Smokemont's Bradley Fork Trail to Cabin Flat
Google 3D Map of lower loop trail
Alltrails map to Cabin Flats
(Click to enlarge any photo in enlarged click-thru slideshow mode.)
A large group met at Poteet Park at 9 a.m., perhaps some 19 of us. The 2nd map above shows the route taken in our January 11 hike where we stopped at the fork in the trail, short of Cabin Flats, had lunch, then hiked back.
The Oconaluftee elk herd (Cervus canadensis) was out in full force as we drove by the visitor center around 9:30 am.
Along the trail we found sign of another regular in the park, coyote (Canis latrans).
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Yes, we have left the edge of the empire, no cell phone access throughout this hike. Group hiking involves a great deal of consultation.
After a bit, the nice park benches appear, seemingly 2 per mile? Is this heading toward a manicured greenway? I didn't take a photo of them. At first a pleasant idea, they began to seem out of place to me.
It's almost a bit of a shock in a cold gray-brown winter day in the woods, to see the giddy bright red of a partridge berry. They do make themselves known.
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Our usual winter-green chlorophyll friends were all along the trail.
fancy fern/intermediate wood fern
fancy fern/intermediate wood fern looking extra fancy
old man's beard lichen came loose from high above
pipsissewa (striped wintergreen)
Rhodobryum moss makes such a classy starburst pattern.
Frasier sedge's large size makes it appear to be leaping out of the bank.
cutleaf grape fern (Sceptridium dissectum)
a glorious blend of mosses climbing a rock
Many-forked Cladonia (Cladonia furcata) that was on that same rock
This was the spectacular and rare find of this hike, a gorgeous stand of ground pine/Christmas tree clubmoss.
A fresh yet sodden tree fall came into view. In almost the same breath that "what a mess" and "decay" entered my mind, the park did its magic. It says "Change your mindset. Decay is such a harsh word. We're busy here, setting the stage for the next generation, composting the soil for the next succession stage of the forest canopy." Then, in the next stride a nursery log shows the proof. I silently rejoice. Hiking is good for me.
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The water show was the dynamic contrast to the stationary green citizens of the trail.
Days of rain in the region had made for a thundering Bradley Fork stream for all 9 miles of our in/out hike.
With appropriate caution and good waders, a trout fisherman made his way upstream against the strong pressure of the heavy flow.
The gorgeous water brings to mind a statement and the contrast jars my tranquility of the moment. "A primary mission of the National Park Service is to preserve native plants and animals on lands it manages." With great fanfare, budget, advertisement and intense long-term management effort, the SMNP reintroduced a species long absent from the park, the elk. With all this fine water, why do the beaver (Castor canadensis) have no dams? The park should be rich with them. I see just shadows of their presence in infrequently spotted, beavered tree limbs. Beaver are nature's ecosystem engineers whose dams make life possible or enhanced for numerous other species. Over where we live in "American civilization", our need for "tidiness" that gets hundreds of thousands killed every year has a bitter edge. A similar mindset gets them killed along our Tuckaseegee River. Shouldn't the park be the one place we can witness them thriving? I can only speculate. Is there an ongoing quiet effort to keep the species out of the Park for reasons that would appear to be in conflict with their stated mission? Start a petition? I need some facts beyond my observations.
Video - click to play.
One of the special features of the Bradley Fork Trail is how much of it is immediately adjacent to the stream.
A multitude of side-streams, either quietly or with great splash, contribute their waters to Bradley Fork.
Video - click to play.
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And finally, this section will later include some further examples of the aural nature of a park that is rich in the sounds of creeklets, rivulets, drip pools and more. I have yet to find a way to upload simple audio files to this blog site.
See you next time.
Bob
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