Ascent of Green Mountain-Blevins Gap Preserve on 2013-09-12| Other People: | Solo Ascent
Only Party on Mountain | | Date: | Thursday, September 12, 2013 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Car | | Peak: | Green Mountain-Blevins Gap Preserve | | Location: | USA-Alabama | | Elevation: | 1520 ft / 463 m |
Ascent Trip ReportI arrived a Blevins Gap at 6:45 AM. There is a nice limestone parking lot that can accomodate 20 or so vehicles. My plan was to hike down to the lowest potential TH (the Sugar Tree TH) and start there since I was concerned that there was no parking there (and i was correct!). The trails and signs in this wodnerful Land Trust are well maintained and easy to follow. At the parking lot, the main trail qucily divides into many trail options. I selected to descend down the winding limestone of the Smokerise Trail. I saw many deer along the way. The woods are thick with maple, red, black, and white oak, shagbark hickory, pignut hickory, and cedar.
The trail eventually meets up with the Sugar Creek Trail and I took that to decend as far as I could go to the TH there and the beautiful subdivions it terminates into does not have any parking and there as signs to castigate any that try! (off of Weatherly Road). I estimated that the winding of the Smokerise Trail caused a regain of about 95 feet. The TH at Sugar Creek appears to be around eleavtion 725. I used this as my starting and through all the extra mileage and regain into the up calculations to simplify the record.
Then I climbed up the Sugar Tree Trail and was surprised how such a clean and well maintained preserve could have not one but 2 old vacated rusted out cars in the woods? I mean there was no way to get them there unless they were dropped my helicopter? Like creating an artificial reef in the ocean only a car mass for the lizards??? I regained around 50 feet in the meanders on the way to meet up with the Bill and Marion Certain Trail which climbs steeply in sections to the highpoints.
There are no real views. One peek at the lower valley from one but basically this is a nice experince for the beautiful woods and the intersting limestone erosion along the trails. There are some ankle twisters here and there. Including checking out both candidate peaks, I added another 40 feet of gain before returning to the car by 8:20 AM. The entire loop was about 10,000 steps or around 4 miles and took about 1 hour and 35 minutes but I was moving very fast and stopped as little as possible.
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| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 980 ft / 298 m | | Total Elevation Loss: | 185 ft / 56 m | | Round-Trip Distance: | 4 mi / 6.4 km | | Grade/Class: | 1 | | Quality: | 5 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Maintained Trail | | Weather: | Pleasant, Clear
80 F | | Ascent Statistics | | Gain on way in: | 940 ft / 286 m | | Gain Breakdown: | Net: 795 ft / 243 m; Extra: 145 ft / 44m | | Loss on way in: | 145 ft / 44 m | | Distance: | 3.5 mi / 5.6 km | | Route: | Parking gap to Smokerise Trail down to Sugar Tree | | Start Trailhead: | Sugar Creek TH after parking at the gap 725 ft / 220 m | | Descent Statistics | | Loss on way out: | 40 ft / 12 m | | Gain on way out: | 40 ft / 12 m | | Distance: | 0.5 mi / 0.8 km | | Route: | B&M Certain Trail to parking |
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