Standing Indian Shelter to Big Spring Shelter

APRIL 14, 2012

Standing Indian Shelter to Big Spring Shelter - Moderate except Albert Mountain, strenuous
14.4 miles in 10 hours

We left the shelter at 7:45 a.m. after an uneventful and restful night.  We had a short uphill to reach the summit of Standing Indian Mountain then started down to Beech Gap.  It was relatively easy like “a walk in the park” with lots of switchbacks and trails on the crest of the mountain under shade.  The weather was cool and pleasant.  Beech Gap is a beautiful stopping point with large Beech trees and a large, nice camping area.  Although we needed water, we decided not to trek downhill ¼ mile from Beech Gap to get it, hoping we would find some on the trail.  In fact, we did find a couple of very nice springs directly on the trail as we went north just a short distance.

Beech Gap, Elevation 4460'

View from Timber Ridge Trail, Elevation 4700'

Beautiful violets could be seen all along the trail.

Somewhere along the trail around Timber Ridge Gap when I was walking along in oblivion, just putting one foot in front of the other, I suddenly found myself face first on the ground.  It happened before I even realized what had happened.  Wait-up was behind me and he said I stubbed my toe on a root, but all I knew was I went down and it was all I could do to keep my face from going into the ground with the weight of the heavy backpack propelling me forward.  This time it was my right knee that was skinned.  Again, I was very thankful that I was not hurt.

We stopped for lunch at Carter Gap Shelter. The water source was again down a steep hill from the shelter. We met some folks coming from the north who were freely sharing their opinion of Albert Mountain - they were saying all sorts of bad things about that mountain. “But,” they said, “if you want to cheat you can take the road and go around.” Of course, we didn’t want to cheat; we had to have the full experience! 
From our research, we knew that Albert would be the one of the most challenging mountains on this section, so our plan was to conquer it in the morning while we were fresh. HOWEVER, my hiking companion, Wait-up, began to talk about going over the mountain TODAY! OMG, I sure didn’t think I could do it today! I was dragging already! Some guys that we were hiking with were talking about someone they had been with the night before who had gone on over Albert Mountain today – they thought they were crazy for trying it.

By 3:30 we reached our expected stopping point at Betty Creek Gap campground. The other fellows were setting up their tents for the night. So guess what we did? We passed them by and kept on going, looking toward Albert Mountain, joining the other crazy folks.

Mooney Gap, Elevation 4400'

The spring between Mooney Gap and Bearpen Trail

We had 3.1 miles to go before reaching the shelter on the other side of Albert Mountain. Although we were steadily climbing, the majority of the trail is not as challenging as the last half mile leading to the summit of the mountain where the elevation changes 460’ in .3 miles.

Our first view of the Albert Mountain Fire Tower from the trail below.

The rocky ascent up Albert Mountain.

Oh my!  What a challenge Albert Mountain was – especially for a short-legged girl.  The trail was alternately steep trail, man-made steps, and huge boulders to climb.  Some of the step-ups on the rocks were quite high and treacherous.  We saw evidence of where it appeared that some folks had actually slid down the largest exposed rock coming from the north.  I’m not sure which would be worse – trying to climb those boulders or trying to come down them.  Thankfully, although it was steep, it was not too long, so in about 30 minutes (6:00 p.m.) we were at the top of Albert Mountain, elevation 5250’. At the summit is a fire tower which was built in the 50’s.   Although the top level of the fire tower was locked so we could not get all the way up, we were able to climb the stairs most of the way up and enjoy the spectacular panoramic view of the Franklin area for many miles around. 

Climbing the stairs of Albert Mountain Fire Tower.

The view from Albert Mtn Tower, Elevation 5250'.

After a short break at the tower, we set out to find the next shelter which was suppose to be a short 6/10 of a mile past the tower.  It seemed like 2 mountain miles before we FINALLY saw the shelter sign for Big Spring Shelter.  One reason was that we got side-tracked by walking down a double-blue blazed trail for about ¼ mile thinking it led to the shelter and had to backtrack.  We thought we had missed the shelter somehow and were disappointed to think that we might have to trek to the next one or resort to a campsite in the middle of nowhere when we finally found Big Spring Shelter at 6:45.  It is a nice shelter area with large surrounding campsites, nice privy and bear cable.

This was our longest day ever at 14.4 miles in 10 hours.