Woke up this morning after an interesting night. It went from hot to cold I apparently have an old person bladder now so yeah that. But overall I feel like I had a good nights sleep because well I had dreams and that usually means I got some sleep. Woke up cleaned up a bit with handy dandy Hustle Clean Body Wipes. Refreshingly clean I headed off to Gatlinburg TN to hit breakfast. First a view.
Side story, been a while since we had a good one. I want to talk about Laurel Creek and Little River Gorge. For most of the day flipping back and forth between places I would meander along roads that followed these waterways. And hearing the rushing water over rocks. The wind, it really was extremely peaceful. Even the insanity of the Sinks was breathtaking.
Breakfast right, the goal was to hit Flapjacks. I had heard lots about it but there was absolutely no parking that I could see. It was all must pay $12 for the day. I am like hell no. PANCAKE CHAOS AAHHH!! Was about to call it quits and eat some granola bars when I drove by Log Cabin Pancake House, sold! And before you judge me for this picture. I do not normally eat like this. So hell yeah I am going to have some crazy stuff.
Spiced Apples on top of French Toast... mouth watering thinking of it right now.
From there headed to the visitor center to grab the hiking maps and my assorted goodies from the park. The day was looking a bit suspect. Hot but the sun was having issues getting through the clouds.
I had originally thought of driving to the one side of Rainbow Falls Trailhead. I was not really paying attention to where it was but it seemed more away from Gatlinburg which seemed good for less people. But I ended up heading to the closer trailhead. Rainbow Falls Trail is marked as moderate by the NPS. We know how that turned out last time. To start off the fun I had to park at the additional parking spot area, adding an additional mile and half to my hike minimum. Got to see the lovely Trillium Gap trail though. My hike ended up hitting 6.52 miles at just under 3 hours with a combined elevation gained of 1867 feet. It was tough and it showed on every person I passed going up and going down.
And then because of the overcast sky the Rainbow Falls was rainbow-less. But still worth it to say I did it. Then I started down and then it started to rain. Hard. Again. Luckily my clothes did not get completely drenched this time. Just a small bit.
Then it was off to Canton, NC just outside of Asheville for tonight KOA Cabin stay. I was tired of hot and rain. Now before I finish off the post with well dinner. Because that is what I do. I got to witness devastation up close and personal tonight. I have not been this close to something like this in a long time. The flooding of Richmond when I first moved there over a decade ago and the tornados that hit Ft Worth Texas when I lived there even further out of mind. Haywood County North Carolina was recently hit by incredible flooding. There are no pictures. I wasn't going to take pictures of peoples lifes ripped away. Houses and cars with bright orange X on them. Debris, trees. signs, furniture, tractors tossed like toys in piles along the side of the road as the clean up is still on going. It was sobering.
I would finish my day the Southern Porch with a lovely local beer the Hi Wire Gose and wonderful Carolina Chicken cheesesteak with a side of fried green tomatoes. I topped that all of with a slice of Salted Caramel cheesecake. A few tables over in the nearly empty dining room was a table of 10-12 local football players. Their age was right at that 18 to 20 age range so I am going with high school seniors and juniors. It was nice to see life trying to go back to normal even though I know between flooding and pandemics it is no where close to being that way.
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