Monday, July 18, 2011

wonderland

Family adventure~

My wife and I took our daughter on a fantastic adventure Saturday. We drove down to Cades Cove Saturday morning before the gates were open to car traffic. So we loaded the bikes up with gear and pedaled into the cove. I was riding the X-tra Cycle, and carried our hiking gear. We rode back to the Abrams Falls trailhead and locked our bikes up. The journey to the falls would continue on foot from here. So we hiked the 2.5 miles to Abrams Falls where we sat by the water and waded a little. We had planned to swim, but the mountain water was too cold, probably from all the recent rains. It was amazing relaxing back there by ourselves. It is a hike that is normally very popular, so we felt lucky to enjoy it all to ourselves. When people started showing up, we took our time gathering our gear and headed back. We hiked out, then finished with a ride. After making it out of the woods, we set-up a picnic. It was an amazing day.
Abrams Falls
relaxing by the water
the falls
Abrams Falls - swimming hole

2 comments:

Ben said...

Totally awesome! I have been thinking about riding up Parsons Branch, hiking up Gregory Bold trail, over nighting at Sheep Pen Gap CS and riding home the next day.

Thomas said...

Ben, thanks man. yea, I have been looking for places that you can pedal into the Smokies, where cars can not get to. In the winter Parsons is closed, that would be neat to do that then. Keep me in the loop if you want to get into the backcountry.