Someplace to go!

“karo.. can't you ride with Ewker.. or ride with me?..

and ya.. email me the permit number.. so we will have it.”

“TD, I had already told Karo he could ride with me. But at that time there was others who might be going with him.

The offer is still open if he wants a ride. I am leaving at 11:00 or 11:30 Friday.

Karo, email or call. We can meet at my place and head out.

But in all fairness I can understand his concern about his daughter but then again if she is like most teenager's she can't wait for dad to leave ;)”

“Ewker, oh I do also.. !!

.. "and I'm thinking of bailing unless I can find someone to ride over there with me. "

I was just confused..”

“TD, I don't think he wants to hike up the way we are. I am sure either side is not going to be a walk in the park”

““how come chili gets to go, and cottonsocks get to stay home and complain that she doesn't get to go backpacking anymore?”
stikmon
3:42:21 PM
6/08/05

She isn't even here. She left last week for Marion, AR and I haven't seen her since.”

“does anybody know about those low temps up there?”

“toph, as of right now the projected low is 56° for both nights”

“Thanks Ewker. I checked the lows for Gatlinburg but didn't know what that would equate to at higher elevation.

Not sure where you got that forecast but I just find this link as well:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/productview.php?pil=MRXRTPMRX”

“this is where I looked, not sure how accurate it is. You might figure 5-10° cooler at Gregory Bald

http://www.great.smoky.mountains.national-park.com/weather.htm”

“The last couple of nights it has been about 70 here at 1800 feet.

Of course it rained twice this week and we had a real thunder boomer one night.

I am plannin on about 50 for the low. And I fully expect rain.”

“No one hates it more than me, but I gotta stay home with my daughter this weekend. Her car got totaled week before last and then this accident happened. She needs someone here to help her at this time. My wife leaves for Europe on Sat. so I gotta take her to the airport then take care of my daughter. Our annual canoe trip is next weekend and I am gonna make it or else. I am planning another canoe trip in July and will post it if anyone here is interested. I can get the canoes no problem, just leave a tip to the guy who shuttles us and that is all. Ya'll have a great trip and I'll catch the next one. Maybe a fishing/hiking trip soon! TD and chile, I'll email ya'll the permit numbers asap.”

“got the permit numbers.. how many did you reserve for?”

“Because of where I work, I never put much stock in long range forecasts when it comes to tropical storms. Each model can show totally different trends, but once they hit land, they tend to act/react much more typically with other weather patterns.

...long story short, pretty decent chance we could be hiking out Sunday in Arlene”

“not in the forecast yet for the Smokies”

“heh.. we could have a repeat of the long hungry ridge story.. I know what I'd do tho.. I'm hike down to Cades Cove, and beg or pay someone to run me back to TwentyMile.”

“no need to beg, chili is parking on that side of Gregory Bald =)”

“How far of a drive is it around from Cades to Twentymile?”

“TD, care to relate any of that Hungry Ridge story? (I'm bored at work today)”

“weekend forecast as of 1:30

Friday:
Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High near 80F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Friday night:
Scattered thunderstorms in the evening. Cloudy skies overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
80 °F 58 °F


Saturday:
Partly cloudy, chance of a thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s.

78 °F 57 °F


Sunday:
A few thunderstorms possible. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s.

77 °F 58 °F

Arlene's path for the weekend below

”

“yeah, but you have to understand, the forecasts that far inland will not even try to take into account Arlene until sometime late Friday or probably Saturday. And the swath of the projected path is based on where the eye/center of the low is projected to be. The storm bands will extend far beyond that. We could even have Arlene storms late Saturday afternoon.

As far as that goes, she could still fizzle out before she even makes land fall. The only reason they even named her so early (oddly enough) was due to LACK OF INFORMATION. They couldn't get any consistant information on the winds and circulation until two seperate vessels reported near identical observations at two different intervals which apparently was good enough to get the season kicked off with its first named storm.

(I'm hoping this isn't coming across as argumentative...just passing along information and enjoying the conversation)
last edited: 6/09/05 2:12:01 PM”

“I was at Gregory's Bald the end of April and it rained and rained. Was windy, too. Guess what? I had fun anyway :-)”

“it will be fun no matter what. I should be there tomorrow about this time”

“backyaker should be on his way to Birmingham right now and we will hopefully be leaving here tomorrow morning around 10:30ish. Not sure exactly how long it will take us, probably somewhere between 5-6 hours, so it sounds like we may run into you at the trailhead.”

“I sent an email, but I'll put it here, too. If you still have spots available, I am seriously thinking about joining up. Let me know either here or in reply to my email.

Ewker called and twisted my arm something awful trying to get me to go. He hurt me so bad - he may have to carry some of my stuff now :-)”

“hehehe, I knew you would change your mind. Carry your stuff, I don't think so. That is what TD's newbie friend is for.

toph, I will see you and backyaker (that argumentative person) up there”

“I am out as well. All hell broke lose at work today.”

“I really think I will stick to my original plan of hiking up the Wolf Ridge trail on Sunday amd meeting up you all somewhere along the way. Weather permitting, that is.”

“Wow.. friday is finally here. .. the one I've been waiting for.. finally.. a weekend in the mountains.. and I'm truly excited, in spite of the fact that I have STILL not packed.. but will get it done today.. somehow!.. if worse comes to worse, I'll do like I have done before -- which is to stuff it all in my truck, and pack once I get to the trailhead.

I've already been calculating when exactly can I leave today.. trust me, the sooner the better.. since I have NOT packed yet.. (gRrrrrr. ).. and have a five hour drive to the mountains.. then an hour walk to the campsite.. my gosh.. it will be midnight unless I get a really good jump on it all today.. but it's 6:30am -- and I'm at work as usual.. have done a really good job of getting my butt out of bed this week..


Woodzie: You better come along!!.. I had figured you were coming all along -- I thought Eddy had already talked you into it. Please join us.

Chili: Really? That sucks a big one. Maybe you day will get better, and you can reconsider.

Backyaker: The story is not my personal one.. the story of Long Hungry Ridge that I mention was how the trail supposedly got its name.. from a group that got stranded on the ridge when it was RAINING all weekend.. and the river crossings were too dangerous to consider. hehe.. danger is my middle name. TownDawg "Dangerous" Fox. :)

Ewker: Heck yeah, that's what the newbie is for -- I figured that's my plan from now on -- always bring along a newbie to carry all my extra stuff for me!..

Forget the weather report. We will be safe, have fun, and not worry about it. If I haven't already hiked in every manner of snow, and rain, and bad weather -- I don't know what it could POSSIBLY do that I haven't put up with.. LOL.. So yeah.. come on out.. let's do some muddin.. maybe we can put woodstock to shame.

See you guys as soon as I can get there... I don't remember any bad stream crossings on the way to #93.. but if I can't get to you -- I will either go up to #95.. or wait till morning when I can see what kinda water I'm wading in.

Look forward to meeting everyone I don't know.. and see friends I have not seen in a while. Crap Chili, you BETTER go.. I have not see you in ages!
last edited: 6/10/05 7:23:52 AM”

“Chili, hope things turn around where you can go. At least you are close by so you could even hike in Sat morning.

woodzie, you know you want to complete that loop since you missed it the last time.

TD, we will see ya when we see ya. Iffin you have been getting into work early all this week then you need to cut out early. Just tell your boss Ewker said is was ok..lol”

“hehe.. it updates.. just like the cam feed..

when I first posted it.. the sun was peeking out thru the clouds.. Should have captured that image..”

“see you folks in the Smokies. I am outta here wooohooo.”

“Yall have some wet fun!”

“embear: we will.. still wish u wuld go..”

“i know, me too, i just wish it was a different weekend.”

“The last weather report for Middle Tenn. had the remnants of Arlene maily headed toward West Tenn. That is as of 10 pm Friday night. I hope no one bailed because of the weather.
They will probably have better weather that us stuck here in Middle Tenn. Bonnaroo and the Country Music Fanfare will get dumped on for sure, not to mention the Busch race at Nashvegas. (Which I thought about going to since I had to back out on this trip) I will see my wife off to Albania at noon on Sat. Ya'll wish her a great trip! And I hope ya'll have fun in the Smokies!”

“I'm in Oak Ridge, TN, and it is pretty wet here. My guess is the folks at Gregory's are getting mighty wet.”

“Well, the clouds rolled in from the South today. It is raining here in Dry Valley and the overcast looks like it is under 4500 feet. I imagine it is wet on Gregory Bald.

I had to work today until 4. Came home grilled some salmon and asparagus on the grill, had a cool drink and sat in the hot tub listening to the rain hit my metal roof.

I would still rather have been hiking.”

“Me too, I spent half the day waiting at the airport. My wife's flight to Atlanta was cancelled, so they got booked on a later flight. They have to stop over in Barcelona, Spain now then onto Milan for an 8-hour stopover. The five women said they were going shopping, Look Out! Then onto Tirana, Albania for a week long mission trip to several orphanages. (sp?) I am stuck here with my daughter and her sore arm from the burns. It really looks bad right now after the blisters popped. She goes back to the Dr. on Monday so maybe she can find out how it is healing. I am going on an annual canoe trip next weekend, so I have that to look forward to.”

“Great trip! No rain until this morning about 8:00 am when backyaker and I were 3/4 of the way down Wolf Ridge to the TH and then it soaked us. The winds last night on Gregory were Ferocious so we were pretty worried as we turned in that we would wake up this moring in a major storm but it worked out OK.

TD was about to pack up when we left camp so he should be in soon for a full trip report.”

“cool!! I love the deer pics :)”

“Looks like there were a few azaleas blooming. Great pics.

I planned to hike up Wolf Ridge Trail until I met up with you guys, but alas, when I got to the trailhead at Twentymile Ranger Station, I discovered I didn't have my boots!!! Oh well. Instead I drove on over to Cades Cove and was rewarded by seeing a black bear cub in a tree :-)”

“Hope you all had a great trip.

Sorry I didn't make it all the way. I did go to CS#95 on Thursday and started uphill on Friday on the steeper part of Wolf Ridge Trail. After 1-1.5 mi. I stopped at a good water source. I had just passed the first spot where one can see the Bald in the sky ahead. But after getting fresh water and a snack, I decided that pushing all the way would be too rough on myself. So I returned to 95, where there were showers off and on the rest of the day and a heavy rain that night. Saturday I hiked out, bringing the total round trip wet stream crossings to eight. Actually, one I crossed on a log, but going back it was easier to just wade across the creek.

Because of lots of rain this spring, I have not backpacked enough to improve my condition sufficiently. A lot more rain fell at Bryson City during the rest of the week, so I was glad that I got off the mountain.”

“Come on TD! I wanna hear a TR!”

“sorry.. didn't realize you were posting to this one still.

I started a TR thread.”