[at-l] Trip Report, short---

[lwbooher@halifax.com (Leslie Booher)]

Yes, I did take a trip, just not a hiking trip.  When we were on vacation
right after Thanksgiving, I unexpectedly found myself in Knoxville with two
gorgeous days in which I did not want to sit in our son's apartment watching
movies.  I spent one of them doing the Cades Cove/Sugarlands run.  That's a
gift I always give myself when I'm in Knoxville.  I go to the Smokies via
Townsend, a lovely little town, then return through Gatlinburg and Pigeon
Forge just to remind myself why I prefer the woods.

This time, I asked a volunteer how I could get to see the new elk herd.  I
had thought that they are down near Bryson City, and the road through
Newfound Gap is closed on the TN side.  He showed me on a map that the elk
are not far from the interstate on the NC side of the park.  Exit 20.
Cataloochee Valley.

It was 89 miles from our son's exit to NC exit 20, then another 10 miles
over a mostly dirt, sometimes one lane, road up and over and down a mountain
using hairpin turns.  It was great driving, really fun.  Once over the
mountain, there are houses and churches much like Cades Cove.  It's good to
note, because of the amount of traffic down in there, that the restrooms at
the campground are open year round.  There are also portajohns on either
side of the church.  The elk are at the very end of the road in the valley.

All along the edge of the field, there are signs that say, "Warning: elk
activity area.  Do not approach the animals."  I got there about 12:30, with
lunch, book, binoculars and camera.  About 1:45, the first elk slipped
haltingly from the woods into the open.  Some idiot couple from FL (by their
license plates) went stalking right up to the elk with their cameras; when
she turned and went back into the woods, they followed!  A couple who came
in later had met them at a convenience store somewhere; they said that they
hadn't seen the signs, they just wanted a good picture.  The lady I was
talking to had said to them, "Well, didn't you just KNOW not to approach
them?!"  Obviously not.

After another hour or so, what may have been this same elk tried again.
Maybe she was the scout.  This was a sunny day.  I think they come out
earlier on cloudy days.  They are most active, of course, at dawn and dusk,
but the road gets barred and locked at dark.  Anyway, they came out one by
one about every five minutes.  There were five out when I had to leave to
get back to Knoxville.  They are lovely, lovely animals.  They came into the
field from the woods right in front of the very end of the road.  As they
had been out awhile, they moved further down the field, but never closer to
the viewers.  Some stayed right in the edge of the woods, but in sight, for
a long time.

It was a good trip, worth the drive.  Maybe I was wrong.  Maybe this wasn't
short.  <G>

anklebear


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