Monday 1/15/2007 Hike-Courthouse Rock-strike that

WildrMan Bryan

We were all set to hike to Courthouse Rock this morning.  Except, our bus just couldn’t make it.  It kept overheating and so we modified our plan.

Husky Gap Trail
Distance: 1.3 miles from the trail head, one way
Elevation change: 1000ft, steady climb
Time: 1 hour one way
Trail type: one stream crossing, but other than that, flat, dry, and very few rocks

This was an enjoyable, albeit impromptu, hike with Dwight McCarter.  Dwight was a back country ranger with the park for 30 years.  An excellent tracker, he has found over 100 children lost in the woods as well as his share of criminals hiding in the woods.  Dwight is also the author of Lost! A Ranger’s Journal of Search and Rescue and co-author of Mayday! Mayday!: Aircraft Crashes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1920-2000. 

The hike had no major clear overlooks, but Dwight pointed out a number of different, rare tree species (Yellow wood for example) as he saw them.  Most interesting, Dwight pointed to tracks made by turkeys and black bears that were from several months old to two years old. 

Www_002Perhaps the most entertaining was his analysis of what appeared to be the claw marks of a bear cub left while climbing a tree incorrectly.   Bears usually climb trees on the uphill side of the tree.  This one climbed up on the downhill side.  This picture is of Dwight near the tree and pointing out a well worn bear route.

Www_007

Dwight is also quite the storyteller.  If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, do it.  I promise, you won’t regret it.  This picture is at lunchtime with Dwight holding court and telling the story of tracking escaped convicts in North Carolina.

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Related posts:

  1. Recommended: Mayday! Mayday!
  2. Tuesday 1/16/2007 Afternoon Presentation-Tales from Lost!
  3. Tuesday 01/15/2008 Qulliam’s Cave and Courthouse Rock
  4. Monday 01/14/2008 Sugarland Mountain Hike
  5. Tuesday 1/16/2007 Hike-Unofficial Greenbrier Hike

Posted:January 15th, 2007

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