OK, here's the plan for our October Smokey's hike. We are tentatively scheduling an October 7 hike on the Appalachian Trail from Clingmans Dome west. If the weather is clear there will be mountain views all along the trail and probably fall color also. There will be a lot of elevation change...down hill from clingman's dome and uphill on the return. We will turnaround and head back to the cars when everybody is fresh enough to make the climb. Since there is great scenery all the way, we don't need to make this a heroic marathon.
If the weather isn't clear on October 7, we'll hike around here and do another Smokey's hike on October 21. There will be fall color at lower elevations by this time. So the planned hike will be a car shuttle hike from the Newfound Gap Road to Elkmont on the Husky Gap and Little River trails. No mountain views but lots of color and river scenes. I can provide more details on this hike if we have to cancel October 7. Figure this will be easy by Smokey's standards and moderate by ours.
Either way we'll plan on dinner on the way home. Gas will be in the $10 range. Email me if you want to hike on October 7 so we can arrange reasonably efficient transportation.
