A Christmas Day hike in the Smokies

Christmas Day 2008 was made memorable by a walk along the Middle Prong Trail of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I had two companions, my son Jeff and his girlfriend Francoise, and we had a nearly perfect day for our short hike. The weather was clear and coolish, so we could leave the heavy stuff in the car and warm ourselves with the trek.

The absence of crowds of people, which are commonplace for the Smokies, was another plus. We met a few folks on the trail, but not enough to be bothersome.

The Middle Prong Trail runs along the Middle Prong of the Little River (thus the name) and is easily accessible from the end of Tremont Road, past the Tremont Institute. It begins at a bridge crossing the river, and that's where you get the first of some spectacular views or white and cascading water. All of that continues unabated was you move up the trail.

The white water is the major feature of the trail this time of year, but there is much vegetation to be seen at other times, according to the, according to the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association's book Hiking Trails of the Smokies. Winter doesn't offer much in the way of vegetation, but you can see the trees and bushes stripped of their leaves and get an idea of how they work.

A most satisfying trip.

Our first spring mountain hike

A visitor from Russia provided me with my first excuse to get into the mountains this spring. Ivan Zassoursky, a journalism prof at Moscow State University, wanted to see the mountains, and I was more than willing to oblige.

We carved out a few hours from his visit on Tuesday and motored up through Townsend and along the Little River.

We started our walk at The Sinks and traveled between one and two miles up the Meigs Creek Trail. The views in the mountains were still good because the trees had not fully leafed out yet.

The park was remarkably free of visitors. It was the middle of the week in early April, so that won't last long. Still, it's always nice to be in the mountains -- and even nicer to be there without a lot of other people around.

A few pictures of the trip can be found at my Picasa file.