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.
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