11 Days On Slickrock Creek

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CHEROKEE/NANTAHALA FOREST
June 27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 2009

DAY ONE
A big pack for a long trip gets me to Cold Spring Gap from Beech Gap in the Citico Wilderness of east Tennessee. The pack is enormous due to a lot of food and 3 heavy books along with 32 oz of white gas, etc.

DAY TWO
The next morning I leave Bob Bald and get to the gap at Naked Ground where I meet Eric and Bo, two friendly backpackers from Knoxville. They have an iPod with speakers and so we sit and listen to a few Bob Dylan tunes.

My night's camp above Naked Ground at a place I call Watauga Camp, a great 5000 foot campsite.

DAY THREE
I leave the long high ridge and drop off the mountain on the Hangover Lead South trail and in open heath I'm greeted by this view of the Fodderstack ridge and the BMT as it traverses Glenn Gap(dip on left), Rockstack Mt(middle peak), and Big Fodderstack Mt(high peak on right).

I makie it down to Slickrock Creek and Wildcat Falls where I go for a swim and meet some dayhikers.

A good view of the falls.

My camp at Wildcat Falls.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CHEROKEE/NANTAHALA FOREST
June 27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 2009

DAY FOUR
I leave Wildcat and start my journey down Slickrock Creek and the many crossings thereof. Here's a fotog of Butterfly Rock and my usual place to rest and swim.

The elusive Hippie leaves its sign here and there in the woods. To avoid any encounters with the wild Hippie, care must be taken in camp by keeping all food hidden and never burning incense, which seems to draw them into camp.

Here's a great place to take off the pack and rest: Buffalo Rock by the Nichols Cove trail junction.

Uncle Fungus back on the B Mac! I reach the Stiffknee/BMT junction and pull out my guns.

BMT camp on Slickrock Creek. This is a fine level campsite by water and on the Benton MacKaye Trail.

DAY FIVE
The next day I pack up camp and continue my journey down the mighty Slickrock and here is a picture of Tranquility Pools, a calm and clear section of creek.

A view of the best swimhole on the Slickrock: Lower Falls!

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CHEROKEE/NANTAHALA FOREST
June 27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 2009

DAY FIVE continued
The lowest camp on Slickrock Creek before reaching Calderwood Lake.

DAY SIX
What a nearly packed up camp looks like.

I leave the Slickrock on a great narrow trail and pass over four little wooden footbridges and reach the Lake.

Slickrock Creek trail curves around the lake and rejoins the BMT and goes up a little creek hollow to this blowdown filled campsite I call Wild Bird Camp.

DAY SEVEN
I leave Wild Bird on the BMT and quickly reach a little sidetrail on the left and the beginning of a terribly steep trail called the Hangover Lead North. Someone wrote on the sign these words: "DO NOT TRY" and "TERROR! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!"

My best French Foreign Legion look.

I'm back in the Slickrock! and going upstream.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CHEROKEE/NANTAHALA FOREST
June 27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 2009

DAY SEVEN continued
And another night at Wildcat Falls.

DAY EIGHT
More Hippie sign.

Yet more Hippie sign, this time on the Nutbuster Trail going up to the high ground.

Naked Ground campsite. I pulled my 23rd climb of the upper Slickrock trail called the Nutbuster.

DAY NINE
The next day I hoof it up to the Bob and endure an all night thunder storm with mean lightning zaps.

I run into 4 backpackers from Macon, Georgia and fotog their tents. Here's a TarpTent.

Here's another floorless TarpTent, now discontinued.

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKIKNG THE CHEROKEE/NANTAHALA FOREST

DAY TEN
My pack sure looks smaller at the end of the trip.

Final night's camp on the BMT/Fodderstack by Cherry Log Gap, a place I call Snow Camp.

DAY ELEVEN
Saying goodbye to the woods.

[Nicksaari]

i enjoy reading your reports so very much, Tipi!
i think that its very funny you call those cairns "hippy signage" -im very glad that i stopped replicating the act.

your report makes me stoked to get lost in the wilds for a week or so- solo.

what books did you bring with you?

[Tipi Walter]

i enjoy reading your reports so very much, Tipi!
i think that its very funny you call those cairns "hippy signage" -im very glad that i stopped replicating the act.

your report makes me stoked to get lost in the wilds for a week or so- solo.

what books did you bring with you?

Sorry for the dee-lay as I just got back from a long 14 backpacking trip yesterday and so here I am training for my next couch potato challenge. Here's the books I brought:

BLOOD AND THUNDER: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West, by Hampton Sides

MY MEN ARE MY HEROES: The Brad Kasal Story(The Marine Story of the Battle for Fallujah), by Sgt. Major Brad Kasal and Nat Helms.

TO DARE AND CONQUER: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, from Achilles to Al Qaeda, by Derek Leebaert.

All purchased at cut-rate prices and of course burned thru the course of the trip. Together they must've weighed in at 6 or 7 pounds.