Fall Colors in the Smoky Mountains

Bright red maple leaves color the morning light

I’ve always wanted to see the colors change in the Smoky Mountains. It’s a spectacular and unique display. Great bursts of warm color spring forth from the mountains and cascade down the slopes like a long, tantilizing sunset. It’s a sensuous mix of yellows, orange and reds that develop together over several weeks, starting in mid-Sept at the highest elevations (~6,000 feet) and  moving down the mountain slopes until they “peak” in ~3rd week of October and then fade. The whole thing is a color theatre in motion, and what a play it is!

A theatre of color near Erwin, TN

The most interesting thing is that the leaves hide these colors all year. The strong, warm orange and yellow colors are cartenoids which are usually hidden most of the year by green chlorophyll. As the days shorten and colder nights set-in, the green pigments deteriorate and allow the other colors to shine. The darker reds and purples come from anthocyanins produced when sugar breakdown changes with the season.

The reason it’s so spectacular particularly in the Appalachians is because they harbor over 100 different native species of trees, many of which are deciduous. So, trees such as the Birch, Dogwood, Poplar and Sourwood change first followed by Beech, Hickory, Oak and the Sweet Gum several weeks later.

A burst of flame in the canopy

It’s a chemical and biological colorscope which provides a feast for the eyes. So famous and so short is this display that it’s wildly popular with tourists and monitored by video cams, avid nauralists and even a Forest Service color “hotline”.

Of course we don’t need any of those things. Lucky as we are to be here, we can walk the changes as nature graces to give them to us. And that’s a gift we’ll take anyday.

A Stroll on The Appalachian

Part of the trail at Roan Mountain

It was a long and windy trail…a reaaaallly long and windy trail. In fact, for those with the gumption to do it, the Appalachian Trail is an impressive 2,179 miles (3,507 km) long and follows the rim of the Appalachian mountains from Georgia to Maine. More than just a day-stroll, it usually takes an average of 6 months to through-hike. It’s one of the “great three” walks in the US, the other two being the Pacific Crest Trail (spanning 2,650 miles (4,260 km) from Mexico to Canada over the Western Sierra Nevada Mountains), and the Continental Divide Trail (covering  3,100 miles (5,000 km) along the Rockies). The people who do all three call it the “Triple Crown” and can claim my life-long worship of their hardiness.

Relaxing at Bald Mound on the Appalachian in TN

It always been one of my dreams to hike one of these greats. In fact, for many years I researched the Pacific Crest Trail with the idea that I would take off work for a year to go do it. Then I met Paul, we got the cats, took off to Asia and fate pulled me on a different path. I love my life, but the trails are still on my mind so getting the chance to hike them, even for just a moment, is a very exciting experience indeed. In the Smokies the Appalachian is easily accessible and we got a taste of it’s greatness on Roan Mountain in TN.

Mountain valley curves

So there we went…A sunny fall afternoon, the chill of the mountains bursting in our lungs and the wild wind of the ridges rushing to meet its destiny on the horizon. We hiked to the first bald at ~6,200 feet and sat in awe of the view. Amidst the rolling hills, the deep blue of the Smokies and a whole lotta nature, I can totally see how people get addicted to it.

Maybe one day I’ll come back and do the whole thing.

Desolate nature at its most beautiful

Geeks in the Forest = Pondering the Equations of Life

Happiness can be so simple

 The outside temperature has dropped to the 40′s (4°C), it’s drizzling a bone-chilling cold and we’re deep, deep into the TN forest. It’s moments like this that make you wonder what happens when 2 geeks in their expedition-weight Patagonia underwear spend several days holed-up in a large tin-can in the wilderness. Well, there’s many ways of keeping warm, of course…copious quantities of hot chocolate and mulled wine, woolen hats and good ‘ol-fashioned ehrmmm physical activity. But no matter how much we pretend to be normal the geekiness, after a certain number of hours, naturally comes forth. It’s the Natural Law of Techies-In-The-Wild and leads to a lot of interesting conversation about life, the universe and everything inside it. So, for today’s post I thought I’d share a few of our newly-arrived-at conclusions.

Where T = temperature (in celsius), and K is an environmental factor related to proximity of cold-running mountain streams and number of squirrels in the area. As you can imagine K, in general, gets larger the more “out there” and “up there” we go. So in a hot, city climate doggie energy (DE) goes to zero, whereas in a chilly remote mountain area, with a nice selection of small fast-twitch critters our dog will go “banana’s” with energy, mathematically speaking.

Where T = temp (in celsius)
Cat stickiness  (CS) is a technical term, of course, denoting how close to your body kitty “sticks” throughout the day. On the coldest days (lowest T), the cat is like super-glue and will elongate several miraculous cat-body-lengths over your body in order to attain the highest surface area of attachment. As you can see from the equation, at T>40°C (104°F), cat stickiness goes negative (i.e cat disappears) whereas at T=0 (freezing) cat stickiness is essentially infinite. Our experience has proved out both these facts.

Where D1 = distance to your neighbour, D2 = distance into the wilderness, CS = cat stickiness, DE = doggie energy and W1,W2 are weighting factors. So, basically the more we get out there, the happier we are, and the fact that CS and DE are in the equation just goes to show we like to have our fur babies around us. The weighting factors niftily allow you to adjust the equation to your own preferences.

This really says it all. Life is the sum of everything that happens to you, or rather, with a little mathematical generalization and a few simplification steps, life (and so by extension life happiness) is the sum of your experiences.

It’s amazing in retrospect to think that Einstein and Newton failed to derive these simple life laws, but it just goes to show what 2 geeks with a lot of time of their hands can come up with. So, go out there, get a sticky cat, take advantage of that crazy doggie energy and experience life to its fullest. After all, we’ve proved it makes you happy.

Q.E.D. (Quad Erat Demonstrandum)

The Deep Blue Draw of the Smoky Mountains

Late afternoon in the "land of blue smoke"

 I’ve waited a long time to see the Smokies. Somehow these majestic old hills have always held a magical lure for me and I’ve imagined standing in their blue shadow for years. It’s now the beginning of fall. The air chills with moisture, a thick fog invites the morning and the trees burst with the very first tinges of red and orange. Over the next few weeks the area will transform into a fiery display of fall….or so I’m hoping. We’re finally here, and I’m giving myself to the mystery of it all. 

Rock Creek Stream in Cherokee National Forest

A lot of the draw of this place has to do with its history. The Smokies are a very old mountain chain. Around 500 million years ago they were likely some of the highest mountains on earth, the ridges formed and re-formed several times from the violent clashes of continents in the early days of the earth. They’ve since eroded and aged to thick curvaceous mountains that reach up to ~6,600 feet (~2,000m) in height. The Cherokee Indians settled here in ~1000 A.D. and called them shaconage, (shah-con-ah-jey) or “land of blue smoke” for the blue mist & hues that always seems to hover around the peaks and valleys. These mountains and their larger range, the Appalachians, stood as a mighty barrier to the West and played a considerable part in the wars, migration and tears  of the 1700-1800′s that shaped the US.  Throughout it all the wise old peaks endured and the original Cherokee name transformed and held to the Smoky Mountains as we call them today.  

We’ll be exploring this area for 3 weeks and can’t wait to peel back the layers of history and natural beauty hidden in these hills. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

The very first tinges of red

Paul poses at Beauty Point near Erwin, TN

Cones on the forest floor

Hiking deep in Unaka Mountain

Shrooming It in TN – A Story of Hidden Beauty

“There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.”
John Constable

"False" chanterelles...pretty but not for eating

Shrooms can bring to mind a wide variety of thoughts from exclusive tastings of  musky and odorous tuber melanosporum (French truffle) to psychedelic experiences of the fungal kind . As a politician might say, while I may or may not have participated in the latter activities in my youth, this story is more about finding the hidden beauty in small things. 

As a photographer I always love the changing form of light and how it can alter a landscape.  On bright days I seek the big views, on heavy evenings the sunset and on misty mornings I look to the small things. It often amazes me how the mere dimming of light can bring an almost luminous glow to everything underfoot. And so it was, one thick morning with the moisture of dawn baking off from a TN stream I suddenly found myself surrounded by mushrooms. The perfect combo of a week of rain followed by sun had coaxed these elusive fungi from the earth and created a bloom of beauty right at our footsteps. 

Just the right light for a luminous glow

It’s enough to make your average mushroom hunter wild with excitement, and quite an event it is. Mushrooms are actually the fruit of hidden fungal organisms and it takes just the right conditions to get them blooming. Amateur mycologists avidly seek the most elusive and tasty varieties keeping their locations a closely guarded secret. It’s a historic and noble pursuit, needing an experienced eye to distinguish the poisonous ones from the others. As a child I used to hunt in the Danish forest for shrooms and always had a good nose for the sport. I’m no longer an expert, but I still enjoy the wild and fanciful curves and colors of the many types. As they say, it’s very groovy, baby and I don’t need no psychotropics to see the beauty in that view. 

Possibly a tasty treat...possibly not

Layers and light

Blooms on decaying bark