Spring in the Smokies

[krummholz]

I had a very enjoyable outing last weekend, following an old unmaintained manway in the Smokies. Spring is springing there! Here is a photo taken from near the bottom of the manway:



You can read more about the hike here:

http://streamsandforests.wordpress.c...nt-arm-manway/

[mtruman]

Great story Jenny! Spring is definitely in full swing down there. Starting to find it's way up here too. Great pics too. Particularly loved the "bear bag panorama"

[CHRIS]

Great report and pics. All the bear bags remind me of Bear pinyadas . Thanks for sharing.

[krummholz]

Thanks for your comments!

My favorite place for bear watching is the Cades Cove picnic area around dusk. You can practically see the bears tie their dinner napkins around their necks.

[mahony]

Looks nice down low, but I had to abandon my trip up Clingmans two weeks ago due to too much snow!!! The AT hikers were not pleased with waist deep snow and I had 2 little ones who did not want to be postholing up hill for 7 miles.

Hopefully that snow will melt and I can get there for another try.

[krummholz]

Yeah, ten days ago I encountered some compacted, icy snow on the Boulevard trail on LeConte, at around 6000 feet. But on the southwest side of LeConte at the same elevation, there was no snow. On the Bent Arm hike we reached 4800 feet and saw no snow whatsoever. Hit or miss, I guess.