Arrrgh! Family Crew: Smokies

Showing posts with label Smokies. Show all posts

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Ancestors

Old picture taken 1808 found recently in attic

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Great Smokey Mountain National Park--From Arrrgh! View

This last week has been a great one! Who can complain when you have good mountain air to breath, a picnic to eat, trails to hike, a tent to sleep in, a communal bathroom, dirt under everyone's fingernails,--oh, wait. I'm losing my focus. Back on track--rain to smell, grande vistas to view, and your best friends to share it with? OK, so some people could complain about those things, but WE of the Family Crew could not. And while it did rain a little every day, THAT did not stop us--mostly because Bart is a little bit of a die hard. Did I say that out loud?? So, enjoy the next few posts (actually I think there are 9 total, if you can call that "a few") because we sure enjoyed making them!

For the Record: I had a WONDERFUL time! I just have to give Bart a hard time.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail (aka: The AT) touches 14 states going from Georgia to Maine and follows the North Carolina/Tennessee border here in the park. Since we studied about the AT in our backpacking course at CEU, we HAD to hike a piece of it!

As we learned, if it starts raining, no matter what time it is, Pack Up and Start Walking!

2 Miles down, 1,970 more to go!

Here we are on the trail. Bart forgot his socks, but don't worry. We found some for him to wear!

Hiking

The hiking was so fun here. Different than we've done before, but fun. In the West the views are readily available. You can see far and wide. Here there are trees, trees, trees. And it's beautiful and green. Because of the clouds (the smoke of the Smokies), the view wasn't always grand, but white fog. Still, when the air did open up for us to see, it was breathtaking.

Charlie loved the back pack. If Bart put the backpack on without him in it, Charlie would follow behind saying, "I sit! I sit!"

Jane tolerated the backpack. Her favorite game was Pull-Mom's-Hair-So-She'll-Whip-Me-With-Her-Pony-Tail.

This is one of the few times "the blue one" was used properly and not as a light saber.

Awww...

It became apparent after our first hike that kids are the ultimate "conversation opener" and we began to hear a variety of comments. Here are some of our favorites:

"Now THAT's the way to travel!" or "I wish someone'd carry me like that!" or some variation thereof: we heard this >30
"That's the prettiest backpack I've ever seen!" (Said of Jane)
"My wife'll carry the baby if you carry me down."
"OH! Fellow sufferers!" (this guy had a kid pack of his own)
"C'mon guys!" Said to the kids. "You gotta start pullin' your own weight!"

Wild Life

There were a variety of animals that we saw. Elk, deer, salamanders, wild turkeys, all kinds of scary "buds" (bugs), and the highlight of our trip: A Mama Bear and her two cubs!

Elk were reintroduced to the Smokies in 2001-2. There are now 90 here.

We saw this bull, cow, and two calves our first night here. (Can you see the second baby?)

We saw this little guy at Laurel Falls. Apparently there is a huge population of salamanders in GSMNP, but we only saw one.

Mama Bear do-do-do

(you know, like Mama Shark?)

Baby Bears 1 and 2

Sneaky Jane

Jane did well on her first major camping trip. We could hardly put her down because she insisted on putting EVERYTHING in her mouth! One time I set her down on a blanket and not 5 seconds later I looked down to see her cheeks puffed out. Silly girl had a big rock in her mouth! I'm still not quite sure where she got it...