We hiked this section on July 14, 2013.
We started our hike at Newfound Gap at 8:50 AM. We were joined today by our good friend SIMS who we met at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s 2011 Biennial.
Newfound Gap
The sky was overcast but it was not raining at this point.
The trail was actually in really good shape despite all the recent rain.
In about a mile we reached Mingus Ridge which has two hog containment bridges. The first bridge was quite steep and we had to be careful because it was wet.
The trail comes out at a parking lot at Indian Gap. Indian Gap is a parking lot for the Road Prong Trail.
We stopped for lunch at the sign for the Mt. Collins Shelter. We all agreed to bypass the shelter since it was 1/2 mile off the trail.
During lunch, we all put on our rain gear because it started to rain and we were all getting cold. However, once we started to climb again we got warm but did not want to take off our rain gear.
We learned about Frogg Toggs from ATC HQ volunteer Hardy. We both tried out our Frogg Toggs rain ponchos for the first time on this hike. Since we are both small, the ponchos looked like tents on us.
There were several sections that were very rooty and steep and we took our time so that we would not slip. We were surprised at how much work had been done by the trail maintainers – there were numerous water dams, bog logs, and tree stumps lodged into the ground.
The rain really started to fall as we got closer to Clingmans Dome. Once we saw the tower, we decided not to climb it today because there was absolutely no views.
Yeah, we maintainers do a fine job in the GSMNP! If you were to hike all the way to Cosby Knob Shelter, you would step over the water bar that gave me my name! I loved working with the SWEAT Crew and am so very proud that the water bar I did in 2007 is still there and working very well!
Thank you for all your hard work Stripper!
“hog containment bridges”…chuckle 🙂 …are the wild hogs just running rampant through the woods?
Beautiful photos! The rain can make the hiking slow but it sure makes the woods have a special magical feeling. And I bet it smelled really fresh, green and nice!
The bridges to were keep the hogs out of the Beech Forest Exclosure. We never saw any hogs during our hikes.