Great Smoky Mountain National Park

In our quest to see all of the National Parks, we'd be remiss to stay in TN too long before visiting our local spot - Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  The Smokies have always been a favorite of mine.  The ancient, forest covered hills have a soulful quality that the west's jagged peaks and intimidating grandeur do not.  These mountains are a shadow of what they once were millions of years ago, and perhaps its the history lesson in geology that I find so fascinating.  Nope, actually that's not it.  It's the variety of wildlife and vegetation.  The Smokies boast the largest in number species of wildflowers of any of the US National Parks.  In addition, elk were reintroduced back in 2002.  Though we did not have the pleasure of seeing any, its nice to know that the original 40 or so have now mated and produced a population of over 200.  Elk were made extinct in the east years ago with hunting and poaching going largely unregulated.  Fortunately, after their reintroduction, it is now considered illegal to kill an elk on national park grounds.

There were no wild animal encounters on this trip, however we did meet up with two good friends from Charlotte, NC and enjoyed a luxurious weekend of car camping at Cosby Campground.  Though I have heard the Smokies are typically considered one of the most crowded national parks, we were delighted to have much of the campground entirely to ourselves.  From the Cosby grounds, you can hike one of many various trails leading to balds, waterfalls and even the Appalachain Trail.  We met a hiker in the parking lot who was section hiking the AT solo.  A lonely endeavor to be sure!

My favorite part of the weekend was a hike that Cortney and I did on Saturday morning.  From the A-loop in the campground, you can hike the Gabes Mountain Trail up to Hen Wallow Falls.  The total distance to the falls and back is approximately 5 miles.  The ascent on the way there is strenuous at times, but for the most part is a gradual up hill until the very end, when you hike down a steep section of trail to the bottom of the falls.

I found Hen Wallow Falls to be one of the most gorgeous waterfalls I have ever seen, mainly for its many tiers and facets in the rock face which creates hundreds of tiny waterfalls as the water cascades to the pool below.

The trail is well maintained and if you're hiking in the fall or winter (which we were obviously not) you can see some pretty incredible views.  In the summer, the views were mostly obscured by trees.  The abundance of tulip poplar made me think that this area of the Smokies must be particularly magical in the fall when all of their leaves turn yellow.  I made a mental note to return there in early October if possible.

Bluegrass Along the Harpeth

With our travel schedules for work, its harder and harder to find motivation to travel on the weekends. Fortunately for us, Nashville and in this case, Franklin have so much to offer that we are quite content to amuse ourselves locally.

We had heard about the annual bluegrass festival, Bluegrass Along the Harpeth, from friends.  Being avid bluegrass connoisseurs we decided to check it out a couple of weekends ago.  The festival is held in downtown Franklin on the circle.  It features competitions in dancing as well as bluegrass.  We watched most of the music from the patio at The Mellow Mushroom.  If you're thinking of going, this is a family friendly festival - so no beer tents and riff raff, quite what you'd expect from Franklin.  Here are some videos from the day:

Grand Teton National Park, Day 3 A Grizzly Encounter

The morning of the 5th of July was beautiful.  We both woke up pretty early having gotten to bed early the previous night.  Rolling out of the tent to see the stillness on Leigh Lake in the morning light was just breathtaking.  I was admiring the view as Aaron began preparing his fly rod.  We had taken all of the items in the bear box out to prepare some breakfast and then load up the canoe.  I made a couple of cups of coffee as Aaron fished.  

Soon after, we began to hear unusual noises in the woods that we had not heard before.  Typically a rustling in the woods would reveal a deer or a marmot, but whatever was making this noise was much larger.  It would be quiet, and then all of a sudden, a giant crash of snapping branches and twigs.  This noise appeared to be getting closer, moving through the woods, parallel to the shore. 

Aaron in true Hollywood horror movie fashion, turns to me and says “I’m going to go check that out” and wanders into the woods holding only his morning cup of coffee.  I focus my attention back to organizing and cleaning up the site to get us ready to go when we finished up fishing.  I hear Aaron begin clapping, and saying “No bear, get away bear.”  The above photo is not of our bear.  As you might imagine, I didn't race for the camera at the time I heard him say this.  

According to Aaron, the bear had just pounced on a marmot or a squirrel when he finally identified that it was in fact, a bear.  Wanting to avoid it, he had hoped the bear would not see him.  But at that very moment, the bear popped his head up and locked eyes with Aaron.  Aaron says he lowered his head and clearly had the intention of finding out if this was a beast that he could eat.  He would determine that by walking towards it, and seeing if it ran away.

I look up from what I am doing to Aaron who is about 50 yards from me on the beach.  Walking towards him, at a range of about 20 feet, is a gigantic grizzly bear.  My blood rushed to my stomach and my heart pounded.  Was I about to watch my husband be eaten by a grizzly?  It certainly appeared that this bear thought Aaron was prey.  He had, after all, just been out hunting in the woods.  Aaron continued making noise as the bear bowed its head and continue to stalk towards him.  I joined him in making a ton of racket, smashing a paddle against a tree and yelling.  The bear finally turned, having assessed that this was not going to be an easy kill, and slowly wandered up the hill and away from our campsite.  Aaron slowly walked back to me at the beach and took up the paddle in the event the bear decided to return.

I packed our entire site into the canoe in about 3 to 5 minutes.  It was the fastest pack up and get ouf of here we’ve ever done.  In fact, we didn’t actually relax until we were in the middle of Leigh Lake, and could take in what had just happened.  That bear had been hungry, and we were about to be its breakfast.  Thank god Aaron had not turned and ran, as I am certain the bear would have reacted differently and immediately assumed he could kill and eat him.  So, fighting back and yelling at a big bear will eventually work, you just have to keep at it apparently.  Lesson learned.

Suffice it to say, after that event and of course with the annoyance of the aforementioned water purifier breakdown, it was an easy choice to get to paddling back to civilization and the security of a more crowded campground.  We returned to Dornan’s to turn in our canoe and determined to have lunch overlooking the cathedral group and revel in our good fortune.

We wound up back at Gros Ventre for a third night of camping and told our story to anyone who would listen.  We met three people our age from Santa Barbara who had just finished the Teton Crest Trail and has spotted a couple of black bears on their trek.  When visiting our famed western mountain parks, it really can’t be stressed enough that you need to be prepared for anything and everything.  After Glacier last year, and now the Tetons, we are continually humbled by what can, and will, go wrong when you’re out in the middle of nowhere.

Grand Teton National Park, Day 2 July 4th, 2013

The plan for day 2 was to head for the backcountry.  Research prior to the trip suggested that going by canoe from the String Lake Trail head, up String Lake, and on to Leigh Lake was the way to go.  This required some logistics and considerable worry on my part, as we are not experienced canoe paddlers by any means, and what if we capsized with all of our stuff!  Suffice it to say, I didn’t sleep well the night prior, in anticipation of what would be a monumental couple of days.  After the first night at Leigh Lake, we had planned to canoe on up the lake and then backpack in to Bearpaw Lake.  This did not occur, for reasons I will explain shortly.

There were administrative affairs to attend to in the morning - such as waiting a half hour in a line to get our permits from the welcome center.  Then there was the wait at the local fly fishing shop, to obtain our fishing licenses, and then lastly there was waiting to get our canoe loaded up on the car.  I would advise anyone heading out into a national park on a holiday weekend as we did to get a very early start.  We were at the put in for String Lake by 9:30am, so we beat most of the traffic.  Exiting on the following day we saw long lines of cars at the entry gate.  Here's a map of where we were:

String Lake is easily one of the most beautiful mountain lakes in the world.  The backdrop of the Teton peaks and the crystal clear, shallow water with giant fish swimming around - it's a sight to behold.  The trip was relatively short, and soon we had reached the portage to Leigh Lake.  The canoe rental outfits will loan you a set of wheels to load up the canoe with so you can make an easier portage.  This was critical for us, as we had approximately 70-80 lbs of gear in that canoe for our two nights in the woods and could not have hoisted the canoe without assistance of additional people.  A couple of pics of String Lake and the portage to Leigh Lake:

Soon we were paddling out onto Leigh Lake, which was far more scary to me as the water was very deep, and a capsize here would really ruin our trip.  The lake was calm however, and we were able to easily find out campsite, Leigh Lake 13.  

That’s when our war with the mosquitos and horse flies really got going.  This was not a mere annoyance, these suckers were out for blood and nothing was going to stop them.  Except DEET.  After I got tired of swatting, I finally bit the bullet and went for a dip in the frigid water.  It was very refreshing and I wasn’t alone in that thinking.  All across the lake, kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards carried sun burned adventurers on that gorgeous afternoon.  

We had our first close run in with wildlife that afternoon, though it would not be the last.  As Aaron napped in the hammock, a giant mule deer wandered up a couple of feet away to check it out and nibble on some bushes around the campsite.  We named her Dierdre, and she came and went multiple times throughout the evening.  Sweet little thing, here is some footage:

Having prepared dinner, I went to filter some fresh water with our new water purifier for later that evening.  In doing so at home, I had no issue.  However after filling one nalgene completely to the top, the purifier pump broke.  This would be trouble for us the following day, not having a clean source of water to drink.  The alternative would have been boiling a bunch of water before we went to bed, and then allowing it to cool over night.  I suppose had other events not transpired, we may have pushed on to Bearpaw the following day as planned despite the issue with the water filter, but other issues arose that gave us pause in continuing our journey.

Now would be a good time to tell you that these campsites have huge metal bear boxes permanently fixed in the area and the rangers stress the importance of always having your food locked up in the beer box when you are not consuming it because they will smell it and come after it if you don’t.  We followed these rules closely and went to bed that night after a brief thunderstorm feeling somewhat safe (or as safe as you can ever really feel when you’re in the backcountry and no one is within 2 or 3 miles of where you are).

Grand Teton National Park, Day 1

Tetons, Day 1 July 3, 2013

The flight into Jackson Hole was nothing short of amazing.  Cruising low over the iced peaks and looking down into the bluest ice crevasses below took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes.  Not long after, the first site of the Tetons came into view, and as if to please just us, the pilot took a second turn around the airport and we took it all in.  As you de-board down the stairs of the plane, Elk antlers in the shape of an arch adorn the entry to an immaculate airport.  The drive from the airport to downtown Jackson is brief, but breath taking, and you are quickly reminded of how completely small and insignificant we all are in the shadow of such grand mountains.  

Locals complained of the heat as we collected supplies for our three days of camping.

We rolled into Gros Ventre campground and got one of the remaining 2 tent camping spots in the whole place.  Not long after setting up camp, we had the pleasure of meeting our camp neighbors Marshall and Karen, who had ridden up by motorcycle from Phoenix.  Marshall, who retired from the construction business years ago, tipped us off to a drive not far from our campsite where we might spot some buffalo.  Aaron and I, having never laid eyes on a real live buffalo, wasted no time loading up the car to head out on our sunset buffalo drive.  We were not disappointed.  The site of the wild beasts grazing in the fields, with the back drop of the Tetons and the sun just beginning to set was almost too much to take in all at once.  Here are a few pictures and videos:

We have become smitten with this land, and the thought that every American owes it to himself and herself to see this and experience this, in any way possible.  It is truly a testimony to Teddy Roosevelt for ensuring that this type of land would always be a public treasure, owned by every American and not just the rich.  And this is just day 1...

Preparing for Grand Teton 6/2/13

It's the eve of our Teton trip and I'm giddier than a school girl at a middle school dance.  We have all of our supplies meticulously organized on our dining room table and are just finishing stocking up before we pack it all up this evening.  A couple of things I'm really glad we've accumulated for these types of trips include the Osprey pack air porter, Sawyer water filter (though Aaron wants to buy a pump instead, says its too slow), and my 15 degree sleeping bag.  The air porter bag was an accidental gear purchase that turned out to be a great mishap.  We bought it last year for our trip out to Glacier thinking they were rain covers, but when we opened them up at home, we commented how handy it would be to be able to fly our packs out already packed up.  That works, so long as you don't exceed the 50 lbs required by the airline.

We have some new gear for this trip - in particular a set of three new dry bags as we will be going at it via canoe.  Our itinerary is as follows:

Fly in Wednesday afternoon, camp in/around Gros Ventre camp ground.
Thursday morning, pick up rented canoe, paddles, life vests, etc and drive to the String Lake trailhead where we will pack up the canoes and set out
By Thursday afternoon we will have portaged over to Leigh Lake and to our campsite #13 for Thursday night
Friday morning we will pack up the canoes again and head to the north end of Leigh lake, where we will stash our canoe and hike on foot to Bear Paw Lake for a 2nd night of backcountry camping.
Saturday we canoe back to String Lake and crash at The Alpine House for a luxurious end to our trip.

Ocoee Whitewater Rafting and Camping

Hot summer sun and rafting are the perfect mix, and when we discovered through a friend that a Groupon was available to raft the Ocoee river with Adventures Unlimited, we jumped on the opportunity.  It had been ages since I'd been to the Ocoee - probably since middle school - and it's only a three and a half hour drive from Nashville so this was an easy weekend trip.  We headed down with several of my coworkers and spouses and set up camp Friday night at the outpost.  Only two notables regarding camping - 1) Adventures Unlimited's campground is not the best maintained I've seen and the toilets were dysfunctional all weekend and 2) we tested out our new Eno double nest sleeping system in lieu of a tent and loved it.  The new mosquito nets allowed us to slumber comfortably under the shelter of a tarp we hung overhead.

Saturday we departed for the river with our guide Alec, a dreadlocked and rather serious fellow who was quick to point out errors in our paddling technique.  Aaron and I found this a bit funny, as the drama with which he imparted these messages presumed that we could be in real danger if we didn't follow his instructions.  After the Gauley, the Ocoee is a cake walk, and our guides at the Gauley had been a hell of a lot more fun.  Regardless, Alec managed to get us down river without any pins or flips so that was good I guess.  During the Olympic section of the Upper Ocoee we hit a massive hole and I was chucked out of the raft.  Below you can see the painful progression of this mishap.  A bystander on shore threw me a rope and I was quickly able to get to the side and to safety.  Sort of pissed I lost those gold sunglasses though...

Here's a video of our progression through one of the river's Class IV rapids as well as an additional video of our guide Alec showing off.

Snowbird Backcountry Area, Nantahala National Forest

Ah Memorial Day, typically spent this holiday out on the lakes around Charlotte back when we lived in NC, but this year decided to take it to the woods.  Our friends Cortney and Chris picked the spot - we would have gone anywhere given the forecast for the weekend.  No chance of rain, sunny and mid 70's.  Now that's my kind of day.

We arrived in Robbinsville, NC and met up at the Hungry Bear.  Robbinsville is approximately 2 miles of road with gas stations, restaurants and super market.  After I blew by the Hungry Bear by accident I realized it could not be located using a GPS.  I stopped at a local gas station and to my astonishment, the natives had no idea what I was talking about.  How do you miss one of the maybe 7 restaurants in your own town?  Bizarre.

The drive in to the trail head is mostly paved, with one long stretch of gravel road that passes multiple creek side car-camping sites.  It's a beautiful drive to get there, and I rolled down the windows for the boxers to stick their heads out and enjoy the breeze.

We began our hike here, selecting the path on the left (there are two at the trailhead):

Here are our friends Chris and Cortney and a shot of Aaron and myself...

Along the trail...

Then we came to the creepy abandoned van and almost decided to camp there.  Fortunately Chris made it across the stream and informed us that an even more perfect site was situated just beyond where we had stopped.  We crossed the creek to get there.

I believe it was the most grotesque affront to "leave no trace" I've seen when we got to the site.  Someone had literally fashioned a table into the tree for cook prep and there were foils and wrappers scattered about. We did our best to pick up the debris we found, and made sure not to leave any of our own.  It does beg the question: how much of other's people's trash should you pick up?  We tried to get it all, but I resented that this was now our problem, and not the jerks who left it a mess in the first place.

Definitely enjoyed some good food and a nice camp fire.  The hand held chain saw in particular came in handy as we gathered downed logs and trees from the area.

Night 1 was cold.  Too cold to attempt the ENO hammock tent type contraption I had procured, thought we gave this a shot on day 2.

Day 2 we struck out on the trail to find a good fishing spot.  I am continually told that we can find great fish using fly rods.  I am continually disappointed when we catch no fish.  Obviously my fly fishing abilities leave something to be desired.  Here is the neat bridge we found:

Night 2 the doggies were exhausted.  This was the most exercise they had enjoyed in a while.

When we woke on Day 3, the skies were overcast and we determined it would be best to head out and back home to Nashville, to enjoy a day of Arrested Development and grilling at home before returning to work.  All in all, a great trek, great spot for camping right near the water, and a chance to catch up with old friends.

Bluegrass Underground

I heard about it from a friend at work.  "Hey did you hear about Bluegrass Underground?" he said.  "No" I replied.  "It's awesome, its this cave where they have bluegrass shows and its awesome because the acoustics are amazing and they always get top talent."

Google help me, I was online that very moment to research.  What was this magical place I wondered, and how could I procure tickets to see it?  Would it be far away?

Bluegrass Underground is a special concert series hosted in McMinnville TN's Cumberland Caverns.  In these massive caverns, which were once mined for minerals used in gunpowder, a giant room titled "The Volcano Room" can seat up to 500 people over 300 feet underground.  Acts play on selected Saturdays and tickets can be purchased online.  They first started the Bluegrass Underground series in 2008, and since then PBS radio and now PBS television will broadcast selected shows from the illustrious cavern.  You can read more about it here:

http://www.bluegrassunderground.com/

And here's a good pic:

It was a rainy Saturday this morning when we packed up and drove 90 minutes to McMinnville from Nashville, passing through Manchester en route.  When we arrived, we entered an old souvenir shop filled with various crystals and shiny stones, t shirts and magnets.  Here you can purchase a 10 dollar bag of dirt, then step outside to their customized washing station and drop your dirt into a small mesh tray.  Here is how that went...(sorry, for whatever reason can't get these videos to imbed here today!)

http://youtu.be/UMp2354fI40

As show time approached, we were told to walk through the woods to the cave entrance.  There, a guide is required by their insurance company to walk each group through the cavern and into The Volcano Room.  Along the way there are underground waterfalls and pools, stalactites and stalagmites, all lit in a ghostly pale yellow or blue or red.  Then, at the end of a long tunnel, you begin descending into The Volcano Room.  Somehow, someway, they have managed to electrically wire the entire place for sound and lighting, AND install plumbing so you have access to restrooms.  A full concession stand serves the typical concert fare, and picknick tables line the back of the room where patrons can bring in their own food and beverage spread.  The only thing not permitted is alcohol and smoking.  Not sure how they monitor the alcohol thing, because if you brought your own in a Nalgene bottle no one would ever check or know.  Suffice it to say, the show's at 1pm on a Saturday so at that point you're probably still in recovery from the previous night anyhow.

When Mountain Heart took the stage I wasn't sure what to expect having never seen them before.  I was completely blown away by their talent.  How many bands can boast a two fingered banjo player, one of the best vocalists I've EVER heard (no exaggeration) and a guitar, fiddle, bass and piano that blast through your body with such lightening fast speed it will make your head spin.  Here's a snippet:

http://youtu.be/P9Oe7BgKet0

It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  We will definitely head back to the cave at some point.

Falls Creek Falls

Amazing weekend camping and hiking in and around Falls Creek Falls State Park in TN.  Gorgeous weather all weekend long and a heck of a way to kick off the spring camping season.  All of the waterfalls and creeks are easily accessed from scenic overlooks so it was a convenient, if not a bit lazy way to see the sights.  Here are some pics from the park.  Enjoy!

Hog Roast

Well folks, it was an eventful Saturday at the Hollar house.  Despite illness earlier this week, we had a non refundable hog on order and something had to be done.  As it was our first time attempting to smoke an entire pig, we were frothy with anticipation and excitement.  What began as a box in our bathtub (too big for our freezer):

...was soon unwrapped and this sad looking grey pig was placed on the grill:

Now the next step was smoking ole Wilbur here into a fall apart, delicious mess.  Aaron brewed up some of his famous Carolina style vinegar based sauce.  Here is the recipe:

white vinegar

apple cider vinegar

hot pepper sauce

red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

brown sugar (dissolved in vinegar stove top with the remainder of the ingredients)

This delicious sauce was injected into the pig for the ensuing 10 hour period while it smoked slowly with hickory wood and charcoal.  We got the smoker on clearance and it did us well.  Here was the (nearly) finished pig:

It was quite a feast, and we ended up saving a huge amount of pork for the coming weeks.  Nice kickoff to the first beautiful weekend we've seen in many months.

Pig Pickin

You could say we are finally coming out of hibernation.  With the move to Nashville, and the purchase of a new home, we have been busy to say the least.  But as winter thaws, we get restless and head back to the woods...or at least, the backyard.

This weekend we opted not to camp, and instead to stay home, cook a pig and watch the Final Four.  Now, when I say “cook a pig” I mean, cook an entire pig.  We ordered this 50 pound Wilbur from a local butcher about 2 weeks ago.  

The original intention was to have a blow out house warming party with all my new coworkers and Nashville friends.  We wanted to expose them to original eastern carolina BBQ.  But alas, flu and pneumonia this week struck the Hollar household with a vengeance.  In lieu of infecting all of our new friends, we opted instead to cancel the party.  Unfortunately, it was too late to cancel the pig reservation.  So...pig roast weekend it is!  I have no idea how we will possibly store all of the cooked meat in our tiny freezer, but somehow we will have to make it work.

Hog roast begins tomorrow at 8am.  Stay tuned for pics...