July mini Dismeet

Some Mallory love

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everyone else seems out for dinner. We took a short nap after our hike and then grilled burgers and brats And veggies. Nailing the roasted veggie recipe for the dismeet In oct. hopefully clean up the grill and pack it. Have two options for hikes tomorrow one if the weather is bad and one if it holds ok.
 
wow. I am staying up way past my bedtime yet still awake at 6 am. Depending on hike today I may or may not have a nap. Weather seems to have the most chance for constant rain today.

last night was a great time. Mallory has some new friends. And so does bert!

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Well after I posted I rolled over and back to sleep we went. Decided to make pancakes again for breakfast, it’s easy. Can’t decide if we want to bother going out hiking as it looks like rain all afternoon. It’s vacation so it may be a down day.
 
Kris you should have put some makeup on the bruise on Bert's face. While she might fully understand and agree with it Deb is likely not to be happy.
 


It's a good time to hike waterfall trails when its raining. The waterfalls are typically louder and seem bigger. Could ride the loop around Roaring Fork or Cades Cove.
 
Arc,

Anchor Down is pretty nice. We were also there for 5 days in April. Internet is decent, but dependent on how close to the access point you are. We were on 3 different sites in April. Two sites were good. One of those was right next to the AP. The 3rd site was a good distance and I had to hot spot off my work phone to get any work done. The amenities are great though.

We had a great time hiking with everyone today. Here are a few pics from the trail.

Ian and me at Andrew's Bald

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Some of the group coming down the trail.

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Kris atop Clingman's Dome. It was crowded, so no chance to social distance.

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j
Happy belated birthday Jim! Nice pictures. Looks like a great trip.
Here are my pictures from Clingman's Dome, what a gorgeous view from up there!
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I should have met you all there, looks like I'd have had better luck.
 
This trip looks like it has been fabulous. Hopefully, you will decide to do another one, and we can make it (COVID 19 kept us away).
 
@Stratman50th at least when we went up this time you could look out north.

today I took a vacation day from my vacation. Bert cooked pancakes and bacon for bf and we did very little but lay around the campground. I took a morning nap till 9 am. Planning to make up for it tomorrow regardless of weather. Plan is Silers Bald which is 9.3 miles and then jog up chimney tops on the way home. Should be quite some elevation gain tomorrow and a total of 12 miles. Good thing I have leftovers for dinner.

spent the evening hanging out with everyone and rain broke us up at a more reasonable time for me.
 
it was my good idea to hike chimney tops after hiking Silers Bald. Bert is giving me all the credit for this one. Chimney tops is kind of rough, it’s short but the gain is serious. After hiking 10 miles and it being 2 pm when we started, Bert struggled more than I did on the up.

Let’s start at the beginning, we left the rig at 7:35 am, awesome. Took 55 minutes to get to Clingaman’s dome parking. i don’t remember the temp at the campground when we left but it was 63 up at the AT. It was nice and cool. So much that I needed to start hiking so I could warm up. During the hike the temps stayed cool. It was nice, some clouds in the beginning but cleared up some.

Morning clouds

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some pretty azaleas (I think)

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at 4.7 miles we hit Silers Bald. It was not Bald and really no look out. Took a pic of the marker. I was slightly disappointed.

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Then on the way back we hiked back up the dome, because we were there.

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these were on the hike back. The clouds had lifted some. We actually could see more at the dome today than on Monday. first hike 9.75 miles with 2500 ft of gain.

hike two on the next post.
 
finished the first hike aroun pd 1:25 and started round 2 at 2pm. That meant we sat in the car for 35 minutes (yay for math). It also meant Bert stiffened up. It was much warmer down at chimney tops. I think 76 when we started. I will say it was pretty crossing the streams, but man that up.

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on the way up I sort of saw a bear. There was a young one by himself, away from the trail. I say sort of, I heard him, I saw something move and I might have seen black ears. Bert saw him though. People told us so we knew to be on the look out. Holy cow it was a tough climb but it was beautiful. I know @tiggerdad has actually been to the top, must have been awesome,

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we did not stay long at the top and headed down. Second hike 3.75 miles 1300 ft of gain. Total hiked 13.5 miles and 3800 ft of gain. On the drive home had severe thunderstorms. We were glad we did not get caught in it.
 
Kris,

Glad you made it down before the storms. We were a little worried, but knew you could handle yourselves. We did the Cade's Cove loop. Got going early (for us), 08:30. Traffic was pretty severe all the way around the loop. Most parking areas had space, even for a long bed dually. We made it back into town about 3 and could see big storms to the south (the park) and north. The storms rolled through Pigeon Forge about 4:30 and it is just wrapping up now.

j
 
Houston we have a problem. Tonight @Teamubr and @tigger92662 went to the Island. This was around 7 after than rain. Bert, Mallory and I had dinner in the rig because of the rain. Around 7:35 we took Mallory out to pee and for a walk in the wagon since everyone else was out. Well came back in and Mallory is fit to be tied. Chirping and unhappy. She wants her evening of people and fans. Ian has been great about getting Mallory the best fans when we are over there and she loves it. I am afraid she is not going to let us sleep tonight. Good thing we hiked as much as we did, we can probably ignore it.
 
Friday we hiked Rich Mountain Loop trail. This is right at the begining of Cade’s cove. We were able to park at the information center just before it goes one way. We did not have to drive the loop.

After the big Thursday hike, we were a little bit later but the plan was 8.4 miles so figured not an issue. First part of hike was fairly easy. We also saw a bear. He was a good ways off the trail and up the hill. We looked at him, he looked at us, and he went away. Then we came upon the Oliver cabin.

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next it was a climb up, it was steep and in 1.5 miles we climbed 1200 ft. It was hot. Surprisingly we were still quick. The trail was not technical just steep. Not too many fees because of all the trees.

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Total miles 8.5, 1900 ft of gain. I have to total the miles up for the week still. Got lucky again, heard thunder but made it to the car before rain. I said we were quick and did that in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

once back it was time to break camp, hoping for an early start on Saturday.

@tigger92662 came by to work in the car. Did some new connections so hoping no buzzing on the way home. Took Mallory out and she had a visitor.

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then spent the evening at @Teamubr watching baseball and finishing up leftovers. mallory in all her glory.

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went to bed way too late, but am up and hopefully bert will be soon.
 
First off boy does @Teamubr break camp quick. I swear we were up an hour before him and did 90% of the breakdown on Friday and Jim still pulled out 5 minutes ahead of us. We did good left at 8 am. The car was quiet the first two hours. We stopped at a rest area and then it chirped a few times. Thought it would be better but by GA was quite annoying. Bert needs to change the other connector next week. We got to storage at 12:30. Had to repack the car to get everything in. Seemed like we came home with more stuff. Was there about 45 minutes and then off to the condo. Got home at 2 and just when it started pouring. Glad we were at least in a garage.

while I got cranking on laundry, third load in the washer now. Mallory slept.

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driving takes a lot out of her, actually she stays awake most of the time. I think she will be unhappy next week since her fans will not be around.

it was great to be home early but we are busy packing to head to Ohio tomorrow. Original plan was to head out next week, but that is not looking good so heading out tomorrow.

still have to report in the 15 mile hike from last Friday and get total miles and elevation. Garmin got hacked so I can’t get my totals yet.
 

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