Another Big Weekend

Monday July 11- Tuesday July 12

That's the date for Keith and Jeff's reservation at the Lodge at Mt LeConte.  Jeff arrived on Friday afternoon.  Jenny and Bobby just got back from a dive trip so they were able to join us as well.

After a big mountain breakfast, we spent a leisurely Saturday morning plotting, planning, and dreaming about a BIG family vacation that the five of us are going to take next spring. No hints!  That's another blog for another time next spring!

We finally decided to get out and about so we rode the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg. 

We had lunch and watched the ice skaters for a while.  It felt good to be near the ice after the heat we've been having!

Then we headed to the Island because we had a reservation for the ESCAPE Game! 

 If you've never heard of it, you probably will soon because they are popping up everywhere!  It is tons of fun and a great way to spend an hour with 6 or 8 of your family members or (smartest) friends!  There are several rooms to choose from.  We chose The Gold Rush.  Here's how it works.  Your group is given brief instructions and then "locked" in a room. You have 60 minutes to figure out how to get out. There are riddles and puzzles that, when solved, give you keys or codes to unlock things that eventually will open the exit door. Now, I've played all kinds of these "escape the room" games on the Internet, so I knew what to expect and I thought this would be a piece of cake. (I mean after all, between the 5 of us we have 8 college degrees!) Uh-uh!  We may be smart, but we're slow!  We needed a few helpful hints and still didn't escape in time. Fortunately, our friendly guide rescued us and showed us what we needed to do to finish the game. We figure we might have completed it if we'd had another 30 minutes!  Anyway, we had a great time. Jenny is ready to go back and try another room.  If you are now thoroughly intrigued, here's the website for the one in Pigeon Forge. If you decide to give it a go, keep in mind that you need to make your reservation online early.  It's very popular and reservations fill up fast!

https://theescapegamepigeonforge.com/

There is also one in Kingsport (for my hometown friends) over on Stone Drive.

After all that excitement, we went home, had dinner and stayed up playing board games.  Then we chilled (?) in the hot tub.

On Sunday, we had lunch at our favorite place, Old Dad's. I love their Veggie sandwich with homemade chips.

Then we headed over to the craft loop to stock up on peach butter and honey butter. Afterwards we came home and Jenny and Bobby started packing up their stuff to head home. We were outside loading their car when we heard the thrashing.  Ah-ha!  Our bear was back.  No, actually, this time it was a bear family! Now I know why Mama Bear tore down the persimmon tree.

Access!

You can check my Facebook page for video of the two cubs playing in that tree. They wandered around our yard for a good while, eating the nuts, fruits, and berries that nature provided.  They also enjoyed "frolicking" all over our smaller trees and shrubs. (There goes the landscaping!)

They finally wandered over to cool off under our neighbor's porch and Jenny and Bobby headed out.  As Jenny drove away I heard her squeal.  The bears crossed the road in front of her car. They gave J & B the same send off that Jeff got last weekend!

Meanwhile, Keith and Jeff spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting all their hiking stuff together for their big hike on Monday.  Once again, the dining room table looked like a tornado had gone through!

On Monday morning, as they finished their last minute packing, I went out on the deck and noticed this plastic bag laying in the yard.  It seems Keith had stored a big bag of grass seed under the house, out in the open, and apparently bears like grass seed! Yep!  They were back. So we enjoyed another half hour of watching the fun and frolic!

Notice the white plastic bag. I guess they'll be back tomorrow looking for more!  Anyway, Keith and Jeff finally headed for the mountain and I headed for the outlets. 

I know most people come to shop on holidays or weekends, but shopping on slow weekdays is fantastic.  They have plenty of parking and great sales!  I had a successful day and then headed back home to my hammock to wait for a text saying the weary travelers had reached the top.

 My view

This made me think they were probably hiking in the rain.  They called me at 2. (For the most part, there is no cell service in Great Smoky Mountains Park, but they have pretty good reception up top!)  

They made it to the lodge! They even sent me a photo to prove it!

It was cloudy there, but they encountered no rain on the way up.

That night they sent me this photo of a rainbow viewed from there.

So I sent them this photo of the same rainbow from here.

On Tuesday I stopped at Old Dad's (again!) to get a sack lunch and then headed up to Newfound Gap to pick up the guys.  They went up Trillium Gap Trail (in Gatlinburg) and came down the Boulevard/AT Trails which put them coming out at Newfound Gap (near Clingman's Dome).  

It's not a bad place for a picnic, especially since the temperature there was 72 degrees and it was 87 in Gatlinburg!

After lunch, I decided to walk up the trail to meet them.

I can now say I've hiked (part of) the Appalachian Trail!  Since I didn't have on my boots and didn't take water, I found a big rock and sat down to wait.

Pretty soon I spied them walking down the trail.

As we headed back to the parking lot, they shared lots of funny stories they heard.

Jeff, upon arriving at the lodge:

"This is the best Monday I've had in a long time!"

Overheard two kids at Trillium Gap Trailhead next to the llama trailer:

Kid 1: "Mom, that trailer smells like a petting zoo!"

Kid 2: "Oh boy, Mom do they have a petting zoo here?"

After seeing a family with children on the trail:

Keith:"I love seeing young people hiking!"

Mother of children: "You are talking about me, aren't you?"

At the LeConte breakfast table:

Fellow Camper: "You know, if you add enough butter, salt, and pepper to these grits, they taste like butter, salt, and pepper!"

We headed back down to pick up Jeff's car and finally made it home where they hit the last stop on the long trail - the hot tub!

There they sat, staring at where they had been and already planning their next adventure.

Here are some photos from their trip.

Getting ready to hit the trail

Grotto Falls, 1.4 miles up Trillium Gap Trail

Lots of rhododendron blooming along the way.

Hiking in the shade.

After hiking 6.5 miles, they finally reached the Lodge!

And look who greeted them!

Yes, it was llama day at LeConte Lodge!  Llamas are used to bring up clean linens and supplies and haul down dirty linens and trash.  They are able to handle the switchbacks on these rocky trails better than horses.They are rewarded with a big pancake breakfast when they arrive!

The dining hall where the guys had the customary Salisbury Steak dinner.

Keith resting at their "luxury accommodations".

They finally made it and THEN the rain came.

And the rainbow.

It cleared up enough to take a short hike to Cliff Tops to see the sunset. 

Then bedtime. 

The next morning, they skipped the sunrise hike to Myrtle Point since it was so foggy and cloudy.  Time for breakfast.

Then the hike to High Top, the highest point on Mt LeConte.  It's a tradition to add a rock to this pile in an effort to make LeConte taller than Clingman's Dome. I think they still have 40' to go!

And next they hit the Boulevard for their 8 mile trip back down to Newfound Gap.

There were lots of scenic views.

And finally, they reached the parking lot.

They have now officially hiked all 5 trails that lead to LeConte Lodge. 

Our Great Big Fourth of July

Sometimes when July 4 falls on a Monday, Eastman people get both Monday and Tuesday off.  That makes for a nice long weekend.  We arrived at the mountain house on Thursday to stock up and take care of some chores.  We also took our usual hike on the Gatlinburg Trail. The rhododendron were blooming.

Jeff was able to get away early on Friday so we started our weekend off with dinner on the deck.

After dinner we decided there was still enough daylight to hike the Little River Trail (4.6 miles).  

FYI, if you're ever in the Smokies, early morning and early evening are the best times to see bears.  They like to roam when it's cooler. As we hiked, other hikers kept telling us to look out for the bear up ahead on the trail, but we didn't see him. We did see a snake and the rhododendron on this trail are huge!

We passed some more hikers coming back down the trail. We asked them if they saw a bear and they said no. We figured he had moved on. We reached our turning around point and sat down for a rest.

Jeff was taking pictures of flowers when he suddenly started making weird noises and frantically pointing. Mr Bear had arrived!  We were standing up on a bridge and he was down below on the other side of the river.  We were able to safely watch him.  We jokingly judge the success of our summer holidays by whether or not we see a bear.  Already, this holiday was off to a good start! We had already seen rabbits and turkeys.  Now we could add "bear" to our weekend wildlife inventory.

We finished our hike and made it back home before dark.

On Saturday, we decided to spend the day at the Deep Creek area of the park in Bryson City, NC.  We have hiked there before, but we had all agreed that some day we would go back and do some tubing, as well as hiking.  Since the temperature and humidity was very high, the timing was right!  And to add to our excitement, we saw an elk on the side of the road near the Oconaluftee Visitors Center!  No photos since we were in a moving vehicle and nobody could grab a camera fast enough. Oh well. 

Deep Creek is one of my favorite hikes because of the waterfalls. We started with Juney Whank Falls. 

We continued down the trail to Tom Branch Falls.

And we ended up at Indian Flat Falls.

By now we were hungry and soaking wet with sweat. We headed back down the trail to our picnic spot.  Lunch time!

While we were hiking our shady picnic spot ended up in the sun.  We were definitely ready for some tubing!  Now Deep Creek is a great place for tubing.  You can go back up the trail and start at the scary fast part of the river or you can get in at the bottom of the trail and just float through the easier part. We opted for the floating part. The tubing would have been better if the water was a tad deeper. We kept hitting rocks (ouch!), but the water felt great and we had a blast with about a thousand other tubers. (Can you say crowded?) it is a very, very popular place in the summertime. 

After a couple of rides down the river, we dragged our weary bodies back to the truck, changed clothes, and headed back to Bryson City for ice cream at Soda Pop's. 

By the time we got back to Gatlinburg, it was time for dinner.  We were too tired to cook so we stopped for pizza at Big Daddy's. Big Daddy's, in Gatlinburg is inside Bennett's Barbecue (down the street from The Peddlar). One side of the building is BBQ and the other side is pizza. It was fantastic! Nothing like a long day at Deep Creek to work up an appetite! (As someone once told me, "That tubing is harder than it looks!"  He was right!) we ate and then headed home and crawled to the hot tub to soak our weary bones.  

By Sunday, I was ready for some "indoor time" (cooking and laundry), but the guys hit the trails again.  

They hiked 5.6 miles on Finley Cane Trail.  It's a relatively flat trail with beautiful rhododendron.  

After completing this trail, Keith reached the 500 miles hiked mark. He is the first of us to get his 500 mile pin!

As the skies started clouding over and the temperature started to drop we decided to spend some time "chilling" on the lower deck. We were just sitting there enjoying the view when we heard the unmistakable sound of a large mammal down below.  Our neighborhood bear had come to pay a visit!

We knew he had been snooping around our persimmon tree because he left a hint.  When a bear finds fruit, he'll tear the tree down trying to get to it. 

We enjoyed watching him and then headed up for dinner.

On Monday we rested up and got ready for our holiday feast.  The guys played some cornhole while I prepped for our meal.

Then Keith grilled the ribs.

Red, white, and blue fruit pizza is a regular at our patriotic holidays!  We decided to have dessert on the deck and once again our neighborhood bear came back to see us. He passed up the persimmon tree and climbed to the top of a wild cherry tree for his holiday feast. He provided us with perfect entertainment! 

After dinner we went back to Gatlinburg for fireworks.

During the night, the rains came so we chose an indoor activity for Tuesday in the park.  We drove over to Townsend and visited the new Smoky Mountain Heritage Museum. It was very interesting and quite informative and worth the visit.

We made it back to Gatlinburg in time for a late lunch at Old Dad's.  They make the best sandwiches in town!

The skies finally cleared (or so we thought) so we decided to get in one more hike on the Gatlinburg Trail. Once we were about 2 miles from the truck, the skies opened up again and we got wet. I didn't mind since I was sweaty already and I had an umbrella. It was invigorating!

We headed back to the house, dried off and warmed up.  Then Jeff headed for home. About 5 minutes after he left he called us. Our neighborhood bear crossed the road right in front of him!  What a send- off!