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"All around me a voice was sounding, this land was made for you and me..."

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Day 40 Greenwood, VA  It was an early(ish) start to the day as we tried to squeeze every last bit of adventure out of this fantastic odyssey we'd been on for the better part of six weeks. And so, after a quick breakfast, we set off north along Skyline Drive and deeper into the Shenandoah National Park for our last hike of the trip. After an hour of twists and turns along the scenic drive, we pulled into the parking lot for the Doyles River Falls trailhead. I had initially scoped out a different hike for the day, one that was lauded as the  hike to do in the southern portion of the Park. It would surely have been a push at 9 plus miles with multiple stream crossings but, fresh off of my successes at The Narrows and the Bright Angel Trail, I was wildly confident. Emphasis on the wild. When I suggested the Riprap Trail and read the AllTrails reviews aloud to Jon, he uncharacteristically asked me if I was sure I wanted to push it that  hard. I told him I was up for it if he was (he was
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"So let's dance, the last dance..."

Day 39 Charlotte, NC to Greenwood, VA (270  miles ,  6,633 total )  We stayed with Geoff and Gail until noon, catching up some more and indulging in some of the best scratch buttermilk pancakes we'd ever had before getting back on the road, heading north for the first time during the trip.  With about four hours of driving to do, we didn't pull off for much sight-seeing beyond the usual odd-ball stops that Jon wanted to make (who doesn't  want to visit a Dollar General store?). By sundown, we reached our campground home in Greenwood. Hooked up and settled in at the southernmost tip of the Shenandoah National Park, we popped open some beers and fired up the grill as we plotted the next day's hike - very likely the last of this trip.
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"Let me ride through the wide open country that I love..."

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Day 38 Cosby, TN to Charlotte, NC (180  miles ,  6,363 total )  It was a sad farewell to the Gatlinburg East/Smoky Mountain KOA this morning as we headed east towards Charlotte and an overnight visit with Jon's best friend from college. Though we were both looking forward to visiting with Geoff and Gail and seeing their beautiful new home, it began to make the inevitable end of the trip feel all too real. As we drove through increasingly heavy traffic and congested thoroughfares running through the suburbs, we both fell silent. After nearly six weeks of open spaces and ever-changing landscapes, neither of us was ready to return to the closeness of life in the northeast.
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"In my Tennessee mountain home, life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh..."

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Day 37 Cosby, TN (1,855 foot elevation to 3,330 feet...and back )  With few days remaining of our wild adventure, we wanted to make the most of our last full day in Great Smoky Mountains National Park - after a hearty breakfast courtesy of Grill Master Mann, of course!  Mindful of our route following this portion of the trip, I'd booked an RV campground on the northeastern-most edge of the Park. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this is the least "popular" section of the Smokies with visitors and, as a result, has some of the least trafficked hiking trails. Happily for us (and entirely inadvertent on my part), the trail that we had decided to tackle was just half a mile from our campground so we could simply walk to the trailhead and leave the rig hooked up in its spot for the day. In reading up on the Maddron Bald hike to the Albright Grove Loop before we left, nothing gave me pause. It was described as a moderately strenuous hike because of the constant incline on the way
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"For purple mountain majesties..."

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Day 36 Highlands, NC to Cosby, TN (103  miles ,  6,183 total...and probably another 500 driving aimlessly around Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge looking for dinner because I didn't adequately prepare )  After a hearty farmhouse breakfast at Half-Mile, we packed up the rig and set out for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With just a short drive ahead, we meandered a bit on our way out of the Highlands, stopping off at several of the notable waterfalls as we left - Bridal Veil and Dry Falls. When we finally reached the entrance to the Park, it was already 2pm with another forty-five minutes to the trailhead I'd selected for that day's hike. Given that it was slated as a three hour excursion and we'd have just two and a half hours of daylight by the time we set off, I assumed it would be scrapped.  But Jon loves nothing as much as a race against the sun, partially to test our abilities but mainly, I suspect to prove how misguided my anxieties are. And so, at 3pm, we em
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