Land Between The Lakes in March

“Will be hiking the best part of the LBL North South Trail.”

“updated trip page - changed dates to Mar 27th-29th.”

“bump”

“is this different then the spring LBL hike?”

“Yes, I don't think the Spring LBL is actually a trip, but not sure.”

“Windi: Thanks for the invite, but I'll have to pass on this trip. LBL is just too far away for a weekender, and the early months of the year are filling up pretty quick. I don't want to whine, but the timing & location just don't work out this time.”

“We'll see you on other trips!”

“Windigrrl-
I posted this on the other "LBL" trip but FYI, and this may or may not affect you, there is about a 5 mile closure from the Golden Pond VC NOBO due to some kind of constrction.
Lady at the VC sid it wouldbe closed for a while.
E”

“They were doing some hyway work in there last March, but it only affected about a mile of trail. Five miles is a lot of trail that winds back toward the river. That means the shelter will be out of action.”

“Thanks for the info. I'll have Stomper check it out. I'm thinking that Chili is correct in that it's where they are doing the hyway construction as well. They are asking hikers to bypass that area.”

“It is indeed where the hwy construction is going on. But when I axed if one could just go around it, she said it was pretty screwed up for maybe 5 miles and hikers would have to shuttle around it. Of course, I may have misunderstood too.
The lady I spoke with at the GPVC was named Sonya. She did mention something about a shelter but I can't remember what it was.”

“The area where we are hiking shouldn't pose any problems. We will be north of the area, but I will be sure to check it out closer to the trip just to be sure.”

“If I can't get off work to go on the BSF trip, then I'll join you at LBL. It will depend. Sorry but BSF wins over LBL if I can swing it! :)”

“Hope you can make it Jodi, it'll be good to see you.

I'll be hiking in to meet up with you guys on Saturday night. I'll prolly have to work Sat. morning.”

“Maraposa, looking forward to seeing you. Do both this and BSF. That's what I'm planning on doing.”

“A week or two before the trip you should check to make sure the trail is open. LBL received extensive damage during the ice storm. Some trails may be closed.”

“I may be starting a new job about then but I am going to try to ask off in advance. We will see!”

“Good for you Stan! Hope you get the job!”

“Stomper any update on the trails?”

“Everyone who's planning on going check your e-mails.”

“I think the Canal Loop is open cause they had a bike race there last weekend. More of the side roads are open now. Hopefully that will free up the crew to work on other trails.”

“I did not see any email. What email are you sending it to. try Clajus1@aol.com”

“The main campgrounds are still closed. Don't know about the primitive campgrounds. Sorry I haven't called to check, I stay knee deep in tax code all day. It's gonna get worse.”

“I sent out an e-mail asking everyone to update there status. Stomper and/or myself need to check and see if the trails are open after the ice storm they had, so keep an eye on this thread for updates. We will put together a backup plan, just in case. The part we are planning on hiking is what I think to be one of the prettiest parts of the North-South Trail so hopefully we will be to do it.”

“I had to change my email address and it did not pop up instantly on backpacker so if there are any changes I wanted to know about them. I was hoping that I could find someone going north to car pool with. I emailed Chili but I do not know what part of Tn he lives in. Do you know?”

“I believe Chili is in Nashville, however, he is in the middle of getting ready to move to Memphis.
As far as changes, right now there aren't any, but I need to find out about the condition of the trails.”

“As of today, the areas we are looking at are closed, according to the above chart. However, there are other trails open so we can still hike. Other areas will prolly open before the end of the month - still two weeks away.”

“I hiked the RRG last week and that trail was not cleared since the ice storm. That was some hard, very hard hiking. We were crawling on our knees a lot to go under trees. A lot of the trail was gone because of the up rooted trees. It was a mess. It was like hiking off trail in thick brush.”

“Well, I think it might be a good time to work on a back up plan. Here are some choices that I came up with...
we could hike the north end because it's open. There is an area where we can base came and do day hiking.
Or
We could see what is open at Mammoth Cave.
Or does anyone have any other have suggests?”

“Don't move it to Mammoth CAve. There are enough trails open that we can make it work. We can use the Canal Loop and the campsite we've used for the Early and Late Summer Blast trips.”

“We will stay at LBL. The backup plan will be to do the canal Loop area. I will get the trip report updated with that info. I have called LBL and am waiting for someone to get back to me regarding the area we want to hike. Hopefully we will be able to do our original plan.”

“I heard back from the LBL office. They said to continue to check the updates, but they didn't think the part of the trail we are planning to hike will be open. So we will keep our backup plan to hike the Canal loop area. I will post a map on the trip page as to the campsite.”

“Cool map! It is the first low lying area right beside the lake that you pass. The lake is on the right. It's right by the trail. You really can't miss it.”

“The map is from my GPS from previous trips.”

“Yee Ha!! we'll be hiking next weekend!!!”

“Looks like LBL is got some stuff opening up. Will be updating the trip page real soon with some final plans.”

“Stomper are you coming ? If you are would you call me on my cell 615-566-7504 I am having a tough time with webmaster changing my email address on bacpacker. It is now stanritter@gmail.com.”

“I've updated the trip page. Please check it out. We are making changes based on what's open.”

“Friday
High: 74 °F RealFeel®: 72 °F
Mostly cloudy and warm with a couple of thunderstorms possible
Friday Night, Mar 27
Low: 50 °F RealFeel®: 43 °F
Rain, heavy at times in the evening; cloudy and windy

Saturday, Mar 28
High: 66 °F RealFeel®: 65 °F
Rather cloudy with a little rain
Saturday Night, Mar 28
Low: 38 °F RealFeel®: 25 °F
Areas of low clouds; breezy

Sunday, Mar 29
High: 57 °F RealFeel®: 50 °F
Rather cloudy, breezy and cooler”

“Anybody else from the Lexington area?? Interested in car pooling??”

“What's this??? Maraposa posts?? Are you still planning on coming? Hope so!”

“I called LBL Energy Lake Campgrounds are open, but only areas A and D. So we will be in one of those areas on Friday night.”

“Look at that! I do know how to use the computer! :)

I'm planning on it. I was disappointed the N/S section was closed but it'll be good just to get out. I'll let you know if anything changes.”

“I will be bringing a friend so everyone be nice, ok?”

“Never mind. I'm not coming if I have to be nice. ;)”

“Yeah, like we know how to be nice. lol”

“I know it's a stretch, but i have faith in you!”

“I'm getting ready. I will be leaving LBL on Sunday to go to Lake Monroe to Kayak camp for a couple of days.”

“Stomper's bringing one of her christmas gifts to try out!”