Posted by Steve Hamley on September 3, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Folks,
Due to floor refinishing, I found myself comfortably ensconced (didn't know I knew words like that did you?) in a room at the Pisgah Inn Friday and Saturday evening. It was about 57 degrees at night and about 65-67 degrees during the day. The sky was white with humidity, so there wasn't much of an opportunity for the "grand vista". But with fog and intermittent rain, it was good chance to chill out, sleep, and eat. I had meant to hike Shining Rock with a nifty new McHale demo pack, but looked at the skies and realized I had no pack cover for the demo. So I shot some rock lichens on 8x10 as an abstract.
Here's the deal on the woods. The low country like along the Little River Road shows a lot of heat and drought effects - brown leaves and limbs, dead trees here and there. The higher you get, the lesser the effects although some are visible everywhere I went except one area. Graveyard, Pigah (south), Pounding Mill overlook, and the waterfall on 215 look pretty good except the maples seem stressed as evident by grayish tinted leaves with color already around the edges of the leaves.
From Pisgah to Asheville, the tent caterpillars are terrible - It's like something out of a gothic video game. They're other places too of course, but this stretch is probably frightening foreign visitors who don't know there aren't 6-foot spiders in the woods.
The Carolina side of the Smokies seems in better condition than the Tennessee side, and that's consistent with the drought and heat patterns. According to NPR (WUOT Knoxville, University of Tennessee), we've set 4 records this year: warmest March, coldest April, hottest summer, and driest summer. We tied the record set in 1993 of 30 consecutive days over 90 degrees. I've mowed my yard 1 time since June 14th - and the grass turned yellow.
The one area that seemed relatively unscathed was coming down the Balsam Mountain road from the Balsam Mountain campground and picnic area into Cherokee. The woods were green, moist, and showed little if any effects of the heat and drought. Straight Fork at the bottom also looked pretty good and would have been shootable at a different time than I was there. So if you're up to it, a hike up the Enloe Creek trail and maybe following the fishermen's trails up Raven Fork might be a good fall bet.
Cheers,
Steve
Posted by Leann Greene on September 3, 2007 at 2:49 PM
Thanks for the info.It looks like any fall color found this year will be more appreciated. That's funny about the caterpillars-they do look freaky.
Posted by Alice Scoggins on September 3, 2007 at 7:08 PM
Yeah the caterpillars are bad this year, but strangely the spiders aren't. I haven't seen one "writing spider" at all, and usually they're all over the garden by now. Did you see the report on the giant spider web in Texas? Now that would really creep me out!! Here's the site...
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7008238
Posted by Steve Hamley on September 4, 2007 at 3:22 PM
Folks,
I drove around Cades Cove this morning, and it's dry but actually looks fairly decent - that is, not nearly as bad as LRR. Creek volumes are low everywhere though.
Hey Jerry Greer, head for the Cove. You can shoot Gum Swamp now and I guarantee you won't get bitten by mosquitoes.
Steve
Posted by Leann Greene on September 4, 2007 at 5:03 PM
Alice,
You're right! I have one writing spider in a hedge but not my usual friends of the fields :-(
I was really looking forward to spider shots. My deduction is because the drought has kept the hay from growing-they don't have the vegetation to web on.
Posted by Matthew Cromer on September 4, 2007 at 7:47 PM
Discussion
5 repliesDue to floor refinishing, I found myself comfortably ensconced (didn't know I knew words like that did you?) in a room at the Pisgah Inn Friday and Saturday evening. It was about 57 degrees at night and about 65-67 degrees during the day. The sky was white with humidity, so there wasn't much of an opportunity for the "grand vista". But with fog and intermittent rain, it was good chance to chill out, sleep, and eat. I had meant to hike Shining Rock with a nifty new McHale demo pack, but looked at the skies and realized I had no pack cover for the demo. So I shot some rock lichens on 8x10 as an abstract.
Here's the deal on the woods. The low country like along the Little River Road shows a lot of heat and drought effects - brown leaves and limbs, dead trees here and there. The higher you get, the lesser the effects although some are visible everywhere I went except one area. Graveyard, Pigah (south), Pounding Mill overlook, and the waterfall on 215 look pretty good except the maples seem stressed as evident by grayish tinted leaves with color already around the edges of the leaves.
From Pisgah to Asheville, the tent caterpillars are terrible - It's like something out of a gothic video game. They're other places too of course, but this stretch is probably frightening foreign visitors who don't know there aren't 6-foot spiders in the woods.
The Carolina side of the Smokies seems in better condition than the Tennessee side, and that's consistent with the drought and heat patterns. According to NPR (WUOT Knoxville, University of Tennessee), we've set 4 records this year: warmest March, coldest April, hottest summer, and driest summer. We tied the record set in 1993 of 30 consecutive days over 90 degrees. I've mowed my yard 1 time since June 14th - and the grass turned yellow.
The one area that seemed relatively unscathed was coming down the Balsam Mountain road from the Balsam Mountain campground and picnic area into Cherokee. The woods were green, moist, and showed little if any effects of the heat and drought. Straight Fork at the bottom also looked pretty good and would have been shootable at a different time than I was there. So if you're up to it, a hike up the Enloe Creek trail and maybe following the fishermen's trails up Raven Fork might be a good fall bet.
Cheers,
Steve
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7008238
I drove around Cades Cove this morning, and it's dry but actually looks fairly decent - that is, not nearly as bad as LRR. Creek volumes are low everywhere though.
Hey Jerry Greer, head for the Cove. You can shoot Gum Swamp now and I guarantee you won't get bitten by mosquitoes.
Steve
You're right! I have one writing spider in a hedge but not my usual friends of the fields :-(
I was really looking forward to spider shots. My deduction is because the drought has kept the hay from growing-they don't have the vegetation to web on.