Mt Cammerer in January

In January of 2019, my friends and I hiked up Mt. Cammerer in Smokey Mountain National Park. The trip was 12 miles long with 3,000 feet of elevation gain, but the view at the top and experience along the way was well worth the effort. The trip began well below the peak of the mountain and the ground was lightly dusted with frost. The trail up was not terribly steep but unforgiving in its climb. It always traveled up, never leveling out and never allowing for even a quick respite of the climb. Behind every bend, the trail continued up. As we climbed the snow grew deeper and deeper. At first, it had no effect on our ability to climb the trail, but it soon became too deep to ignore. The snow came up to our shins, and we found ourselves stepping in the footsteps of people who passed before us, leaving behind one set of footprints.

The cold, snowy weather created beautiful scenery for the hike. Water falls and streams along the path were frozen in a crystal-clear layer of ice. Below the ice, water continued to flow. The air bubbles in the flow below the ice created chaotic and constantly changing patterns. Often these streams would run along the path, creating pathways out of solid ice, where we would have a blast sliding on top of the ice. The snow created a winter scene that looked as if it came straight out of an oil painting. All the ground was covered in deep snow that blended the rocks, roots, and dirt into one smooth layer. Tree branches had sheets of ice pulled off to one side from the snow that was blown through the mountain tops, causing the trees to look like modern art sculptures.

For the entire climb up the mountain, fog covered the trail and blocked all the views along the way. This worked to our advantage as the first view we saw was the view on the top. The final stretch of the trail leveled out and had no trees around, but we were surrounded by tall bushes that blocked the view of the mountain range. Then, we climbed a short mound of dirt and all at once the bushes fell away, revealing a beautiful 360 degree view. Below us clouds covered the ground, as mountain peaks broke up through the cloud cover, scraping against the clear blue sky. On the way to the peak, we trudged through knee deep snow, froze our pantlegs solid, had ice crystals form in our eyebrows, and walked for hours on burning legs, but the view was well worth the effort. In the end, all the difficulties caused from the deep snow and steep trail only improved the experience of hiking up Mt. Cammerer.

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