Gear Review: Fujifilm Finepix XP50 Camera--"Outdoors-proof!"

I finally found it! I've been looking for years for an inexpensive, but high quality, camera that can hang out with me in all of my outdoor adventures without me having to worry about it too much. Clear, crisp photos that at least attempt to do justice to the phenomenal scenery that I encounter were an important criteria in my search. Another key asset was no shutter delay. I was tired of clicking the camera button and missing the shot because the shutter took literally several seconds to close.

This camera can withstand most anything I will be tempted to throw at it. Not only is it small and compact enough to fit easily in a pocket, but it is water proof to 16ft, plenty deep enough for this snorkeler, not diver. It is shock proof in case I drop it. It is freezer proof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit--plenty cold enough for the kind of hiking and camping I do. It is also dust proof, so it is safe, even in the house that would get cleaned more if I didn't hike and bike ride so much! It also operates on a rechargeable camera battery which lasted for literally hundreds of shots and recharged in less than an hour. In reality I don't know how long the battery would have lasted because it never got anywhere close to running out of battery charge.

I bought this little gem right before the Clingman's Dome hike, and during the torrential rains which fell on us that day, I never worried that it might get wet. Shortly after that hike, we travelled to the Grand Caymans for our 25th wedding anniversary trip. We took it snorkeling along a barrier reef, it was drenched by spray from a catamaran, it endured extreme heat and humidity, it took close up shots of stingrays as they waved at us under the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, it captured our first saltwater fly-fishing venture, and the photos and videos that it took were amazingly sharp with colors that almost were as exquisitely beautiful as the real thing.

To top it all off, when I purchased it at Best Buy for only $179, I received a Shutterfly promotion for a free hardbound photo album which I have used to commemorate our anniversary trip. Now that's what I call a sweet little perk--kind of like icing on the cake!

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Fly-fishing for Tarpon in Grand Cayman

Since my last blog entry I have had one of my all-time favorite vacations--a 25th Anniversary trip to Grand Cayman. Although this was not a fishing trip, we couldn't help but take the opportunity to spend one morning wielding a 9 1/2 ft. 8-weight fly rod in search of bonefish and tarpon. My, oh my! What an experience that was!

My husband and I hired a guide, Davin Ebanks, for a half-day trip to the turtle grass flats on the East End of the island. After ducking and dodging several times trying to get used to everyone driving on the left (wrong) side of the road, and being terribly glad that Davin had picked us up at our hotel so my husband didn't have to drive, we made our way to the spot Davin had chosen for us on this day. Davin, by the way, is a delightful young man, educated in the United States, but schooled in manners and congeniality on this most hospitable Caribbean island. Probably the best part of our vacation was how incredibly nice everyone on the island was, and Davin was no different.

An adrenaline rush is a major understatement for what happened to me when, as I was short stripping this large top-water fly in such a way that it would literally skip across the surface of the water, a large tarpon came up from underneath it, taking the fly in his mouth. One long, hard strip later and that tarpon propelled himself high in the air in an acrobatic move that would have made the Ringling Brothers proud! Although I fought him for a few minutes, after 5 or 6 flying leaps from the water, my tarpon freed himself from my line, but that was only mildly disappointing. What an incredible experience it had been to see him take that fly and then run and jump high into the air on the other end of my line.

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Lessons Learned on Clingman's Dome

A few days now after our disastrous hike from Clingman's Dome, while my blistered feet are still recovering, I want to reflect on what I learned on that eventful day.

1. If you don't have time to do the preparation for a hike, don't do the hike! Never again will I assume that because I've been somewhere before, I know the territory. My usually strong sense of direction surely failed me on the Clingman's Dome hike. I still cannot make myself understand, unless I'm looking at the map, why you wouldn't turn left on the Appalachian Trail to head out for Newfound Gap. But you don't! If you attempt that trail, be sure to go right on the AT toward the Mount Collins shelter. There is NOT a sign that says Newfound Gap at this juncture, even though you'd think there would be. Trip preparation for me in the future will include on every hike what I usually do on hikes in areas that I have no previous experience. I usually make a list of every trail crossing or shelter or other notable feature in the order in which they should appear. Had I done that on this hike, I would have realized at the first crossing that we had gone the wrong way--only 2.2 miles into our hike.

2. Packing light does not mean assuming nothing will go wrong. As our hikes have gotten longer and more strenuous, I have switched to a smaller, lighter day pack. Thankfully it still holds the large water bladder that my larger pack holds or I would have been in trouble on Saturday. However, in the interest of limiting the weight I carried, I had taken out some equipment that I deemed unnecessary on a hike that should end by 2:00 in the afternoon. The most crucial piece of gear that I left at home was my flashlight. I will never go on another hike without it no matter what time I expect to finish. It was this lack of light that pushed me so hard to finish before dark, which we accomplished with a mere 15 minutes or so to spare. That, in my opinion, is too close for comfort!

3. Always leave an exact itinerary with someone who will worry about you if you aren't out on time. This is something I always do, but again, on this fateful day, things were different. My husband didn't really want me to go on this hike because we had a major vacation coming up soon after, so he went to bed mad at me on Friday night. I got up early on Saturday morning, cut out a small section of the map that covered the trail we were going to do, and went to meet my hiking buddies. I had told him it would be a short hike, but that's about all we talked about. When I was late coming home, he wasn't worried, he was just mad. He had to come to understand how scared I had been before he realized he should have been worried. Had he known exactly what time I expected to be out of the woods, he might have begun to be concerned and be aware that there were probably problems.

4. Conditioning, conditioning, conditioning! I realized during that 20-miler that I need to be in better shape. I need to be able to hike much further than I have scheduled. I did the 20-miler, but I was miserable the last 4 miles. The fact that the last 2.5 miles was almost straight up as it climbed the highest peak in the Smokies didn't help me any. I will be working on improving my conditioning, that's for sure.

5. Always carry a map. The little piece of a map that I had copied to carry with me was nowhere near enough. When we hiked the wrong direction on the Appalachian Trail, we quickly hiked right out of the map I carried. Thus, when we began to be concerned about our location, the trail crossings and shelters were unidentifiable. We also considered alternative routes, but without a full map, we had nothing to get our bearings with.

6. No boots are waterproof in a torrential rain. I love my Keen hiking boots, and they are waterproof under most circumstances. However, if you get caught in a downpour, the Keen-Dry fabric protector can't keep the water from running down your legs or pants and into the top of the boots. My socks and feet were soaked and I ended up with the worst blisters of my life--the only blisters I've ever had in Keen hiking boots. I'm still not sure what I can do in such conditions to prevent that type of blistering; maybe gaiters are the answer. I don't know, but I need to find out.

7. Hiking groups need to either stay close enough together to be in touch at all times, or we need to carry walkie talkies. We could have saved ourselves about 5 miles had we been able to hail the faster hikers in our group when we finally figured out how terribly wrong we had gone. As soon as we realized the error of our ways, we began to blow the emergency whistle and yell their names, but they were too far away to hear us. I understand the desire to hike at whatever speed is your best speed, but the need to be in contact with everyone in the group must be paramount for safety's sake if nothing else.

I blame myself for every aspect of this disastrous hike. I could have prevented the whole thing by simply having looked a little more closely at the map before leaving. I let my hiking buddies down; I disappointed myself; I put others in danger. But, in spite of my many mistakes and weaknesses, as a group we pulled together, supported each other, and made it out. That's what friends are for, and I've got great friends to hike with. I wouldn't trade them for anything! That realization along with our determination to just do what had to be done made this an experience that will not be a negative. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Yes, we are all stronger, in many ways!

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Clingman's Dome the Hard Way

Saturday's little 8-mile hike to Newfound Gap turned into a 20-mile nightmare with huge lessons learned in survival mode. Our plan had seemed so simple and so familiar that we made little mistakes that doomed us from the get-go! We dropped one car at Newfound Gap and drove the second car to the end of Clingman's Dome Road where we excitedly donned our packs and headed up the paved path toward the tower at the top of the highest peak in the Smokies. All of us had been to that observation tower in the past, so this felt a little like hiking in our backyard. We also hadn't hiked recently with this particular group of ladies, and we were excited to be back together. Upon reaching the little sign that led us off the paved path and toward the Appalachian Trail, we were giddy and silly. At the intersection with the AT, we tried to find a place for one of the cameras to perch on a rock so that all four of us could be in the picture at the onset of the hike, but that never did work out. Finally after taking separate pics of groups of three instead of four, we took off in what we thought was the direction of Newfound Gap using really just our gut instinct. We did go in the direction of where our car was parked and what we thought was the direction of the road which we had just come up because the AT was supposed to parallel that road back to our waiting shuttle vehicle. At that moment, we were doomed. We just didn't know it yet.

Turk's Cap Lilies near Clingman's Dome

The hike began innocently enough. Although there was considerable fog surrounding this peak limiting the view, the early morning was pleasant and the air was cool. The AT is different from most of the trails in the Smokies--rougher, more challenging in spots. This section descends the face of the highest peak in the Smokies and does so using lots of log or rock steps with some steep drop-offs which were hard on my bad knees. With the help of my hiking sticks, I made it down fine and was busy enjoying the wildflowers that were growing along the trail. Since the views were obscured by cloud cover, I focused on the flowers. Turk's cap lilies were the surprise for me--they grew prolifically along the trail and because of the heavy humidity and literally being inside the clouds on this morning, they were dripping moisture from their anthers. Droplets of water clung precariously to the ends of these pollen production facilities surrounded by bright orange flower petals speckled with brown which recurved back away from the anthers exposing them to the pollinating insects that might pass by.

Within a couple of miles we came upon a shelter. I remembered reading that there was a shelter along the path we would take on this day, and this one was particularly nice with a stone fireplace and double decker bunk area. There was a privy nestled in the nearby woods along a little trail that was surrounded by a stand of daisies and bee balm blooming just for us it seemed. No one noticed the name of the shelter, so we assumed it was the Mount Collins shelter. We continued on.

Bee Balm and other wildflowers blooming at Double Spring Gap Shelter along the AT

After another couple of miles we came to another, much smaller and less impressive shelter. It really almost seemed to be abandoned. There were tree limbs inside that looked like they had been blown in by one of the numerous storms that have ravaged the Park in recent weeks. At this point, Jennifer and I began to wonder why this shelter wasn't on the small section of the map that I had copied to bring with us. We discussed the idea that it was disused and abandoned so perhaps that explained it. We both had a bad feeling though. The problem was that the other two members of our hiking party were nowhere to be seen. Being over 20 years younger, they hike much faster than we do and had gone on ahead of us. They had waited for us at the previous shelter, so they didn't feel a need to wait for us again at this one. We had no choice but to continue hiking until we got to the next place they decided to wait for us. We left that shelter with nagging doubt growing in the pits of our stomachs--doubts neither of us really wanted to voice or face yet.

The AT through this area was an absolute obstacle course with roots, rocks, and dips that seemingly tried to trip you up. At several spots the foliage that surrounded the trail had completely overgrown the trail necessitating the use of our hiking sticks to push back blackberry vines and other vegetation out of our way. A machete would have been nice at a couple of spots! But we pushed on believing that we were nearing the end of our hike, approaching the spot where the AT would cross Newfound Gap Road and we would find our other vehicle waiting for us.

Finally, we came to a trail crossing where the younger girls had waited for us. One of our rules is that we regroup at trail crossings so we are sure we all take the same path. As we came into sight they said they were unsure which way to go because there was no mention of Newfound Gap. I told them I knew for sure that the AT crossed the road we were looking for and that's all I was sure of at this point. They immediately took out following the sign that said Appalachian Trail. When Jennifer and I got to that sign, it said we had hiked 7.4 miles since leaving Clingman's Dome. We hoped the road was just ahead because that was the exact distance that we were supposed to have hiked on the AT to Newfound Gap. The younger girls were again already long gone, so we hiked on. When there was no road crossing after a short distance, we knew the truth--we had been hiking the wrong direction all day. We began blowing the whistle that I carry for emergencies and yelling for the girls to stop, but it was too late. Our fates were sealed. Again we just had to keep hiking until the younger group stopped to wait for us. That ended up being almost 2.5 miles more.

Where we finally turned around!  Not a happy moment!

At the next trail crossing, near Derrick's Knob shelter, after having hiked over 10 miles, we faced the ugly truth and turned around, already exhausted and now facing a 20+ mile day to return to our car at Clingman's Dome. This also meant that we would have to climb that peak that we had planned so carefully to descend, not climb. Honestly, at that point, I was devastated. I felt that I was personally responsible for this mistake and had let the group down. My knee and hip were both killing me, and I just didn't know if I could do another 10 miles before dark. I wouldn't have been able to without the encouragement of Jennifer. That hike back was the single hardest thing I've ever done in my life. We could hear thunderstorms in the valleys around us, and we prayed continuously that they would stay away from where we were. Two separate storms skirted around us that day drenching us with rain, but not subjecting us to lightning. Each storm that we heard brewing in the distance though acted as incentive to pick up the pace even though we were totally out of energy. None of us had packed lunch for such a short hike, so we subsisted on Clif bars, beef jerky, and the Energy Bites that I had made the night before. Those, by the way, were delicious and I'm not sure where we would have been without them to give us the energy we needed to make it out.

When we made it back to the smaller shelter, which turned out to be the shelter at Siler's Bald, we snacked and rested. There were two young guys there who had cleared out the brush and were carrying water up from the water source. Funny, this shelter no longer looked abandoned and desolate. After a short rest, we then trudged off to the next shelter which was approximately 2 miles on up the trail. From there we would have another 2.5 miles to the end of this nightmare. We kept telling ourselves that we could do this. I tried not to think about what those last couple of miles would be like trying to ascend Clingman's Dome as tired as I was. I remember looking up at one point when the slope of that mountain came into view and actually whimpering out of despair because it was so very high, and I was totally drained of energy.

Views from the AT near Clingman's Dome

That ascent was an act of sheer will, desperation, and divine intervention. I no longer looked up. I simply watched the trail right in front of my feet, willing myself to put one--foot-in--front--of--the--other. Those steps I had hated coming down the mountain were even worse going up. With each step, I told the Lord I was out of strength and that this step would be taken with His strength, not mine. I was dizzy occasionally, and lost my footing more than once. My balance was weak, and there were times when I was no longer sure we would get out by dark. It had rained so hard that the trail was like a river in spots, but going around the water took too much energy so we just trudged through it. Up and up and up that seemingly endless face of the summit, we willed ourselves to go.

At 8:43 pm we made it back to our car--dispirited, disheveled, and blistered, but thankful that this ordeal was over. We had spent 13 miserable hours on the AT instead of the 5 hours we had planned. Lessons had been learned the hard way but that will be another post. We had been severely tested, and I wasn't very proud of how I had responded, but we had survived.

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No Bake Energy Cookies for Hiking

I'm looking forward to another hike on Saturday--this time along the Appalachian Trail in the Smoky Mountains, from Clingman's Dome to Newfound Gap Road.  I just discovered this recipe on Pinterest for No Bake Energy Bites that I am going to take with us.  Although this hike is only about 8 miles, these might be really good on longer hikes which lay ahead of us in our quest to hike ALL of the trails in the Great Smoky Mountains.  These cookies look and sound great, and I believe my hiking partners will be excited when I show up with these.  I do NOT take credit for this recipe--I'm just going to try it!  Update to follow on the reception of these little wonders among my hiking group!  Oh, and just in case you're wondering, the chocolate chips will NOT be optional!  :)

No-Bake Energy Bites Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1 cup (dry) oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
• 2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Method:
Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed.  Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like.  (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.)  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.
Makes about 20-25 balls.
Tip:
Substitution ideas can abound for just about any of these ingredients!  Feel free to substitute in your favorite nut butter (almond butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.) for the peanut butter.  And you could also add in some wheat germ in place of some or all of the flaxseed.  I would caution, though, against substituting agave nectar for the honey, as the honey’s thickness helps hold things together.
Some other fun substitutions for the chocolate chips (or an addition to them) could include:

• chopped dried fruit (apricots, dates, raisins, etc.)
• dried berries (cranberries, cherries, etc.)
• chopped almonds, pecans, walnuts, or sunflower seeds
• other chips (butterscotch, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, M&Ms, etc.)
• other grains (different kinds of oatmeal, rice cereal, etc.)

So what DO I do if I see a bear???

This is bear time of year in the Great Smoky Mountains especially now that the blueberries are ripe.  Bears will be foraging and can sometimes be protective of their food sources.  I know that on Andrew's Bald and Gregory's Bald, blueberries and huckleberries are prolific, and bears are aware of that too.  Personally, I try to avoid those areas that are known for berries during the ripening season so that I limit my chance of running into a bear up close and personal.  I gladly give him "dibs" on what he considers to be a primary food source.  I also carry bear pepper spray in the summer months as a precaution.  Actually, I also carry it as a precaution against two-legged intruders too, especially after a woman was attacked about a month ago on a hike very close to lots of people.  I recently found this video about safety in the presence of wildlife produced by the Park Service and thought it might be worth sharing here:Wildlife Safety Video

Cade's Cove Camping Remembered

 

In light of recent events in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I find myself reminiscing about my earliest memories of camping in Cade's Cove, recently hit so hard and possibly forever scarred by devastating windstorms. I didn't realize at the time, but my camping days began not very long after this lovely campground was established. Most of my camping days and nights centered around a 1966 Cox Camper very much like the one pictured here, but I was camping in Cade's Cove long before we made that grand purchase which cost us a whopping $600--a lot of money in those days. I would have been 7-years old when we decided to trade up out of huge, heavy, and cumbersome canvas tents to this extravagant piece of camping equipment.

I remember how excited we were with our new purchase and the amenities that it provided. No longer would we have to carry buckets of water to drink or with which to wash dishes after dinner. This camper had a water tank that we filled up out of our water hose before leaving home. Then we simply had to pump the handle on the faucet in the sink inside to get water for whatever we needed. It also had four inch mattresses inside which promised to be luxurious after having slept on the ground all that time.

But most of what I remember about camping in Cade's Cove was the serenity and peace of this magical place! Even as a child I knew there was something very special about this Park. Something spoke to my soul here although I was too young to understand why. I wasn't too young to appreciate the way even my childish spirit could breath and relax here. There was nothing better than spending days playing in the dirt, hiding behind the rocks, frolicking in the creek until come nighttime we were so tired that sitting around the campfire was a welcome, restful respite.

Most exciting of my memories of Cade's Cove Campground involve the black bears. I don't remember if this was before the park installed bear-proof garbage containers, but seeing bear in the campground was not an unusual occurrence. In fact, one summer we knew the bears by name! My memory tells me there were two bear that visited the campground on a regular basis that year. The name of one I cannot recall, but one I remember vividly--in fact, I can still see him in my mind's eye. His name was Scarface, and he had earned that name with some unknown run-in with whatever creature might do battle with a bear. Scarface sauntered down the paved paths of the campground, but we were not afraid of him. Maybe we were too young to know that we should be afraid of him, but I remember waiting and excitedly watching for him to show up. I do know though that inside that Cox Camper sitting in my garage today there are two plastic washbasins that sport claw marks from a Cade's Cove bear. I don't know if those marks could have been made by Scarface or if that was a different trip and a different bear, but one of them no longer holds water.

On one other campfire night, I remember sitting in my mother's lap. We had popped popcorn on the fire and the adults were talking and telling stories. I remember an instantaneous silence and my mother squeezing me and warning me to be quiet and still. It took me a moment to see what everyone else saw and even then I didn't realize the danger, but a black, squirrel-like animal with a large white stripe on its back was creeping through our campsite, nonchalantly helping himself to the kernels of popcorn that we kids had carelessly dropped as we ate. No one spoke; no one moved. Everyone else knew what might happen at any second, but I just remember thinking how pretty it was. Luckily, the skunk enjoyed the popcorn and never felt threatened by any of us, moving on to someone else's site to see if others were as careless as we had been.

Memories like these are part of what drive me back to the Smokies as often as possible. We still camp in that 1966 Cox Camper sometimes, but not often enough and not usually in Cade's Cove Campground. Our campground of choice is now Elkmont because of the larger size of its sites and slightly fewer number of visitors. However, the serenity and peace that I found there as a child are so much more needed and appreciated today than back then. I think that's why I hike. It's hard to coordinate schedules today to carve out time for a camping trip, but my soul longs for the respite I find in my mountains. Through hiking I can snatch bits and pieces of that solitude and peace in just a few hours, hours that I relish more and more as the stresses of life build and threaten to overwhelm. So, for now at least, I spend hours at a time instead of days at a time in these mountains. But these times continue to be some of my most cherished memories, even the newest ones.

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