We hit the Newfound Gap Road at 7.30am as we want to make an early start hiking a small portion of the Appalachian Trail.
Driving through the mist Di spotted something - is it a cow? is it a horse? no, it's an Elk! So cute!
And clearly unphased by humans taking photos.
We are driving up to Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to do a hike to something called Charlie's Bunion.
Newfound Gap is known for two things; it is the border between North Carolina and Tennesee, and the Appalachian Trial, or AT as we soon learn, passes through here and we will hike it to Charlie's Bunion and back (8.8 miles in total).
We liked the distance sign to Katahdin in Maine which is the end of the Appalachian Trial. Almost 2000 miles, 3200 km. That is a loooooong hike.
As the sign says below, the whole Appalachian Trial is 2150 miles long (3460 km) and goes through 14 US states.
A "before" photo, before we start hiking. All smiles. Cool and overcast morning with low cloud, time is around 8.15am. If the rain would stay away, this is perfect hiking weather.
Di on the trail. This morning, the Great Smoky Mountains was certainly living up to its name.
Through the Smokies, the Appalachian Trial follows a ridge for a lot of the time. That ridge also forms the border between Tennesee (Hans right foot, to the left on the picture) and North Carolina. Kind of cool to wander having each foot in a different state...
Steamy all around...
Trail shot, although the Appalachian Trial section that we saw looked better than this for the majority of time.
We were not quite sure what happened to this tree. Freshly broken, no blackening from lighting from what we could tell. The tree looked healthy. Still...
On the "road"...
There are overnight shelter in various places along the Appalachian Trial. We passed this one called Icewater Spring. We arrived there perhaps 10.30am and lots of the hikers who looked like they spent the night there were just getting ready to hit the trail. A bit late for us, but these were all young people. The guy to the left stood there ready to go, but had to wait for his buddies. We reckon he had waited for a while...
We had a look inside the shelter and it looked pretty neat. Sleeps quite a few people. Behind the camera is also an open fire.
Along the trail we met a lot of people who were aiming to hike the whole AT to Maine. They had started 200 miles ago in the south in Georgia and allow 6 months to complete the hike. The Mount Katahdin in Maine closes on 15 October so hence why they seem to get started in early April.
Hans trying out his "cooee"... No reply.
Suddenly we can see Charlie's Bunion from the trail. We are not sure whether it comes across in the photo, but can you see the people slightly right of centre?
We made it. Charlie's Bunion. Steep down down down on all sides. Great views. We had an early lunch there and chatted with hikers who were doing the whole Appalachian Trial end to end.
Di looking very relaxed (although she refused to go further up or to the edge) and pleased with herself.
Hans on top of the world.
Behind Charlie's Bunion, you can negotiate a bit of bush and get even higher up. Hans did.
Yep, we encountered quite a few long distance end to end hikers, some with a lot of gear and some with less.
The weather cleared up and suddenly you could see the road that we came in on, Newfound Gap Road.
Di made it and now she needs to stretch. Where else but on the parking lot next to our car.
After the hike, we drive back down to Cherokee again, stopping for a photo from a parking lot where we saw several photographers this morning. Of course, the great morning light and mist is now gone, but we think the view is pretty good anyway...
We really needed baths - sweaty bodies and tense muscles - so we take it in turns to soak for a while and then rest for a few hours in our room.
Tonight is Casino night! We are keen to check out an Indian Casino and this is one of the biggest we've seen. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), but management is outsourced to Harrahs.
The inside was far more glamourous than we had expected in this little town. Turns out the EBCI spent a few years and $650m on renovations and extensions. Wow - that investment shows. The picture below is of the new section with indoor raindrop waterfall, nice woodwork and a few posh restaurants included.
The restaurant that you can see upstairs is called Brio and we had a very nice dinner there. Trout for Hans, Veal Masala for Di. Yummy and understandable why this is the Number 1 restaurant in the area according to TripAdvisor reviews.
We explored the casino a bit more after dinner. Below is just one poker machine section - definitely not for us. We go looking for some live action.
Roulette is Hans favourite and we both play for a while. Hans is much better/luckier and his winning streak results in a profit of $260! We could not believe number 32 came up twice in 10 minutes. Hans had some return from it each time. The $300 worth of chips he holds below (and gloats over) include our initial combined stake of $40.
We are too sensible - we take the money and run! The profit covers the night's meal and some of our accommodation costs here. Excellent. We like Cherokee more and more. We book to stay another night but no more gambling for us.
A very good day and night.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment