Today is Day 6 of our Great Northeast Adventure. I wanted to share a little of what we’ve done
while it is fresh in my mind. Days 2-3
were both spent on The Natchez Trace. We
had traveled the Trace from Natchez to Jackson many years ago, when the kids were
at home, and really enjoyed it. We
decided then that someday we hoped to return and follow it all the way up to
Nashville. This was the perfect
opportunity to do that. The Trace isn’t
for everyone, but it was ideal for us!
There are no commercial vehicles allowed, no billboards, no towns, no
stop signs…just over 400 miles of natural beauty and peacefulness. The speed limit is 40 MPH around large cities
and 50 MPH everywhere else, so the pace is slow and restful. The first day on the Trace, we traveled 170
miles…in 7 hours. We stopped frequently
at the different sites along the way. We
did a little hiking, stopped to take pictures of the changing scenery and color
along the way, climbed hills to view waterfalls, and stopped at beautiful
settings for leisurely picnic lunches.
We ended up Day 3 in Cookeville, TN.
Our plans were to assemble the next morning at the Frogtown church, so
we decided to drive up to make sure we could find it. Good thing we did! All we had were GPS coordinates (and didn’t
realize at the time that our car’s GPS could take coordinates). We used Dennis’ hand held (woods) GPS to lead
us up in the right direction and figured we would find it. That doesn’t work in the hills and hollers of
Tennessee. We were driving some pretty
remote pig trails before we finally found someone outside to stop and ask
directions from. We were within 1/10 of
a mile from the church…you just couldn’t get to it from there! The man was good at telling us how to get
back to the road that would take us there, and we finally made it. Turns out that it is really easy to get to,
on good roads, if you know where you are going!
Day 4 was the Lord’s Day, so we assembled at Frogtown that
morning. We enjoyed meeting everyone
there…especially Debie and Wayne Taylor.
I’ve heard of them for years, but this was the first time we had
actually met. Visiting with Debie was
like talking to an old friend! I also
really enjoyed the lesson of the morning, on contentment.
After the assembly and a short visit, we got back on the
road and drove to Townsend, TN, a small town just a few short miles from The
Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It
was still early enough, after we got checked into our room, to start exploring. We decided to drive the Cades Cove Loop, an 11
mile loop. It ended up taking us about 2
hours to drive it…not because of all of the sightings, but because of the
traffic! It was bumper to bumper most of
the way. We hoped that Monday morning
would bring a little relief in that department!
It didn’t disappoint. We got up
before daylight and headed back to the same area. There weren’t the heavy crowds this time and
we could enjoy the view. Right off, we
started seeing deer. A couple of nice
bucks posed for us and were very close up and personal. About 2/3 around the loop we saw a momma bear
and her 2 cubs out in a pasture. The
cubs were just coming down from a tree.
They were about 400 yards off, so our viewing was helped using a
telephoto lens and binoculars. It was
quite a show, though. Then another momma
bear and her cub came out of the woods and were headed for the same tree. There looked like they might have a
confrontation for a little bit, but the second pair backed down. What a treat!
We then took a cut-through and circled back to the visitor center (at
about the half-way point of the loop).
While there, we heard talk of another group of 6 bears. We drove out to where they were and had quite
a show. One bear was right beside the
road. We drove past and were within 10
yards of him (or her)! We parked a
little ways down the lane, got out of the car with our cameras, and started
shooting (along with about 20-30 other people).
The bear was oblivious to all of the spectators…it was busy trying to
fill its belly with the required 7 pounds of hickory nuts that it needs each
day to get ready for winter. Up in the
tree above him were 3 other bears, busy gathering nuts and chomping away. In another tree across the lane were a couple
of cubs. What a treat!
We finally decided to move on and see another part of the
park. We stopped for lunch at the
Chimneys picnic area. Such a pretty
place! The hardwoods in that area were HUMONGOUS!!! After lunch we drove up to Clingman’s Dome,
which is the highest point in the park.
The drive was breathtaking! The
colors in the high elevations were really starting to shine. There is an observation tower that normally
allows a 360 degree view of the area, but it was fogged under, so we didn’t
bother to climb to it. Nothing but white
fog was visible as you tried to look down the mountain. So we headed back down to the lower
elevations.
Our park literature told us about a remote area in the North
Carolina part of the park, where elk had been reintroduced. So we decided to head that way. We left the park (you couldn't get there through
the park), drove through Gatlinburg (what a tourist trap!) and hit I40 towards
N. Carolina. After one missed turn, we
found the park entrance. The road
leading to the Cataloochee Valley, where the elk herd stays, is 7 miles
long…and took us about 30 minutes to drive.
Talk about switchbacks! It was
narrow and graveled and the maximum speed you could drive was 15 MPG, except
for on the curves, when you had to slow down.
But it was worth the drive. Not
only did we get to see elk, we saw two big bulls that put on quite a show for
us. They were in separate areas, so we
didn’t get to see a fight, but we did watch them bugling! That is a sight to see…and hear! We did see a couple of smaller bulls doing a
little friendly sparring. After watching
for an hour or so, we decided we’d better get back out that road before
dark. On the way, a bear jumped down
onto the road in front of us for a short “race”, then headed off into the
woods!
When we hit the main road, we set the GPS to take us to the
closest restaurant on the way back to Tennessee…or so we thought. We ended up way back out in the sticks, in
the dark, with an almost empty gas tank…and no town in sight! We managed to find a man outside working on
his truck and asked for directions to the nearest gas station. Turned out that we were only about 5-6 miles
from a Pilot station on a main road and were able to make it without getting
stranded. What a relief! We filled our tank and our bellies and then
drove back to our room in Townsend.
We aren’t even 1/3 of the way through this adventure and it
has already been well worth the trip!
Everything from here on out will be well northeast of anywhere either of
us has seen before. I can’t wait!
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