Bryson City

[lightheart7]

I got a private message regarding Bryson City saying, hope Deep Creek was “Good to ya’ll” ending with”cheers.” Well...... My response is so long that I wanted to share it. The end does include wine and a sincere “cheers.” Thank you

I was delighted to find that my Tennessee fishing license/trout stamp are valid in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where the “tubers” outnumber those who fish by about 10,000 to one. In order to access Deep Creek, one must go upstream, where no inner tubes are allowed.

There is a map of the multiple diverging trails at the trailhead. I am a big fan of maps in solid form. I did not, however, have a take-along paper copy of the map. My husband, who is extremely tech savvy, is a big fan of GPS and digital maps on his cellphone. We had been instructed to turn left when the Deep Creek trail divides, veering away from the Indian Falls branch of the trail. Before we got to this (first) fork of the trail, we were caught in a deluge in which we became equally wet as the tubers.

It may have been a sign.

We branched to the left as instructed, then came to a second fork in the trail. My husband Michael, relying on his GPS, was certain that we were supposed to go left (again). Thinking of the map at the trailhead, I wanted to go right. However, the sign to the right said “Cemetery” and the sign to the left included the word “Deep Creek” (and horse trail). Michael said that the trail to the right was a “dead end.” Get it?

So we ended up going to the left which appeared (to me) to be getting away from the water. Michael assured me that George from the Fryemont Inn said not to be discouraged because the trail comes back to the water. “See—-look on my GPS. This dot is us. We are headed in the right direction.”

After climbing up, and up, and up, a puzzled Michael pulled out his cell phone to check the map again. The dot that represented us was in the same place as it was at the divergence of the trail. Apparenty cell phones do not have service in the GSMNP.

So here we were in full fishing attire holding our 9 foot 2 piece 6 weights, me with my fancy new shoulder sling (Love it!) soaked, crumpled, hot, looking as though I were a refugee, and Michael, my perfectly prepared, strikingly handsome Eddie Bauer model looking husband. On a mountain.

Something in me snapped.

Uncontrollable, perhaps inappropriate, laughter took over my entire being. I literally cried and may have wet my pants just a little (though it was hard to tell having been already soaked in the summer flash storm). We finally saw another human being. Michael asked where she had come from, and she replied “the trail head,” as though that should be a known quantity.

I was still laughing like a lunatic when we got back to the Fryemont. My laughter was infectious, to the degree that Monica, the innkeeper, and a couple of guests, (masked and socially distancing) laughed with me. Monica brought out a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. We had socially distanced “clinks” and air hugs before we went to dinner, which was stupendous!

We went back to Deep Creek the next day, went the right way, and the water was so fast, it almost knocked me down . I only lost two flies....neither of them precious, but still there was gnashing of teeth. No fish caught, but much fun was had!

[One&Duns]

Great story!
Great perspective - if I may so... Not everyone I know would have had fun that 1st day.
cheers!

[DrLogik]

Great story and a valuable lesson and you came back healthy and uninjured, if not a bit frazzled. You'll tell that story for many years I expect! The Smokies can do that to you.

I've been backpacking and fly fishing there since the late 1970's. GPS, satellite phones, SPOT devices often times do not work there unless you are up at elevation or on the top of a ridge. If you're down in the creeks GPS signals are spotty at best. I know the area well now but when I first started trekking and fly fishing in there I took USGS Topo maps and a compass (still do). Trail maps of the Smokies were pretty bare back then.

The paper maps they have now are awesome! The next time you go, try Eagle Creek on the north side of Fontana Lake down near the dam. It's blue ribbon trout fishing par excellence.

[dublhaul]

My grandfather Bryson on father's side lived in Bryson City, and died when I was very young. To my knowledge, he was no relation to Col. Thaddeus Bryson, namesake of the town. But over the years starting back in the '60s, I fished Hazel, Noland and Forney creeks a few times (never Eagle for some unknown reason). All were fun to fish. I remember one trip, we had gotten a lift across to the mouth of Hazel Creek the day before opening day. Hiked up to the mouth of Bone Valley. Figured we'd be alone . . . wrong. Some horse campers had ridden down from the ridge. Offered us some canned (pickled) groundhog and home-brew. I passed on both, but one of my buddies sampled them. Winced a bit as he tasted the groundhog, and then his eyes bugged out when he took a swig of the brew. His expressions confirmed I had make the right decision. Weather was nice, caught some fish, and awoke on the last day to walk out in a couple of inches of soppy wet snow.

And then there was the night we were camping at the mouth of Noland Creek and went frog gigging. Another story for another day . . .

[DrLogik]

I've fished Hazel, Forney and Noland but much prefer Eagle. Less fishing traffic but the fishing is at least as good and maybe better. The little tributary Ekineetlee Creek is just beautiful half way up Eagle. Beautiful wild brookies and eager to take a fly. I get the Fontana Marina to ferry me over to the stream and then they pick me up a few days later.

[Bee]

Your day in the GSMNP could have been worse. Been some interesting bear events last few days at Campsite 82 on Hazel Creek. Seems a bear was observed consuming human remains.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/bea ... JMTPWJDDQ/

Subsequently the bear was euthanized by Rangers.

Cause of the human's death undetermined. Body was identified , and was a 42 year old male.

This is the second somewhat similar event in last couple of years in the GSMNP. Black Bear attacks are VERY rare in the southeast, FWIW.

[DrLogik]

Bee,

You know, for many years I have considered carrying a "magazine-fed protective device" into the GSMNP for bear and two-legged predator protection, but have never carried one. In the over 40 years that I've been backpacking and fly fishing in there, and elsewhere in the North Carolina mountains, I have never run into a bear.

I've had three "unsettling" encounters with people though, one of which was in GSMNP in 2016 while I was backpacking with my then 16 year old son. This story is worth following to see what the situation/circumstances were that this fellow met his demise.

Hopefully (and I do mean that) he died of natural causes and the bear walked by and was hungry. But, the fact that the bear was eating a human is alone cause for great concern. I'm going to follow this story.

The Park has changed over the years. Up to about 15 years ago, I could go in to Eagle Creek for 5 or 6 days alone and not see another person. Those days are gone. On that 2016 trip I saw more people in one day than all of the previous years combined. Maybe that is a contributing factor to these violent bear encounters. I'm sure the Park service and biologists are investigating.

[Doug K]

lightheart7, great story.. I did that myself in a MN state park once, had a nice 3-mile hike that went no-where near the water..
Fished Deep and Hazel creeks some years ago, never saw a fish in either..

in the Boundary Waters recently, we moved into our campsite to find a warning,


we never saw them though, others reported a mama and two cubs, just as happy not to have seen them..

[bassman]

Had a black bear wreck our campsite on a lake in Boundary Waters. Wife, I and her sister gave up trying to keep him our of our stuff, moved only to find the people moving out because of persistent black bear. I never feared black bear like I would brown or grizzly but they can do their share of damage. Living in Finland MN the year they closed the town dump gave us a really bad summer of bears raiding anything they could eat since the dump bears had never learned to live off the land.

[Bee]

DR Logik--For many years I chaired a foundation that has funded in some form vast amounts of the Black Bear research in the GMSNP, as well as many other Park research projects. Two of our board members are considered (among)the best bear biologists in the US and spent a good part of their careers in the Smokies area. One of them is Dr Frank Van Manen who is now the head of the Yellowstone area bear projects , focused mainly on Grizzlies. I learned a lot about bear behavior from reviewing their findings in the Smokies.

Garbage kills bears. You may have seen that phrase on a bumper sticker around the Smokies area It is a fact. As other posters have said, once bear acclimate to garbage there are no bounds to what they will do to get to anything resembling the smell/stench of it. A dead decomposing body of any kind is a magnet to them.

As to human behavior in the GSMNP, it pretty much mirrors the country. It is notable that the incredible influx of motorcycle enthusiasts on the US 129 "DragonTail " 13 mile stretch has brought to that side of the park a culture never seen in the area. Many riders are nice folks , out for a tour; other factions are on the other end of the spectrum. The noise pollution from all of these machines penetrates the solitude of the mountains for many miles back in to the formerly deafeningly quiet backcountry.

I have fished for sixty years back in all that country in the west side. Have never "carried". But like you there have been instances where I wish I did have something in my pocket besides truck keys.