Erwin Linear Trail: TN Highway 107 to Northern Terminus

Sierra and I gave Noelle some time alone to work on her thesis by heading over to Erwin to walk another section of the Linear Trail. When we arrived in town it started to rain and so we killed some time by eating lunch at Subway. By the time we were finished eating the rain had moved away and we were ready to do some walking.

The walk started out by heading under the Highway 107 underpass near McDonalds. We then headed to a section of trail that led past a few ponds filled with Canada geese.

Besides the geese we saw some ducks and a great blue heron as well.

After the ponds we headed to a not-so-scenic section of trail that very closely paralleled Interstate 26.

We did manage to see a few trains which Sierra greatly appreciated.

She is very much into trains all of a sudden. The trail ended at a small family cemetery called the Booth Cemetery.

We quickly checked it out and then headed back to the car.

On the way back we took a detour on a side trail through the middle of two ponds

on a dirt trail.

We turned around and were greeted by more geese when we returned to the main trail.

Shortly after hitting the main trail we found ourselves back at the car for the drive home to Greeneville.

Jefferson National Forest: Falls of Little Stony

Yesterday, after our adventure at Natural Tunnel State Park, we headed east into Jefferson National Forest and the Bark Camp Campground. We set up our new tent and had some time to kill before dinner. We
decided to take a walk over to the nearby Bark Camp Lake.

Sierra insisted on walking on her own and was a real chatterbox. She kept talking about the train we had seen earlier in the day and the train tracks. Then she kept saying how it "smells good'. After saying "smells good" three times, Noelle finally decided to ask her what it was that smelled good. Sierra replied that it was "trees"! That's my girl! We walked along the lake shore, past a whole lot of fishermen and fisherwomen, and then headed back to our campsite via the roads

for playing

and dinner.

It took Sierra a while to get to sleep last night. She seemed really excited about our day hiking and camping. Despite the fact that she got to bed late, she was up early this morning and ready for a hike. After packing up camp, we hit the road and headed over to the nearby northern trailhead for the Little Stony National Recreation Trail. As we got our stuff ready for the hike, Sierra was obviously excited.

She kept saying "camping and hiking"! We finally got her into the backpack and hit the trail

close to the cascading Little Stony Creek.

I didn't realize it, but we had started from the trailhead that gets you close to the falls quickly.

After crossing over a sturdy wooden footbridge,

we found ourselves at the Upper Little Stony Falls.

There was a set of stone stairs that led down to the base of the falls. We went down and admired the view

for a few minutes before returning to the main trail.

Back on the trail, we soon crossed over another couple of bridges

and then found ourselves at a nice view of the Middle Little Stony Falls.

We kept on the trail, headed downstream, eventually arriving at a nice set of cascades.

We stopped there and let Sierra out of the back pack for a little play time. Then we headed down the trail a little bit further.

Parker seemed to be getting a bit tired at this point, and so the decision was made to turn around. We went back to the cascades we had stopped at earlier for a snack and more play time,

before making the short, uphill climb back to the car along the cascading Little Stony Creek.

Natural Tunnel State Park

The Grunwald's camping adventure weekend begins! This morning after breakfast we packed up the car with all of our camping gear and headed north through Kingsport into Virginia. Our first stop was Natural Tunnel State Park. We pulled into the parking lot near the visitor center and relaxed in the shade

as we ate a snack to prepare for our walk on a few short trails. Sierra was excited by a train right in the parking lot.

We walked over to it to have a look.

Then we got out the back pack for our hike.

The first trail we hiked led to a nice overlook of the tunnel.

The natural tunnel

(Really a cave) is over 800 feet long and naturally carved out of limestone by carbonic acid water. From the short overlook trail we hiked a short trail over to Lover's Leap. There is, of course, a legend of forbidden love between Native Americans that leads to a tragic leap off the tall precipice here. We admired the nice view

and then returned to the parking area, passing a few flowers in bloom.

From the parking area we found the trail that led down into the gorge, past an unnatural tunnel,

and to the opening of the Natural Tunnel.

A railroad actually uses the tunnel for freight traffic and so there are railroad tracks passing through it. Obviously, with trains moving through the tunnel, it is not possible to walk inside of it. We admired the large, impressive entrance and then headed over to the Carter Cabin.

The Carter Cabin was built in the 1700s and moved to its current site in 1997. We had a passerby take a family photo there,

relaxed a bit,

and then headed back up out of the gorge. The trail was steep, but not too long. Parker was the only one who seemed to have trouble with the ascent (he's getting old). Our hike was certainly better than taking the chairlift. After arriving back at the car we headed over to the picnic ground and playground for a snack and a little play time. Then it was on to the campground for Sierra's first camping experience!

Pisgah National Forest: Douglas Falls

Today was a Daddy/Daughter Adventure Day! I used to think the best adventures were the epic marches high into the mountains like my one day solo ascent and descent of Cloud Peak in Wyoming, or the marathon trip up and down Pike's Peak on the Barr Trail that my brother Kris and I completed. However, today proved that the best adventures, in reality, are those that feature the company of really special people like my daughter Sierra. It was just a great day of bonding.

We started with a drive into Marshall, NC to visit the closest branch of our bank. After cashing a check, we walked across the French Broad River on a bridge to check out a park on an island in the river. We walked on a trail the encircled the island

and then headed back to the car. We had some pretty good conversation over the course of our walk. Sierra told me "Yellow hat Daddy." Indeed I was wearing a yellow hat. When we looked down onto the river Sierra exclaimed "Water!"

She was very excited. Probably her most exciting moment of the day came when, on our return to the car, we saw a lady walk her dog across some railroad tracks. "Doggie on train track, doggie on train track!" Sierra excitedly exclaimed. She would talk about the dog crossing the train tracks for the rest of the day.

Once back on the road we headed into Weaverville for lunch at Blue Mountain Pizza. "Pizza good", Sierra said. Even though the pizza was good, Sierra did not try any. She was too busy eating her peanut butter and jelly. From lunch we dropped off our recyclables and then made the long drive to the trailhead for Douglas Falls. Along the way we were treated to some views of several waterfalls right from the road

including the tall, cascading Walker Falls.

When we arrived at the trailhead I put some sunscreen on Sierra and then we hit the trail.

The trail to the falls was not too spectacular, but the falls themselves were impressive.

There was not a whole lot of water, but the sheer height of the falls (supposedly 70 feet) made up for the lack of water.

We took off our shoes and played in the water a bit.

Sierra enjoyed picking up rocks and throwing them into the water.

We saw a few salamanders.

After about a half hour, in which we had the falls all to ourselves, we put our shoes back on and made the short half-mile hike back to the car. Sierra was asleep within two minutes of me strapping her into her car seat.

It was a great way to spend the day with a wonderful little girl.