Sunday April 21st 2019

Day 9

Happy Easter Ya’ll

Starting the day with a wonderful short run on the nature trail that somehow circled around this beautiful nurturing river was outstanding. It was a good technical course dodging wet rocks, roots and hurriedly tip toeing across soaked wooden bridges. Great workout! Trail was so pretty I went back to get the boys to circle around again.

We packed up, parked back at the hiker lot and spent the next hour taking our time around soaking up every butterfly, bug and ounce of sunshine. Phoenix got brave enough and crossed every bridge himself!!

 

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Back to Gatlinburg to see our fate of the day, come on roads be open!! On the way we regained service enough for all the Happy Easters to roll. Thank you to all who thought of us and I better late than never right but I hope everyone of you had an amazing Easter yourself. On an honest note we seriously forgot it was Easter as losing track of the days seemed to be our new hobby.

Lady in the visitor center had me so excited when she said all roads have opened. Luckily I asked specifically about Clingmans Dome so we could be disappointed before driving all the way up to find the road was in fact still closed. Jason and I have grown accustomed to our peculiar luck and just laughed.

Driving the only road that goes completely through the Smokies holds surprises around every corner. We admired the scenery stopping at every lookout we could. Ended up having to bypass our chance at hiking part of the AT because Phoenix fell asleep. He has been such a trooper with all going on we knew better than to wake him.

My perception of mountains have forever been altered by our Colorado excursion last year making it hard for me to think of these non snow, tree covered and low altitude as mountains but they are and just as majestic. I felt like these mountains could devour me and spit me out a true survivalist. Loved the abundant amount of rivers and creeks flowing around here.

Coming down the mountain is when things started heating up. Literally so I was able to film smoke rolling out of our front passenger tire. SMOKING BRAKES! Obviously not a great thing but hey the pull out we happened upon was by a gorgeous waterfall.

 

Finished our Smoky Mountain adventure at the Oconaluftee visitor center. Jason found a badass keychain and they were of course out of patches. Right behind the center and along the river is a Mountain Farm Museum showcasing the ways of life and all the log structures used to make life run back in the day. Very interesting and eye opening collection. On the way out we finally hit the sign!

Camp for the night was finally a dispersed camping site within a North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. Our 6th state! Getting back to said site was adrenaline filled on its own. Shortly after leaving the comfort of the highway you also leave pavement behind and drop down to a narrow basically one land gravel road. Not knowing for sure if the site is even back here (relying on others reviews on freecampsites.net) we kept our eyes peeled for any chances at turning around if need be.

All the worry was totally worth it the site was absolutely beautiful. Had our own personal waterfall that even offered a large stump right above the water for viewing enjoyment. Well used for sure and extremely spacious.

Dinner was an interesting mix of leftovers salmon, soup and peas. Was quite delicious!

Jason and I spent some time gazing at the sky plentiful of stars before heading in for some rounds of uno before bed.

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P.S We also have a YouTube channel showcasing some past years adventures