T-Wall and the Cohutta Wilderness

12/27/99-12/31/99

My brother, Kid, and I meant to leave Birmingham at about 5:00 Monday morning to make the Tennessee Wall around sunrise so we could spend most of the day climbing. However, after going non-stop over Christmas and then being up late Sunday night packing our wills caved and we didn't leave home until just before 7 after kissing my wife goodbye. A quick stop at the dreaded Wal-mart supplied us with $2 water shoes, weighing much less than Tevas, for our stream crossings in the wilderness.

12/27/99

Climbing: It ends up that T-wall, while not very difficult to find using the Dixie Craiger's Atlas, takes quite a bit of driving once you make it to Chattanooga. We didn't actually get to the wall until 11. The hike up was quite steep although not very long. There were few other climbers out in the thirty degree weather, we were glad for the down coat while on belay. Kid is a good climber, but although I have been bouldering quite a bit I hadn't been on a wall for almost a year, since we were climbing in PA last Christmas. Also, this was my first time doing cracks. We started with a 5.8 near the entrance, kid was a little nervous on lead and took some time getting up the climb. The climb started in a corner and moved up to a roof. From the roof you traverse out the left face, over an exposed arete, and then up an easy face to the top. The crux was near the bottom getting onto the corner crack and then up the corner crack. I took a nice fall on the crack which proved to be the doom of one of his new hexes. When I finally got up to the hex it was wedged very tight and for all my banging I couldn't get it out. Oh well, we gained a nut that someone else had left behind. Finally I finished the climb, by which point he was fairly cold since he was belaying from the top and hadn't brought a jacket up. However, it was a sunny day and you can see the river and valley laid out below you from the top of the climbs, very beautiful.

After the first climb we stopped for lunch, Christmas leftovers, which were quite good at this point. Then we realized that it was 2:00, how on earth did we spend so much time on that climb? Well, we only had time for one more, and since I had trouble with the 5.8 we did a 5.7 this time called Plastic Toys or something like that. Anyways, a very beautiful climb, and fun even if it was a 7, some of the moves were tricky, the easy rating had mostly to do with the fact that it wasn't completely horizontal. The climb starts from the top of a large boulder, adding some interesting elements as you step off the boulder onto the wall. We paused at the top of this one for a few pictures before Kid rapped down and I followed in short order. The sun went below the mountains just as I finished my rap. We called it a good day, even if a little short. I felt kind of bad that Kid didn't have a partner more up to his level, but he claims to have had a good day. I really liked T-wall, it is very scenic and lovely rock.

Cohutta Wilderness: From T-wall we headed straight out to the wilderness, not a very far drive. The plan was to camp at the trailhead the first night and then hit the trail early in the morning. I gave my wife a last call from a pay phone, kid got a cup of hot coffee, and we hit the forest service roads. The roads were gravel but in fairly good condition, we were headed to the trailhead for Rice Camp Trail. However, a few miles before the trailhead we come to a sign that says "loose gravel in fords, maintain slow safe speed." Kid gets out to see how deep it is, not very, so we decide to try it. About half way through the loose gravel kicks in. There is no going forward, so he gets out to try to push us back. No luck, the tires spin a deep hole in the gravel. At this point half the front tires and under water, and it is coming through the floor boards. I'm pretty near desperation worried that the engine will suck water and die. It is 24 deg outside and the water isn't much warmer. Kid hatches a plan. We are to jack up the car, place large rocks under each wheel, place rocks behind the whiles making a path out of the ford, and back out. We both put on our water shoes, and warm cloths and get to work. However, it ends up being VERY cold standing and working in the water. Kid had waterproof boots, but I only had my trail shoes along. The next plan goes like this, Kid places large stepping stones out to the tire and works in his boots trying to keep his feet dry. I change into my shoes and haul rocks to him, make hot soup and tea, and set up camp by the ford. First the batteries on headlight number one give out, next go the batteries on headlight number two. Three hours latter and as the last of the headlight batteries drains, the car frame is finally out of water and it is time to try to back it out. The car start! He pushes and slowly, the car pulls out of the mess! Once we are out I'm so happy I jump out of the car too….. and there it rolls back into the stream. I run in after it and gun it back out. Phew, what a night. We leave the car running to dry out the engine compartment, everything seems to work fine. He crawls inside his down bag after quite a night. I finished cleaning up camp by the light of my photons and finally hit the sack myself.

12/28/99

I'm up first (of course), the water bottles are partly frozen, but everything looks good as I tear down camp, thankful for the light and to have the car with no harm done other than an inch of ice and water on the floor. We have hot chocolate and rolls for breakfast, scoop what ice I can out of the car, and finally hit the trail at 10, it takes us over an hour to get to the trailhead from the ford. Two hunters in a large 4x4 with backcountry tires come by and after having a difficult time getting through the ford themselves tell us that the forest service always dumps a few feet of gravel in the things. We were confused heading to the trailhead by another trailhead for Horseshoe Bend Trail which isn't on the map. Still don't know what was up with that, but we finally make the trailhead, and start off on Hickory Creek Trail. This trail is open to horses as well as hikers and is incredibly beautiful. The trail goes up and down through rolling hills, thickets of rhododendron, and crossing many streams. The woods are quite and peaceful as the sun shines on the hemlock and rhododendron leaves. The trail was supposed to be only 5 miles to the Conasuega River Trail, but it took us much longer than expected, at one point we came to a place which we thought was the intersection but turned out not to be. However, we were very lucky to find 3 bottles of coke left at a campsite, they had been there a while so we decided to put them to good use. We also discovered that in my rush to pack for the trail I hadn't counted enough calories. Our snack back was especially deficient meaning we would only get meager lunches. When we finally made it to the Conasuega River at about 2 it turned out to be a pretty large deal. However we managed to cross on an old log without having to put on the water shoes which were still frozen from last night. On the other side there was an older guy camping in a meadow. He had fire going which sure felt nice since the temp was still in the 30's. He told us of a great camping spot at the top of Panther Falls, near where we were planning to spend the night. We hoofed it two miles to the bottom of the falls in about 40 minutes, passing a young soldier with a 60 lb pack (mine was about 20 and kid's weighted in at about 30), another couple camping and we saw one other guy for a total of 5 the first day.

After a final crossing of the Conasuega on rocks we headed up Panther Creek. Shortly before the falls we found a really great camping spot, it was on 3 levels and kind of dug into the side of the hill for protection from the wind. As the other guys had suggested that camping at the falls would be very cold, we decided to set up here. With the tents set up I put on our dinner, a freeze dried spicy Thai deal I got, and kid got wood for a fire. Dinner turned out to be great and the small fire was wonderful as the temps soon got lower than 30. We sat around the fire and played a chess game (one of our annual Christmas games), while listening to the water tumble down the hill beside us. I made one mistake, losing the game as I was about to win. Bummer. Kid went off to his tarp about 8 or so and I followed after pouring a few gallons of water on the fire. The low temp was only about 28 that night, surprising since we were at 2600 ft, about a thousand more than the night before. I stayed plenty warm in my Iroquois bag, Kid's huge -5 deg North Face didn't fair so well and he was a little chilly. So ended our first day on the trail. Both Hickory Creek Trail and Panther Creek Trails get 4 star ratings, Hickory Creek is moderate in difficulty, Panther Creek is difficult to strenuous as we found out on day two. The biggest problem was the number of people on the trails, even in the cold in the middle of the week in December. We did about 12 miles the first day.

12/29/99

The second day on the trail I got up earlier than kid again. Today our breakfast was bagels and cream cheese with hot chocolate. The tents came down and everything got packed up quickly today, we were on the trail by 8 heading uphill to panther falls. The falls is quite beautiful, coming right off a plateau at about 3000 feet, so pretty high up. There is indeed a nice camping spot right after the falls. The trail up to the falls was very difficult to follow with just a few markings, however since you know where you are supposed to end up you can probably find your way. It was a good climb up to the falls, but not too far. We stopped there to take in the view. From the falls you have a good view out over the mountains, the only unobstructed view we got on the whole trip. It isn't panoramic, but it is very nice. We filled up with water here since there didn't appear to be anymore the rest of the day. When we were heading out from the falls we meet two girls doing a short hike from their camp just above the falls. From here Panther Creek Trail heads up another 900 to 1000 feet to where it joins with Cowpen Trail, this is quite an uphill section. Near the top we meet three young guys on their way down to the falls. At the intersection we followed Cowpen Trail towards the Cohutta Summit and Rough Ridge Trail. There were campsites all around, the best though was the one we used and the one right on top of the falls.

It was an easy couple of miles to Rough Ridge Trail, at which point we headed north towards Jacks River, a 7 mile or so hike. We passed another couple shortly after joining Rough Ridge. Heading north this trail is very easy, generally going gently down the whole way. The plan was to have lunch along this trail somewhere and then camp before the first crossing of Jack's River, saving all the good stuff (wading the river) for the next day. We found that we were making 4 miles an hour along the ridge trail, so we decided that we would have extra time and stopped near the end to play cards for an hour or so. The trail was pretty, it drops steeply on either side, but there is no unobstructed views the whole way, you just get a feeling for the mountains around you looking through the trees. My brother enjoyed the trail more than I did. During the summer you wouldn't be able to see anything and it would be a very lousy trail. Horses are allowed to go most but not all of the way to Jack's River on this trail but we didn't see any sign of them. Like most other trails in the forest it generally follows old road beds. Towards the end of the trail when it started to descend steeply to the river we passed two more guys hoping to make it out of the wilderness before sunset. It warmed up quite a bit this day, up to the 50's, which felt really nice especially in the sun. When we were most of the way to the river we decided that we had a couple of hours left and that it was warm enough that we should attempt to do all the river crossings that night. We pretty much ran the rest of the way through some beautiful old forest beside streams, to the first river crossing. Here we donned our water shoes and braved the first chilly crossing and then continued west on Jack's River Trail. From here the falls was a short distance, we passed another couple who had set up camp beside a small stream. We also saw a group of 4 guys and another group with 3 tents and an undisclosed number of people. Jacks falls and the whole river are really beautiful, it is easy to see why so many people would want to come to the area. After about an hour of hard hiking from the first river crossing we finally got to another one, however by our calculations the one we should have taken should have been back a ways. We crossed this crossing, didn't find the landmark we were looking for, and figured we must have gotten off the trail and missed the correct crossing. So we turned around and went back to the other side of the river, it was getting dark so Kid set up camp there at a fairly nice spot while I went back to look for the other river crossing that we missed or ask the guys we saw back further if they knew where we were. As it turned out, we had been just a few feet from the junction before we turned around, meaning that we would have to cross the river one more time the next morning. Bummer. That night we made a large fire and had macaroni and cheese, which didn't fill us up as much as we might have desired. The fire was great though especially since it went down to about 20 deg that night. Kid checked in early and I stayed up smoking a cigar for another hour or so before pouring 6 gallons of water on the fire to put out the huge logs we had burning and hitting the sack myself. I didn't stay quite as warm as I wanted to in my bag, and had a lot of condensation the last night on the trail. Rough Ridge Trail gets a two to three star rating depending on the time of year it is hiked, Jack's River is really beautiful and the falls are impressive - if over visited. We did about 12 miles this day as well.

12/30/99

Our last day on the trail, it is always sad to be leaving the wilderness. You feel a peace here that you can't experience even if you are trying to relax at home. It is difficult to get away from the pressures and stress, but when you are out on the trail your focus changes to things much more basic. There are some conflicting feelings, however, after three or four days without a shower I'm always ready to feel the hot water on my body. In the summer you can bathe on the trail, in the winter you just don't. The thought of good food and a beer is another enticement. And of course, I have my wife waiting for me when I get home, what could be better than coming home to her after 5 days?

So, we get up and pack up fairly quickly today. Then we hit the trail, do the one more stream crossing, and start climbing out of the canyon that Jack's River runs through. It actually ended up that the way out, along Rice Camp Trail, included more downs that ups, a nice surprise. The trail was quite beautiful, going beside small streams and through little glens. We were happy and sad to get to the trailhead, and then hit the road for the three more miles down hill to my car. There was some apprehension as usual that the car be okay, more than normal this time since I left one window open to allow the wet inside to air out and because in the rush to hit the trail I hadn't put the club ok. We turned the last three miles out in 40 min, crossed the first ford, and found the car waiting in fine condition on the other side of the second ford. The only thing wrong was that rather than dry out the water that had been on the floor boards froze.

We headed south towards Atlanta and stopped at a little Bar-B-Que shack beside a used car lot. This was the first time my brother had Bar-B-Que and this place was great! Some of the best I've ever had, with a very strong hickory smoke flavor to it. We headed down to Atlanta and after a long time of trying to find a place to sleep we found the international youth hostel. It wasn't too cheep, but better than any other place in Atlanta at the time and it was at least safe. Nothing is quite like a hot shower after days on the trail. Went out to eat at Mick's which turned out to have very good food (had some great tomato soup and then split a strawberry shortcake) and then decided to go to a movie instead of a club. Saw a Spanish film, forget the name, about a mother who's son dies and she goes back to try to find the father (who is a transvestite hooker) to tell him. Runs into a nun and a famous actress along the way. Hum, we always manage to find the strangest films, last time we saw a film was in Glasgow and it was something very weird like this too. Laugh.

12/31/1999

Wow, the last day of the millennium. We got our free donut (they only had glazed), and then we were going to stop by the High Museum before taking Kid to the airport and me coming home to my wife. The Rockwell exhibit was sold out for the day so we got in one last chess game, that we almost had time to finish, I was winning, then went and dropped off the Kid and I drove the 2 1/2 hours home. Overall, a great trip.