Chasing Fall Colors in the Appalachian Mountains 🍁 Epic Views Hiking to Hemphill Bald

Morning folks. Welcome to a chilly morning in the mountains of Appalachia. Today we are doing a fall hike from Poles Gap up to Hemp Hill Bald. It's a little after eight in the morning and it's just under 40 degrees. These are really popping at our house. This is a little bit higher elevation so it looks like they're kind of past peak slightly. But still gorgeous. Yes and it's supposed to be a clear day but right now it is a bit overcast but I'm sure lands from the national park. I wonder why all these trees are cut down. There was storm damage. You know what I wonder if they're actually creating like a like a more of a field space. Yeah they could. There are some beautiful reds down in that valley. I don't think this camera's gonna pick it up but our eyes are sure enjoying it. Jess just heard some voices. Right over there in the woods. Sounded really close to me like right over my shoulder. It's kind of creepy. Oh I hear the voices too now. Okay. Was that behind us? Yes. So it wasn't just in your head. Man I was hoping for a good ghost story. A nice spot for a picnic out of the rain. This looks like where there was a small landslide last year when we hiked this. Yeah we came out here after Helene like right after Helene. We had just gotten our electricity back on. Oh yeah we had to climb through this before it was all cut away. Yay sunlight. Let's see if we're getting a view. Oh yeah. It works every day. Huckleberries. They just don't have like a real sweet taste. Sort of more bland. These do anyway. This trail basically follows the ridgeline with Cataloochee valley off to our left and Cataloochee ski area is off to our right somewhere before we reach Hemp Hill Bald. Jonathan Creek. I always like walking along an old fence like this. We used to be able to go into this whole area but it's privately owned now. There's some nice views over there. There's Mount Pisgah. That's where I grew up. Which one is it? On the left? All the way on the left. There's a little bump on one side and you can almost see the tower on the top. The right there? That's it. It's a good landmark. What did you guys always say? We said as long as you could see Mount Pisgah you're not lost. So that was sort of our landmark. Yeah and also your mom said try to find a creek and follow it downhill. Yes I always remember that because it would always lead to a town or something for it because it always runs in a little creek runs into a bigger creek and then that creek runs into a river. So that's pretty good advice. There's a few cows. What's happening guys? What are they all licking on? Salt? Yeah. I don't know but definitely that'd be my first guess. Salt lick. Oh there's a bunch more coming from over there. False Solomon's Seal. These berries are just overripe but they actually taste pretty good. You can also eat the roots of False Solomon's Seal and regular Solomon's Seal. But we try these and they have like a like a maple syrup kind of taste. It surprised me. It was actually better than I thought it was gonna be because that's the first time I've tried one that ripe. Yeah if you want to try False Solomon's Seal this is the time to try the berries. Kind of a syrupy berry taste. They have these white seeds which you spit out. The seed even looks kind of cool. Yeah. Getting up a little higher now. The view is opening up. Somewhere around in this area is where the incident happened last year. I sprayed you with bear spray. I just thought it would be funny. No. First of all, don't carry bear spray without the safety tab. Well I lost the safety tab. Carrying it one day. He had it strapped. Tim had it strapped to his waist. Which is not a good place for it if it doesn't have a safety. Yeah and he was just pretending to tell a joke and or he told was telling a joke and was pretending to kind of slap his leg and he slapped the bear spray instead and it went straight into my face. Just one half second. Yeah it was just a and wow. I felt super bad. Yeah. I thought she was gonna die for a couple seconds there. I couldn't breathe very well because it went down my throat. I was laughing already anticipating the joke. We're trying to like. It went straight down my throat. Get rags and paper towels and water. That stuff does not go away too easy. No it got all in my eyes. All down my throat. All in my hair. And then a guy came riding along the fence on a four-wheeler on the other side. We think he was doing a fence check but we like hid off the trail a little ways because I don't know how to explain that. It just looked. It looked like something horrific was happening. It looked awkward like foul play. Oh man. We learned our lesson. But it got on both of our shirts so we when we changed that night we were camping um it just it got all over our faces again. Yeah I got a tiny bit of blowback too and that stuff is harsh man. Yeah. And then when you sweat the next day it still like reactivates wherever you're sweating. Yeah whenever you get hot and if you get like your skin gets a little bit warm it will reactivate the skin and come back. I'm glad we didn't get that on film but I will never forget it. Is that what you make out of this? Smilax or carrion flower. These are pretty big. They don't have a lot of taste. I think you can make jelly out of them. There's a nice cow smell wafting off the fields. I always like the smell of a barnyard. It's a little nostalgic to me because when I was growing up in Florida we had our own little farm with I think up to about 50 animals at one point. Not for practical purposes unless you count the but just for fun. We had one cow, goats, sheep, ducks, guinea fowl, cats, rattlesnakes. Getting a little breezy up here so it might mess up the sound but that is absolutely gorgeous. I think that's all the wildlife we've seen today. Oh yeah we also had a goose named Elvis I think and he was kind of mean. He did the classic thing that geese do. They sort of come at you. I always just grabbed him by the neck and he couldn't do anything. I was gentle about it but I wasn't gonna let him be goosing me. This is where you sing the hills are alive. All right we're gonna go and find a place to have lunch that's a little less breezy. That is the ski area down there and here are some cows. They have a nice view don't they? That's a double burner stove. Sweet! So And thank you, Father, for our chili. Amen. And a beautiful day. Sorry about that rude chipmunk. I think it's fussing at us. Yeah, we're in his neighborhood. Chili is a fall favorite. That was a good idea. Thank you. Let's see your taste test. Blackberry and mint? Doesn't taste as good as it does in the springtime. The fresh blackberry leaves. Yeah, that makes sense. Still not bad. Just after 3 o'clock. Are we getting back in the dark? No. We're going to have to move. You just want to linger in a place like this. That classic blue mist on the mountains. It's like places where you can really see the red popping out too. The classic one. Blade of grass hanging out of the lip. Now 4 o'clock and we still have probably about 3 hours of daylight left. About 3 hours of hiking left. Yeah, about 3 hours of hiking too. But it's mostly downhill. So I think we're making good time. It is now 5 o'clock. The sun is angling low over the ridge tops. We're still making good time. There's a young elk there up the trail. But it looks not right. Like it's walking funny. Something's wrong with his legs. Doesn't look the most healthy. Little guy. He's definitely not a full grown elk. We don't want to get too close to him. But hopefully he won't just keep going slowly up the trail in front of us. Well guy, his legs look bent. Yeah. He'll probably circle around. That's true. He almost looks just very very skinny. Yeah. 6.07 and we're almost back. Which is good. Because the chill is descending upon us. Well that was about 9 miles. But I think that's about the extent of our daily hiking. Especially when there's elevation like that. Yeah. Well, thank you all for joining us on our hike up to Hemphill Bald today. Hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you so much for watching and all your comments. We really get a kick out of a lot of them. Hearing all your stories. Things from your childhood or old memories. Once again, thank you all for watching. And we'll see you soon. Bye.