Well, the hiking trail wasn’t too sure where to hike. The options were Slickrock Wilderness or Great Smokies. We decided on in between them by way of the Benton MacKaye.
After dropping off the first vehicle at the Cheoah Dam (Fugitive Dam) Dick, Byron, and myself carpooled to the NC/TN state line at Deals Gap (not to be confused with the motorcycle resort.)
Somewhere near May Apple Gap, near where the old A.T was before rerouted over the dam in 1948, we came across a large tree that was hollowed out.
It was pretty cozy.
Next week the club is going to hike up to Shuckstack Fire Tower. We meet at 10:00 a.m. Saturday at Fontana Village’s General Store. Hope to see you there.
Sarah, Pence, Autumn and I went to the always overwhelming Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. We did a little shopping and got some great deals. The best purchase on this trip was a great
book on the area called “The Wild East.” I read it a while back ago and have wanted to add it to my library for some time. The real fun of this excursion was riding through the National Park and going on a little hike with the family. We brought a gift I got for Pence to take along the trail. It’s a book called, “Who Pooped in the Park?” It was the perfect gift because Pence is at the age where she has fun saying “poop” and the book helps teach me about scat, which I always seem to be asked about while guiding hikes. Pence had this book opened the entire time and was looking intensely for poop to identify.
“It’s been a long time, a real long time.” Since I wasn’t able to keep up with post for December I will give a quick little run down. Sarah has been learning our digital camera and playing around with photos. I liked this photo she took. Autumn’s position in this photo is so funny. Believe it or not she did not fall over. This was one of her fist times sitting up.
We decided to go to Highlands and visit the family property. There was a detour on the Franklin road to Highlands because of a car falling over the edge of the road. Luckily the detour took us past Skyline Lodge where we took this photo. My grandfather Jerry helped build this lodge in the 70s. Since I was a small child my photo has been taken on this rock. It was nice to get one of my family.
For Christmas my parents came up to enjoy a cold festive holiday. It was the first time the family ever missed the Span Christmas get together in Florida.
Despite less family then usual, we had plenty of presents around the tree for the two little girls. One of the presents my parents gave Sarah, Pence and I was a train ride on the Smoky Mountain Railway. We went on their Polar Express themed ride after Christmas and took Santa back to the North Pole. Pence had a blast and will definitely remember the experience.
December went by fast, but it was a blast.
