Abram's Falls Trip Report GSMNP

Hey folks! Time for my trip report.


Did a quick overnighter with some old friends on Friday/Saturday. We just wanted to get out of the city and have some fun for a night (we all have to work on Sunday or we would have gone longer). Went down to Cade's Cove and hiked the Abram's Falls Trail down to Little Bottoms over to campsite 17. Roughly 5.5-6 miles, not very difficult at all. We were amazed at the destruction the thunderstorms/tornado had done, downed trees everywhere. You could see where the 'nader touched down and lifted up. While we were sad to see the destruction, we know the forests will recover (and it looked really cool). Stopped and played at the falls for about 2 hours on our way back, had lunch, played in the water, all in all very fun and relaxing to get away from it all.

Now to the juicy part...

I got to use all my new hammock gear! AHHHH! Been itching to get it all together at use it all. First off, my WBBB is the most comfortable thing I've ever slept in, perhaps more than my bed. I was determined to use my new Summer Phoenix, even though the overnight low was about 75. I left the channel open so it could vent, worked like a charm, especially at about 4am when I woke up and threw the fleece top blanket over to keep me warm. My backside was nice 'n toasty all night long! Big shout out to Dutch, the clips and CRL he hooked me up with worked amazing! I got my full hammock and tarp setup done before my "ground dweller" buddy got his tent setup! Also JennaBird's ridgeline pouch she made me was equally awesome. I'm calling it the "JennaBird's Nest" ... or maybe just "The Bird's Nest". Yeah I like the second one. Light as a feather and just the perfect size! Did I mention how much I love my Black Bird? I don't think I said that clearly enough.:boggle:

So the new gear I got to break in-
WBBB 1.0 double layer:boggle:
Summer Phoenix UQ
Dutch clips and CRL (including Hook and Flyz)
WB Edge Tarp (perfect size)
New alchy stove setup (that's another story... check the off topic sections)
A few CF bags from Zpacks (clothes dry bag, food bag, and a small ditty bag)


I bent one of my titanium Vargo ascent stakes, which makes me wonder if I was sold aluminum ones instead. I've never seen titanium bend like that, pretty sure I got jipped. Probably going to get some titanium needle stakes next time.

Used a bunch of little tricks I picked up here in my setup, like having my CRL for the tarp below the straps on the trees, it turned out to be the perfect height and something I NEVER would have thought of (Thanks, ya'll).


Offffffffffffffffcourse I brought Apple Pie, and it was DELICIOUS AS ALWAYS! :D


Happy Hangin'
Ben

Sounds like a great weekend trip, thanks for sharing... I love Cades Cove, and the hike in to Abrams Falls... And Abrams Creek is good trout fishing...

I need to learn to fly fish so bad... but that will have to wait a little bit.

@EastCoastFeastCoast in an effort to not completely hijack your thread; could you go into detail about the tarp/CRL/Dutch-made doodads setup you have (or that Dutch helped you with)?

And more on-topic.. I cannot wait to start tackling some of the trails, etc in TN. I haven't done any TN camping since Ruby Falls area when I was in the boy scouts back in the early 90's

Not at all! Any chance to promote Dutch is time not wasted! (After all, he's the world's greatest hiker!)

I ordered the CRL completely from Dutch here . I shot him an email about what I wanted done and he didn't disappoint. He has a little video on his website about the Dutch Hook and Dutch Flyz. It's by far the easiest CRL I've ever seen. It's pretty much a Hook, Flyz, Zing-it line, and a few prussics he put on there.



Happy Hangin'
Ben

Did you happen to see the otters there below Abrams Falls? The last time I was there a family of three came out and played in the pool for a bit. Plenty of nice pools for them even down towards CS17. Sounds like you had a great trip and are the epitome of a happy camper.

nice report,,no pics? Glad you got to test gear out and had a great time!

So, how did you like your blackbird? :D

Glad you had a great time dude, you gotta love when the groundlings give you that look of envy when they see how comfy you are in your hammock.. Glad you had a good time!

Fronkey

Fronkey- I thought the Blackbird was "eh" at best :jj:

I didn't see any otters, as we were finishing lunch the Lady Vols crew team decided to show up for a swim... now that wasn't a bad view, either :rolleyes: It was also a Saturday, so lots of people were showing up just after we did. We were the only ones with full packs and were there far before anyone else. It was kind of funny, they thought we were hard core mountain men for hiking a 6 mile trail.

Pics of the campsite didn't quite turn out too well... I'll blame that on the Apple Pie :scared: However I'm planning a more extensive trip very soon, so I will be sure to snap some pics!


Happy Hangin'
Ben