Great Smoky Mountains
2003 Sept 16-19

These are (currently unannotated) pictures taken on a backpacking trek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on 2003 September 16th thru 19th. Participants in this first Astronomy Department trek were Darren DePoy (fearless leader), Jen Marshall, Jerry Yoo, Chris Morgan, Barbara Ryden and Rick Pogge.

We started our trek at the Cosby campsite at the northeastern end of the park, arriving around 5pm on Tuesday the 16th. The next morning after breakfast we proceeded up (literally) the Snake Den Ridge Trail to the junction with the Maddron Bald trail. While most of us collapsed against our packs, Chris and Jerry trotted up to Inadu Knob on the Appalachian Trail. After we regrouped, we descended to Camp 29 where we pitched our first backcountry camp.

The next morning (Thursday) we proceeded down along the Maddron Bald Trail to where it linked up with the Gabes Mountain Trail, there ascending to Camp 34 for the night. The weather was beautiful in the park, even though unbeknownst to us Hurricane Isabel was thrashing the mid-Atlantic seaboard almost due east of us.

Friday morning was clear and bright (despite earlier worries that we might get hit by whatever was left of Hurricane Isabel). We descended the Gabes Mountain Trail past Albright Grove and Hen Wallow Falls to return to the Cosby campground where we started around noon. There, foot- and leg-sore, we packed up and returned to Columbus.

My little Nikon Coolpix 2500 wasn't quite up to the challenge posed by the deep shadows and dappled sunlight of this part of the park, but some of the pictures below came out OK.

Also see Jerry Yoo's pictures.

Click on the thumbnail to view the full-size image, otherwise Shift+Click to download.

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