Ephemeral

We often plan hikes with a destination in mind: a highlight in a loop trail, a waterfall, an overlook from a high prominence, giant trees, a distinctive natural feature.

Friends Mike Phillips, Jim Smolen, Joel Fine, and I met up at our base camp in Cosby Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) for a week of hikes. 

The Low Gap trail to the Appalachian Trail was familiar, but after two years away from GSMNP the forest community seemed new, not just the recently erupting green foliage but the richness and diversity of the ecosystem. We had the trail to ourselves until we reached the AT. Our destination would lie further up the AT – a spur trail leading to the Mount Cammerer Lookout, a stone tower built by CCC workers in the 1930s. This would be my second visit to this site offering great views. 

At Low Gap the trail crosses over the AT, and our path would turn left and continue on the AT a couple of miles. This crossroads is always a fine place to stop for refueling, and on this day a long distance hiker with the trail name of “Detour” stopped to chat on his northern trek to Pennsylvania. Other thru-hikers bound for Maine also passed by without stopping, intent on covering miles on this fine day. 

Low Gap would prove to be an unexpected highlight. The low spot on this ridge top was carpeted with an impressive white flower in full bloom and covering up the steep slopes all around. Fringed phacelia, a new flower for me. They are ephemerals, an annual blooming only a week or two before the plant disappears.  It has been said that this full bloom appears to be snow covering the ground. The views at Mount Cammerer would prove to be glorious, but the fringed phacelia bloom at Low Gap would trump the Lookout for spectacular.

Our second day hike would proceed up the Lower Mount Cammerer trail for 7.3 miles where we would connect with the AT, continue for about a mile before heading off the AT on Chestnut Branch Trail for another two miles, until reaching the trailhead at Big Creek. This point A to point B hike was new for us, though I had walked a portion of the beginning on a late afternoon hike several years ago, when I saw my first bear cub in the backcountry. We would see more thru-hikers on the AT, and in reflection realized we had seen more thru-hikers than others in our first two days on the trail. 

The main attraction was unexpected – the Lower Mount Cammerer trail itself. After several miles the trail narrowed to single width. It was as if we were running a gauntlet of massed wildflowers, and the steep sides of the coves had cascading blooms. It was a profusion I had only glimpsed before, and I returned to this place on a lighter hiking day just to photograph wildflowers. The narrow and gradually ascending path continued for miles in this lush world of the cove hardwood forest. 

A hike on Chimney Tops Trail marked a personal return. I had walked this steep path back in the 1990s with my young children Sara and Eliot, though we did not ascend the pinnacle on that day. I looked forward to that ascent, as well as viewing both the rebuild of this trail by the Trails Forever crew, and the remaining signs of the 2016 Chimney Tops fire.   

At the trailhead we saw we would not be climbing the pinnacle. A sign notified hikers that the trail was closed before the final rock scramble due to instability. We were not deterred from hiking up to the closure. The steep path sections were now well appointed with steps of stone and wood. A large bank of fringed phacelias appeared on the ascent.Plenty of water surged down the streams the trail paralleled or crossed – Walker Camp Prong and Road Prong.  

We got the word from hikers coming down that a bear was along the trail above. A couple tried to shoo it off by clanking their trekking poles together, though this attempt was unsuccessful. Others reported it was not only a bear, but a mother with two cubs. I had been carrying a longer camera lens during the week, and prepared by changing to it. I also readied myself to the possibility of not seeing the bears.  

I was not disappointed. Ahead, several hikers were looking up the steep slope, and there was the bear family, at a safe distance. The mother was between the trail and her two cubs, and was not even looking up from her grazing. The cubs seemed more curious, taking looks downhill. A number of hikers got a long look at these iconic animals of the Smokies. We would go on to the overlook, and enjoyed the views, including to the now closed pinnacle. New hikers arriving shared that the bears had moved on. We were fortunate we did not miss this trail highlight. 

Other highlights of the trail were of another, much more ancient age. While much of the rock, and geological history of the land, is covered by forests, the actions of water keep portions of this heritage visible. The Chimney Tops themselves are the most prominent of exposed rock features in the park, and in strong contrast to the more transient and ephemeral of the forest’s natural features.  

I have studied Lowcountry forest communities over the past year. These Smokies hikes mainly passed through the most diverse of the Smokies forests – the cove hardwood forest. On past visits I became acquainted with an Appalachian tree, the silverbell. I noticed fallen blooms around my tent, and finally found the tree with the “Hershey” bark. Another day I changed my perspective while sitting at the campsite, and looked uphill. I had been reading about another of the cove hardwood trees I was not familiar with – striped maple. And there were several of these trees right behind my tent. I noticed the distinct striped bark on a smaller tree, and more small specimens along the path to the restroom building. 

Like the Lowcountry, the Smokies had been relatively dry, and one day at the campsite a strong wind came up, triggering a veritable blizzard of winged maple fruit helicoptering down on us, our shelters, and our vehicles. The dispersal power of this common but unusual fruit was impressive. With these little helicopters covering my truck, I contributed to their dispersal on my drive home at the end of the week.