Standing Indian, NC

September 25, 2004

After the disappointment of the last trek, I wanted to make sure that my friends do get a taste of a nice long hike. After doing some search on the internet, I stumbled upon a couple(1, 2) of descriptions about this hike. The hike looked promising and the good folks at georgiahikes confirmed that warning me about possible chances of getting lost (a few of my friends would know that this is not new to me ;) ).

Anyways, so after making the plans we started off from Athens around 8:00am and the drive took us about 2:30 hrs. We parked at the Information Center at Standing Indian Campground and started following the long Kimsey Creek Trail. The trails is worth enjoying with a creek running continuously besides the trail ( I would assume this is the Kimsey Creek). We had some problems initially with the small streams running over the trail itself. Some of us eventually got their feet wet trying to work around their way. This I know is a real pain coz then you have to finish the rest of the hike in wet socks which is irritating. Also, due to the recent hurricanes the trails was covered with a lot of fallen branches and at places even with large trees. Nevertheless it was not a big problem trying to find the way through/around them.

After about 3.5-4 miles we reached a clearing which was a gravel road. Their is a iron barrier on the road which has the blue blaze for the trail. However here came the twist to the tail. Immediately after passing the barrier, you are supposed to make a right turn into a trail that continues into the wilderness. However since there was not evident blue sign which would give a clue, we missed it (ok, ok ! we 6 were dumb enough not to look around :) ). We continued on the gravel road for about 20-25 mins just to realize that there was not a single blue sign (Kemsey Creek trail is blazed with blue color)  indicating that we are on the trail. I volunteered to go a bit ahead to check if the road does get us somewhere. Going an extra half a mile brisk walk/jogging combined I realized that we had come the wrong way. So we started on the way back to find that we could see a blue sign in the wood on our left just after the iron barrier. So here is the tip for those planning the trek, the Kemsey creek continues into the wood on your right immediately after you pass the iron barrier (repeating it again just to make sure you got that :) ).

All said, luckily no one cribbed about continuing on the trail. We met a guy on the way and I gave a sigh of relief since assured that we were on the right track. Reaching deep gap we met the Appalachian Trail and here came dilemma number two. Should we go north bound or south bound? Careless as we were, we had missed to take the geological map of the trail and hence had no clue which way to go. After speculating for about 5 mins about the way to go, by instincts it felt right to go to the left (with Kemsey creek trail behind us) and we started on that. Luckily just a minute into the walk there was a information booth which described the wilderness, bingo! we were on the right track. From there on I think we had about 1:30 hrs of hike to go. First we came across the Standing Indian Shelter after about 45-50 mins of walk. The Standing Indian lookout is may be a mile farther that the shelter. It took us about 35-40 mins to get the look-out from the shelter.

Get to the look out and all the agony of the frustrating trail is gone! The look out gives a awesome glimpse of the wilderness and mountains around. People were lying around the lookout rock as if they just came back from an Olympic marathon :). Finally everyone was motivated to have some food and their sports drink. We spent about half and hour on the look-out and then started our journey back to the parking lot.

To return back we took the lower ridge trail. It is 4 miles total and a steep one even to get down (don't forget that we still couldn't get our socks/shoes to dry so we all had wet toes :( ). This trial was even badly hit with the hurricanes and at couple of sections it was hard to find a way past the huge fallen trees. One thing the beginners failed to realize was to enjoy the hike downhill as much as they enjoyed (?) the uphill, so it was frustating for some that the climb down wouldn't end sooner. It took us about 2 hrs to get to the camping ground from where the parking lot was further 10 mins. The last thing one wanted was to stay in those wet shoes. All of us got off our shoes and soaked our feet into the freezing creek water. It was quite soothing despite being cold.
To get back to Athens we had to drive back 2:30 hrs and that was tiring. Occasionally I had to splash my face with cold water to make sure that I don't fall asleep while driving (Moral - Don't party the previous night of your hike :) ).

Overall all I n'joyed the trek a hell lot (can't say the same for all others in the group. I am sure they can't complain since they asked for a longer hike :D ). Though we missed one of the important turns I would say the trail is well marked all along (both the trails Kemsey Creek and Lower Ridge are blazed blue). Just make sure to take the right turn after the barrier on the gravel road iron barrier (just in case it slipped off your mind during the first two reminders ;) ) and you are good to go for one of the refreshing treks.

Photos

Links to description about the trail
Sherpa Guides
Tony's Hiking Page

© Ranjit