12 Days With The Newts and Rattlesnakes

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
May 25-26-27-28-29-30-31 June 1-2-3-4-5 2009

DAY ONE
Little Mitten drives me up the Cherohala Skyway and drops me off at Grassy Gap and the Grassy Branch trailhead into the Citico wilderness. I won't see her again for 12 days.

I'm all packed up and ready to go, with Shunka dog fully outfitted with his food.

THE TRIP OF THE SIX NEWTS: On the trail down Grassy Branch I see many red eft salamanders and so I record each one. Here's the first.

The second newt.

The third newt.

NEW TRAIL POST: I reach and cross the South Fork Citico Creek 4 times and eventually reach this brand new trailpost put in by Ken Jones and his boys to show the South Fork intersection with the Brush Mt trail #87. More on this trailpost later in the trip. (Notice the big soon-to-be-eaten Tomato Head restaurant burrito atop the post--good eating!)

The fourth newt: I find this fellow somewhere around the North Fork Citico footbridge.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
May 25--June 5 2009

DAY ONE continued
My first campsite of the trip is by the second crossing on the North Fork Citico at one of my favorite spots. It's level and very close to the creek.

DAY TWO
The 5th newt of the trip and I see him after I pack up camp and start up the North Fork Citico trail.

As I work my way up the wild North Fork, I see this fine shelf mushroom begging me to take its picture.

I hump up most of the North Fork and at the Cold Spring Gap trail intersection(149), I turn right and follow it for a couple of miles until I reach my second night's camp at a nice little level spot on the trail.

DAY THREE
Here I am beginning my third day by leaving trail 149 and using the new BMT connector trail to get to Snow Camp on the Fodderstack and then climbing up to Bob Bald.

Here's a picture of the trail on the BMT connector between Cold Spring Gap trail and the Fodderstack at Snow Camp.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
May 25--June 5 2009

DAY FOUR
On Day 4 I leave the Bob and return to Camp 149 where I'll wait for the eventual arrival of Ken Jones and his trail maintenance boys.

Uncle Fungus pointing out something remarkable in the trees.

DAY FIVE
On the morning of my 5th day I sit in camp to wait for Ken Jones and his boys to breeze thru from Beech Gap and they do, with trail tools and hard hats as they make their way to the Brush Mt trail.

THE BRUSH MOUNTAIN TRAIL: I pack up camp and follow the boys down the trail and stop to take this fotog of my pack. The Brush Mt trail is a wild and rarely walked trail that cuts thru the heart of the Citico wilderness and for a time it was discontinued by the forest service. After 10 years of no maintenance Ken Jones convinced the forest service to reopen it and thus began a long effort to cut blowdowns and clear brush. For more info on this trail, read my soon-to-be-posted Trail Journals report for Trip 96.

I reach Ken Jones and Rick Harris and the boys takikng a break on the Brush Mt trail. We sit for lunch and have a long interesting talk about the area trails.

THE MODEL A ENGINE BLOCK ON THE BRUSH MT TRAIL: I left the boys and thus began the end of the trail maintenance and the beginning of my hell hump down the rest of the Brush Mt trail. Luckily I brought some yellow surveyor ribbon to mark my way just in case I had to turn around. The trail became the Nutbuster of the Citico and along the way I thought I saw the full face of Satan with a few of his daughters laughing and tripping me up. By the time I got to this old engine block I knew the worst was over and I was about to reach the end of the trail where it meets and crosses the South Fork Citico.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
May 25--June 5 2009

DAY FIVE continued
The South Fork crossing: Here I changed into Crocs and what did I see in the creek? The same nice trailpost I saw 4 days earlier pulled out by miscreant local vandals and tossed in the creek. I went up the South Fork and passed a camp of backpackers who I figured to be the ones responsible for the act itself.

After crossing the South Fork two times, I reach my camp for the night, a place I call Eagle Camp.

DAY SIX
RATTLESNAKE! I leave Eagle Camp and start up the long and hot South Fork trail and about a half mile past camp I nearly step on this timber rattler. We talk for a while and then I continue up the trail but with my beady eyes ready and open. Keep your eyes open and your butt cheeks clenched.

Uncle Fungus at the top of the South Fork trail. I just climbed 2000 feet and have another thousand to go before reaching the open meadow at Bob Bald.

DAY SEVEN
The Staika tent in the wind on the Bob. A windstorm came thru and kicked a few butts as the following fotogs show.

Another tent on the Bob blown down in the wind.

Same tent caught in a typical Bob windstorm.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
May 25--June 5 2009

DAY SEVEN continued
A father/daughter team from Knoxville set up below me on the Bob in a Kelty Zen tent and had better luck with the wind.

Over in the trees I find 4 backpackers camped with 3 tents and a hammock so I take a picture of this wet and slack looking TarpTent.

DEEP CREEK TRAIL: I leave the Bob and hump 3 miles to the Hangover where I fall off the mountain on the steep Deep Creek trail and hit the bottom by the wooden footbridge where I set up a fine camp in a remote part of the Slickrock wilderness.

DAY EIGHT
I leave camp and follow the Deep Creek trail as it winds thru rocks and little creeks and over 7 ridge leads with their corresponding hollers, to finally arrive at the trailpost and junction with the Haoe Ridge trail where I stop to take a self portrait.

A garter snake on the hot and dry and rocky Haoe Ridge trail.

A toad buddy at the Haoe and Jenkins Meadow junction. I spot this fellow as I take a break after a long hot climb.

I leave the toad and reach the long level ridge on Haoe trail called Jenkins Meadow and set up a great camp which used to be called the Graveyard Camp for all the blowdowns but now I call it Toad Camp.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
May 25--June 5 2009

DAY NINE
I leave Haoe Ridge and turn left on Haoe Peak and reach Naked Ground gap for a picture by the trailpost.

Here's my campsite for Day 9 on the Fodderstack/BMT at Glenn Gap where there's water. The bugs are bad and then a lightning storm hits.

DAY TEN
I leave Glenn and get to Snow Camp for a reststop where I take this fotog of my Mystery Ranch pack.

Like an idiot I return to Satan's Kingdom on the Brush Mountain trail and decide to camp at a gap I noticed on Day 5. The bugs were horrible so I call it Bug Camp.

DAY ELEVEN
I leave Brush Mt and parts of the trail are fantastic and then climb a couple thousand feet to get back on the Bob for my final night. Here's my tent at the South Col Camps.

[Tipi Walter]

THE LAST DAY

DAY TWELVE
A wet night on the Bob and I get up to square camp away and begin to think about packing it in.

Two scientists studying rattlesnake root plant on the foggy Bob. We talk and the girl is working on her doctorate.

Uncle Fungus leaves the high ground in the rain and with a much lighter pack than on Day 1.

The 6th newt of the trip and I stop to fotog the event. He's bidding me a pleasant goodbye and asks me to return to the wilderness soon.

[mister krabs]

Thanks Tipi for a great trip report as always. :)

[MOWGLI]

THE LAST DAY

DAY TWELVE
A wet night on the Bob and I get up to square camp away and begin to think about packing it in.

Two scientists studying rattlesnake root plant on the foggy Bob. We talk and the girl is working on her doctorate.

Uncle Fungus leaves the high ground in the rain and with a much lighter pack than on Day 1.

The 6th newt of the trip and I stop to fotog the event. He's bidding me a pleasant goodbye and asks me to return to the wilderness soon.

That 6th Newt ain't a Newt at all. Looks like a Northern Red salamander.

[FamilyGuy]

That is the saddest looking Contrail I have ever seen. What kept the guy / gal from setting it up correctly?

Nice looking Hille.

[humunuku]

(Notice the big soon-to-be-eaten Tomato Head restaurant burrito atop the post--good eating!)



You've been hanging out in (knox or mary)ville i see