Hiking in the Smokies

We had such a fun and exciting day, and the evening is turning out to be just as exciting.

We started out leisurely this morning, getting up rather late and making French toast for breakfast. Then we decided to go back into the park and see more in the mountains. Elizabeth said she'd like to hike to a waterfall, and that she'd like to do a strenuous hike. (The hikes come in easy, moderate, and strenuous.)

Yesterday we drove halfway up Newfound Gap road to the Clingman's Dome trail. We parked at the end and took the paved trail up to the observation deck, which was marked "moderate". It was very steep, and although it was only half a mile it took us quite awhile to get up there and it was really tough going. We stopped to rest several times and the sweat was pouring off by the time we reached the top. (You get to the top of the paved trail, only to be met by a curlicue going farther up like a pedestrian overpass to the observation deck.) Fortunately it was so high up it was very cool and lovely up there.

So, today's trail was 2.7 miles of "strenuous" to Rainbow Falls, and I was thinking that the dogs and I might not make it all the way. But strenuous turned out to be not as bad as Clingman's Dome. It was steep, but not as steep, and it was not paved which is I think why they mark it more difficult. I actually preferred it because you walk more slowly when you have to pick out your steps.

(Technically, dogs are not allowed on the trails in the park, except for two which are right next to visitor centers. There is no explanation for why this is, although we think it is because of the bears. No need for trouble because your dog decided to pick a fight with a bear. We took the dogs up Clingman's Dome yesterday, and we did see other dogs. Today we decided to take the dogs along, and although we saw other dogs in the parking lot, we didn't see any other dogs on the trail. Fortunately we didn't see any bears either.)

Anyway, it was absolutely beautiful. Walked along a stream which tumbled down moss-covered boulders and fallen trees, amidst a beautiful forest with rhododendrons growing all around. This hike wound up taking us five hours to go up and back down again, although we stopped quite a bit to rest or to clamber on the rocks and play in the water. Took a long, long time to get to the falls, and not as long to get down but our "going down" muscles were just as tired at the bottom as our "going up" muscles were at the top. (This trail kept going for another three miles to the top of the third highest peak in the Appalachians, and we met a few people who had been all the way up. One guy with two smaller children had hiked up the day before, camped up there, and were on their way down with their packs on their backs.)

All the way down the kids were fantasizing about what they wanted to eat for dinner. We decided we would go back to the Old Mill restaurant, which we had eaten at on Monday night, because it was so good. For $16.99 to $18.99 you get fritters, corn chowder, salad, an enormous entree, mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, and dessert. On Monday I ordered a rainbow trout, expecting a reasonable sized meal, and instead got a mutant fish that (split in half) filled an entire plate. All the food is so good--the corn chowder a tasty concoction with red peppers and potatoes, the fritters are amazingly crunchy on the outside and soft and caky inside (with whipped maple butter). They specialize in southern cooked comfort food--ribs, meat loaf, chicken fried steak, pot roast, ham, etc., although they have a pretty well-rounded menu. The building is an old mill, which I gather is still actually operational. I wish I'd had my camera along to get some photos of it. (Well I had my camera along, but my batteries were dead.)

We put the dogs in the camper, and they flopped on the bed like dead things that weren't planning to move the whole time we were gone. As we pulled into the parking lot of the Old Mill, a storm was whipping up. This had happened the night before, but last night it blew a little bit and then ended. Tonight it kept blowing, and then started raining. We put our names in and went to the general store to shop while we waited for a table. In the store the radio was playing, talking about what counties had tornado warnings, and callers were reporting where there was hail and rain. When they called our name we dashed through the downpour to the restaurant, and when we sat down we could see the trees whipping around. I thought about the dogs back in the camper by themselves. We stuffed ourselves silly and enjoyed dinner, and the weather calmed down although it was raining pretty hard still when we left.

Driving home the traffic through Pigeon Forge was particularly nasty, and it turned out that the traffic light where we needed to turn off was closed, and traffic on our side routed over to the other side of the road, because two power poles were snapped in the middle and a roof of some building was puddled in front of a hotel at the corner. We got back to the campground, which had loose leaves and branches laying on the streets. Our campsites are on the edge of the campground, next to a little creek. The creek was quite a bit fuller than it had been, and for the next several hours we were moving the kids' tent, talking with other campers, watching the creek rise, and deciding whether to move to a different campsite or hope the water wouldn't rise too much more. The owner says that the water from the mountains takes several hours to get down here, and that they had our whole area under water a few years back when they had had hardly a drizzle here in town. We decided not to move, but we did unplug since our power outlet is only about a foot off the ground. I guess we'll see what's true in the morning.