Jim Adams Wilderness 4.24.18

It wasn't the nicest of days so I was surprised that so many showed up.  Today, we had a total of 13 hikers.  Because it had been raining for the previous few days, we moved the hike to Soddy Gorge, now called Jim Adams Wilderness.  Although it was not raining, it was very damp.  Because of the rain from the previous days, the Soddy Creek was ROARING! No one had seen this much water in the creek before.  The length of the hike for the short distance crowd was 3.6 miles.  The advanced group went an additional 4+ miles round trip for their total of over 7 miles.  I would rate this hike as easy for the short distance group and moderate for those that went longer.  Following the hike most of us went to the Blue Ribbon and had a delightful lunch.  Thank you Kathy for identifying the blue blumes we often found that had dropped from a the nearby tree.  The tree is called the Empress or Princess tree.  For some pictures, click here.  There are even a couple of short videos.  Please note the great picture of our hike leader taken by Kathy.