GSMNP in winter

“The "Front Porch" is in Newport/Cosby and the "Back Porch" is in Townsend? Hmm, very interesting. Does that mean we're hiking in the living room?”

“lol@treebait..you know I thought the samething”

“Fried Chicken on/at the Back Porch on the way home after family camping for a 3 day weekend is a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

“About the sled on the Clingman's Dome Road --- Watch out for that Sudden Stop! *VBG*

Forget the crampons; I'm thinking 'parachute'.”

“dayhiker, why don't you and your family come on up and join me.

Expect another big snow before Christmas. nashville is getting ready to be under a WSW starting tomorrow night/Wed day”

“We're visiting both sets of grandparents the weekend of New Years. It'd be fun to camp up there though. My kids absolutely love CC.”

“ewker..your going up xmas?..me too..what area are you hitting?..”

“Opie, I am not going up till Monday 27th. I will be in Cades Cove if the roads are open”

“Gosh, if you're going during the week it should really be a light crowd. Heck, it could be crowded with so many off that week though. How long are you staying?

Be sure and take your own firewood. The stuff you buy locally is pretty expensive for the amount you get and you're SOL if you expect to find any laying around the campground.”

“right now I am planning on staying till Thursday. I have the back of my Jeep loaded with scrap wood from where I work. I still don't think it is enough. I know how much we go through on a hike...lol”

“You might want to look for folks selling out of a pickup back on the other side of Townsend. You might could find Bubba on the side of the road between Townsend and Maryville. The places in Townsend know they have you by the short hairs.

If Little River Road stays closed and you can't get to Newfound then you might consider hikes to Abrams Falls, the AT via Anthony Creek, and Gregory Bald. I believe it's Wed mornings that they close the loop to car traffic. That's be a nice 11 mile hike if you started at sunup. They open it to cars again at 10 AM, I believe. In the summer they rent bikes. I don't think they do that in the winter.”

“cades cove loop road is closed right now :( so that rules out Abrams falls”

“Dang, everything is closed. Abrams would be awesome now. I've seen some b&w pictures of Abrams during the winter. They were really nice. I'll see if I can find the link.”

“There are only 580 pics of the Smokies here.

http://diglib.lib.utk.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?q1=Great+Smoky+Mountains&rgn1=Subject%20Headings&type=boolean&view=thumbnail&c=rth;g=gsmc”

“dayhiker, thanks. I looked a some of them. It would be interesting to take those same pictures now just to compare and see how much things have changed. Great site”

“It's fun looking at those pics. There is one of a trail sign contained in hoarfrost/ice. Very impressive.”

“Opie - where you going to be this weekend? Azimuth and I will be hiking from the Road to Nowhere to Fontana Dam on the Lakeshore Trail starting this Friday and ending Sunday.”

“smoky..not too sure..i'm not all that familiar with the area...especially with all the closings..i was thinking of heading to cades cove, and find out what i could get too..then head to a campsite along one of the trails in the area. All the big trailhead sites close in the winter right?”

“Ouch,thas 43 miles in 3 days. give us a report on your return”

“Opie, all campgrounds are closed except Cades Cove and Smokemont”

“The Lakeshore isn't a difficult trail.
I did it in 3 days last March with my Scouts.
Long days though.”

“Yes, HP - it looks like it crosses over the lower elevation areas of the fingers... Will give report come Monday! Cool - that's good to know you did in 3 days too. Looking forward to it!

Opie... 40 East to Bryson City - Road to Nowhere is right outside of Bryson City. You hike through the tunnel to get to the trailheads. Nice Campsites in that area. Can hike up to the dome or Siler's Bald or to White Rocks. You hike in the Tremont area? closer to townsend and easy to get to during winter weather...”

“Bit, we know David DInwiddie. He met our troop on their way out last March. One family in our troop has known him for years. He's an incredible man and in our prayers.”

“You'll want to skip the thread about this on Whiteblaze then, it's unkind to him. I'm glad he was successfully rescued.”

“I won't repeat what HPM just said about people over at Whiteblaze.”

“Yep, one of those guys is really being an ass.”

“treebait, sorry to hear about y'alls friend. Glad he got found and hope he is ok.”

“It's easy to be caught in a bind if you injure yourself out there like a slipping on ice.. when you are not moving and generating your own body heat..”

“David has been part of the Parks SAR effort since, well since they had a SAR effort.

Think of any lost hiker scenarios you remember were they called in more than just park personell. David was there.

The dude knows his #&%!$ and has hiked that whole area on and off trail many times over in every season.

This will be the first time in 36 years that David will miss spending New Years Eve at Spence Field.

David is the kind of guy that goes the extra mile for you. Last March he offered to help shuttle the Troop Van for us. When we finished the hike. David was there cooking dinner for the 11 of us, brought out his home brewed rootbeer to share, stayed up most of the night telling the boys stories of his adventures in the woods and the next morning cooked fresh doughnuts for everyone. Completely unasked.

David is a good guy and deserves our support.

He'd do it for you.

Anyone who thinks otherwise I'd be more than happy to meet so I can personally spit in their face.
last edited: 12/22/04 5:02:23 PM”

“Guess I missed something. I found an article in "Go Smokies." Hope he will be OK.

I'm thinking that perhaps GSMNP should have a mandatory sign-in by dayhikers at each "roadside" trailhead.”

“I just heard from Mark, one of the guys he was hiking in to meet. Mark has been in contact with a lady we know who works at the park office. It sure is nice to know people who are in the know.

David got stuck on Saturday when the weather dumped 15 inches of snow on him. Realizing he couldn't go either direction he squatted down on one of the peaks between Gyot and Inadu Knob. He was located this morning by rangers.

He wasn't serious enough to medivac but the winds made that impossible anyway and he is stabilized with "pretty bad" frostbite to his hands and feet.

They got the stretcher to him about 1 hour ago.”

“* amazed, and speechless. *”

“Hmmm...I have conflicting info now.
One set says the above.
The other says he fell Tuesday and could not walk out and has frostbitten hands but doesn't mention his feet.

In any event they plan to evac him tonight.”

“Good luck to him!”

“the late local news reported that they brought him down the snake den mtn. trail today-some frostbite but he is in stable condition. a task force of 30 climbed to fetch him-there were not specifics as to how many were volunteers.
the early news(while he was still up on the mtn.) reported that the first responders(park service personnel)erected a tent to warm him mid-morning today. there was also considerable space given to interviews with family, including a sister who recounted hiking logs that were kept on david's hikes with his father in the gsmnp, dating back 20+ years.
we're under a flood watch now due to snowmelt-temps have ballooned to 59 which is the high for the day. i had snow laying all around through the day and now the driveway has turned to a quagmire. the high elevations have been belted over the past week with snow and ice, not to mention extreme temps and high winds.”

“GoSmokies.com (Registration required.)

"COSBY, Tenn. - Rangers carrying an injured hiker trapped on the Appalachian Trail for four days descended out of the mountains in darkness with him Wednesday night.

David Dinwiddie was bundled into an ambulance around 9 p.m. and taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

Advertisement

It was anticipated that it would take hours for more than 20 rescuers - staged in groups at different points along Snake Den Ridge Trail - to get Dinwiddie down to the Cosby Creek Campground, but they made it in a little more than three hours.

"He's doing pretty well," park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said of Dinwiddie, who was suffering from mild hypothermia and frostbite."

last edited: 12/23/04 4:52:07 AM”

“In spite of every preparation we make... and as good as we think we may be...

It could happen to any one of us.”

“Glad to hear he is out! Sounds like there is a lot of conflicting info.

This sort of thing can happen to anyone regardless of preparation. Sometimes nature does a number on ya.”

“I'm not sure where he was EXACTLY.. but I remember one part of that traverse -- where I can see that snow would HEAP in there, cos it is exposed, with no barriers to slow down the weather.”

“He was about a mile east of Snakeden Ridge Trail and Inadu knob on the AT.

Some of our guys are going up to see him today and I rounded up as many of the boys as I could last night find to sign a card for David.

TD with all the off trail wandering you've done lately you really need to meet this guy. He has literally hiked every drainage in the park.”

“HPM: Well let's hope maybe I will get to. Sounds like an excellent guy. Weird about WhiteBlaze, I didn't even go over and read to see what it had to say tho -- I've noticed a certain amount of dickheadedness a few times over there -- I don't go there anymore.”

“That location is not far from what appears to be an old helicopter landing pad.

"A Tennessee Army National Guard helicopter tried to reach the site Wednesday morning but that effort was called off when they ran into turbulent winds." GoSmokies.com

With a human life at risk, I would think that they could have used snowmobiles.”

““In spite of every preparation we make... and as good as we think we may be...

It could happen to any one of us.”

Just quoting TownDawg because I couldn't say it any better myself.”

“Whiteblaze has a few asses like all boards.”

“Well the helicopter pad (I think I have a picture of it somewhere) is the exposed traverse I was thinking about.

I can see where the snow would absolutely HEAP in there.”

“The helipad is at Deer lick creek gap and is very exposed. It's an awesome lunch spot in nice weather though.”

“oh yeah... ;)”

“Good source with no registration required. Thanks, humanpackmule.

One small techical error in the article. Maddron Bald Trail does not intersect with the AT. It's upper end terminates at a junction with the Snake Den Ridge Trail, which then reaches the AT in about 0.8 mile.
last edited: 12/23/04 10:12:20 AM”