Day 6
June 8, 1995
Gatlinburg, TN
Today was our last full day in Gatlinburg. The weather seems to have turned back to normal for this time of year (70’s and 80’s, partly cloudy), which was a relief to us after the last two nights (and half a day) of rain. On Sunday, we had begun a hike to Rainbow Falls, but after surveying the terrain, we felt that 2.5 miles uphill would take more time than we had available, so we turned back. With the rain preventing hikes the last two days, Rainbow Falls was our primary objective for this morning.
We woke early today, breaking our string of sleeping in later each day of vacation. After showering, we started a fire and prepared for our favorite camp breakfast—a pound of bacon, and half a dozen eggs cooked in the bacon grease. The new cast-iron skillet we had picked up at the outlet mall earlier this week made this task a breeze, as it is large enough to cook the bacon in two lots, and will easily cook three eggs at a time.
After eating, we set out for the head of the trail to the falls. This was a short drive through the foothills, and offered a good view of the scenery. It also afforded us a last look at the “strip” of Gatlinburg proper, which is about a mile of shops, restaurants, and museums. We are on the outskirts of town, so we will not go through this when we leave tomorrow morning.
We arrived at the trailhead, and located a spot in the crowded parking lot to park the bikes. All in all, there must have been about 25 cars parked here—most of the people were hiking the 2.5 miles to the falls; some were going the full 6.5 miles to the Mt. Le Conte Lodge at the peak. We stowed and locked our gear in the BMW’s luggage, and started our ascent. Although neither of us are exactly Homer Simpson, we could probably stand to be in a little better shape. The maps describe this trail as “moderate”, meaning that it is somewhat developed, well defined, and involves no excessive climbing, jumping, swimming, etc. It reminded me of the standard trails at Shades or Turkey Run state parks in western Indiana, except that this one was angled... upward... for the entire 2.5 miles. For this run, we must have increased our altitude by at least 3,000 feet, if not more. The trail was fairly rocky, which slowed the progress somewhat as well.
Although we were moving faster than most of the climbers, we soon regretted the bacon and eggs breakfast we had wolfed down. Thankfully, it was still early, and the temperature had not risen to unbearable levels yet, or we might not have made the trip. Several times, we passed hikers coming back down the trail, who encouraged us... “Almost there, only 2 miles to go!!” or “Shouldn’t be more than an hour from here”. We began to doubt the sense of making this journey at all—exercise is overrated in my book anyway.
Surprisingly, when we finally reached the falls, we found that the total trip had taken only 1:15 to complete. We were apparently walking faster than it felt, and we kept the breaks short for fear of dozing off. The falls are about 150 feet high, and the water comes off the cliff in almost a “sheet” about 40 feet wide. Had we stopped to consider why it was called “Rainbow Falls”, we might have postponed our trip until the afternoon—the rainbow effect is not there in the morning, as the falls face the west, and are only in the sunlight the latter half of the day.
That aside, the view was still quite spectacular. I climbed to the base of the falls, and stood behind the curtain of water while Todd snapped photos from the trail, about 200 feet away. Todd then joined me (and a dozen other tourists) at the base to look around, then I returned to the trail with the camera to get some pictures of him. We spent about 20 minutes resting and exploring before we decided to start the trek back.
The only thing good about a long uphill grade is the fact that it is a downhill grade on the return trip.
We found that we were not able to go as fast as we thought we would, because the rocky trail and steep grade made it hazardous to move too quickly. We were only able to cut half an hour off our ascent time, and made the descent in 45 minutes. Along the way, we offered words of encouragement to those moving upward—“Only a couple more miles!” and “Shouldn’t be more than an hour from here”. You know, it is kind of fun to watch people’s faces when they get that kind of news! We returned to the bikes, and each of us guzzled about a quart of water. The temperature was rising, and that, coupled with the sheer exertion, had greatly dehydrated us.
It was approaching noon, and as neither of us were in the mood for a hot lunch, we stopped at a deli and picked up some cold cuts before returning to camp. Also, while we were there, we picked up a six-pack of Killian’s Red for the evening. We returned to camp, ate our sandwiches, and recuperated for about an hour.
Yesterday, I wrote about a park near our campsite that I identified as “Pebble brook”. I must have had golf on my mind—the actual name is “Greenbriar”, and that was our destination for this afternoon. We had enjoyed looking at the cascades yesterday, but the wet ground discouraged us from exploring much. We rode on into the park, and parked at the trailhead for the 4.5 mile trail to the head of the cascades. We had already decided that this would be too much of a hike on top of the morning’s activities, but we wanted to get another look at the area.
We walked upstream about 2000 feet on the trail, then headed on into the stream. Certainly, we have streams and trails in central Indiana, but they are not quite so... loud. The streams coming off of the mountain and the foothills have quite a steep grade to them, which makes the water very swift. Also, the Smokies seem to be make almost entirely of boulders the size of automobiles, and this creates plenty of turbulence for the water, which accounts for the high noise level. We hopped from boulder to boulder in the middle of the stream, while Todd set up pictures to try to capture the view.
Working our way across the stones, we made our way back to the trailhead. This was not always easy going—the rains had caused a slight increase in the level of the water, and many of the boulders that would ordinarily be good footholds were quite slick. The trip that had taken less than 10 minutes on the trail took over an hour to return in the creekbed. By the time we returned to the bikes, we were just about exhausted. We made the short drive back to camp, and settled in for the rest of the evening. Hot dogs were again the main course for the evening meal.
Tomorrow morning, we pull up the tentstakes, and head for Mammoth Caves in central Kentucky. To prepare, we spent some time this evening packing those things that we will not need tonight or tomorrow—the abandoned dome tent, dirty laundry, and all the cookware were packed. Also, we cleaned the area of the bulk of the trash, and tried to organize everything that was left as best as we could to make the loading easier in the morning. As I look at the volume of cargo we need to pack that we purchased here (a large cast-iron skillet, a cabin tent, an awning, cookware, foodstuff, etc.) I get the feeling that we will just have to Bungee everything on top to get it all to fit.
We hope to get an early start, and on the way, we plan to stop by the Energy museum at Oak Ridge, TN (just outside of Knoxville), where the original atomic bomb was developed. Then, it’s off to Cave City, KY and Mammoth Caves. We will stay in that area tomorrow night, then head home on Saturday.
Todd and I can be reached at my CompuServe address (74044,3457), or via Internet at [email protected]. This report is sent via a Canon Innova Book 10C laptop, with a Motorola Power PCMCIA Modem plugged into my MicroTAC Elite, which is dangling from a tent pole in order to get enough signal to transmit properly.
Gatlinburg, TN
Today was our last full day in Gatlinburg. The weather seems to have turned back to normal for this time of year (70’s and 80’s, partly cloudy), which was a relief to us after the last two nights (and half a day) of rain. On Sunday, we had begun a hike to Rainbow Falls, but after surveying the terrain, we felt that 2.5 miles uphill would take more time than we had available, so we turned back. With the rain preventing hikes the last two days, Rainbow Falls was our primary objective for this morning.
We woke early today, breaking our string of sleeping in later each day of vacation. After showering, we started a fire and prepared for our favorite camp breakfast—a pound of bacon, and half a dozen eggs cooked in the bacon grease. The new cast-iron skillet we had picked up at the outlet mall earlier this week made this task a breeze, as it is large enough to cook the bacon in two lots, and will easily cook three eggs at a time.
After eating, we set out for the head of the trail to the falls. This was a short drive through the foothills, and offered a good view of the scenery. It also afforded us a last look at the “strip” of Gatlinburg proper, which is about a mile of shops, restaurants, and museums. We are on the outskirts of town, so we will not go through this when we leave tomorrow morning.
We arrived at the trailhead, and located a spot in the crowded parking lot to park the bikes. All in all, there must have been about 25 cars parked here—most of the people were hiking the 2.5 miles to the falls; some were going the full 6.5 miles to the Mt. Le Conte Lodge at the peak. We stowed and locked our gear in the BMW’s luggage, and started our ascent. Although neither of us are exactly Homer Simpson, we could probably stand to be in a little better shape. The maps describe this trail as “moderate”, meaning that it is somewhat developed, well defined, and involves no excessive climbing, jumping, swimming, etc. It reminded me of the standard trails at Shades or Turkey Run state parks in western Indiana, except that this one was angled... upward... for the entire 2.5 miles. For this run, we must have increased our altitude by at least 3,000 feet, if not more. The trail was fairly rocky, which slowed the progress somewhat as well.
Although we were moving faster than most of the climbers, we soon regretted the bacon and eggs breakfast we had wolfed down. Thankfully, it was still early, and the temperature had not risen to unbearable levels yet, or we might not have made the trip. Several times, we passed hikers coming back down the trail, who encouraged us... “Almost there, only 2 miles to go!!” or “Shouldn’t be more than an hour from here”. We began to doubt the sense of making this journey at all—exercise is overrated in my book anyway.
Surprisingly, when we finally reached the falls, we found that the total trip had taken only 1:15 to complete. We were apparently walking faster than it felt, and we kept the breaks short for fear of dozing off. The falls are about 150 feet high, and the water comes off the cliff in almost a “sheet” about 40 feet wide. Had we stopped to consider why it was called “Rainbow Falls”, we might have postponed our trip until the afternoon—the rainbow effect is not there in the morning, as the falls face the west, and are only in the sunlight the latter half of the day.
That aside, the view was still quite spectacular. I climbed to the base of the falls, and stood behind the curtain of water while Todd snapped photos from the trail, about 200 feet away. Todd then joined me (and a dozen other tourists) at the base to look around, then I returned to the trail with the camera to get some pictures of him. We spent about 20 minutes resting and exploring before we decided to start the trek back.
The only thing good about a long uphill grade is the fact that it is a downhill grade on the return trip.
We found that we were not able to go as fast as we thought we would, because the rocky trail and steep grade made it hazardous to move too quickly. We were only able to cut half an hour off our ascent time, and made the descent in 45 minutes. Along the way, we offered words of encouragement to those moving upward—“Only a couple more miles!” and “Shouldn’t be more than an hour from here”. You know, it is kind of fun to watch people’s faces when they get that kind of news! We returned to the bikes, and each of us guzzled about a quart of water. The temperature was rising, and that, coupled with the sheer exertion, had greatly dehydrated us.
It was approaching noon, and as neither of us were in the mood for a hot lunch, we stopped at a deli and picked up some cold cuts before returning to camp. Also, while we were there, we picked up a six-pack of Killian’s Red for the evening. We returned to camp, ate our sandwiches, and recuperated for about an hour.
Yesterday, I wrote about a park near our campsite that I identified as “Pebble brook”. I must have had golf on my mind—the actual name is “Greenbriar”, and that was our destination for this afternoon. We had enjoyed looking at the cascades yesterday, but the wet ground discouraged us from exploring much. We rode on into the park, and parked at the trailhead for the 4.5 mile trail to the head of the cascades. We had already decided that this would be too much of a hike on top of the morning’s activities, but we wanted to get another look at the area.
We walked upstream about 2000 feet on the trail, then headed on into the stream. Certainly, we have streams and trails in central Indiana, but they are not quite so... loud. The streams coming off of the mountain and the foothills have quite a steep grade to them, which makes the water very swift. Also, the Smokies seem to be make almost entirely of boulders the size of automobiles, and this creates plenty of turbulence for the water, which accounts for the high noise level. We hopped from boulder to boulder in the middle of the stream, while Todd set up pictures to try to capture the view.
Working our way across the stones, we made our way back to the trailhead. This was not always easy going—the rains had caused a slight increase in the level of the water, and many of the boulders that would ordinarily be good footholds were quite slick. The trip that had taken less than 10 minutes on the trail took over an hour to return in the creekbed. By the time we returned to the bikes, we were just about exhausted. We made the short drive back to camp, and settled in for the rest of the evening. Hot dogs were again the main course for the evening meal.
Tomorrow morning, we pull up the tentstakes, and head for Mammoth Caves in central Kentucky. To prepare, we spent some time this evening packing those things that we will not need tonight or tomorrow—the abandoned dome tent, dirty laundry, and all the cookware were packed. Also, we cleaned the area of the bulk of the trash, and tried to organize everything that was left as best as we could to make the loading easier in the morning. As I look at the volume of cargo we need to pack that we purchased here (a large cast-iron skillet, a cabin tent, an awning, cookware, foodstuff, etc.) I get the feeling that we will just have to Bungee everything on top to get it all to fit.
We hope to get an early start, and on the way, we plan to stop by the Energy museum at Oak Ridge, TN (just outside of Knoxville), where the original atomic bomb was developed. Then, it’s off to Cave City, KY and Mammoth Caves. We will stay in that area tomorrow night, then head home on Saturday.
Todd and I can be reached at my CompuServe address (74044,3457), or via Internet at [email protected]. This report is sent via a Canon Innova Book 10C laptop, with a Motorola Power PCMCIA Modem plugged into my MicroTAC Elite, which is dangling from a tent pole in order to get enough signal to transmit properly.