This whole week the weather has sucked and I've had a cold, so I've just been working 13 hours a day and getting fat. Today the weather looked really nice though and even though my cold isn't totally gone, it was good enough to get outside for a bit. I rarely feel like riding a bike when I'm sick so I just went back to explore more of that same area I've been running around in for a while now.
Today I parked at Williams Gap. Now that I know how everything connects up together, screw driving all the way in to FS69.
The air was a little cool and for the first time in as long as I can remember I had to warm up a bit. My lungs were pissed though and I tasted blood for a few minutes. Fortunately the fall colors were finally starting to come in for real up there, so I had nice scenery to look at while I suffered.
Up on the ridge it was a lot easier going.
Apparently somebody lost a chain of ammo.
I guess it happened some time last week. I passed right by that spot last weekend and I think I'd have seen it if it was there. I guess, not only did the Rangers pass through there since last week, but also at least one non-Ranger passed through too, as another Ranger would have taken it with them. It looks like that trail gets more traffic than I thought.
On the way down off of the ridge to the south, I ran into an orienteering marker.
That's the kind they use for adventure races, not the kind the Rangers use. For a second I thought maybe somebody had forgotten to pick it up after an event and almost packed it out it myself, but then, who knows, there might be something going on this weekend. I left it alone.
On the north end of the Edmondson Wetland area, formerly Edmondson Pond, I walked up on a pair of hunters in tree stands, with rifles. Today is the 14th though, and I'd checked the regs earlier this month. I thought that firearms season didn't start until the 22nd. Today is the last day of archery season and muzzle loader season starts tomorrow, but as far as I know, firearms aren't allowed right now. I imagine there might be some odd regulation though, like it's ok to hunt small game or hogs or something with rifles right now. They could also just have been scouting and their rifles may not have been loaded. Who knows?
They were nice guys and we communicated very effectively, mostly with sign language. I'd planned on heading up the cove a bit but I changed my plans and headed west, away from their location.
Before long I was on good old FS69. There was a campsite right there and though I'd sworn that I'd looked around back in there before, that's what I thought last weekend too when I found that road, so I gave it another look, and lo, another road.
This time it got overgrown after a while though and eventually teed into one of the trails I'd been on last week. It's funny how you recognize stuff. "Oh, I recognize this group of downed trees and the angle that this old roadbed transitions into the hillside. This must be that trail from last week."
The cinnamon ferns were all dying off and this one corner smelled so strongly of cinnamon.
It was nice as I walked toward but it just got stronger and stronger and when I got to this spot was almost sickeningly sweet.
I hoped to discover the source of the trail that led up to Little Frozen Knob from the northwest and I crawled all over the ridge there with no luck at all. I found the ridge that it must descend but it wasn't there. I guess I'm going to have to just go up to the top and follow it down. Woohoo.
Though denied the trail I sought, in its place, I was rewarded with lots of gnarly rock outcroppings.
The photo doesn't do justice to this one. It had all kinds of overhangs, almost like little caves.
From there on, I just wandered around until it got dark, then followed a trail that I know back to the car.
Ok. That was fun. I'm starting to feel like riding the bike again too, which is nice. I'm going to New Orleans for work on Sunday, maybe I'll bring it with me this time and hit some trail on the way down and then another one on the way back up.
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