The morning of day 5 started with me sneaking off to squeeze in a ride & get back before our 11am checkout time. Judging by the parking lot, I think I got to the trailhead early enough.
Sheltowee Trace is over 300 miles if you were to hike or ride the entire trail. I know of one person who tried it, our Canadian buddy Eric (Erocs), who took a week last year to ride, hike & drag his bike through the length of the trail.
I would settle for about a 10 mile section, and be very happy with it.
Once I got rolling, the scenery was incredible. I was glad there was no one out on the trail, because there were so many spiderwebs strewn across the trail I was spitting, coughing and swatting every few seconds. Finally I just resigned myself to the thought of 50 spiders and their trappings draped behind me as I rode and carried on.
Ok - one more small digression. See what I see in this photo? An incredible nature scene. If you were to zoom in a bit closer, on nearly every rock along the beach you would see a gatorade bottle, an old inflatable beach toy, a bunch of empty beer cans (Bud Light too! At least drink something worthwhile before you litter), McDonalds bags, etc. Enough bitching, but this was sickening to see.
It makes me realize how effective this commercial was when I was a kid. (I know, make all the "Get off my lawn!" jokes here, I know I'm old.)
What was not sickening were views like this. Just amazing and there is a scene like this around nearly every bend as the trail follows the shore quite closely.
I had just enough time to bomb a few small downhills and get back to the trailhead in time to get back, pack up, and head out to Cumberland Falls one last time.
We packed up, left the Big Truck in the campground parking lot, and cruised the 15 minutes to the park. The roads here are so much fun, but we are using the wrong vehicle. This...
should be driven with this...
As we got to the trailhead, we saw this. Mmm hmmm.
A few hundred yards into the hike, we could tell this was going to be a great time.
Just about 3 tenths of a mile in, there is a gorge overlook that is a lot of steps to climb to get this mostly obscured view.
When we reached the top, we met a very pleasant couple from Amsterdam that are doing exactly what we want to do. They are traveling the US 3 months at a time, spending 1 week each in 12 different locations. Then they return home for 3 months, then get another 3 month visa (until a certain Oompa Loompa cracks down on these threats to our national security) and do it again in another area of the country. Was great chatting with them, we hope they are having a great experience.
From up on the ridge you get another great vista of the main falls. Then it is a very rocky descent down to Eagle Falls, which you start to hear well before you see them.
As I worked my way around behind the falls, I saw - you guessed it - more trash.
After some very careful scrambling on wet rocks behind the falls,
I was able to grab a few shots from behind the waterfall. The temperature drop was pretty amazing.
From there we started the slow, steady climb back up to the trailhead, except we decided to tack on the loop 9 trail while we were out there. Again, their words to describe it:
The upper trail follows Eagle Creek upstream and then crosses a ridge to complete to loop. This is a very rugged section of trail.
Rugged is a good way to describe it. These two were absolute troopers, and we were all rewarded with this view just before reaching the trail's end. All in all about 3.3 miles and nearly 1000' of elevation.
Ok - I am not responsible (actually, I am the only one responsible) for how sick this next photo is. 2 days of rain, a morning of helmet hair, and the day's hike had left my 'do quite revolting. Can't wait to get this thing cut (first into the most glorious of mullets for the upcoming Mudflap festival) and restart the 18 month cycle.
From there it was a 2.5hr drive to our campsite just outside Gatlinburg. Tough to beat this greeting.
Then, of course, we had to find the playground.
Just to make sure we hadn't tried to cram too much into 1 day, we took the hour drive into the Smoky Mountain National Park and beelined it for Clingman's Dome to try to catch the sunset.
It was a bit chilly, and the fog was rolling in, but it was soooo worth it.
Of course these pictures do it no justice at all, but you get the general idea.
Jordan found her 'natural playground' and went to town.
It's really hard to explain, especially after all we had seen and done that day, but this closing scene from the mountain top helps put things into perspective.
Finally, we were ready to call it a day. One long, incredible day.
Tomorrow, we head into Gatlinburg to see the Aquarium of the Smokies.
No comments:
Post a Comment