Sat, Feb 23 2008 - Backpacking: Big Frog Wilderness (View Original Event Details)
|  |
Great trip and thanks to all who made it. Saturday morning began on the right foot starting with Chris and myself being 5 min. early to carpool... Woohoo. So, we split into 3 cars, ventured to Blue Ridge, made our McD's bathroom break, rode through MaCaysville,GA/Copperhill, TN, and found ourselves off FS221 on the backside of the TVA powerhouse #3. After carpooling for about 2 hours, we arrived at the trailhead for Licklog, geared up, took a group shot and we were off to hike Big Frog Mtn.
The hike in started with an 1.2 mile uphill climb on the Licklog ridge trail. We turned off onto Rough Creek trail and at rough creek, we broke for lunch and those who needed to filter water did so. After leaving the creek, rough creek trail hikes a ridge that ascends to the Benton MacCaye (BMT) trail. This splits off and continues the uphill ascent to Big Frog Mtn. It really should be called Big "Fog" mtn. because this is the second time we've been there that the fog was so thick you couldn't get a good view of the surrounding areas. The first time was worse, but this time we had ice on the trees, which I learned from Matt that this is actually Soft Rime. Very interesting and very pretty too. So once to the top, we set up camp, gathered wood, some napped, some started a campfire, while 5 of us went on an extra hike. We were going to check out the water source, but the trail we took was not correct. I remembered seeing what looked like the site of the water source when we did the check out, but that was on licklog and at that time it was dry. I was told that there was a source on Hemp Top, so we ventured down and down and down to find that the trail was not leading us to water. From what the hiking book says, it was .8 miles down, which means it's .8 up as well. Ughh.. We didn't carry water on this extended hike, so "soft rime" was actually very tasty and quinched our thirst. The night was a cold 20 degrees with a few snow flurries. To bad it didn't snow and stick, but that is ok because I wasn't completely prepared to be "cold" weather backpacking. We did get a glipse of the sunset after the fog moved out and a picturesque view of the night sky. The stars were bright and clear, which meant for an even colder night. Everyone seemed to enjoy some good conversation around the campfire, but most retired to bed kind of early.
We woke to a clear sky and warm morning sun. Something I haven't seen on Big Frog yet, so it was a treat. The group packed up and hit the trail around 10:30 and with a few stops in between, we still made it back to the cars around 3 pm. Lunch was calling, so we headed to Copperhill and had some mexican. Good food and good company as well.
Thanks again for making this another exciting adventure.
Paula
Here's the picture links:
Paula's Pics
Matt's Pics
Steven's Pics
Calendar of Events
Event Places