08-12-2014 RAMSEY CASCADES 8.0 MILES Yesterday was a mountain top and today was a waterfalls. Pam Hembree drove up to Pigeon Forge to join Pam Pettigrew, Melvin and I on our Smokies adventure. Melvin had slightly twisted his ankle on the descent of Trillium Gap and decided to sit it out giving us a girls day. Our plans were to hike the Baskins Creek and Grapevine Trails from the Roaring Fork Motor Trail near Gatlinburg to the Greenbrier area on a little over ten mile hike. After we dropped my vehicle off at Greenbrier it began to pour rain. Not a gentle rain that we could have hiked in but a downpour that you only hike in if you are forced to because youre in the middle of a hike and have to. We were seriously bummed but made the best of it. Instead we drove around the Motor Trail showing Pam where various trailheads were and then drove to the Sugarlands Visitors Center to see if they had a better weather report than our Weather Channel apps...lol! At first we thought wed get my vehicle and do another shorter shuttle but decided since we already had to go back to Greenbrier that we would just hike to Ramsey Cascades because none of us had done this hike before. Just the drive along the Little Pigeon River and the Ramsey Creek are a beautiful sight to behold. Roaring and rippling mountain streams at their best. From the trailhead you cross Ramsey Creek on a large sturdy bridge catching a glimpse of the mighty creeks beauty you are going to follow for a good chunk of the four mile hike. As with all mountain streams they flow downhill so we were climbing almost non-stop for that entire distance also. The first mile and a half were on a roadbed type treadway and then jumped into rocky, rooty and rhododendron lined stream side vegetation. Still climbing at about two miles we came to a long log bridge crossing that gave even the bravest pause for thought. Narrow, one hand rail and very high off the roaring water below. Pam P. is height challenged and decided that she just couldnt trust herself to cross it and said she was going back. In the end she was rewarded for her decision because in the boredom of waiting she walked back to Greenbrier Rd. (2.0 miles), got a drink out of my car and then walked back getting the same 8.0 miles hiked as us and she got to see a bear! That was really cool for her. Meanwhile Pam H. and I continued on. Pam is a stronger hiker than I am plus Id hiked almost twelve miles the day before so it wasnt long before she left me in the dust...lol! We were still climbing on the same type of rocky stuff. It was beautiful but it seemed we just kept going and going and were never going to get there. Then we ran into the last third mile or so that really pushed my endurance. Much more like rock climbing this section made Table Rock seem easy to me. Later Pam looked in her two hiking books and both rated the hike as moderate. I said moderate to who, Hercules? This is definitley a strenuous hike! I really need to rate these trails for these books! Anyway two seconds before I thought I was going to keel over and die I see the falls ahead. Ahead being the operative word. To actually get to them there was a very tricky high water volume stream crossing to contend with. A young man had helped Pam cross and she stayed to direct me to the correct spots. Fortunately the return trip was much easier. After crossing there was another short steep rock scramble and we were finally at the gem of the hike. Ramsey Cascades are a very majestic speciman of waterfalls. Dropping in a long, wide and powerful display the water sprayed back to the point that we had gotten chilly and had to put our jackets on, when minutes before I had felt a heat stroke coming on...lol! We enjoyed the silence of our own thoughts over the thundering roar of the pounding water as we ate our lunches before heading back. Back on my kind of hike (the downhill roll...lol!) I was the one who jumped ahead for awhile anyway. Even that kind of descent wears on you after a while too. I was just glad that the day had stayed mostly overcast which made things cooler. On top of the wonderful cascades and stream we had some other treats. A couple of unique log bridges. The one mentioned earlier and then another that was L shaped. There were tons of drops, ripples and rapids along the way to view and there were three very large old growth poplars too. We were lucky enough to be there at the same time as anoher group so we could have a good photo op. We didnt see a bear like Pam and it had been a grueling climb but it was still so worth the trip. An absolutely one of a kind type of spot. Great day! So glad we went!
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 23:30:50 +0000
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