Dogs, Logs and Yam in a Can TR

“Wow! What a great weekend! I know Gem will prolly do a great TR with pics, but I thought I would at least start it.

Bison, Yam and myself met Trekkingirl, Ewker, Hotpants, DAA, Kyle, Dodder, Gojo and MDS Hiker at the trailhead around 10am and began to shuttle cars. By the time I got back from shuttling mine, Gemini showed up and we started up the trail.

The first couple miles were pretty with all the new greenery and wildflowers everywhere. We stopped for lunch at the first bridge and DAA whipped out the fishing rod and caught himself a rainbow trout! We watched all the dogs play for a while (Gizmeaux, Sarabelle, Layla, Ellie Mae and Suki), but once Gizmeaux (15 lbs?) started humping Layla (80 lbs), some of us decided to move on. hee hee! That was a funny sight.

The next few miles of the trail followed along the Piney River, so we had many bridges to cross and views of the cascading river. Finally we reached Spiders Den Bluff, where we descended into a gorge along the river. We picked out a campsite at the far end of the trail with caves and bluffs surrounding us. There was a campfire ring with stones set up as chairs to make a very cool area to hang out. After we set up our tents, we set out for wood. Most of the wood was damp, but MDS Hiker had a saw and found some dry logs which he cut up. By the time the gathering of logs was over, we had enough wood to last us 2 nights!

We were sitting around camp and lo and behold, Lost Hiker shows up! Then Opie and Miss Opie appear! It was amazing any of them found us we were so far back into the gorge. We cooked dinner (Gojo brought the canned Yams) and sat around the fire for hours roasting marshmellows dipped in Gran Marnier and goofing off. Gem and Ewker kept on blinding everyone with their flash pictures - they were trying to get shots of TTers eating their marshmellows? After sipping on the white lightning and whatever else we had (thanks Lost Hiker for bringing the Guinness!), everyone eventually drifted off to bed.

It was a cold and beautiful Sunday morning when we woke up. The rain had stopped and the skies were clear. We packed up and hiked out the final 4 miles of the trail. After shuttling everyone back to the trailhead, we went for some Mexican/Italian food in Spring City. Wierd combo, but it was pretty good.

I had a great time and enjoyed meeting some new TTers. It was a great way to say goodbye to our sweet Yam and nothing crazy happened (Yam and I have wierd luck on the Cumberland Trail). Yay!”

“hey...you wrote the TR, so I don't need to. Yeah!!! I may write one, not sure though...

Real quick:
Nice seeing all of you again.
Great to finally meet mdshiker (never really talked the first time we met back at TC2)

Great to meet Gojo, Gizmo and Sarabelle
Great to meet LongLostHiker.

Yes, like always a great trip.
Sad to see Yam go, but I'll see ya in Maine girl!! We can hike all the big boy trails without them. heeheehee”

“hmm...I would upload some pics, but webshots don't let me right now...so you'll have to wait..

btw: did the smokies grow since I was gone?
damn...they looked tall as heck on my way back home. (got pictures)”

“my pictures are up. lots of people pictures though, and no captions yet.

http://community.webshots.com/album/330448169OOiTUA

Enjoy!”

“Nice pics and report! Looks like you guys had fun in spite of the weather. I'm looking forward to Yam moving up here.

.....is it just me... or does Gojo look like Willem Dafoe with the long hair? :-)”

“Man, that is great. Backpacking where they have side by side flush toliets. I always have to find a log to sit on.”

“Yam in a can.
LMAO!
Glad y'all had a great time!”

“Looks like a fun trip. Nice pics, Gem! Fare thee well, Yam. Let me know if you're Golden Gopher way. :-)”

“...short this time though. I know YOU are happy!

Yam’s movin’ to Maine. Phhhh…be that way then!
Cumberland Trail TR April 23/24 2005
TT TRIP: Yam, Embear, Bison, Goja, Sarabelle, Gizmo, Ewker, Opie, Ms. Opie, MDShiker, LongLostHiker, TrekkinGirl with friend, Dodder with friends, and myself, Gem that is.

Boy oh boy, I really have to stop this last minute #&%!$! Yes, I had planned to go on this trip for a while…can’t let Yam leave without properly saying good bye dammit…but something came up and I had to cancel. Well…that was until one day before the trip. The trip all of a Sutton was back on!
I knew it wouldn’t make it Friday, and if I got up early enough I may even catch the group at the trail head. And so it was! Yam and Bison still where waiting at the trailhead for Embear and MDShiker to come back from shuttling the cars. Everyone else has left already.

Weather driving up there: Cold and some rain. Not sure what’s going on with this weather lately, but it sure sucks big time. Hope that’s not a sign of how lousy our summer will be.

Anyway…got to the trailhead, they had no freaking bathrooms there, so I changed in the car. After Embear and MDShiker arrived we got started with our hike.

The trail wasn’t but 6 miles to the campsite I think. Nothing difficult, very relaxing and pretty. Wildflowers everywhere. I am not a wildflower person, but they were pretty, so I thought I mention them. Heehee.

It didn’t take long until we caught up with Ewker, and shortly after with Dodder. At the first suspension bridge I think we finally caught up with everyone else. With great joy we watched how Gizmo humped Leila. Well…actually I don’t think it worked…but hey…the little dirty dog tried!! I still think Embears expression was funnier then Gizmo trying to hump big Leila. Where is my camera when I really need it huh?

After everyone decided to have lunch at the bridge we continued our hike to the campsite. It didn’t take much longer and we arrived at a nice site near the Piney River and a Rock House.

I saw a huge fire ring and rocks that was setup as chairs. LOL, that was the first campsite that actually had “rock chairs”. I don’t know who build them, but hey…THANKS!!

We set up our tents and…well…sat, laughed and talked. It was pretty early, not even dark yet.
Right before dark Opie and Ms. Opie surprised us. We where wondering if the two of them would make it, but doubted it. Shortly after Opie and Ms. Opie arrived LongLostHiker arrived too. What did they say? Your TT name used to be Roach? Was that it? Not sure anymore. Oh well…

The weather looked nice, didn’t really rain on our way to the campsite, but we did have a little bit of rain while sitting around the fire ring, and all of us were hoping it wouldn’t start to rain heavy. Well, it never really did. Compared what I thought the weather would look like we really lucked out. Besides this short drizzle it really didn’t rain much. Finally it was dark enough to get the fire started. We all had a nice conversation around the fire. Some of us a little bit too much booz. Oh gawd…Yeah me too… I did it! I feel shame for drinking Gojo’s damn moonshine. Nipping on my apple vodka didn’t help much either. Oh well, #&%!$ it! We all had fun.

I checked out the rock house. Pretty nice. Thought to myself if it really starts pouring we can always all sit in there. I even saw a fire ring there.

Yes, I took lots of picture, Ewker did too…but hey at least someone took pictures. RIGHT???!!!! Actually I can’t believe me and Ewker were the only ones taking pictures. I know Embear lost her camera, so you are excused. (BTW: Did you find it?)

Man was it cold though. Let me rephrase, for it being the end of April it was REALLY cold.
Like I said, the weather is really #&%!$ed up lately.

Time went by pretty quick it was 12AM in what felt like in no time. Damn, that sentence don’t
Sound right…someone help me out here…

I went into my tent hoping the world wouldn’t be spinning too much. Oh and it did…but that’s all I remember. I was gone in LaLa land and sound asleep faster then I could blink. I was tired because I didn’t get much sleep the night before. I didn’t even hear the commotion everyone was talking about the next morning. Someone must’ve fallen of the chair? Not sure who…(heehee…)

I woke up the next morning without a headache and felt great! Oh…I should say…Yam felt the need to wake me up. I am now sure it was because she needed my tent to change clothes. LOL Someone made a morning fire and I had to mention that this was my very first morning fire. Never did I experience a morning fire before. Really now! I am not kidding!!

Hahaha, little Gizmo peed on Yam’s tent. Now that was funny. Okay it was not…but yeah…it was.

We all started our hike to the other end of the trail head were some cars were already parked. Only 4 miles, so again a easy hike out.

Took the group picture and shuttled back to the original Trail head. Some of the cars had to drive back to shuttle some more. While they did all the shuttling I got dressed and somewhat cleaned up.

We all decided to get something to eat in the town near the trail head. Hmm…What was it again? Oh yeah…Spring City. Opie, Ms Opie, and some others decided to leave home without stopping at the restaurant, so we said our good-bye’s to them at the trail head. We found some small place that offered Mexican, Italian and American food. Hahahah, only in Spring City you’ll find a restaurant like that. Food was okay.

I took a picture of the bathroom. Someone tell me why the put 2 toilettes in one room? I should’ve took a picture with us sittin’ on the pot and holding hands. Hahaha. So funny! Okay…I guess one of for wheelchair users, and the other is not. I dunn know…it’s still funny as #&%!$.

We said our good bye’s and each of us went on our way home. I drove home and noticed that the smokies had snow on top. Wow…the smokies almost looked unreal. I felt like they were so much larger then usual. What happened to the smokies guys? When was the last time someone messured them? I swear they looked like they were 10,000 feet tall.

I had a fun hike. Company was like always great.
It was nice to see old faces again. Hey MDShiker, see how we finally really meet and actually talk. I didn’t even know I met you before!

Nice to meet Goja, Sarabelle and Gizmo.
Nice to meet Long Lost Hiker aka Roach (??)
Nice to meet Dodder’s friends, so as TrekkinGirls friend.

Sorry to see you go Yammy  I miss ya already!

Afterthoughts:
Nice hike, very nice area.
Lot of damn dogs on this trip.
I love my pack
I love my tent.
Wow…I packed light this time. (Shut up!! I THINK SO!!!)
Thanks MDShiker for the Bud Drink. I think I am hooked.
I don’t like moonshine. I don’t like alcohol very much right now.
Took too many people pictures.
Holly #&%!$…what happened to the smokies?? They grew!

Total miles hiked:
10 miles only
Total miles driven:
About 700 miles (3something each way)

Pictures are here: http://community.webshots.com/album/330448169OOiTUA”

“Nice report and pics Gem. Em's camera was at home on the couch.”

“I got my pics upload to the computer last night but that was as far as I got. Quite a few of my pics didn't turn out great. It was right at that point in the day where you had to decide to use a flash or not. I chose not to :( even with the software to lighten them up didn't work great.

Here is a link to dodder's pictures. Hope it works
http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?showSlide=true&Uc=2v4fjt2.aljoo4vf&Uy=-kczwdp&Upost_signin=BrowsePhotos.jsp%3FshowSlide%3Dtrue&Ux=0”

“Great stupid pictures Gemini.

What would we do without ya?”

“Packed light too, huh?”

“ewker they are okay... I know if you don't turn on the flash you got to really watch it or they blurr... (reason why I used my knee as "tripod) LOL a lot of mine didn't turn out either.”

“damn, I forgot to add Gojo's can of yams and his chicken to the TR.”

“Was he spankin' that chicken?”

“Would have loved to made the trip with you guys, but Deb dropped a hint that she wanted to see the ballet for her birthday. Nearly thirty years ago was the LAST time we went. I bought two tickets on ebay for about half-price -- and lo and behold, we are headed to Nashville to see "Sleeping Beauty." It was a good time. I was surprised, I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe we won't wait thirty years to go to the ballet the next time.”

“he spanked it, then he ate it!
TD yes, you was signed up wasn't ya?”

“I've done that before.

Well, I roasted a chicken the day before and wrapped it and refridgerated it for the trail.
last edited: 4/25/05 11:54:49 AM”

“Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! Sorry I missed this one. My allergies have me feeling like crap today, I think I'm gonna go home early from work.”

“My first group hike in a year. Waaaaay past due!

It was a pleasure to meet DAA, Pants Hotly (blame her ol'man, not her dogs - lol!), Bison, and "Germani" (I just now made that up! hehehee). And a pleasure as well to be reunited with a great bunch of my TT family.

I'd met Em'n MsOpe before, but only in their civies. Fleece and smoke-smell becomes them both. heh!

What a whacky couple days leading up to the hike...
After much inner termoil, I had finally decided that only Cletus would show (see my last post on the Yam hike lead-up thread). Therefore, I shopped for food, etc, like a 'hillbilly'. For instance, I had purchased a huge drycell battery type flashlight to bring along. I had also hit a couple thrift stores for clothes. To top it off, I was gonna forego my pack, and 'tote' my gear in a tool bag, rope bag, and bed roll. That explains the whole chicken and can of yams. The moonshine, however, was coming Cletus or not!

More later -
my library hour is almost up....
eight minutes! AHHHHHHHHH!
Oh the pressure!”

“Sorry we had to miss this one. I am truly disappointed that we had to bail. I am betting this was a fun time. Glad you all enjoyed it and it looks as though you did Yammie justice on her send-off!”

“LOL Gojo
Tree...what happend? I was really sort of hoping you would surprise us.”

“Looks like you guys had a blast!

Artex, I agree gojo does look like Dafoe with his hair long.”

“The car has a broken windshield and is in dire need of a tune-up and a few other things. It wouldn't have been a smart move to put it on the road for that many miles. Airfares weren't being kind to the wallet this time around either. Believe me, if there was a way, we would have done it...”

“Yam, when are you moving up to Maine? We have to start thinking about a welcome-in group hike for the near future...”

“I was gonna use a rope belt sporting a hatchet. I had some Bubba teeth. Suspenders and a goofy hat, too.

I had made Yam a going away to cold-as-hell Maine present, too:
a cooter cozy.

Yepper... cotton thongy thingy with Gizmeaux hair taped to the inside. The hair was to have been imported from the Cashmere region of NW Alabama. I still have the cozy, BTW.

Saturday morning, I chickened-out...
Oh well, mebbe next time.

I've never drank moonshine to speak of, and I wasn't sure how the quart jar was gonna affect me ("Please, O Lord, watch over me!"). I was quite surprised at the mellowing effect said corn product had upon me.



Oh yeah... enroute to the trailhead from Bryson City, NC, I stopped at a motorcyclists service center (bikestop?) along US 129 at Deals Gap in southern GSMNP. I hustled the dogs across the road so's they could do their bidness. Upon my return, the proprietor met me in the barking lot (hee!) and presented me with a decal of a dragon. It was to express his appreciation for my being a responsible pet owner. I adheesed the sticky stegasaurus wannabe to the back glass of the camper shell - right between the decals of the UP and the AT.

The deal? The next 11 mile stretch of US 129 is referred to as "The Dragon". 318 curves! I lost count, but Gizmeaux didn't. Yup, the Mighty Mighty Tacoma slayed the dragon...
Tee shirt in store:
"Florida: 11 Curves in 318 Miles"


Dang.
I'm suffering from TT lag. I coulda gone for a few more days...

I love you guys.”

“got to run to my blog and spell Gizmeaux correct, so as my webshot album. aaaaaahhhhhrrrgggg!!!”

“Gizmeaux is a stud.

Gojo - Glad to see ya posting more again!”

“What never.

I'm getting SICK AND TIRED of seeing you post so friggin' much!




heheheeeeeeeeeeeee!
%op”

“Hey everyone...I had a great time. I'll definitely be going back to do that trail in the future. The campsite was awesome and so was the company.

Gemini...the only reason I didn't move from the RIP chair all night was because I was unable TO WALK ! I think I had a little bit too much "Moonshine in the moonshine."

Embear...my knee is just fine. I was a little bit worried after your pooch ran into me but I'm good to go for my AT section hike in a few weeks. Give her a big smooch for me.

GOJO !! Pass the jar !!

Yam, what can I say? Don't forget about us southerners, and you know who to call if you need anyting. ;)”

“better late to post than never...took me a while to find my TT password. It was great to meet new folks and see (to me) oldtimers. Most folks figure I'm new to TT 'cause I don't post much at all, but I've been around since the late '90's. The Piney River was great, very Smokies-esque IMO. I felt guilty about leaving my dog out of the Piney River Pooch Parade so I took her up to Bledsoe Creek for dayhike after I got home.
FWIW, here's a pic of her near the bottom of this page:
http://www.csupomona.edu/~rosenkrantz/personal/cockroach.htm

Gemini, Cockroach was my original TT moniker, which was just a carryover of my pledge nickname during my frathouse days (now ages ago).”

“Cockroach, that was it! I changed it on my TR (blog)
Anyway, it was nice meeting you.”

“It was a great trip and good to see everyone again. The weather was really nice despite the cool temp and the wildflowers were gorgous! I had alot of fun!! It's sad to see YAM leaving Nashville though. We'll miss you!!”

“I forgot to mention that I enjoyed all the dogs too!! They were all very well behaved!!! I absolutely loved the puppy!! She was precious!!”

“great pics, guys!! and gem, you always post the most unflattering photos of me!!

it was a great trip. i'm glad everyone that could make it showed up...it was fun. makes it tough to move, but i know the tters up in the NE will be just as awesome!

em--great location choice and great job organizing! i wish i had time to organize a trip for you before you leave. :(”

“Yam are you still up for tomorrow night?”

“gojo...a cooter cozy?”

“yam...those are the best pictures I had. Keep your damn eyes open! I have 10,000 pictures of you with your eyes closed. LOL

I am sorry :(”

“ms. opie,

it shouldn't be a problem. remember...wear conservative dark clothes! ha!”

“i kid, gem, i kid!! :)”

“really though...if you want me to take some off email me and I take them off.”

“nah gem, no big deal, but thanks for offering!!

hey tree--
i'll be arriving in maine the weekend of may 20th. and being i have no full time job lined up yet, i'll have PLENTY of time for hiking. :)”

“That's great, Yam! I'm going to start thinking about this. We will have to find a good vantage point that is accessible to several regions along the Northeast corridor, so as to make it as feasible to as many folks as possible...


...That could prove to be fun party. I mean, hike...”

“Tsk yam, you look great in all pictures ;o)”

“Well I gess I will say a the port to.

Me and my hubsand Gissmaeioux was jest walkin aroun mindin ower bissness and smellin stinky things and a truk rode up and ther was buddys in the truk yellin! Me and Gissmaeioux did yellin to then (sept Gissmaeioux sayed Frants werds like usewul).
Any ways Gissmaeioux got in the truk and did some sniffys (but he better did not do no kwikky likkys!) and they was awrite.

Them was Smelly May and her leetel sitster Sueky.

In a minit the nother buddy rund up and hopped aroun like a crazy rat that was Layla. She is verry big and perty like me. I wold like to get her some ressel ups but my daddy keept sayin "NO!". Gissmaeioux sayed "zshu bee zshu bwa twa la" that is Frants werds that sayed if she never quits hoppin aroun and lays down he wold get her some perty good humpys.

My daddy got ever buddy some snaks and it was a fun time.

Then we went walkin in the woods.

At Big Rok Sueky slided down to the water and got drownd and broke legs but my daddy rest cued her and she was ok.

Then we made tents and a fire and ate chikkens.

Gissmaeioux sneekt a bisket. At nite he sneekt cornd likker and got whorny but pats out on my daddys lap so we did not do no seks in til it was ower mornin pee walk.

Then ever buddy walked some more and we went home.

The end”

“Sarabelle, what about when Gissmaeioux tried to have "seks" with Layla, didn't that bother you, or do you just let him do it with any old dog?”

“Ah ah ahhhh!
Verry funny!

That was not seks jest humpys.
You better lern how to do seks or ever buddy will say you are kweerd! BOL!
(o:3”

“Oh! I see, your husband has you fooled! What a shame.

I wonder if I can use that excuse when I want to be with another woman, hmmmmm.....

"Whatcha talkin' about baby, I wasn't havin' sex with that girl, that was just 'humpys'"
last edited: 4/26/05 1:36:42 PM”

“thanks for the reports and very neat pics on this trip....sure makes me miss tennessee in the springtime....

I noticed someone was sporting the rei quarterdome...i have been lookin close at it...how do you like it?”