Gregory Bald Pictures Posted

“Here is a link to some real pretty pictures from 2 weeks back up on Gregory Bald. These are memories to last til I'm 100.
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rogueriderhood/album?.dir=/5641"TARGET="_blank">NEW PIX
”

“Great, looks like you hit it at peak. I've never been there at peak. Maybe one day.”

“Actually we were there a teeny bit past peak for the paler shades. Still beautiful though. The whites, paler shades of peach, and cream were faded, but still beautiful. Didn't bother to take any pix of them . Think about it and if you're serious about doing that trip next year... let me know. You can hook up and go with me and my friends if you want. No better guides to have along in these ladies. One is from Cades Cove and can walk you past her old driveway. The other has been hiking and backpacking in the Smokies since she was old enough to walk and can take you to exactly which blossoms have a scent, knows where all the prettiest ones are, taught me where Moore Spring and manway goes, how to eat greenbrier sprigs, showed me about the edible galls on the azaleas.....
She is Slowalk.
She's been taking me to school now in the mountains for the past couple years. You'd like her. me... well. you MIGHT like me. or we might fight the whole way there and back. ;-)”

“That'd be great. 2 years ago I went and missed it by about 1 week.

The doe you showed looked like one that was there on my trip. It had a severly deformed bridge of her nose. Your pic sort of looks like that. The one we saw looked twisted, if you looked straight on to her face. This doe came to within about 5-8 feet of MDSHiker. I have a picture of them in my office.”

“could be the same one. The one in the picture and another one up there were ready to drop their fawns any moment. They are so soft and gentle.”

“Some knuckleheads were hand feeding them apples when we were there. The doe walked probably 50 yards from those folks directly to my group. She walked between another fellow and me that were 15 feet apart, turned and went to with 5-8 feet of MDS. His head was turned away. He was afraid if he turned and faced her she'd run. I was able to turn around (10-15' away) and take a few pictures. It was pretty amazing.

I want to go up there in July one year during blackberry season and see some bears...I think.”

“Dayhiker... I can't say anything about feeding the deer. I don't do it, but Betty's husband used to.
He died 2 yrs ago from cancer. In the end... last few months of his life... one of the few bright spots of his day was for Betty to drive him out to Cades Cove. He went and fed a certain deer apples every day til he died. It was like a pet to him.”

“Kinda hard to comment on that.

I'm having major Smokies withdrawals now. It'll probably be next summer before I get up there hiking again. My trip a few weeks ago was so much fun we're hiking to the same spot #47, I think, for a return trip. We'll basecamp and just exlore Enloe Ck and Raven Fork. Lots of swimming.

I do get to go there the weekend of 7/23 for a family campout at Cades Cove though. Can't wait.

You need to checkout Sipsey in NW Alabama since you like waterfalls so much.”

“I just love Northern Alabama. the thing I don't like is trying to get down there when the falls are flowing! They seem to be real dependent on very recent rain due to the geography. Maybe Sipsey isn't quite as bad as the DeSoto SP area and that far NE corner of the state. 5 of 6 falls at DeSoto were not worth visiting when we were there. I want to come back there in Winter. The rangers said that is the peak waterfall season due to rain/snowfall.”

“Same way at Sipsey. That's why I usually go in Feb or March. The trip this past March we saw maybe 12 over 10'. The total number of falls and cascades for the trip was close to 50. The webshots account in my profile shows the pics from that trip.”

“Nice shots dana.

I saw lots of blooms when I was up in the Shining Rock area a couple of weeks ago too. The laurel, rhodo and azelea were all in bloom throughout the ridgecrest.

First time I'd seen all at the same time. I didn't get the variet of shades that you saw though.”

“I got my first look at a flame azalea on Roaring Plains in West Virginia.

A wall of fog rolled back revealing the lonesome bush.

My peripheral vision caught it and I snapped my head around thinking it was a fire for a half-second.

The color was startlingly like fire!”

“I can't seem to open any yahoo photo sites”

“Cool pics!”

“dangdid”

“Enjoyed your pictures.”