Fri, Aug 27 2010 - Hiking & Camping Weekend at the Historic Swan Cabin + Optional Nantahala Float (View Original Event Details)
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Eighteen of us AOCers had an unforgettable time together on this fourth AOC trip to the Swan Cabin and were rewarded with fabulous fall-like weather all weekend. The 85+ years-old historic log Cabin has become a favorite destination for Charlie and dozens of his friends over the years. It adjoins a beautiful meadow at 4300-feet elevation in the Nantahala National Forest near the TN line, on the southern edge of the rugged Joyce Kilmer Wilderness. Campers can park just uphill of the rustic Cabin and either sleep inside it or pitch their tent in its beautiful split-rail-fenced yard.
TRIP PHOTOS:
John Caldwell's Online Picasa Albums:
Aug 26-27:
http://picasaweb.google.com/104914730276266827209/20100827?feat=email#
Sat Aug 28:
http://picasaweb.google.com/104914730276266827209/20100828?feat=email#
Sun Aug 29:
http://picasaweb.google.com/104914730276266827209/20100829?feat=email#
Lorri Meyer's Online Picasa Album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/115116507155383750859/SwannCabin?authkey=Gv1sRgCOSG1dKtmYmsbw&feat=email#
CB Genrich's Online Photos (including Parting Shot of all 18 of us on Swan Cabin steps)
http://cb-genrich.blogspot.com/2010/09/2010-08-26-aoc-swan-cabin.html
Aug 29 Nantahala Float: Commercial photos viewable online:
From Rachel: The pictures of the kayaking are up. Go to www.myriverphotos.com and it will immediately take you to another link. Click on 8/29/10 and you'll find our group starting with Bobby's picture #310. Sam you look like a pro going down the falls! You'll see me almost falling out, and Denise's swim. :) Rachel
Courtney's E-Photos: Courtney Harjung has already shared about a dozen wonderful "people" shots with us by email and plans to share more of her great nature shots, etc. Courtney's e-address is charjung@hotmail.com.
COURTNEY'S SONG:
Courtney shared this beautiful song with us both Thu and Sat nights in the moonlight by our campfire. Her mother had sung it to her years ago:
I see the moon, and the moon sees me.
Back where my heart is longing to be.
Please let the light that shines on me,
Shine on the one I love.
Over the mountain, over the sea,
Back where my heart is longing to be.
Please let the light that shines on me,
Shine on the one I love.
DENISE ALDRIDGE'S SWAN CABIN WEEKEND "BLOG":
Thanks to all of you for a wonderful time with wonderful people, great food, and a beautiful place! And thanks, Charlie and Bobby. for leading this trip!
Note: If you go up again to Swan Cabin and, just if, I forgot to record your name along with our adventures, please forgive me and please add your name accordingly.
Below is a blog of the AOC weekend/escapades at Swan Cabin (similar, but not the same as, my writeup in the Swan Cabin logbook). Enjoy! Photos later -- it is a little late tonight.
:) Denise Aldridge, M. Ed, Artist and Teacher
Art and Nature Expeditions: Spiritual and Creative Journeys of the Soul
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THURSDAY AUG 26, 2010
Left the city late, heading for the wilderness. Arrived at night, 10 miles of driving on a gravel road to the middle of nowhere, which was Swan Cabin. By about 9:00 PM the ten in our group who could depart Atlanta on Thursday had all arrived. Population at the Cabin and in its hundreds of acres of surrounding wilderness: "Just us!"
I set up my tent in the field in the dark, which I have done before. Laura gave me light. We talked about books and excellent authors. Later, we had a small fire and had a nice dinner. We sang harmony to Charlie's guitar. He strummed and sang with Courtney, alto, and me, soprano and harmony. Upon retiring for sleep, my brand new camp pad went "POP," like a firecracker and deflated. Alas, I slept on the ground.
FRIDAY AUG 27, 2010
Woke up late. The grass, rooted up by wild boars, was very soft, and I slept well. Breakfast was hot and ready -- get it before it's gone and, most importantly, get coffee! People asked what the loud firecracker sound was (...my pad!).
Cabin Waterfall Hike: After breakfast the ten of us who had arrived Thurdsay all hiked to the Cabin's adjoining "Cold Branch Falls" via a heavily overgrown 0.2-mile trail, passing Joe's "cool hammock" en route. This secluded waterfall (more like a long natural water "slide") has an inviting pool at its base and is surrounded on all sides by thick rhododendron. Charlie gave hints to where a "geocache" was hidden. People all over the world, from little kids to grandparents, can get the the caches' latitude/longitude coordinates (online from www.GeoCaching.com) and try to find these small geocache boxes, normally using an inexpensive handheld GPS units. (Perhaps a million of these caches are now hidden in parks and public property worldwide.) For our first "initiation rite," we searched near the Falls using Charlie's clues (as he already had visited the cache several times) and found the tricky, well-hidden metal army ammo case. Inside the gasket-sealed box were things in Ziploc baggies including a logbook, a rubber chicken!, some key chains, and various camping paraphernalia. As an understood geocache rule: If you take something, you leave something of similar or greater value and you write the date and your name and you can send a note to the next person(s). You can also read previous logbook entries, which we did. We left my art pencil, with a quote from Camille Pizzarro, and a black sharpie marker with a note "for the use of the future artist." We took two "Biofreeze" packets for C.B., because he had hurt/wrenched his knee. Photographs of the waterfall trail and the waterfall were taken along with fungi, lots of fungi.
Friday Scenic Excursions & Hikes: Eight of us departed the Cabin in a 2-car caravan at about 11 AM Friday and drove via old FS-81 and the NC portion of the beautiful Cherohala Skyway to Huckleberry Knob (a bald-topped mountain, highest along the Skyway at 5560'). Just before reaching the Skyway we screeched to a stop on the right shoulder of the gravel road to get a better look at a giant swarm of gorgeous butterflies (perhaps 100 or more!) sipping nectar from the fluffy purple flower tufts atop a big clump of 6-foot tall Joe Pye Weed. We got dozens of up-close photos of the black-spotted-purple and yellow-swallowtail butterflies.
Just after parking at the Huckleberry Knob Skyway pulloff and beginning our 2.5-mile round-trip hike, several of us heard grunting like a pig. Two others saw the wild boar, before it ran away.
About a half hour later we reached the grassy flat summit of the bald after passing the poignant grave and cross where two old-time mountain men had frozen to death over 100 years ago (with empty liquor jugs by their skeletons!). A black-bearded local mountain man from Robbinsville was mowing the entire top of the bald (30 acres or more) with his large tractor and bush-hog, for which we learned he pays the U. S. Forest Service $50/year in exchange for the hay. We enjoyed chatting with his sidekick truck driver, a Tennessean who said , "...Ain't fer sure," about a lot of things, and surprisingly told us, "Cain't have a gun to hunt boar or bear because I'm a convicted felon." Near his truck there were wild blueberry bushes where we had already picked and eaten quite a few. The nice ex-con fellow shared with us more of his own plump sweet blueberries that he had picked earlier. On the way back down to the cars we also picked and ate some wild blackberries, a bit past their peak but sweet and delicious.
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest "Giant Trees" Hike: We hiked in the shade of this 2-mile figure-8 loop (by far the most popular of all trails in the region) and found Yellow Poplar trees (also known as "Tulip Poplars," and native throughout the south). The 8 or ten largest Yellow Poplars at the Memorial are so old and wide that four of us with our arms stretched out could barely encircle them—i.e. about 25 feet in circumference!. Sadly there are also many, many dead or dying Eastern Hemlock trees in the memorial forest and surrounding wilderness, some of them almost as massive as the "champion" yellow poplars. Almost all hemlock groves in the eastern U. S. mountains are quickly succumbing to the dreaded "woolly adelgid," an introduced invasive insect from the Orient. Their disappearance brings light into the base of the canopy, but it is so very sad to see these giants dying.
"Meanwhile back at the ranch" on Friday: Courtney & Tom chose to stay back at the Cabin vicinity all day where they did a number of good deeds for the group, including collecting extra firewood, building the campfire base,trimming brambles, and generally keeping an eye on the Cabin and all our stuff. They told of how two guys were walking around the parked cars and looking in the windows. When Tom approached them to ask them what they were doing, they quickly fled in their 4x4 truck.
Fri Evening at the Cabin: After we hikers arrived back at camp (about 4:30) it rained for a short while. During this brief but refreshing and dust-settling shower we managed to temporarily stash alllll of our perishable things under the porch or inside the cabin and enjoyed hanging out together on the porch. We read the Cabin log entries aloud. It was very informative about bears, boars, bats and mice in the cabin, wildflowers, the Cabin's history, etc., and was both a touching and humorous record of the reflections and feelings of those who came before us.
For Friday dinner—what a smorgasbord of food! I was so tired and hungry that, when Stephen offered me a bratwurst and a big roll, he became my new best friend. I went to bed soon after to "rest my eyes" and watch the black butterflies (which I knew to be bats) swoop around my head in the rafters.
I decided to sleep in the Cabin that night, which on Thursday had been occupied only by Charlie. By Friday evening, after our remaining eight AOC friends arrived, the Cabin had taken on about 4 more lodgers who had each claimed one of its nine rustic bunks.
The Loud Dogs: I was awakened in the middle of the night/early morning, as was the rest of the camp, by baying hunting dogs. They barked and howled for an hour, in different places. Tom said they were training hunting dogs or "runnin' the dogs." He got up and went into the meadow and saw a headlamp cutting through the darkness. He followed the hounds, as they circled, and saw a 4x4 truck with three overhead lights take off. I felt this behavior by locals was pretty damn obnoxious. We are in a national forest, obviously camping, and if you know the backwoods and you know hunting, then you know better.
SATURDAY, AUG 28, 2010:
I was the third one awake and helped prepare breakfast, chopping lots of peppers and onion. The coffee was good.
Sat High-Country Hiking Adventure: After breakfast at about 10:45 fourteen of us AOCers departed directly from the Cabin for a nice loop hike. We enjoyed having a nice young man named Gaines and his well-behaved dog join us for the hike -- they had driven down from Knoxville that morning and had parked for the day near the Cabin. Three strong women: Danielle, Denise, and Sam, stayed to guard the Cabin and camp and talked of natural spirituality and cooking.
Our chief hiking destinations were the summit of Bob Stratton Bald (highest mountain in the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness, just a mile north of the Cabin) and the famous "Hangover" outcrop—a rocky, craggy bald with a spectacular 360-degree view of Clingman's Dome in the Smokies and lakes Fontana & Santeetlah down below. To reach Stratton Bald we first bushwhacked through a boggy old roadbed thick with green rhododendron, just west of the Cabin, then via another old unmapped 4WD roadbed to the summit, heavily overgrown each summer with overhanging blackberry fronds. Thanks to John for doing a great job snipping the thornier fronds in front of the group as we hiked.
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch together near the eastern summit of Stratton Bald at the junction of the spur trail leading to "Naked Ground" and Hangover, then divided into two groups for the remainder of the hike. Charlie & Bobby, Steve, Joe, Debbie and the young Knoxvillian and his dog continued via the 2-mile "roller-coaster-like" spur trail to Naked Ground, Haoe and Hangover (and back) while the remaining nine of us headed directly down the mountain via the Wolf Laurel Trail, then back to the Cabin via the 2-mile end of gravel road 81-F. Upon returning each person took their rest: alone by the fire, a quiet book by a favorite author, a luxurious nap in the wilderness, a quiet sit by an ancient waterfall, or following trails surrounded by strawberry plants and 5 ft goldenrod, bees and crickets singing, and sitting in the middle of this meadow to write. Later, a friendly native resident, "just a little ole copperhead," came to bask in the sun... right in front of the toilet. He very slowly moved away and allowed access to the throne.
Saturday Evening & Night: Again: a tremendous "potluck-style" smorgasbord with even more exotic contributions than on Friday: Roast chicken, marinated pork butt, filets wrapped in bacon, freshly chopped cole slaw, and homemade brownies were had by all (and, of course, s'mores)!
After dinner we could see brilliant Venus setting in the western sky from our campfire ring. Before the bright gibbous moon rose, Charlie took about six of us who are interested in stargazing a few yards out into the Cabin meadow where, in the deep, natural darkness the Milky Way stretched itself from horizon to horizon. Many stars, constellations and other beautiful objects, such as Scorpio's tail, the "Summer Triangle" (Vega, Deneb & Altair) and the Lagoon & Trifid nebulae in Sagittarius could be easily observed with the naked eye or with binoculars. We even spied a satellite slowly making its way across the sky and at about 11:00 saw giant Jupiter and the bright moon rise over the meadow.
Again we had a big blazing campfire, using up many logs, which kept us warm while we sang and harmonized into the night. I painted a painting of the cabin by firelight. I wanted to leave it in the cabin, but had no frame.
That night, there were no dogs or big critters or loud noises. Just sleep.
And stars.
SUNDAY AUG 29, 2010:
Wonderful breakfast again: Hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, and other meats, as well as garlic toast, individually prepared blueberry pancakes (thanks to Steve & Rachel), and big bowls of delicious fresh fruit all weekend (thanks to Joe). And coffee. Good coffee. We are lucky to have had six propane burners to supplement our campfire coals and charcoal grill, and plenty of shared food, water, and wood.
By about 11:00 AM we had broken camp, loaded the vehicles, swept and spruced up the Cabin, patio and yard, and were fully loaded to depart. We took a few minutes for a few group photos at the traditional "parting spot" on the sunny Cabin steps beside its quaint stone chimney and porch. Due to the steepness and washed-out condition of the Cabin parking area it took us a bit longer than we had hoped to get our 10 or so vehicles turned around and headed up the Cabin spur road.
Most agreed to meet at the Nantahala Outdoor Center(NOC) to kayak, and as it turned out, about nine of the group chose to relax and enjoy the scenery and to observe the whitewater excitement there rather than to paddle.
Nantahala Float: We were about 20 minutes late for doing our planned 1:00 PM final river shuttle and "duck rental" with the NOC, so seven of us (Charlie, Bobby, Denise S, Rachel, Sam, Danielle, and I) went instead to Endless River Adventures (ERA, just a mile upstream of the NOC). The staff was very nice and helpful (and, someone said, cute). Their solo rubber rental "ducks" are almost ten bucks cheaper than the NOC's (just $29 each). The Endless River staff provided free wetsuits & paddling jackets -- and of course good quality lifejackets and kayak paddles. After an excellent safety briefing and river rapids "tutorial" their convenient 15-passenger van shuttle took us quickly to the put-in (8 miles upstream) where we launched at about 2:30 PM. It was an exhilarating and successful ride to the end in these self-bailing inflatable kayaks, with just one or two exceptional spills and a few temporary hang-ups on rocks. They were waiting patiently for us at 4:30 at the end of the float just below the "big boy" rapid -- Class III Nantahala Falls, and just upstream of the NOC. From a convenient pull-out above the Falls we enjoyed walking downstream to scout the Falls in advance -- about every 10th kayak or raft were either flipping in it or having a paddler or two ejected from their boat in it. Although we all made it OK down the Falls rapids, Denise Sladky took a tumble out of her duck in the hydraulic at the base of the Falls, and was glad to be able to quickly grab a throw-rope from our intrepid Endless River hosts -- no harm done, and Denise took her little swim right in stride. (Danielle had taken our only other unexpected swim a few miles upstream.) In short order we had re-loaded the van and they drove us conveniently back to their whitewater center just upriver of the Falls.
Asian Feast en route home: En route back to Atlanta five of us reconvened at the Chinese restaurant across the GA line (on US-441 in Clayton) for one last "hurrah," and enjoyed delicious buffet and Mongolian grill before the final 2-hour leg home. While there we ran into a group of AOC friends who were returning from the AOC hot springs trip to the NC mounatins. Small world!
HAPPY POSTSCRIPT: On Monday just after our return, the Sunday night Swan Cabin occupant (a young man named Hans Furman) emailed Charlie about finding a lost camera that had been left in one of the bunks. He had read the latest entry in the Swan Cabin Log about the adventurous times of the Atlanta Outdoor Club and its members who he realized must've departed just before his arrival. Someone had been recording it in the log.....!
[ Thanks, Denise, for your excellent "blogs." I trust you don't mind that I've taken the liberty of reformatting your blog above for our online AOC post-trip writeup — I've done some light editing to your timely draft and inserted a few extra trip details. I'm sure Mike Vitale greatly appreciates your handwritten Cabin "log-blog" which led directly to recovering his valuable camera! Coincidentally, Hans Furman who had the Cabin reserved Sun night lives in metro Atlanta and is a fellow AOC member! He joined the AOC almost a year ago, but has not yet done any events with the Club. I've urged him to join us soon for an AOC adventure! - Charlie, 9/1/2010 ]
Aug 29 Nantahala Float: Commercial photos viewable online:
From Rachel: The pictures of the kayaking are up. Go to www.myriverphotos.com and it will immediately take you to another link. Click on 8/29/10 and you'll find our group starting with Bobby's picture #310. Sam you look like a pro going down the falls! You'll see me almost falling out, and Denise's swim. :) Rachel
Aug 29 Nantahala Float: Commercial photos viewable online:
From Rachel: The pictures of the kayaking are up. Go to www.myriverphotos.com and it will immediately take you to another link. Click on 8/29/10 and you'll find our group starting with Bobby's picture #310. Sam you look like a pro going down the falls! You'll see me almost falling out, and Denise's swim. :) Rachel
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