Good morning. Yesterday I cured my lack of woods syndrome. I took a rather quick hike down the steep and treacherous Waterfall Trail, down to Gum Springs at the junction of the Bench Trail below. I passed many rock steps that needed cleaning, some large rather loose rock steps. It isnt easy to make stable, one of these steps, they can weigh over 100 LBs. I ate my sandwich I had bought at Kroger at a picnic table just west of the junction, along the bench trail. Walked the bench trail to Fern Lake and the Summit Trail. Fern Lake in its heyday was a festive place, the 150 folks, in the year 1889, staying up above in the Summit Hotel. Now I faced having to hike the very trail many those guests hiked. Another strenuous quick way to get up to the top. All this while I had to always take care of the slippery rocks with wet leaves on them, I knew one slip could be disaster. It is a grueling hike up,in a beautiful place. Found my second geocache, checked the log book and saw Summit Lady dated from a trail work day, a year ago or more ago. I know so, I was there. So not really a true find, but I did go on one wild goose chase on my way to find it. Finally made it to the Rim trail. There is a picture on the AMN Web site of me at this point. My shirt soaked. I brought a trash bag but collected none. The only thing I saw was on a slippery edge above the waterfall, I just had to leave it. The whole hike took maybe 2 hours. Thinking we need to clean out Gum Springs...
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 13:38:55 +0000
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