and no sign of letting up..derrek tells them that he'll start getting the food ready if they'll go get some more wood..so he sends the kids out in this frog strangling rain for wood..when they all leave..he pulls out a pocket rocket and starts to cook their dinner..they come straggling back in..looking like drowned rats..and boy..half see the stove and are overjoyed with the thought of hot food, the other half jump him cause he tricked them into going into the rain. Everyone was dying laughing the entire time, better than any tv show i've seen.


The enertia spagetti and canyon cheesecake was wonderful, take time to rehydrate the sauce it won't break up during the boil.

After we eat and clean up we head to the tent, and pass out. (cont)”

“Wake up with the sounds of little boys being boys, and we start to cook our bacon and scrambled pancakes (damn whisperlite). They have grits over the fire...see pic we have on webshots. We pack up, walk down to the water and filter some water..and head up to standing indian. the trail is just awesome...not even that steep. some good long switchbacks...tons of rhod's in bloom, great veiws peeking out from the trees.
We drop packs at the junction of Lower Ridge Trail, the AT, and Standing Indian mtn...grab lunch and some koolaid..and head up..WOW..2 guys were cooking on the rocks and an older couple were having lunch and enjoying the view along with us. It was very peaceful, and once again..miss opie wouldn't let me jump off..even though i think it would have ROCKED, and kicked all type of @$$!
We then head down the Lower Ridge Trail..and this sucker is straight down...no playing..no switchbacks..just next stop 1st floor..please watch your step as you leave the elevator! There is NO way i will come up this trail..it was rough on the feet and knees going down..but we literally ran down it. pretty dry with a few seeps. The bottom part of it that winds around the ridges and gaps is very beautiful, and you have spectacular views on 3 sides of you before you drop into the gap. Very lush, and green. The weather was nice and cool. Then around 3:30 the rain came again..we threw our pack covers on and jackets and tried to outrun the rain. The creek at the bottom is nice, and wish we had stayed around it longer. The trail even manages to skirt around all the car campers and rv's and stay pristine, quiet, and hiker only.

All and all a great trip..only did 10.5 miles, but saw some great stuff and had a BLAST! We are way out of shape..shesh we are in our 20's..shame on us! But we did get late starts, the heat, rain and losing the trail twice hurt our goals...maybe after hitting the trail more this fall we can do more. Miss opie has pics on her webshots..i'll have them up and captioned on mine soon.

All our gear did great,..no complaints

and now miss opie has a new pack..now a lighter pack for me..and we are set for a long time!”

“Great report OPIE. My wife and I did that loop last Sept as a dayhike. It rained on us almost the whole time. Going down the Lower Ridge Trail in a downpour is no fun! My wife still talks/gripes about that. Glad yall had fun and can't wait to see pics.”

“For the search-impaired...

OPIE and Miss Opie's Standing Indian pics”

“8)”

“Nice trip report OPIE.

Nice pixs MissOpie.

Now that you two have had a taste of the AT, report to this http://www.thebackpacker.com/trips/trip.php?id=176">thread.
See where it starts!

Note to MissOpie: If OPIE's to lazy to make this trip, come along without him. ;)”

“Nice pics. I especially liked the daisy pics.”

“they are my pics..lol..but we put them on her comp first...
and i dunno...we humped our tails off and just seemed like we couldn't get anywhere...we didn't stop hardly any either...i guess we are just slow”

“Like OPIE said we had a fantastic time! The scenery was gorgous and was worth all the climbing we had to do. The rain wasn't bad either because it cooled things off and got rid of all the knats! The little boys at the campsite were fun too, they were very entertaining. We learned that we are out of shape and we have to get out backpacking more! It was a great weekend of relaxing on the trail and spending wonderful time with each other.

OPIE left out the part where he tried to sneak rocks into my pack to take home. I couldn't keep him away from all the rocks! He wanted them all! There is no telling what he'll try to sneak into my new pack!”

“This is a pic of just one of the things the boys from the camp backpacked in. Lets just say they were definately not going ultralight!

Dessert”

“let me know if the pic doesn't work, you all have to see this!!!”

“pic didnt work”

“Nope, didn't work.

The other pics were cool though.”

“nice pics and it sounds like you 2 had a blast.
Miss Opie looking good in her sports bra ;)”

“sounds like a great trip!!

what the heck was in that can those boys hiked in, miss opie?? it was huge!”

“Fruit cocktail, it was for their 4th of July celebration”

“goodgod!! that must have weighed a ton!”

“He offset the weight of the Fruit cocktail by taking that ultralight Frogg Toggs rain coat he's wearing. LOL ;)”

“great trip report”

“Great Pictures!”

“no, the frogtoggs were worn by the other couple that was at the campsite with us”

“Not sure which is scarier, the huge can of fruit cocktail, or the cotton socks that guy is wearing...”