Roaring Creek 4.21.19

Three hearty hikers met at the Durham Street Parking Lot Saturday and decided, despite the ominous weather outlook, to proceed with the scheduled hike at Roaring Creek. We departed the trailhead around 9:30, under overcast skies and 40 degree temperatures. The first section of the hike was along Roaring Creek, which was really roaring after 2 days of rain. The trail was sloppy and flooded in sections. Just shy of a mile we began our accent to the upper plateau. Along the way we forded several small streams and one fairly fast running stream. We managed to cross the stream with getting only our ankles wet. At the top of the accent we crossed a waterfalls and stopped at an overlook with a view of the Tennessee Valley below. The view was pretty good considering the rain in the area. At this point, the rain began and continued for the rest of the hike. The rain was steady but we were fortunate that it didn't rain hard enough for us to don our ponchos. We continued our hike to Gilbreath Branch Creek and arrived shortly before 1pm. We had our snacks and enjoyed the waterfalls. We departed for the return decent and arrived back at the trailhead and shortly after 3pm. We exited the trail just as the rain increased to a downpour. Last week the dominate flower along the trail was the white and red trillium. This week the dominate flower was pinxter azalea and wild geranium. As you can tell, I have expanded my knowledge of the local flora (I purchased a Wildflowers of Appalachia identifier card). Hopefully I will be able to identify some of the flowers on my hikes and not refer to them as white, yellow, pink and purple flowers. The hike was listed as a 9.8 mile strenuous hike. I would agree with the description. Footnote (Literally): I want to thank Sarah for gifting me Georges hiking boots. Sarah said they were the boots George wore on his last hike with Boodie and Larry. They were a perfect fit and it was an honor to hike a mile (and more) in George's boots. I will hopefully be hiking many more miles in them in the future.
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