Great Smoky Mountains

It is our second rainy weather camp experience in Vinny, but this is supposed to last a few days, not optimal for us fair weather hiking types, but we have compensated by doing about 16 miles of day hiking in the last three days prior to this rain event, and our quads say they need a break. So it is almost 1pm and John is still sleeping, rejuvinating all those broken down hiking cells with sleep. With the pitter patter of the gentle drops, I remain bundled in my winter coat and boots typing away, no gloves needed yet, but I had better keep these fingers moving. It is supposed to let up a bit at 3pm at which time we will walk or bike into Bryson City, only about 2 miles from Deep Creek Campground in the NP, where guess what, we will try out the local brewery and visit the bike shop with John’s persistent leaky front tire.  

Luckily, we a had already gotten hiking fix in, as we did 6.5 mile hike to Looking Glass on our way to North Carolina

2 miles on Rocky Knob,  and 7.5 miles on the Deep Creek waterfall extravaganza trail right from our Deep Creek campground in which we experienced no bears but three lovely water falls (Tom Branch, Indian Creek and Juney Whank).  Looking Glass was our first glimpse of the the Smoky  Mountain Range and its vastness after hiking up for three miles on the narrow tree covered path and suddenly coming to the flat 100 ft rock plain, the hike’s namesake,  where you can look out onto the entire range. It was truly moment splendor just like lyrics to the song “America the Beautiful”  says.  

Rock Knob trail, a part of the Sky to Sea Trail that runs through the Carolinas, was the shorter yet most elevation gain hike of the three hike, making our already taxed quads to complain a bit on the way down

But we were coaxed on because Frog Level Brewery including the barbecue mac and cheese, not to mention the stout and the tranquil seating on the stream as per the last blog post. Another incredible glimpse of the Smoky’s from the Blue Ridge Parkway, all while sharinging the tranquility with Bryan and D’Ann.  

Deep Creek Trail and the figure eight including Indian Creek Trail to the Falls 

and a little Juney Whank cut-off where she showed off her flowing veil,

making Tom Branch’s Falls seem small. 

 Although, All Trails said people had encountered bears in the last days, we saw none but decided to have a third day of hiking since the rain was on its way.  Luckily our campsite was scattered with wood suitable for burning, and we had raided a stash of unoccupied empty campground before the hike, so we enjoyed the warmth and mesmerizing fire that John made as we rested our quads after devouring our dinner.  Two things I regret is not wrapping up baked potatoes to have them done this morning, and not employing the bike seat covers. Oh well. 

With our raincoats, umbrella and the Eagles pancho we were off walking to find the Bryson City beer establishments.  After about a mile walk we got picked up a young women and her 7 year-old son is a metallic orange/yellow sports Mercedes (10 cylinders she told us)  offered to drive us into town and we accepted.  We offered to buy her a beer and next thing we new she was heavy duty phishing us is what it seemed like, and said she was on her way to her sons grandma tomorrow because she needed to get out of town..anyway needless to say we resisted these attempts.  She definitely had some issues and moved onto other people while we got to hear the Open Mic night that was going on in the brewery.  Got chat with some nice folks and John even sang Gimme Three Step 

and Wish You Were Here with a guitarist !!

We got offers of rides back to campground from those who appeared to be a bit more on the normal scale, but there was no rain we decided to walk this time.   Bryson City is a delightful small town with a main street area to walk and shops and restaurants, but not too overwhelming like Gatlinburg. Cherokee seemed very spread out with numerous tourist shops and a casino.  There were several museums, Land to Farm and Cherokee. that may be on the docket for next time.  Bryson City was the only National Park that had cell phone service within the campground another vote for Deep Creek Campground in my book.  

The rain ceased a bit as we arrived at Smokemont and we ceased the opportunity to get a bit of activity in before dark. The Bradley Fork Trailhead was the perfect place to head up a bit and turn around before dark.  Here we saw our first bear cross the trail about 100 yds in front of us.  As we made noisy singing and fanning out coats to act large, we went by the spot where he headed down to the creek and there was no sight of him.   Well the rain was coming down after our first night at Smokemount and we decided to drive up to the highest point on the Great Smoky Range which had no classic smoky blue tinge, rather the flowing fog scene, with not much of the mountain range to be seen made even cooler looking by time lapse feature on the 12 ProMax. 

We would return here while camping at Cades Cove in a few days on a beautifully clear day and find the alternative trail to the dome instead of going up the 3/4 mile trail of 8 foot wide asphalt. 

 Luckily, I had downloaded the All Trails of this area and this time we hiked part way down on the Appalachian Trail, to the Clingmans bypass trail to the Forney Ridge Trail that took us right to the parking lot.  So much more enjoyable on a hiking path, and now we can say we hiked the Applachian !  

The view from the dome was an incredible 360 degree experience whose magnificence cannot be captured on an Iphone 12 ProMax. 

At the end of the first foggy Clingman’s Dome experience, the rain had started to come down hard and we decided it would be a much better day to spend at a brewery than to be holed up in Vinny with no electricity and it was unseasonably cold to boot.

So the spreadsheet was abandoned for April 28th and we decided to head to Pigeon Forge in search of beer, and there was some blue sky in that direction that we were following.

 We arrived at the Casual Pint and John found a smoky porter to go with the smoky mountains, and there was a town parade that was scheduled to go by with a perfect view from our pub chairs view, and it was NOT raining.  

The parade parents were rolling in and we were enjoying the free Wifi and I got a half price campsite just up the road at Waldens Creek Campground and tickets to a show at the Listening Room featuring Mason Caviness, Southern Call, Michelle Pereira and Regan Stewart, We had a private showing for the first 30 minutes, before 1/2 dozen other couples showed up. Evidently the Listening Room in Nashville is a bit more frequented, and it sounded like all of these musicians came down to help out this Pigeon Forge Listening Room location which hopefully will still be in business. There were tables and room for over 100 people with an excellent sound system(we could understand all the lyrics) yet less than a dozen of us had this wonderful private concert. I asked for their last song to be a group effort and we actually got our Vinny VanGo theme song on that night with “What are You Waiting For?”

We decided to go right to Dollywood on Saturday since Sunday was yet another scheduled rain day.  Highlights included seeing the bald eagles at the Dollywood Bald Eagle Sanctuary up close.  

The Hall Sisters, truly sisters, and such tight harmonies and strings talent, were my favorite.

I want to be a dancing flower on a flexible pole that extends about 30 feet into the sky.  

We decided that we are not amusement park types as John does not like roller coasters or other rides.  The grounds were beautiful and there were rose parade style butterflies and statues throughout the park.  

We were ready for Margaritaville which is a year old RV Resort that came highly recommended from my Stress Less Camping podcast.  This would be the perfect place to get some laundry done and to have a game day on the scheduled rainy day tomorrow. 

 But first down to the Fin to hear some live music on the porch and Tennessee bantering between two locals who we could hardly understand.  

We had a rainy grand competition day,  but had to bypass the outdoor venues of  lazy river, corn hole, ping pong and pickleball.   But we had some intense duckpin bowling moments with John winning the first game, I won the second and then he dominated in the third game, but I ended up with the all time high score for a game.  

Then the sawdust style shuffleboard would round out the evening not to mention a few games of a modern pong in the game room. We were happy to be at our resort and be able to turn on the little space heater that night.. It was cold.

If you ever visit Pigeon Forge, Nashville or Branson take the Redneck Comedy Bus Tour not only are you protected from the elements, but you learn a bit about the city while laughing your ass off at our standup comedian guide.  And we even had redneck speak lessons complete with spelling poster reinforcement. John and I sang along to Rocky Top as our comedian played on his banjolele as part of the show.  Of course, no redneck experience is complete without a stop at the Ole’ Smoky Tennessee Moonshine Store for some tasting and acquiring.  

Since these products are consumable, 1/2 dozen bottles made the cut, including some moonshine soaked pineapple.  These are the same people that make our newly discovered Salted Caramel Whiskey and we took along some Margarita and Blackberry/Lavender bottles for the campfire – don’t worry these are not real moonshine strength only 40 proof. People in the hills would use moonshine to barter for various staples back in the day, and it was much more convenient to carry a jug down the mountain than to haul corn. And the supply/demand issues during prohibition drove up the prices for the poor mountain people. FYI. During our final day at Pigeon Forge we found the Eddie Bauer Outlet and John’s signature yellow rain jacket for the last 30 years has been replaced by an Eddie B Purple.   

Back to nature,  Cades Cove back in the Great Smoky Mountains NP, but first another hiking experience where we were trying to find wildflowers

But then there are always waterfalls

 but instead found Elkmont, an old ghost town that came into being as a result of the war machine demand and close proximity to an Aluminum plant. Scattered along the old gravel Little River trail, were many ruins in various states of decline.

 Further down there was a newer abandoned resort style housing and a grand hotel (not as grand as what Henry Flagler built in St Augustine). Probably our least favorite hike and the wildflowers were a bit of a disappointment, but we never found an unexpected ghost town before in our travels. A small stop in a town called Townsend from some groceries, diesel and wouldn’t you know it, they had a brewery too. We always seem to arrive at campsites at dusk and our ears delighted at a bluegrass group a few sites down. They played each evening and it was a wonderful way to spend the evening by the fire. 

Wednesday at Cades Cove is Bike day on the loop.  The 12 mile loop starting from our campground,  connects historic cabins and churches and other dwelling It is closed down to auto traffic and this hilly freshly paved ride complete with bears and birds was delightful. 

We decided to hike the Abrams Falls trail (5.4 miles) whose trailhead was located about halfway around the loop.  We have this habit of not being able to get going until after noon so it is not a popular hiking time and we had the falls to ourselves when we arrived at 4pm.

  But just then three young people came jogging in, and in Julie Stenger-Smith style, had to jump in the base of this flowing freezing water. 

The Abrams Falls were the most beautiful we had experienced thus far, and the hike/bike left us feeling we had a great workout.  Hopping back on the bikes to complete the Cades Cove Loop back to the Campground, there were way more hop off our un-motorized bikes to push up the hills than we had on the other side of the loop. Then there was the bear experience where a group gathered to watch a mama bear stow her cubs high in a tree (at least 50 feet – we could hardly see but the other people had watched this happen)  Then mama decided to meander down the loop road so there was quite the bike traffic jam as we needed to wait until she decided to disappear into the woods. 

Safety in numbers and a group of us sped past the spot where we had seen her disappear.  It was after 7pm and who knows how many more uphill biking events or more bears we would experience on our return to camp.  Luckily uphill usually involved some downhill, and we made it back to camp before dark. So nice to hear bluegrass in the distance and some moonshining for our tired bodies. 

One more beautiful day at Great Smoky NP and we decided to head back up to Clingmans Dome to see if we could see more than blowing fog. 

Our final night enjoying Cades Cove of Fire and Bluegrass.