Abrams Falls and Fall TM convention

That Archie he does clean up well.

The inimitable "Umbee" Silken Windhound extraordinaire.

Fall is a beautiful time to hike in the Smokies or just to drive through Cades Cove if you have a chance.

October 2011 we (Archie and myself) went to the Toastmasters International District 63 convention/competition there are some photos here from that. That was a Friday and Saturday night then on Sunday we had the day free so we buzzed over to GSMNP and did the Abrams Falls hike. It's around 5 miles round trip, and not terribly difficult but very scenic. I actually got a photo of two wild turkey males squaring off which was kind of cool. The fall color was just starting to become evident although it wasn't as widespread as it would be probably two weeks later. While Umbee did not get to go on the hike (Dogs are not allowed on the trails at GSMNP) he did get to go and loves to travel. Enjoy!

The Road to Mt. Whitney, Nashville to Vegas

First of all Happy Birthday to my son Mike! He is the big three OH today! Mommy loves you. I can tell you I feel much perkier today than I did 30 years ago today. He was 9 pounds 4 oz eeeyow!

Yesterday I was trying to get ready to get on a plane in Nashville at 6:30 PM to fly to Sin City on our way to Whitney. Everything conspired to slow me down. Then Archie who was going to work until 11 worked until after noon THEN went to his house had a Rx filled etc etc. I did manage to drop my house dog off at a friends and my house keys at the sitter. We did manage to get on the plane although in his hurry to get through he had left one of his knives ( a Swiss Army knife) in his carry on so were were stopped in the Nashville airport, briefly detained like the middle aged terrorists that we are and he had to surrender the knife as he did not wish to check that carry on.
Then after getting to Vegas and driving up to Beatty the hotel I had reservations at I couldn't get anyone to come to the door so at 1 am I am hotel shopping. Believe it or not the Motel 6 there which is the only major chain WAS SOLD OUT so we ended up at the Stagecoarch Hotel and Casino ( I refuse to let this steal my happy.)
I am out of the shower and shortly we will be on our way through Death valley NP. Photos probably after I get back as I don't know how to send then via cell phone and I don't have a universal reader on my laptop.

GSMNP-the Chimneys our second visit

January 2009 on what I think was our 3rd date or so we went to Gatlinburg the weekend before my birthday and hiked the Chimneys, it was icy and we didn't attempt the rock scramble at the end, but yesterday (Aug 28) the weather was inviting and so we drove up the 3 hours or so drive to do the hike. While it is only 2 miles to the end where the Chimneys formation is, it is a rough, steep and scenic 2 miles with several bridge crossings of rushing mountain streams. We start with a couple of photos of us at the beginning of the trail on one of the bridges. Archie really enjoys cheesy photos so I oblige and take them. The one where he is kneeling is a little joke we have about "go on save yourself its too late for me" when we are on some really long taxing hike. The next photo here is looking DOWN from halfway up the rock scramble to get to the summit. You can get about halfway up and then there is a point where climbing up exposes you to a fall in either direction of several hundred feet. Now there are foot and handholds but we had to stop there a few minutes, have lunch and watch some younger folks navigate the problem before we felt like attempting it. We also had a spectacular view so took a photo of that too, had to be kind of careful though because the ridge is so narrow and you are so high up that I didn't want to look around too much and get freaked out. Other than banging up my left knee, we ascended to the top from that point with no problems then a nice young man at the top took photos of us sitting on the summit and I took one of Archie's traditional Superman pose ( I declined to pose as Wonderwoman standing up there) and I began to worry about getting down this wicked series of slanted tilted rock steps that are about 60 degrees tilted so I found another way down ( near the old path up on the right side) and climbed down. DON'T is all I can say, while we made it unscathed except some elbow banging the last photo here that looks steep is looking straight up from the bottom of how we climbed down. At one point over halfway down this climb I swear I wanted to have a meltdown but I talked myself out of it because there was nobody gonna rescue me but me at that point. It was a great adventure but I won't do that again. It did give me more confidence that I'll attempt the last section of Angels Landing when we are in Zion National Park on vacation in September.

10th highpoint! Mt.Rogers Virginia 5700+feet

Saturday June 11th was scheduled to be overcast near Mt. Rogers, with thunderstorms expected at some point, but Archie being the intrepid and optimistic adventurer headed North from Pigeon Forge TN at 5 AM that morning. We arrived at the AT parking lot near Elk Garden, parked the truck and geared up. I found that carrying a heavy pack is ruinous for me so I only carried a 2 liter camelbak and couple of snacks for the 9 mile round trip hike. It was probably around 70 and overcast or just below 70, made me glad I had a long sleeve shirt over my tank top. In the photos above you can see the overcast sky and if you look carefully at the one with the fence post in it you will see the road below and a parking lot where the truck is as we headed up the AT.

The meadows in this area of the National Forest are beautiful, we did not see any of the infamous wild ponies that the Forest Service keeps here to help keep the grassy areas open but we sure saw signs of them!

The AT here is much more gradual and sloping uphill than the Smoky Mt sections of the AT we have been used to hiking. THANK GOD! because when the skies finally opened up we had enough to deal with all the buckets of water pouring down without a steep rocky, scary trail

It was POURING rain and thundering when we summited but I managed to protect my camera and get one picture of Archie on the summit. Me, myself and I did not care for any photos on the summit, I just wanted to get OFF OF THAT MOUNTAIN. Roundtrip of 9 miles completed between 8:30 AM and just before 2 PM. Whew!

Beautiful country I will say that.

9th high point Mt.Mitchell,NC

view from top of Mt Mitchell

Another Mt. Mitchell view

on Deep Gap trail, that is not a level trail in front of me it is a long way down across that rock slab

at the top of the Eastern world

view from Deep Gap trail somewhere

Deep Gap trail start

Archie is about to climb down that rock slab.

On Saturday May 29, Archie and I drove to Mt.Mitchell State Park, and did the summit as a drive up (photos will be added here as soon as I get home). We wanted to get a good hike in though so decided to do the Deep Gap hike across the ridgeline of the black Mountains here. We meant to do the 4.5 mile out and back that ends at Cattail Peak but ended up hiking past that and making it around an 11 mile hike. (And a hard 11 miles that involved climbing some ropes, scrambling across slabs of rock etc). Saw some lovely vistas and it is probably about the highest hike to train on in the Eastern US with the entire length of it being over 6000 feet in altitude so we may come back for it again later this summer. The photos of us on the trail are from the same spot, he just took the one of me after he climbed to the bottom, there was quite a bit of scrambling and turning around backwards and climbing down. The two plaques are elevation plaques for two of the 4 high peaks we crossed on a ridgeline. There is one photo taken from the last peak where you can see two of the first ones we hiked over on the ridgeline.