cat stairs - gsmnp

“Copeland Creek Cabins
http://copelandcreek.smokiesrentals.com

Austin Green (owner) also has a country store at 2719 East Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN
865-436-6143

We are in cabin 4.”

“was just peekin this trip out. I am on a reserve list for BSF and thunked perhaps I would come down to the smokies and hike with ya all.Is there room for me to pitch?
With the temps I may need to do sometin around water!!!!! Yo bear!”

“of course.”

“we will have a couch and a loft with no bed. If you can handle a baby that doesn't sleep, you can crash with us, or put a sleeping bag on the porch. Whisky makes me not hear the baby. lol

all that are going, e-mail me your phone #'s so we can meet up

opie1979 @ yahoo . com

We plan on being in the park around lunch tomorrow, and probably hike Ramsey Cascades first.”

“thanks. I must pass! have fun and yo bear!”

“Looking forward to hiking tomorrow.

We rented a chalet with Sunset Cottages: 3630 S. River Road, Pigeon Forge, TN 37863, (800) 514-4651, and we are in the one they call "Sweet Serenity."

http://rentals.sunsetcottage.com/rns/search/propertydetail.aspx?ID=420

I will be at the chalet tonight thru Monday morning. Will meet everyone that's going at the Greenbrier ranger station, but will leave for the trailhead at 8am.

Last I heard we are going to the UT game Saturday night, and no real plans for Sunday, but thinking of driving over to Max Patch to let the dogs run.

By the way, if you don't know my cell number, let me know and I'll email it to you.”

“TownDawg I don't see an email for you but mine if gregbulman@bellsouth.net. If you want send me your number and I can reply with mine. Thanks”

“Yo Bear !!! U b back home ur what?

TD, I gotta offspring's soccer game tomorrow, but we may do a Sunday dayhike out to LaConte. I'll check out the map and see about mileage, be nice to do the Newfound to Alum Bluff Cave route, but for sure that's too much for my little ones. Perhaps out and back to LaConte, or Charlies Bunyan (or both) would be a fantastic trip. We could do it Monday too, anyone in the area, lemme know.”

“met Goldbond, TenJen for the first time, another set of fine TT'ers!

had a great hike with them, Towndawg and his son.
we didn't even hurt TD!!....trail report and pics sometime monday.”

“I was great to meet everyone!”

“Had a blast. It was great to meet everyone. Hope to see all again. Opie is the blue book we talked about the one by Ken Wise? Thanks again to Towndawg for putting this trip together.”

“"A Sierra Club Tote Book - Hiker's Guide to the Smokies" - Dick Mulless and Constance Stallings

I'll look in the morning to see if I still have my duplicate.


http://www.amazon.com/Hikers-Guide-Smokies-Sierra-Totebook/dp/0871560682”

“Thanks for the link and again great to meet and hike with you.”

“you guys know where to find a copy of Ken Wise's book for less than 60 bucks?”

“Had an amazing weekend. Just now got back in. Hey -- the hike rocked. Will have to start assembling some good moments to repeat.

Thank you Opie. We have long been friends. Thanks for agreeing to come be my right hand. Good to see you, Michelle, Logan. Safe journeys.

TenJen? heh. Glad to see that you completely understand how easy it is to {how should we say?] decide you really didn't like what you ate for lunch after all? Trooper. Seriously. Good job on getting a route completed that most would only dream about. :)

GoldBond, my man. Excellent to meet sir. I'm sure our paths will cross again, and I look forward to it. Hey next time I tell you to drift to the right, maybe you should drift to your left instead? :) Thanks for all the scouting! Helped out when we knew we were still following the correct route.

To my son. I know you might not see this, but your company was magnificent. Love ya.

To anyone reading, our time was about exactly the length I assumed it would take. We did good. :)

Bring on the good stories. Save the truths for later. :)”

“https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150355803883582.403802.774068581&l=edabe8281d&type=1


trip report possibly tomorrow..had to clean house and baby today.”

“and yes.. a set of true or false questions. Let's see how many you can correctly answer. :)

(T/F) If given the chance to lead the bushwhacking expedition, Opie might wander aimlessly through the woods, crossing the remains of a dry creek, and hopelessly drifting off-bearing to his left until someone hollers over at him.

(T/F) GoldBond was able to mind-meld with his portable GPS and become one. Never once did his instincts fail him; nor at any time was he "off the grid."

(T/F) TenJen is mystical and magickal, often surprising everyone, coming from seemingly nowhere. There were times when we thought she to be behind all of us, only to discover she had beaten us all to the destination of the moment.

(T/F) TownDawg somehow managed to provide a hot meal for everyone, but for the first time to anyone's recollection, no one chose to try even a sample of his regenerative skills.

How am I doing so far?”

“HAHA! You're too funny”

“The answers are all true by the way, especially number 3”

“(T/F) This [what you see in the picture below] is what's left after all of us went to one of Opie's tailgating parties.
”

“(T/F) TownDawg is actually on top of what [you see in the top of the picture] they are trying to climb to when this picture was taken.

”

“(T/F) Opie recently purchased this barn for an undisclosed sum. To his credit, he did not own the barn when this picture was taken. Therefore it is still a really awesome picture of an old barn, that we might not ever get to see again?

”

“(T/F) There is actually someone standing behind Greg [GoldBond] that you can't see in this picture. I'm trying to remember his name? [He's the one that disappeared mysteriously just after this picture was made.]

”

““(T/F) There is actually someone standing behind Greg [GoldBond] that you can't see in this picture. I'm trying to remember his name? [He's the one that disappeared mysteriously just after this picture was made.]

I believe I pushed him off the mountain after he yelled, "roll tied!"”

“tide.

It's a typo, I SWEAR you guys.”

“I fixed it!

but not before getting a good laugh out of my typo ;)
last edited: 9/05/11 8:13:52 PM”

“nevermind, it won't let me edit now”

“One thing I find interesting?..



This exact location [in the picture] above is where the picture below was actually taken.



The ledge of that rock is what TenJen is resting her hand on.”

“In other words, the only thing behind her is air.”

“I'm mystical and magical like that”

“LOLz. You really liked that about you didn't ya. ;)

Ok, someone else's turn to tell stories, I'm headed to bed.”

“you guys know where to find a copy of Ken Wise's book for less than 60 bucks?
Opie I got mine from amazon after I found them for a cheaper rate for a time. I gave around $20 for mine and an friend got one for about that price also. You have to keep looking for them. Warning: some are library copies that were not returned. DK if the libraries are still looking for them or not. Good Luck with your search and if I happen to find one cheap I'll let ya know.”

“I can't believe someone wants $400 for one! BTW great trip report. I would have gone except for a wedding, plus yesterday was our anniversary.”

“I was trying to remember what I bought my copy [of Wise's book] for.. I was one of those lucky ones.”

“I have no doubt that Opie will write an excellent trip report. Just remember that about half of what he claims will be total BS.

:)

The only part I wish we /hadn't/ done? was to take so long in trying to figure out exactly where we were about mid-morning -- but it's all good. It was a really good memorable trip.”

“I think we should go back soon. Who's with me?”

“Me!”

“I wish we had a picture of that second catstair. I'm also willing to bet that all of that recent rain obliterated most of our tracks.”

“Excellent report yawl!!! Great pix too, sounds like that book is a must have, eh?”

“naked ape -- depends.. but in general.. you can't have too much information.”

“"we didn't even hurt TD!!" -- OPIE, 4:01pm.

Well.. hmm. RH ring finger is squished. Showing some swelling and discoloration, but not too serious. RH elbow has a decent scrape, and appears to be rock related. LH elbow got a nice visible bruise, and appears to be tree-related. RH/LH legs are scratched, but not bad at all actually.

So yes.. I agree. Not many hurts to be concerned over. We all survived.”

“http://gosmokies.knoxnews.com/profiles/blogs/tasmanian-maples-a-devil-of-a

FYI - some nice pictures of the route (cable route) we did not go.”

“I'm willing to bet that's the 2nd catstairs.




”

“I'm happy I didn't look down when I was climbing up!”

“Looks just as steep as I remember it.”

“that is the 2nd cat stair, i kinda ran down them when i went back looking for my bandanna. The 2nd one had lots of trees to ladder up and down with.”

“I have no doubt that Opie will write an excellent trip report. Just remember that about half of what he claims will be total BS.

:)

The only part I wish we /hadn't/ done? was to take so long in trying to figure out exactly where we were about mid-morning -- but it's all good. It was a really good memorable trip.”
TownDawg
8:49:50 AM
9/06/11


You're giving him lots of credit. I mark him way down from believing half!”

“I at least give Opie half credit... I believe he was the one who located the trail ;)”

“Agreed. I give Opie %&*$$#@, but he's a good decent human being. :)”

“Oh, I agree, he's a great guy, you just better have you're BS meter turned on when you're out having a good time. :)”