Laurel Falls to Wear Cove via Little Brier     7/23/09

President Dumplin and BC George are doing the summertime late afternoon hiking thing and I was happy to join them.  It became quite a social hiking event.  Guess who else showed up?

That's right, the Indian Outlaw and LB.

Don't George's legs look orange?  What is the deal with that.  He looks like he got stuck up Bruce Pearl's rear right after the church buffet.  Come to think of it, Dave's legs look orange too.  Hailey Management sure has a strict dress code.  LB says she doesn't want to catch the Orange Julius and refuses to look at any more topless photos of George on his camera.

These views were clear and nice.

I like the filtered canopy views of summer.

These are humongous poplars past the falls.  I was impressed with the size of all the trees up there.

Good job to the Indian Outlaw for avoiding this fellow.  You can see how well he blended into the scenery.

He has six rattles and wasn't afraid to use them. 

This is a color contrasted shot to give you an idea of how well camaflouged these critters can be.  Makes me wonder how many I have stepped right over without noticing.

Reaching above the foliage to capture a view, this is the area to the left of Curry He mountain.  We ran into a momma bear and her little cub, or, Vince did.  They scampered right off.  That makes 3 straight outings by the SouthernHighlanders where we have run into bears.  The best year for bears I have seen in a long time has been this year.  Good for them, great mast crop last year. John says, "don't get beat by the heat, put your feet on the street and meet with the Fleet."    A little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing.  It's great to be back in the Smokies any time of year.  We've got it good here in this part of the world.  So what if most people don't want to get out.  More for us to enjoy.  From the look of the crowds at Laurel Falls, there's plenty of Northerners enjoying our Park.  Glad to see CJ out on the trail along with LB.  What will next week hold?  Only the shadow knows and President Dumplin.  Some of you may have heard of George's trip out West and he says you can access his pics on facebook, if you are into that sort of thing.  I wouldn't mind seeing them but am just an amateur social networker.  I might get Uncle Larry to pull them up for me.  He is a good social networker, unless it is social hiking.

Trail Stats:  Laurel Falls Trail to Little Greenbrier Trail: 3.1   to Little Brier Gap 2.4 , at junction 1.9 to road at Wear Gap.  7.4 miles total, shuttle back to Laurel Falls parking lot for a nice point to point.  Most of the climbing is moderate and the descent is steady.