| Shining
Rock Wilderness |
James
Smith |
| Jun
20, 2005 05:35 PDT |
I went to Shining Rock Wilderness in western NC with two other
hikers.
This was my first hike in over three months since I seriously
injured my
left foot. I wanted to test it out before I make a hike into Big
Ivy
later this month.
We got utterly lost--not in the way that we were afraid we
couldn't make
it back to a trailhead, but lost in the sense that we ended up
wandering
offtrail in the warren of false trails in the Wilderness and
ended up
following the wrong creek (West Pigeon rather than Shining Rock
Creek).
Finally, after bushwhacking for four hours we turned back.
At any rate, I checked for the Hemlock adelgid and the trees in
there
are infested to varying degrees. Some seriously, and others very
lightly. A few hemlocks seemed to have hardly any at all--rarely
none
that I could find--while others were covered.
Since we got lost, I didn't get to any of the places I had
targeted, but
my foot didn't give me much trouble. My thighs and calves,
however,
after three+ months of no walking, were screaming the next
morning.
Going up around Standing Indian and Southern Nantahala
Wilderness this
week to get my legs back into shape and walk off the weight I
gained
while being so sedentary.
Any good stands of trees around the Standing Indian area? |
|