"For purple mountain majesties..."

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 embarked on the Forney Creek Trail heading to Andrews Bald. At a a very brisk pace.



We worked our way through a spruce-fir forest, noticing that many of the once-beautiful trees were dead or in the process of dying. We would later find out that the state of this forest was a function of a blight that has wiped out almost 90% of the Fraser firs in the Smokies.

After two miles of hiking, the forest opened up to a clearing known as Andrews Bald (a bald being a "high elevation grassy meadow" and this having the distinction of being the highest in the entire Park).


Just a few yards ahead of the meadow, we were treated to sweeping views of the surrounding Smokies.



Having made great time on the way up to the Bald, we were able to spend a few minutes soaking up the sun and mountains in the distance before beginning our return to the trailhead, which treated us to some pretty spectacular views of its own.





As Jon had predicted, we made it back to the trailhead before nightfall. In fact, our timing was just about as perfect as it could be, as we came out of the forest just as the sun was beginning to set.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Image
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 w...
Read more

"Let me ride through the wide open country that I love..."

Image
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.
Read more

"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.
Read more