{"id":2252,"date":"2013-09-09T20:39:07","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T01:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2013-09-09T20:39:56","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T01:39:56","slug":"vacation-day-4-bear-scat-but-no-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2252","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Day 4: Bear Scat, But No Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it Day 4 already?\u00a0 Well, just Day 3 for Rich.\u00a0 It\u2019s Sunday and we slept in.\u00a0 I got up early, but Rich was still sawing logs so I left him.\u00a0 I came down to get caught up on my blog.\u00a0 But wait, I\u2019m still behind!<\/p>\n

Rich finally woke up and stumbled down the stairs to join me.\u00a0 We made breakfast from the goodies we picked up at the store.\u00a0 Rich found this hickory smoked pork sausage.\u00a0 It\u2019s in a linen bag and smells incredible.\u00a0 He made eggs, sausage and hash browns.\u00a0 I found some real grits at the store and that\u2019s what I had.\u00a0 What can I say?\u00a0 Once a southerner, always a southerner.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t sound like one.<\/p>\n

Today, I thought we would start out slow.\u00a0 I knew we weren\u2019t in shape for miles and miles of hiking.\u00a0 So we started out on the Motor Nature Trail, which is just inside the park north of Gatlinburg.\u00a0 This 5 mile driving trail has several spots to stop off and walk trails.\u00a0 The first stop was the Ogle cabin.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty well preserved homestead for one of the first families to settle this area.\u00a0 The nature trail around the homestead leads you through what would have been the fields, the outbuildings, and property.\u00a0 The grist mill by the creek was neat. \u00a0It was small, but did what they needed.<\/p>\n

The trail around the property was only .7 miles, but it was rocky, hilly, and full of tree roots.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t look up because you had to look where you were walking.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure how they farmed for all of the rock!\u00a0 The temperature was pretty warm in the upper 80s with high humidity.\u00a0 We were pretty well soaked by the time we got to the car.<\/p>\n

We continued to drive the motor trail, which wound its way up the side of the mountain overlooking the town.\u00a0 Luckily, it was one-way traffic so I didn\u2019t have to contend with oncoming traffic.\u00a0 There were overlooks with great mountain views.\u00a0 Our next hike was Grotto Falls.<\/p>\n

Now the day hike book says 1.3 miles.\u00a0 The sign at the trailhead said 1.4 miles.\u00a0 It felt like 10!\u00a0 Unfortunately, it was mostly up on the way there and down on the way back.\u00a0 I told someone on the trail that while going up, my lungs were burning.\u00a0 On the way down, my legs were burning.\u00a0 Either way, it was a lot of pain.\u00a0 I feel really good about an hour after the hike is over.\u00a0 Just wish I felt good when I got done.<\/p>\n

Rich was joking that we must have crossed 10 creeks to get to the falls.\u00a0 We counted coming back and it was only 4.\u00a0 Two of them were very wet and one was dry.\u00a0 One had a nice little waterfall, just not a big one.\u00a0 We did see a lot of bear scat on the trail.\u00a0 Luckily, we didn\u2019t see any bears.<\/p>\n

The trip was painful, but the falls were worth it.\u00a0 The Roaring Fork Creek starts at the top of mountain and drops at the falls and continues down through into town.\u00a0 Grotto Falls is exactly like the name implies.\u00a0 You can walk behind the falls in a grotto space carved out by the water.\u00a0 Rich walked back there and I got his picture.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t try it since it was all wet and slippery.<\/p>\n

We met some interesting people on the trail.\u00a0 At the falls, a man about our age had just gotten there.\u00a0 He was asking if the trail on the other side of the falls went anywhere.\u00a0 He was out hiking and trying to figure out how far he could go before he had to turn back.\u00a0 This was about 2:30.\u00a0 He still had to walk 3 miles back to town!<\/p>\n

We got back to our car, which was parked about half a mile from the trailhead, and finally sat down.\u00a0 All of my muscles were screaming at me.\u00a0 Rich was having some trouble with one of his knees on the trail.\u00a0 It was very happy to be in a comfortable seat. \u00a0Our total hike for Grotto Falls was 2.8 miles there and back.\u00a0 The walk to and from the car was another half a mile.\u00a0 The homestead walk was .7 miles.\u00a0 We did 4 miles!<\/p>\n

We continued down the rest of the motor trail and popped out just northeast of town.\u00a0 We decided to go into town for dinner and then get back to soak our pains. We stopped in at Calhoun\u2019s.\u00a0 Turns out, they own the Smoky Mountain Brewery.\u00a0 So their menus were very, very similar.\u00a0 We had BBQ chicken and pork.\u00a0 I got corn pudding as my side and Rich stuck with the cole slaw.\u00a0 The food was pretty good and Rich was able to try another Smoky Mountain Brewery beer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m finally getting the hang of driving in Gatlinburg.\u00a0 The speed limit downtown is 10 miles an hour.\u00a0 The roads are four lane, but very narrow.\u00a0 On Saturday, the streets were packed with cars and people.\u00a0 Today, there was less foot and car traffic.\u00a0 I think you have to be psychic to drive here though.\u00a0 You just have to know when people are going to step into a crosswalk before they do.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen a lot of close calls.<\/p>\n

After dinner, we started back to the cabin.\u00a0 I saw a line of rocking chairs in front of one hotel.\u00a0 A bunch of people were sitting out there rocking on the grass in front watching the people walk by and the cars drive by.\u00a0 They looked very comfortable.\u00a0 It\u2019s nice to see people amusing themselves on vacation.<\/p>\n

We got home around 6:00.\u00a0 We took showers and stretched out on the couches to recuperate.\u00a0 We are so out of shape.\u00a0 But then, that\u2019s why we go hiking on vacation.\u00a0 Since we were hurting, it was a good time to use the hot tub on the porch.\u00a0 Rich fixed two glasses of Wild Turkey\u2019s Kentucky Spirits bourbon on ice.\u00a0 We crawled into the hot tub and sat back to enjoy the bourbon.\u00a0 Life was good.<\/p>\n

After hot tubing, we sat on the porch and watched the Mt. Leconte fade into the mist and darkness.\u00a0 It\u2019s really kind of neat.\u00a0 As the temperature goes down, the clouds crawl over the top of the mountain and it looks like it is gobbling up everything.\u00a0 The darkness sets in and we only see the lights from a hotel that sits in front of the mountain.<\/p>\n

Tonight, we sat out there for a quite a while talking and sipping our bourbon.\u00a0 We saw two shooting stars tonight.\u00a0 I can confirm the number since I saw them both as well.\u00a0 Finally, we came inside to work on computers and read some before bedtime.<\/p>\n

\"Special<\/a>
Special label from Wild Turkey for 12 Bar Blues Bar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking straight down the side of our cabin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our car sitting in front of Grandma’s Gift cabin. We are right on one of the curves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Woods<\/a>
Woods full of magnolias by Ogle cabin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ogle<\/a>
Ogle cabin sits above Gatlinburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich walking around the trail by Ogle cabin. Watch out for the tree roots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rock<\/a>
Rock wall beside the trail at Ogle cabin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich in the old grist mill at Ogle cabin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich taking a picture on the creek by the grist mill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One lane walking bridge at Ogle cabin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View from a lookout on the Motor Nature Trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trail<\/a>
Trail beside Roaring Fork Creek to Grotto Falls in the back.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich getting a picture of Roaring Fork creek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Rich<\/a>
Rich standing by an overhanging on Grotto Falls trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich behind Grotto Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Up<\/a>
Up close to Grotto Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another picture of Rich at Grotto Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Orange<\/a>
Orange and black catepillar for Rose.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Is it Day 4 already?\u00a0 Well, just Day 3 for Rich.\u00a0 It\u2019s Sunday and we slept in.\u00a0 I got up early, but Rich was still sawing logs so I left him.\u00a0 I came down to get caught up on my blog.\u00a0 But wait, I\u2019m still behind! Rich finally woke up and stumbled down the stairs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,12,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2274,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}