{"id":505,"date":"2017-05-01T00:27:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T00:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/?p=505"},"modified":"2017-05-01T19:21:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T19:21:29","slug":"big-stack-slickrock-and-the-stiffknee-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/2017\/05\/01\/big-stack-slickrock-and-the-stiffknee-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Stack, SlickRock and the Stiffknee Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

AJ and John Dempsey are friends of ours and we rarely miss an opportunity to commune with them in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070161\"<\/p>\n

There were miles for me to capture in this area and high water or not, we did them. \u00a0Laurel negotiates one of about 20 serious crossings on Slickrock.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070116\"\u00a0AJ and John were set up at Crowder Branch with a complement of wood and good company. \u00a0AJ even brought me a generous birthday present that was shared around a roaring fire.<\/p>\n

But first they had to clear the road up to Farr Gap. \u00a0It is a wilderness and fortunately, someone had a chainsaw. \u00a0That is one road where you probably need to carry one.<\/p>\n

\"20170428_121223\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070183\"\u00a0AJ pointed out a huge prize in our campsite. \u00a0I will add that we usually camp at the Crowder Horse camp in the shadow of Hangover. \u00a0But they had set up down here and we almost didn’t find them in the fading daylight of a friday evening. It was a better choice for two reasons. \u00a0One was the abundance of firewood and the second is a spring with some extremely sweet tasting water. \u00a0We caught up with each other and bedded down for what was going to be a big day for me and Laurel. \u00a0Here is a map of our loop.<\/p>\n

\"hike_map_4429701_ver1.0_640_480\"<\/p>\n

It is a 12 mile loop and begins at Farr Gap. \u00a0We dropped from Crowder Branch down to Slickrock Creek. \u00a0It was hot, snaky and full of bugs and ticks.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070123\"\u00a0This is Big Stack Gap. \u00a0It drops about 1200 feet down to Slickrock Creek. \u00a0Every stop promised to uncover a timber rattler much like the one John and AJ almost stepped on hiking in on Friday. \u00a0Fortunately, we saw none of those, but we also didn’t see our feet. \u00a0The flame azaleas were amazing.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070120\"\u00a0Bear Reserve<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070128\"\u00a0Know what that is? \u00a0Let me zoom in for you.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070129\"\u00a0Yeah, its a bed frame and the tree has grown through it.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070121\"\u00a0Big sawbriers and weeds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070140\"<\/p>\n

Wildcat Falls is iconic. \u00a0Given that we were steamy hot from two hours of hiking, a swim was in order.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070145\"\u00a0Man, was it refreshing. \u00a0I was so taken with the bath, I almost didn’t notice this guy.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070141\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070153\"<\/p>\n

Little did we realize the amount of work that lay ahead. \u00a0About 20 serious crossings of Slickrock creek ensued. \u00a0A weekend of record rains had set the tone for this epic.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070160\"\u00a0Looks like even the hornets wanted near the cool water. \u00a0We were soaked the entire time and I took an epic fall.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070155\"\u00a0This was one of the easy ones. \u00a0With record rains came record crossings. \u00a0There was a reason we saw no one at all on this trail.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070157\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070162\"\u00a0This was more representative of our trials by this trail.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070164\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070167\"\u00a0Rocky Ledge would know this one. I’m looking forward to being with the Muir Guys next weekend.<\/p>\n

When we made our last crossing of Slickrock and began the Stiffknee, I was prepared. \u00a0Stiffknee is 1600 feet of climbing in 3.2 miles. \u00a0And aptly named.<\/p>\n

\"stiffknee\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070166\"\u00a0Stiffknee can best be described as a second growth scrub forest with some incredible uphill pulls. \u00a0It came by the name honestly. \u00a0By now we were running out of steam. \u00a0Slickrock had kicked our butts and we still had 7 miles back to camp at Crowder Branch. \u00a0We climbed, and we climbed and we climbed. \u00a0Laurel reached a wall about the time she encountered a bigfoot. \u00a0Or a rock thrown that sounded like one. \u00a0That resulted in her stepping in a suck muck and totally muddying her shoes. \u00a0She wasn’t amused.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070168\"<\/p>\n

What you are looking at is 1800 acres of wilderness that I hope will be added to Citico. \u00a0It has been held up in legislative hell for many years and since I was heading that way, decided to do a little investigating. \u00a0I found out that the TN Wilderness Act was approved but never enacted. \u00a0Apparently there was some problem with Congressman Fleischmann down Chattanooga way. \u00a0A lot of these guys don’t like taking land off the table when there is a dime to be made by milking the crap out of it. \u00a0I contacted Will Skelton, because I knew he would have the scoop. \u00a0As expected, he confirmed that Fleischmann was holding things up. \u00a0I told Will I would pass along the word so any of you folks down in Chatty or in his district should contact him to let your thoughts be known. \u00a0This stretch of Wilderness is an important corridor between Slickrock and the Smokies. \u00a0I would hate to see it developed, as I’m sure some politicians would.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070172\"\u00a0Left turn Laurel was playing with the dying ring necked snake when I approached. \u00a0Judging by the wound, it had been bitten by a rattler. \u00a0I advised her to drop the snake and move on because the rattler was probably nearby waiting for it to die.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070184\"\u00a0More flame azalea action was found along the Fodderstack Trail as we drug ourselves the final three miles back into camp. \u00a0AJ and John did the Mill branch loop for their daytime outing. \u00a0Our total time on the trail was 8 hours, six of which was hiking if you discount the swim time and a break at Farr Gap.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070177\"\u00a0We exchanged tales of our respective journeys into the Wilderness. \u00a0If there is one good thing about the Smokies fee, it is that I have been driven to Slickrock\/Citico. \u00a0Slickrock\/Citico is wilderness and I am thankful for the efforts of those who made it such. \u00a0Let’s help them add that portion to it.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070180\"\u00a0We coffeed up Sunday morning. \u00a0I was sore from my fall on Slickrock. \u00a0We got out of camp for the three miles back to Farr gap where my intention was to fish down the creek.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070192\"\u00a0And fish I did. \u00a0Citico hasn’t failed my in the last two outings.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070199\"\u00a0I call that dinner for two nights. \u00a0And also a perfect ending to a wonderful weekend. \u00a0Yes, there were snakes, ticks (I pulled about four off), bugs and heat. \u00a0However, the offset was new miles, great company, good fishing, and a 20 mile hiking weekend. \u00a0If that isn’t success, then I don’t know what is.\"tn_P1070186\"<\/p>\n

Mtn. Laurel was in full bloom.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1070198\"\u00a0 Fish ON!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AJ and John Dempsey are friends of ours and we rarely miss an opportunity to commune with them in the wilderness. There were miles for me to capture in this area and high water or not, we did them. \u00a0Laurel … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}