On top of Old Smoky....

Hey folks,

Well here we are once again staring down the barrel of Monday and another week at work...

Hope everyone had a solid and stupendous weekend.


We surely did because we saw one of Mother Natures most fascinating natural phenomena in the form of bugs...lightening bugs to be precise. Future Wife and I had made plans many moons ago to visit one of NC's natural treasures, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park .

In said park, there resides a species of synchronous fireflies that just so happen to perform an amazing light show every night in late May and early June. Needless to say the nature nerd in me was mucho excited to see this. I had experienced the lighten'n bugs first hand many years ago on a week long solo backpack through that area and ever since I told her, Future Wife has been dying to go. The Smoky's are a backpackers paradise but they dont allow dogs in the back country. This is not good news for The Bear, who is our #1 hiking companion on all our adventures. Never the less, we were bound and determined to see these bugs so we dropped off  The Bear and The Goose at a friends and took off for the far hills for an over nighter of bug inspired awesomeness...

The hike in was mostly uneventful aside from some sweet fungi and me boring future wife with my encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora. She always feigns interest and I appreciate her listening to my rambling about False Solomon's Seal, Galax, and why Sassafras tea will cause your liver to shut down.

  

 

We ran into many a day hiker enjoying their tax dollars at work and even saw some wildlife. We made it to campsite #30 on the Little River Trail hoping to have the place to ourselves. However this would not be the case and we wound up sharing it with some of the finest women N. Georgia has to offer in the form of AWE(Amazing Women Exploring) an all female adventure club. These ladies were the real deal and its great to see people out enjoying nature first hand.  I was the only dude amongst us but it was ok and made for some "interesting" campfire conversation.

  

 

After much relaxing and camping-esque activities Future Wife and I wandered down trail a mile to watch these fire bugs do their stuff. It was hard to get pictures of the show but man...what an experience! Imagine hundreds if not thousands of tiny bugs flashing in unison across the ridges, valleys, creeks, and every bush, tree, and plant around. I felt like a princess in a fairy tale...but in the manliest way possible. It was very surreal...

The show lasts about an hour or two, then it was back to the campsite for sleep and reflection on what a crazy-awesome place our mountains are. I highly recommend folks take the time and experience it for yourself.

After getting rained on for most of the night, we awoke to a beautiful Smoky Mountain morning. After breakfast we humped it outta there and down hwy 441 to civilization. Its always depressing to me hiking out of the forest into civilization, especially when that civilization is the touristy abomination of Cherokee, NC. Tourist trap flea markets, "Live Bear" attractions, and a small army of old folks throwing away their life savings at the casino always makes me sad.

But...Jim Gaffigan is performing there this weekend so there's the silver lining...

Hot pockets...

Have a great Monday ya'll...