Beauty Spot & Unaka Mountain

Now that I am finally here in the mountains of northeast Tennessee, I’ve been dying to get out on the trail. Not just a trail, the trail, the Appalachian Trail. So today I drove up to Beauty Spot and hiked the AT up to the summit of Unaka Mountain and back.

The last time I was here was on my thru-hike back in 2009. I was 13 years younger then, about 25 pounds lighter, and I had hiked 350 miles from Springer Mountain to get here. All that is my long-winded way to say, holy hell, these hills are getting steeper! To top it off, last week I kicked a piece of furniture in my bare feet and smashed one of my toes really well. In fact, I’m pretty sure I broke it. This is the first time since that I’ve walked more than a mile or so, and tonight it’s really throbbing, but I don’t care, it was worth it.

It was lovely being out on the trail. To my surprise, I saw very few other people. I met one woman coming down Unaka Mtn while I was going up, and not another soul until the last mile of so hiking back to Beauty Spot, when I passed a pretty steady stream of day hikers and weekend backpackers, all heading the other way.

The view from Beauty Spot
That’s Unaka Mountain in the background, where I’m headed
Rhododendron Tunnel
The top of Unaka Mountain is a dark, heavily shaded place
The last bit of snow

Skinny Fish

Yesterday was the last day of my “weekend” and while I had a lot of chores to get done, I did take enough time to hike up to Skinny Fish Lake. Why? Because I really like the name Skinny Fish!

Speaking of Skinny Fish or Skinnyfish, check out Skinnyfish Sound System:

But please also check out my hike up to Skinny Fish Lake:

Boulder Lake

I got up early this morning so I could hike up to Boulder Lake and back before it got too hot. The trailhead is at Himes Peak Campground, about 8 or so miles from here. From there I hiked up the Big Fish Trail about a mile and a quarter to the turn off for Boulder Lake.

The Boulder Lake trail climbs the ridge to the west. Thankfully this is the West where trails have switchbacks, unlike Eastern trails that tend to go straight up the fall line.

I did shoot some video of today’s hike. All I have to shoot with is my cell phone, so don’t expect too much. Hiking uphill over uneven terrain shooting with a cell phone doesn’t make for rock steady video.

Speedgoat Karl

The beginning of the Approach Trail to Springer Mountain. March 16, 2009.

The summit of Mount Katahdin. Sept 25, 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night I was browsing NetFlix (love my satellite internet!) and came across Karl Meltzer: Made to be Broken; a documentary about Karl’s 2016 run that broke the then record fastest time to complete the Appalachian Trail. I enjoyed this on so many levels.

First was just seeing spots along the AT and recognizing them from my own thru-hike. It’s amazing how many places I recognized, and even thought to myself “I know exactly where they’re standing to get that shot.” Continue reading “Speedgoat Karl”