The Great Smokies!

On March 17th, 2012, myself, my brother, my cousin, and my neighbor and friend went on a journey to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The trip that I had wanted to make during summer the year before had finally come together.

Before the trip to the Smokies started, Bryan and I had slept a meager 2 hours (Robby, who was with us, got much more sleep), waking up at 6:45.  I assume part of the reason was our excitement for the trip and the ease with which we are lulled into insomnia by video games and computers.

We packed all of our last minute things and left Bryan's condo, including some stuff Thomas had left when he was visiting.  We drove to Thomas's house and picked him up.

It was interesting.  The trip had been preceded by a lot of strange conflict and conundrums.  First, my parents had insisted that I not be allowed to go unless I purchase a satellite phone (ended up buying a SPOT GPS device, which lets you alert family that you're alright, and has an emergency button), and bear spray (we got pepper spray for humans, but whatever).  There were also debates about how much we should pack, whether we should bring plastic bottles or nalgenes, etc.

Well, we alternated driving the car (though I ever ended up driving) until we made it to the Smokies.  When we entered the park, there was an absolute feeling of euphoria.  I was blown away by the beauty of it all - the scent of fresh air, the feeling of river mist upon my skin, the towering trees up above...  We drove along a rushing river, and music was playing as we all laughed gleefully.  As the joyous wind flowed against my face, I could instantaneously feel the weight of months of stress, addiction, feeling lost, just whisked away.

We drove through Cade's Cove, taking pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way.  Finally, we got to the visitor center and got our permit.  We walked a bit across a field and along a road until we got to the trailhead.

In the map below, you can see the visitor center's position relative to the trailhead.  We made our way along the Abrams Falls trail.  It was beautiful scenery, and there were these awesome bridges along the trail made of a flattened log with railing on one side.

We got to Abrams falls and enjoyed the view.  It was extremely relaxing to just lie on the rocks in the sunlight.  There were some small blue-gray butterflies that kept landing on us as well.

We continued on, attempting to get to Campsite 16.  But on the map, where Abrams Falls Tr. intersects with Little Bottoms Tr., we came upon a creek crossing that was too strong and fast to cross safely.