Round 3 GSMNP (Sat)

I knew we had 9.4 miles ahead of us (half on the AT) so I wanted to get an early start. After I was done packing, I helped Shemia and SHOE pack up camp. SHOE had brought bagels and cream cheese to share with us for breakfast, so I had one and a banana. We then loaded up into the cars, drove up to the ranger station at the campground, filled out our backcountry permit, dropped off my car at the trailhead, piled into SHOE's car, and headed up to Newfound Gap to start our trip. (Along the way, we stopped like total tourists and took a photo at an overlook. It was actually an awesome view of the Smoky's with clouds looming in the gaps.) When we peaked to the top of Newfound Gap, we noticed the fog had rolled in, the visability was about 20 feet, and it was pretty chilly out. After quick last minute trips to the bathroom, at 9:30am we hit the trail. We said good bye to 5048 elevation at Newfound and began our climb on the Appalachian Trail up to Charlies Bunion. The first 2 miles were all up hill. SHOE checked her book and said we would be climbing up around 6100 feet and I believed her. The climb wasn't so bad, but it was still a climb. On the way up we were passed by a couple of rangers looking for a lost hiker that's been missing since Wednesday. I really hope they found him.

When you get up to a certain elevation, the trees start to change. The rhododendrum forest we were in, was now dominated by huge balsam firs. There were pine needles cushioning our steps along the trail. It reminded me of a dark Harry Potter movie forest, especially with all the fog swirling around, it was pretty eery. We made it up to Ice Water Shelter around 11am and decided to stop for an early lunch. We ran into the rangers again so I snapped a photo of them.

The shelter is one of the nicest I've seen on the AT. It's got sky lights, a deck with a long bench, and bar for you to sit up at. (It reminded me of the bar at App State (ASU) called the Klondike. Where you could sit outside on stools and lean on a huge long wooden table while you sipped on your microbrew. Good times.) Anyways, we took a nice lunch break and I ate my PB&J, a boiled egg, and drank some water. Afterwards, we pushed on, climbing some more. The sun finally started to peek through the fog just as we reached the Charlie Bunions sign. The walk along the VERY narrow trail with a shear cliff on one side, had amazing views! I could see the rock protruding out at the tip and it really did look like some guy named Charlie's bunion hahhaa! It was trully an amazing experience. One of my favorite hikes to date. I was afraid after years of hyping this section of the AT up that Charlies Bunion would not live up to my expections. Well, it blew me away. The view was breathe taking. Picture yourself jetted out on a rock with a panoramic view of the great smoky mountains laid out in front of you. What was even better was that we had the rock all to ourselves!! Just the three of us and I, in true childlike fashion, I stuck my arms out and began yelling just to hear my echo (several times hahaha!) SHOE got some good pic's of me climbing out to the rock. We probably stayed there for a good 30 minutes, before another set of backpackers showed up. Three guys, on their way to Fontana Dam (40 miles away). I heard one of them comment that we (the girls) had hiked in with our backpacks on. I guess they were surprised that we could traverse the narrow trail. They had taken off their packs at the sign and just hiked in once they saw how dangerous the trail was. Well, thats cause we are BAD ASS! We talked to them a bit, then let the have the Charlies Bunion all to themselves. We came, we climbed, we conquered. Now on to camp.

We finished up the last bit of the AT before hopping on to Dry Sluice Trail. I have to say, I felt a twinge of sadness when leaving the AT. I love that trail so much. I dream of that trail all the time and just to be on it for a bit makes my day. I don't know what it is about the Appalachian Trail, it's an obession. Maybe it's cause I read trailjournals and whiteblaze, which are websites dedicated to the Appalachian trail and those who hike it. But I never seem to get it out of my system. Anyways, I had to leave those beautiful white blazes behind and start the downhill section of our hike to get to campsite #49. You could tell that Dry Sluice trail was RARELY used. If I wasn't webbing, I was bushwhacking. (SHOE, where was your machette man when we needed him?) At one point I literally stopped, looked around and thought "WTF, did I walk into a bush by accident?" THATS how overgrown the trail was. We all got separated on this section of the trail. Shemia whizzed down the trail, I was in the middle fighting off the overgrown weeds that were chest high, while trying not to trip on the loose rocks, and SHOE rounded up the rear taking it safe and slow. We all met up at a trail intersection, with only about 2 to 5 minutes behind one another. We regrouped and with 3.5 miles left til camp, Shemia and I kicked into high gear and FLEW down the trail. I only rolled my ankles 4 times, and slipped on wet roots like 6 times. OUCH! It was probably the fastest I hiked down hill. I was trying to keep pace with Shemia. Boy is she a fast hiker. We made it to the trail juction that tells us only .6 miles on Cabin Flats trail to our #49 campsite. We wait 10 minutes, then I tell Shemia that I'll wait for SHOE and she can head up to the campsite to scope out a good place for us. She takes off and I sit on a rock and take a small nap. YUP, I fell asleep! I must of been really tired. hahaha! The next thing I know, I was awakened by the same rangers that were looking for the missing hiker. I laughed, embarrassed that I've been caught sleeping (and probably snoring) and tell them I'm waiting on one of our hiking partners. I looked at my watch and notice it's been 20 minutes. I snacked on some gorp and waited another 15 minutes. I decided to roll into camp. I figured SHOE is taking it safe and slow and she'll get to camp when she's good and ready. I started the .6 mile gradual climb up and find #49 at 4:36pm. Seems as if it's sprinkled with good campsites all along a river. I meandered through and say hello to all the people already relaxing at their camps. I finally get to the end, and see Shemia. I found two good trees and start putting up my tarp and hammock. I'm almost done when SHOE slinks in. If I would of waited another few minutues we could of hiked to camp together. HA! Oh well.

Shemia did some exploring,firewood gathering, and discovered another, more private campsite. Her and SHOE made camp there. Since I already had all my stuff strung up, I decided to stay where I was.

When I went to change into my comfy camp clothes, I saw another hiker that we passed earlier. He was climbing up the ridge BUCK NAKED. He probably thought he no one could see him. It looked like he was washing his clothes and bathing. OMG! I hurried up, changed my clothes, and warned the others. HA! He probably had no idea I saw him. Ooops. (What happens in the woods, stays in the woods.) We all finished unpacking, put on camp shoes, and slid into the river to cool our feet, and filter water for dinner. ahhhhh... one of the best things about camping next to a river, you can soak your sore feet in the cold icy water. Afterwards, SHOE and I hunted for some firewood. Considering it's a pretty well used campsite, there were no logs, sticks, limbs, even twigs to be found. Plus, the stuff we did find was all wet. We brought our sorry looking soggy branches to Shemia and hoped she can do something with it. She's magical. Shemia got a fire going with the scraps we found. SHOE and I boiled water for our dinners. I had a Knorrs parmasean garlic noodles with a gouda babybel cheese that SHOE gave me, and some pizza flavored combos. Shemia just ate nuts. NO joke, the girl ate just ate nuts. 3 kinds of nuts to be exact. Walnuts, peanuts, and almonds. I offered her some combos, but she said kept to her healthy diet and said no. Good for her! SHOE tried her own invention, minute rice with mac-n-cheese powder. It seemed to work out well. After dinner, SHOE had a surprise for all of us. JIFFY POP! WHOO HOO! I can't remember the last time I had some jiffy pop. She turned on her pocket rocket canister stove and Shemia and I took turns shaking the jiffy pop pan. We were like little kids, cheering every POP we heard, watching the foil bubble up. SHOE got some good video footage of it. HAha!

After munching on popcorn, some great conversations about religion and race, and hilarious stories about SHOE's Mexican-wanna-be sister-in-law (which were trully funny, I was teary up from laughing so hard, no offense SHOE, you just tell a funny story) the sun went down, we got quiet, and Shemia hit the hay. I was left in charge of the fire. I got it going again, then it just died down. SHOE and I stayed up til after 10pm catching up. We finally call it a night. She goes off to her tent and I walk back to my campsite. Even though I'm about 75 feet away, I still got creeped out at spending a night alone, so I took my whistle off my pack and clipped it onto my shirt, incase I had to use it that night. As I slinked into my hammock, my imagination just went wild and I started scaring myself with images of some psycho coming to get me in the woods. I decided to just pray to keep my over active mind occupied and to help me fall asleep. The next thing I knew, it was 7:44am. I had made it through my first solo (sort of) night in the woods!

Round 3 GSMNP (Fri)

Guess what? You guessed it, Ding Ding!! Round 3 in the GSMNP started with a phone call from SHOE. After work on Friday I zoomed up to the Smoky Mountains for the start of a new adventure. I met SHOE and Shemia (another trail dame) at the usual spot, Smokemont Campground. I actually got up there early enough to put up my hammock in the day light. YAY! (My set up is getting a lot easier and faster to hang because all the practice I've been getting. )

I finally got to sit down, relax, and enjoy camp. Let me say that these girls know how to car camp right too! They had a huge blue tarp set up over a picnic table in case of rain (and wouldn't you know, it didn't rain a drop that night. hahha!) and a table full of goodies to snack on, like garlic hummus and veggie crackers, roasted peanuts, and all the makings for S'Mores. SHOE even had a camp chair she was lounging on. It's actually pretty nice to have some amenities when your outdoors. With all the backpacking I've been doing lately, I've missed being able to sit at a picnic table, lounge in a comfy camp chair, warm up to a good fire, and walk to a clean bathroom ... aahhh... it's the little things you miss. hahha!

While sitting at the picnic table, I watched as Shemia brought a pile of sticks to a roaring fire right just as the sun was going down for the day. She's pretty talented with firewood and a book of matches. I don't think I could ever get a fire roaring the way she had it going. SHOE pulled out the map and we got down to business looking over the weekends itinerary. 9.4 miles on Saturday with an easy 5 miles on Sunday. DONE, on to more important things... chillaxing...

As Shemia stoked the fire and Shoe assembled all the items for our S'Mores, I lazily took advantage of the down time and just took it all in. I think it was Shemia who said it first, about loving the smell of a camp fire. I whole heartedly agree. I love everything about a camp fire. The crackling, snapping, hissing sounds the wood makes; the heat generated from the fire licking your face, hands and legs as it keeps you warm; the white smoke spiraling from the flames and getting into your hair and clothes; and the orange, red, white, and blue colors that you see. Something about staring at the fire is so soothing. I was content just sitting there.

SHOE passed out some wire hangers that we both unraveled to use as our marshemellow sticks for our S'Mores. Shemia is on a major health kick. She knocked out all suger from her diet and is even on the verge of becoming a vegetarian, so she bypassed on the S'mores. She had no idea what she was missing. Warm gooey goodness slapped between two graham crackers and a piece of melting hershey's chocolate. YUM! I had two S'more sammies that night.

After a couple of hours chit chatting around the campfire, we decide to call it a night and went to our respective tent/hammock to get a good night sleep for the next days adventure. I slept the entire night through and woke up around 7am. And guess what? no one heard me snoring :) hahaha! Til tomorrow....

First 12 miler!!!!

Whoo hoo! I just completed my first 12.4 miler !!! (it may not seem like a lot to you guys, but I've been wanting to up my hiking miles FOREVER!!) I took a chance today, since I've been doing 9 milers, I figured I could push it. I am so stoked :) It all started with a trip to our local mountain state park to check out the new section of trail. It's pretty cool actually. This section of trail will officially connect three parks in two states. It will connect Crowders Mountain State Park (in NC) to Kings Mountain State Park (in SC) and Kings Mountain National Military Park (in SC, a federal park, and it is one of two Revolutionary War National Military Parks. I got this straight off the website at www.nps.gov.kimo) So all these parks are going to be linked, not to mention two STATES are going to be linked, all because of this little trail. By the way, Boo and I helped build this trail! Last year we joined REI on Trail days, and helped clear weeds, shovel dirt, create water shed routes, and move rocks. That was some hard work! and all we got was a t-shirt. hahhaa! Just kidding, they fed us lunch, made sure we had plenty of water, and that t-shirt? Well, it was a performance shirt that I still wear on my hikes til this day :) All in all, I could not wait to step foot on this trail. It opened up in April of this year, but I haven't been bold enough to check it out. You have to be able to do 12.4 miles, an out and back trail.

From the new Boulder access trail head, it's 6.2 miles to Kings Pinnacle and then 6.2 miles back. The terrain was rolling with a few heart pumping climbs to break it up a bit. The first 1/2 mile is straight down, (so you know what that means... the last .5 miles you climb, after hiking 12 miles are straight up!) There are three climbs in the middle and then a mile straight up climb to reach Kings Pinnacle. So it's pretty tough either way you go.

I woke up early, ate breakfast, and zoomed down to Crowders Mountain. I checked in with the ranger, got my permit, and started my hike at exactly 8am. I put down on my permit that I would probably be back around 6-7pm b/c I just knew it would take me ALL day. Well guess what? At 11am, I was sitting pretty and having lunch on top of Kings Pinnacle. I had hiked 6.2 miles in 3 hours! I know the trail runner that passed me must of thought I was nuts! Because, there I was, dripping with sweat and grinning like a fool. hahha! I was so shocked and excited that I had finished that fast (at least fast for me). I only took a 15 minute lunch break to eat a banana, granola bar, and to assess myself. Did I feel tired? No. Did I my feet feel sore? No. Did I think I could hike another 6.2 miles back to my car? Hell yeah! I told myself it would be AWESOME if I could make it back in 3 hours, but that I would be happy if I was back at my car by 4pm. As the afternoon wore on, the sun got hotter and I started to feel the climbs. I think it was around mile 10 that I really started feeling it. Thank goodness this trail has little benches you can stop and sit on every other mile. I took full advantage of each bench I passed. At one point I knew it was getting dangerous, when I stopped to catch my breathe on a climb and I felt like my legs and face were on fire. I also got chills. Who gets chills on a 93 degree day? A dehydrated person, that's who. I was feeling symptoms of dehydration, even though I brought two liters of water flavored with Gatorade powder to replenish my electrolytes. Thank goodness I only had 1 mile left. I know, I know. I should of been hydrated. Well, I thought I was. I know realize I need to drink gallons of water the day before I go on any long hikes during the summer and make sure I have plenty of water AND actually drink it. Lesson learned, trust me.

I finally climbed up that last KILLER half mile to the ranger station I looked at my watch and it was 1:59pm. I made it back by 2pm!!!!!!!! WHOO HOO!!!! I did it! I was so happy to complete my first 12 miler and the icing on the cake was finishing it up by 2pm. I filled my nalgene bottles up and drank two liters of water b/f I got home. The best thing about getting home that early, was that I was able to get cleaned up, have dinner, and catch a movie with Boo. AND, I felt great! You would of thought I'd pass out and sleep the rest of the day away, but surprisingly I was full of energy. Must of been the hiker high :) Til next time.... GET OUTDOORS!!!

YUM! Thanks Backpacker.com

With Fall/Winter around the corner. Here are some good sippin' treats for the end of a loooong hiking day :) Got the info off of backpacker.com (Dusting off my flask.) Can't wait to try some of them, but just beware of yellow snow for some of recipes. hahhaa! ENJOY!


Trail Chef: Top 10 Backpacker Cocktails
"Light that fire and kick back with a signature camping drink. Some food items are just too heavy to justify schlepping them around in your pack. (When's the last time you saw somebody whip out a watermelon at camp?) But liquor, my friends, is not one of those items. Yeah, the ingredients can be heavy, but a perfectly blended, snowbank-chilled cocktail can be the difference between an excellent day on the trail and a transcendent day on the trail. In that spirit, here are 10 of our favorite concoctions. Cheers."

1. Mountain MargaritaLemon-Lime Gatorade + tequila + fresh snow
2. Watermelon Snowfield-Fruit punch sports drink + Bacardi 51 rum + snow + maraschino cherry
3. Bikini Sunburn-Vodka + light rum + cherry sours + juice of half a fresh lemon + sugar
4. Mountain Storm Cosmo-Lime juice + cranberry juice concentrate + triple sec + vodka + lime Kool-Aid powder + hailstones
5. Snake in the GrassLemon-Lime Gatorade + vodka + green creme de menthe
6. Blackberry Margarita-Fresh-picked berries + snow + tequila
7. Backcountry Mai Tai-Tang + snow + dark rum
8. Goodnight Kiss-Good Earth tea + scotch
9. Wilderness White Russian-Kahlua + vodka + milk (use dry whole milk powder)
10. Under the Sleeping Bag-Light rum + triple sec + brandy + lemon juice

Round 2 GSMNP (Sun)

After a great night sleep, I woke up around 7:30am and ventured out to water the leaves. (In the rain, yes it was still raining.) After stretching a bit, I packed up my stuff, took a few pictures of the river, and retrieved our food bag from the cables. By the time SHOE woke up, I had already eaten breakfast and was all packed up. We started at 9:30am and decided to leave on our crocs to wade through the river crossings. Now, I have never hiked in crocs, and wondered if my feet would start to hurt after walking 20 feet. Well, 2 miles later, I was impressed that I had hiked that far in my red crocs wannabes, comfortably! WOW. It actually felt nice to have my feet breathe and the river crossings cooled them down. (*note to self, hike in crocs more often.) We finally stop for a quick 1/2 hour lunch break and put on our boots so we can hike faster. Our lunch spot was gorgeous. Two rushing rivers converging into one big, deep, rolling, river. The soft sounds of the water flowing was so relaxing. I didn't want to get up and leave. But alas, we had to trek on to the car. This was probably the easiest section of the trail on this trip. Nice, wide, well graded, rock/root free trail with a constant, meandering river beside it. It made the last 5 miles fly by and before I knew it, it was 1pm and we were at the car. Nice, easy 6.8 mile day. We hopped in the car, and took a detour into Elkmont campground to find a bathroom to clean up a bit and change into some clean clothes. We then zoomed through the park to pick up SHOE's car and then down into Cherokee for some burgers and blizzards! On the way down, traffic had stopped a bit and wouldn't you know it, a bear had come out of the woods in search of food and all the tourists had stopped their cars and gotten out to take its photo. If I would of had my camera within reach, I would of snapped some photos too! (while sitting in my car.) But it was in my backpack and in the trunk of my car :( So I bypassed all the tourist who were getting waaaaay to close to a bear. (Seriously, I felt like a TV episode of "Bears gone wild" was about to happen. People were getting THAT close to this animal.) I finally get through the traffic jam and wind down the mountain. We pulled into Dairy Queen JUST as it started to sprinkle. I ordered a cheeseburger, fries, diet coke, and a Reece's peanut buttercup blizzard (only the best flavored blizzard ever!) We relax, enjoy our burgers, and talk about the hike, future hikes, and about the crazy guy SHOE met on the AT that carried a machete to ward off bears and a 5lb bag of oranges. DUDE! 5 lbs of oranges! that's to heavy to carry on the trail! hahhaha!

All in all it was another great weekend spent in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Thanks once again to SHOE for working out the logistical part of our hike and for finding us a place to stay on Friday night. Sometimes all you need is a quiet walk in the woods to make everything all right. Til Next time.... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Round 2 GSMNP (Sat)

Did I mention what a total "outdoor diva" SHOE looked like? She was in a hiking skirt (that I eyed enviously.) I've always wanted to hike in a skirt (and no, not a kilt like some of the guys do, but a true hiking skirt.) I have to say though, that her cute outfit didn't help her much when she almost ate it not more then 1/4 of a mile into our 9.4 mile day. (It really wasn't funny and it almost put her out of commission for the entire trip.... ok, maybe it was a little bit funny.) Remember all the rain last night? Well, it made all the rocks, roots, and logs we have to trudge through slick. Not to mention all the mud rain creates. So we were walking along the 4.8 mile section of Sugarland Mountain Trail head (5870), when SHOE stepped up on a log and started slipping and sliding all over the place until she caught herself. I swear she was flapping around for a good 5 seconds before she steadied herself. (That was the funny part.) Well, she sort of tweaked her right knee and it bothered her a bit the rest of the trip. Due to the conditions, we decided to take it slow and easy. Most of this section was either flat or down hill, but sometimes going down hill is actually more painful then climbing. My poor knees and ankle joints took a beating on the descending sections.

Along the way, we spotted a few blackberry bushes and stopped for a taste. They reminded me of a summer spent in Kansas, where my grandmother made homemade blackberry ice cream and had homemade blackberry jam. mmmm.... Simpler times. As we continued, we noticed bear scat every couple of miles and I wondered if we would ever catch up to that bear. We finally make it to the intersecting trail and decided to stop for lunch. I assembled a tasty bacon and cheese tortilla wrap with a couple of boiled eggs. (Yes, I lugged eggs in my backpack, I needed the protein!) When I look over at SHOE, I see her putting together some fancy gourmet lunch. She slathers a round flat bread with peanut butter, sprinkles some dried banana cubes, and drizzles it with chocolate honey. After lunch, we decided to lay in the middle of the trail like homeless people and relax. A 1/2 hour later, we get the gumption to put on our packs and descend the 2.8 miles down Rough Creek trail. The first part of the trail was pretty slow going, but then it got better and we sailed down the trail, crossing three small little streams. We make it to Little River Trail and our last 1.8 miles to camp (all up hill.) As we climb the gradual graded trail I start to run out of steam and just pray that the campsite is coming up any second. There are three river crossing on this trail. The first two are tough, with long jumps from rock to rock, but I dared it and rock hopped it across just fine. SHOE's been slipping and sliding all day long, so she opted to put on her crocs for the crossings and ended up hiking the rest of the trail in her crocs. Well, the last river crossing was a CRAZY! First, we had to hike about 25 feet through a mind field of moss covered boulders(AKA, slick ass rocks) then rock climb down to a decent rock to jump off of to ford a fast flowing, deep river. I watched SHOE carefully navigate across the river and decide to take off my boots and put on my croc wannabes on for this little adventure. I carefully step down into the icy cold water and it feels sooooo good on my tired feet. aaaahhh.....

We finally stroll into camp and as soon as I have my tarp up, it starts raining buckets! We waited out the rain, finish up camp chores, and make dinner. I decided to try those Knorr's noodle Garlic and Herb side dishes for dinner and WOW, with the babybel Gouda cheese that SHOE gave me it was so warm and yummy. (SHOE also shared her dark chocolate cheesecake freeze dried meal and O.M.G. that was so good.) I had to eat under my tarp b/c it started raining again. When the rain lulled a bit, we hung our food bags with the bear cables and chit chatted with a couple that just got to camp. As soon as we started talking to them, the sky just opened up. We ran back to our campsite and called it a night. It continued to rain the ENTIRE night. Luckily I was hanging, so I was off the muddy ground that shortly turned into a lake. At one point I peeked my head out of my hammock and saw SHOE's tent surrounded in a pool of water. It was like she was camping on top of a lake! Luckily nothing got wet. It was only 8pm, but we called it a night and went to sleep. Around 11pm, I got up to water the leaves, then fell back asleep, warm and dry til the next morning.

Oh, and that bear, whose scat we were following, we never saw it. Seems that when we turned left to go to our campsite on the Little River Trail, he turned right. The couple who made it to camp late told us they saw him as they were coming up that day. Oh well... Stay tuned for the Sunday's adventures.

Round 2 GSMNP (Fri)

SHOE called me earlier in the week to see if I was free to backpack another section with her. Let's just say she had me at "Hello" :) Alright, that was corny. But of course I wanted to backpack! So Friday after work, I hopped in my car and zoomed up for round two in the Smokey Mountains. We met at the Smokemont Campground (b/c our "free" hotel, Mt. Rat-infested-Collins Shelter, was full.) By the time I got there, it was drizzily and dark, so when I did the campground loop I missed our spot and had to go all around the entire campground and loop back again. I finally get there and see that SHOE has a nice fire going. After hellos and hugs I unload my pack and look around for some decent trees to string up my hammock. Well, the best set of trees happen to be right in front of the bathrooms. I mean, RIGHT in front of bathrooms. I had the yellow glow of the bathroom light pouring down on me as well as the swooshing sound of flushing toilets to lull me to sleep that night.

After putting up my tarp and hammock I joined SHOE over at the picnic table. We briefly discuss what a luxury a picnic table is at a campground, compared to backpacking and having to sit on the hard ground. (The things we miss while in the backcountry. hahha! ) She had all the maps laid out and has already come up with two possible sections. An ambitious 12 mile a day one and an attainable 9 mile a day one. After leafing through all the profiles of each trail, we decide to go for it. GAME ON ambitious trail! By then the fire had started to die down a bit, so SHOE lit up some firestarters and we threw some more logs on. All of the sudden, she pops up and says, "I have something for you." She goes to the car and comes back with a present for me! She hands me two Honey Stinger energy gel packs. Awww.... She remembered I had the GU energy packets on our last trip. So sweet of her. Wait a minute.... she probably remembered the gnarly face I made after choking down the mango flavored GU and didn't want to see me gagging again. hahaha! That GU was pretty gross tasting. Thanks for the present SHOE! While I stowed my loot in my pack, SHOE looked around for some sticks to skewer the marshmallows she brought. No luck finding any good sticks. But I have to say, what she came up with was ingenious! I would of never thought of it. She pulled out a crow bar from her car, a tent stake, and ducked taped them together. HA! It worked :) By then, the screaming rug rats around the campground were fast asleep, and all was nice and quiet. We talked a bit more, went over the profiles of the trail again, and that's when it happened. We hatched a plan. The plan was to hike the Benton MacKaye trail that runs through the Smokies next spring. All 9o some miles of it. Yes, we were very ambitious that night (or drunk off of toasted marshmallow gooey goodness.) Either way, I am stoked and can't wait for Spring!

In spite of the yellow glow, I slept good that night. We got up pretty early the next morning, (some hound dog was yelping in the background somewhere). It was actually pretty chilly, but we packed up and changed in to our hiking clothes. We were in the middle of packing when this "Shaggy," minus Scooby Doo, looking dude walks near us and says, "Hey, who was sleeping in the hammock over there?" (Pointing to my camp spot.) I smile, thinking he's going to ask me something about my cool hammock, I raise my hand and say "Me!" Shaggy goes, "man you were sawing some logs last night!" (WTF, damn Shaggy, way to call me out like that.) SHOE laughs and through my teeth I say, "yeah.... I snore." Seems he heard me last night while making a mid night pit stop to bathrooms. Oh well... go eat a sandwich you skinny mo-fo.

We finished loading up the cars, headed out to back country office for our permits, drop off my car at Elkmont Campground, scooted on over to the Sugarland Mountain Trail Head, and FINALLY start our trip. We decide to stick with the attainable, instead of ambitious route and at 10:30am we began ROUND TWO in the GSMNP. Til tomorrow.

Double Dose

Today I pulled some double duty. Boo and I went for a nice 5 mile hike at a local park then played 9 holes of disc golf. The hike was pretty easy with some nice rolling hills, nothing to crazy. Although I did get a harsh reminder that I need to start out slow and warm up before I blaze down the trail. The first mile plagued me with a gnarly shin splint on my left leg. (Not fun) My other leg decided it wanted to cramp up at the calf. So the first mile made me a bit upset, but I learned from it. I told Boo to go ahead without me and I went at a snails pace, stretching out my calf pain and stretching out the shin splint. At the trail head turn off I met up with Boo (he was waiting for me) and I stopped and stretched for a while. When we started back up, I felt a bit better and we started making some excellent time. By mile 3 we were blazing down the trail sweating bullets!

It's been a while since I've been to this park and as I'm hiking, memories of previous times spent on this trail start floating around my head. A long time ago, I used to have a Black Lab named Jackson. He and I, along with my mom's German Shepard Sam, hiked these trails so much, we knew all of them by heart. I couldn't help but think of them. (Both passed on). Remembering how the Lab was always exploring ahead with his nose to the ground, probably hoping to find some interesting scent to lead him down the trail. And the dutiful Shepard, never leaving my side. After our work out, I would take them to the lake, sit on the bench, and toss sticks out for them to retrieve. Yes, the Shepard was an amazing swimmer AND retriever. They were my little companions, always ready for an adventure. They kept me safe, in shape, and smiling. Walking this trail again made me miss them both.

After our hike, we drove up to the disc golf course and played 9 holes. We powered thru them so quick, I actually got a second work out. We decided to stop after 9 holes because;
1. lots of mud
2. we were tired, and
3. we were meeting my parents at their house for lunch!

We spent a nice morning outdoors. Til next time....