{"id":970,"date":"2018-01-21T00:03:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T00:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/?p=970"},"modified":"2018-01-21T12:25:53","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T12:25:53","slug":"groundhog-ridge-manway-to-mt-cammerer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/2018\/01\/21\/groundhog-ridge-manway-to-mt-cammerer\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundhog Ridge Manway to Mt. Cammerer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tn_P1080325\"<\/p>\n

When JD called and asked if I wanted to hike, it didn’t take much arm twisting.\u00a0 When I asked if he was up for an adventure, he didn’t bat an eye.\u00a0 His response? “I have always wanted to\u00a0do that offtrail”.\u00a0 And with that our plan was solidified on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

By Saturday morning, we had two more conscripts on board and one of them was familiar to me. You will appreciate this story.\u00a0 JD said we were meeting “Dave” at the trailhead.\u00a0 Imagine my surprise when “Dave” steps out of his vehicle and I am face to face with a guy I had a hand in hiring to replace a vacant position at the school where I do counseling work less than a week ago.\u00a0 He and I had already put in two days at the Academy this week.\u00a0 Dave has been hiking with JD and Bill for several years. When we were interviewing Dave, I asked him what he did in his free time as an outlet.\u00a0 He proclaimed, without hesitation, “hiking”.\u00a0 And without hesitation, I uttered, “Your’e hired”.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080313\"<\/p>\n

I found this old pot as we plodded into the Smokies. It was barely protruding from the snow.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080319\"<\/p>\n

JD has completed four complete laps in the Smokies.\u00a0 Both Dave and Bill have also finished maps.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080323\"<\/p>\n

We got turned around twice. The slick snow was just another small hazard. Climbing the manway is a challenge in good weather, as you may recall.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080320\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080329\"<\/p>\n

There is quite a bit of rhodo pulling. With the snow, it was often one step forward and one step back.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080331\"<\/p>\n

That’s Dave.\u00a0 Our newest science teacher, probably wondering why he followed me on an offtrail.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080332\"<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot_2018-01-21-07-13-36\"<\/p>\n

This is really what the untracked trail looks like.\u00a0 Steep.\u00a0 How steep?\u00a0 Well,<\/p>\n

\"profile<\/p>\n

Strava captured our stats.\u00a0 It took us two hours and 45 minutes to top out and reach the tower.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080333\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_Screenshot_2018-01-21-07-10-49\"\"tn_Screenshot_2018-01-21-07-13-36\"<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080335\"<\/p>\n

I soaked every piece of clothing. When I took off my layers, steam came off my body like an iron plugged into a 220 volt outlet. I had apparently cut my nose while Rhodo surfing.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080339\"<\/p>\n

We decided to descend via the regular trail which gave us 8.5 miles for the day. As we were leaving the tower, I run into a\u00a0 friend of mine, Stephanie, who had also taken advantage of the government shutdown long enough to make a run up the AT to the lookout.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080342\"<\/p>\n

As we descended, the weather improved and a warm front raised the temps so much a fair amount of snow had disappeared from the bottom of our trek.<\/p>\n

\"tn_P1080350\"<\/p>\n

But the scenery was fantastic.\u00a0 As well as the company.\u00a0 It was a wonderful mid winter outing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When JD called and asked if I wanted to hike, it didn’t take much arm twisting.\u00a0 When I asked if he was up for an adventure, he didn’t bat an eye.\u00a0 His response? “I have always wanted to\u00a0do that offtrail”.\u00a0 … 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\/970"}],"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=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}