Spring Break Recap - Post 3 of 4

Picking up where I left off, we packed up Wednesday morning and hiked almost completely downhill from Cosby Knob to Campsite 37, about 3.3 miles from where we started that morning.  Because the thru hikers had gotten up so early to head to their next via point, we too were up and back on the trail early without having a campsite to break down.  It was barely 11 am  by the time we reached #37, and here, we came across a misfit group of campers.   When we first walked up, these guys were trying to build a fire, and they had a pretty pitiful result.  The group of three had hiked all afternoon and evening after a late start and didn't make it to camp until after 8 pm the previous evening.  They were cold and wet from the snow and their gear, a huge axe and a pair of sad-looking tents, didn't seem to accommodate the weather.  It wasn't until we were about to leave them that I noticed one had on a pair of IU shorts - of course - fellow Hoosiers!

Since it was so early when we arrived, we ate our lunch, and debated about what to do the rest of the trip.  Originally, we had reservations for Campsite 37 on Wednesday night.  We were to do the short hike there, explore the watershed area for the day, rest up, and then the following day head up Mount Sterling.  Mount Sterling is one of the Park's highest points, but the night before, we had already decided to cut Mt. Sterling out our route after talking with a Ridgerunner about the snow conditions at high elevation.  (A Ridgerunner is an employee of the Appalachian Trail who literally runs the ridges, hiking fast and light to clear the trails and clean up shelters and campsites in order to keep the trail  in good condition despite to the heavy use it receives.)   We considered our options to either stay the night at #37 and hike out the next morning or go ahead and finish the hike to the car and make other arrangements. There was an alternate route out on the Big Creek Trail to where we had parked, only another 5.2 miles.  In the end, we decided to head out that afternoon, and it was a mellow walk in the woods back to where we had started only the day before.  We also saw our first wildlife of the trip, a wild turkey. 

This map shows the northeast area of the park where we completed the majority of our hike.  We started at Big Creek and took Chesnut Branch Trail to the AT and stopped at Cosby Knob.  Went back down to Low Gap to #37 and then out Big Creek.  The Swallow Fork trail over to Mt Sterling Ridge is the part we nixed due to weather.