Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park spans North Carolina and Tennessee featuring beautiful mountains, all shorter than the timber line. Don't underestimate these mountains because they aren't capped with impressive glaciers or offer peaks from which you can star gaze. Our expedition leader informed us in the planning information that it would be a 5 mile hike in with a 1,000 ft elevation gain. It turns out that this was a net gain of 1,000 feet. We climbed a 4,000 ft mountain in the middle. Each day. This ridge conveniently also marks the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, so I can say I was state hopping all of Memorial Day weekend.

The camp site was beautiful and secluded with a fun little bridge.

We watched a beautiful sunrise from the top of Mt Cammerer.

And got a lovely view of the smokys which helped us understand how they got the name.

There was delicious food with some good discoveries. Fire roasted baby bell peppers are delicious and dehydrated hash browns with bacon bits and green chili makes a delicious breakfast.

It was a fun weekend and by the end we all felt victorious and rather tired.

So it was good to finish off the adventure with some apple cider, apple fidders, apple rolls, apple butter, and apple BBQ pork.