Cindy Lou: Holy Smokes!!! Day Two

That rock bed was not fun to sleep on! At first we tried to put both of our sleeping bags down to sleep on top of. But then in the middle of the night, it got very chilly!!! So we ended up sleeping in our own sleeping bag. That was the first campsite we've ever had to sleep on a rock bed, everywhere else we've had grass to sleep on.

We got up around 7:30, going on restless sleep and aching backs. We drove back into "town" to get some gas and some breakfast. The gas station was interesting, very "hickish". Breakfast was amazing! I think they made their own cider and grew their own vegetables. And the view was amazing with the Smokies right there. Joshua had a slab of ham which he thought was salty and when he thinks it's salty, it's really salty. I had an omelet with cheese and mushrooms. The best part of breakfast probably was the cider, apple fritters and apple butter. They were so good that we stopped by the farm store attached to the restaurant and bought cider and apple butter to take back with us. And in that store, Joshua found a new best friend...a dipper gourd.

Old school gas fillers

At Carvers Applehouse Restaurant.
Check out that view!

Joshua with his dipper gourd which he broke a few days later.
Restaurant on right...farm store on left

Now that we got some food in us, it was time for some hiking. I had planned a 15 mile hike which was a loop by our campsite. Joshua thought it was only 7 miles. Oops! He didn't know it was 15 miles total til halfway into the hike. So the hike was 7.5 miles on the Lower Mt. Cammerer Trail, 4.5 miles on the Appalachian Trail and 2.5 miles on the Lower Gap Trail.

We were all smiles on the start of the hike at 10AM. Joshua even found some walking sticks for us and he was so ecstatic about using the Swiss Army knife to carve the end of his stick to a really sharp point to use as a weapon. About 2 miles into the hike, there was a .5 mile trail that led up to Sutton Ridge overlook. We decided to go for it and check it out. I'm glad we did because it was so incredibly beautiful up there. We even made our mark there, so maybe it'll still be there if we go back there someday.

Thumbs up for the hike...and some redbull

Carving his stick

Joshua etched on the bench

Our initials on the bench

View from Sutton Ridge Overlook

The amazing view

After Sutton Ridge Overlook, we continued hiking. We were still up and cheery, telling stories, hiking in peace and enjoying nature. We passed by a backpacking campsite with notes posted all over "Campsite closed due to aggressive bear activity". Uhhhh, so do we turn around and go back or do we continue on? Ah, what the heck...let's keep going. We saw a bunch of caterpillars and butterflies which was pretty cool and ran into a bunch of spiderwebs which was not so cool. Ahh, nature.

Caterpillar

Snail that actually peeked out of his shell

Random pic in the woods

We were getting crabby just walking on the trail in the woods. To make it even worse, we saw bear poop on the trail, not off the trail but actually on it! We poked at it and it was kinda hard so we knew the bears could be long gone already. But we kept alert and made some plans in case we encountered a bear or two. See a cub, run far away from it as possible because mama bear will be close by and not happy. Around 1:30 PM, we get to a clearing on the trail. It was so gorgeous that we had to stop and take some pictures. We had been walking in the woods that we couldn't even see the Smokies beyond us nor the sky really. The trees were that tall. So when we saw the clearing, we had to stop and take it all in.

The amazing view!!!

Me and the Smokies behind me

Joshua and the Smokies

After stopping to see the gorgeous view, we were happy again and got some energy. Shortly after stopping for that view, we actually passed two people going the other way. This entire time, we had not seen anyone at all. For parts of the hike, I was kinda scared that we missed a path to switch trails because there weren't any markers at all. I was glad to have seen those other hikers. Then a few minutes after passing the people, we get to another clearing except this time it was blocked by rocks. So, we ended up climbing up the rocks to get a better view. It was a bit dangerous but well worth it. The view was again incredible!

The amazing view once on top of the rocks

All smiles after seeing this

Joshua and the Smokies in the back

Back to the hike. We were now about 5 miles away from the campsite. However, we get to an intersection where we could continue to the campsite or walk .5 miles to Mt. Cammerer. We were so exhausted at this point and we weren't sure what we would see once up to Mt. Cammerer. We decided that since we hiked all this way, we might as well go for it. I got a bit worried that it wasn't going to be much because the first part of that trail was going downhill...not a good sign. However, once we got to it, we saw a house of some sort that kinda looked like a lighthouse. Joshua read about it and it was once a fire watch tower to spot any forest fires. Pretty cool. What's even better was the view. Breathtaking!!!

Joshua at the top of Mt. Cammerer

Me at the top of Mt. Cammerer

View from top of Mt. Cammerer

Joshua chilling on the railing of the firehouse tower

Joshua and the Smokies

Gorgeous view of us and the Smokies

We leave Mt. Cammerer and finally head back to the campsite. 5 more miles to go. We stumbled up and down the hills, tripped over tree roots and drank the rest of our liquids. Worst part of the hike...my toes were KILLING me! With the running and stubbing my toes on the tree roots, they were in so much pain. A few times when we were walking downhill, I had to stop to rest my toes since they were rubbing against the front of my shoes. But we were so close. We managed to get back to the campsite and by that time it was about 4:30...6 1/2 hours later and starving!

When we got back to our site, the first thing we did was to start a fire to cook some food. Joshua went to the gas station to pick up some ice cold drinks. And we fixed our tent so then it was more taut and with the door facing the car and not the woods. We drank some brewskis and had Cup of Noodle and Chicken a la King soup. Who knew crappy food could taste so good? After some eats, we played some card games til it got too dark then it was time for bed.