Deep Creek 2009 - July 12, 2009 - Member Trip Report
| Hike Name: | Deep Creek 2009 |
|---|---|
| Country: | United States |
| State: | Tennessee |
| Trip Rating: |  |
| Trip Date: | July 12, 2009 |
| Duration: | 4 days |
| Trail Conditions: | Excellent |
| Trail Traffic: | None |
| Trip Weather: | Partly Cloudy |
| Trip Winds: | None |
| Trip Precipitation: | Rain |
| Trip Temperature: | High: 81-90, Low: 61-70 degrees Fahrenheit |
| Trip Report: | We departed Hattiesburg as a band of twenty scouts and seven adults early Sunday morning. After eleven hours we arrived at the Appletree Group Campsite in the Nantahala National Forest near Topton NC. We pitched our tents for the night. I had chosen to use a light weight tarp in place of a tent in order to keep my pack weight down. This first night almost caused me to regret this choice. It began to rain heavily about 11:30 that night. It rained hard until about 2:30 the next morning. I had a quarter inch flood raging beneath my tarp this entire time. Fortunately my sleeping pad was a half inch thick and I stayed above the flood. The only downfall was that my pad is only four foot long so I had to scrunch up and not roll off the edge to keep dry. After a long night the rain quit and the sun rose. The damp scouts packed up wet tents and off we went to Deep Creek. Deep Creek Campground is the site of the CCC camps where the crews stayed in the 1930’s while building the Great Smoky Mountain National Park infrastructure and many of the trails used today. This is also the terminus of several trails in the Deep Creek watershed. We split our group up into three crews to reduce congestion on the trails and the impact to camp sites. Each crew chose a different trail set. Our crew consisted of leaders Mike Myers, Dr. Lance Line, and me. The scouts were Cody Knuth, Shawn Royer, Ethan McCarty, Jacob Myers, Hayes Line, and Connor Lawson. These scouts are our strongest and most experienced boys and they wanted a worthy hike. After dropping off the other two crews we struck out on Indian Creek trail. This trail follows Indian Creek up near it’s head waters to the top of Martin’s Gap. This is an elevation change of nearly 1600 feet. We dropped off the western side of Martin’s Gap and hiked up Deep Creek to Camp 56 for the night Total miles 11. A good night’s sleep still brought sore muscle the next morning. We broke camp and hiked back to the top of Martin’s Gap. Most of this day was spent hiking down the Sunkota Ridge Trail to the loop trail near Deep Creek Campground. The views both east and west were fantastic while hiking down the ridge. Once reaching the loop trail we again hiked up a portion of the Deep Creek Trail to Camp 58. While hiking up DCT we met both of the other crew and were able visit and share experiences. Total miles 23. Our second morning brought our biggest challenge. From our campsite to the top of Upper Sassafras Gap is an elevation gain of 1900 feet. This gap is reached by trekking north on Deep Creek Trail then west on Pole Road Trail. Dropping off the gap to reach our campsite (62) we descended 1000 feet. This night brought more rain. Total miles 33 The final morning brings more rain at daybreak. We pack up a wet camp and headed out back to the top of Upper Sassafras Gap to hike the Noland Ridge trail back into Deep Creek Campground. The two streams that we had rock hopped the previous afternoon have now risen to knee deep. This means pulling boots off and wading. Made for an interesting start to the day. We arrived in the campground around three in the afternoon and met the other crews. We wrapped up our hike with a total of 45 miles. Now we were off to the Ocoee whitewater rafting with smiles and sore feet. |
There are no comments yet.