None of our usual hiking companions were available, so Steve and I decided to go it alone today. We went to Abrams Falls Campground , and hiked an 8.6 mile loop consisting of Rabbit Creek, Hatcher Mountain, Little Bottoms and Cooper Road Trails. This is in a more isolated area of the park, and even though the trailhead is close to us as the crow flies, it is about a 40 mile drive.
I have to say, this was one tough hike! It starts out easy, along Abrams creek, with a nice footbridge for crossing. Then it climbs steadily uphill for a couple of miles. We did find some wonderful ripe blueberries/huckleberries to snack on and kept a wary eye out for bears. We took a break at the junction with Hatcher Mtn. Trail, then continued back down to Abrams Creek. This was the crossing we were warned about! The water turned out to only be about knee deep, but there was no bridge or rocks to aid in the crossing. I was so hot and sweaty at that point that I would have swam across. That cold water felt good and we sat with our feet in it for a while.
We continued up Little Bottom Trail, which had many ups and downs. It was a hot day, and part of this area was affected by the tornado that went through 2 summers, so the trees(and shade!) were gone. I was getting very hot and tired , and then I heard Steve say, "Vicky , stop!". Up in the trail ahead of us was a bear, and he had gotten into a wild honeycomb! The bear scampered off before I saw him, but there were bees everywhere! We had to go off trail to get around, and I made sure I knew where my epipen was! Shortly after, we reached Cooper Road Trail which was shady and relatively level and that led us back to the car.
That morning I put a cooler with some cold drinks and snacks in the car, so that was waiting for us when we got back. Those Cokes sure tasted good!
1 comment:
Glad you saw the bees before they saw you.
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