A Story About Life and Living It

Surprisingly enough, South Carolina was the only state on our trip that I had never been to before. Some of the others I had only driven across, but this was the only state in which I had never even set foot. Lani, by comparison, had never set foot in 15 of the 17 states we visited.

The highpoint of the state, Sassafras Mountain is right on the border with North Carolina. The USGS marker is a funny little pedestal. Near the top of the pedestal you can see a piece of re-bar that was used to mark the highpoint before the USGS marker was put in place. Sorry if feet gross anyone out. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking.

Here we are posing on top of the pedestal. Lani is clearly more creative than I.



We spent the evening at Table Rock Mountain State Park. We really enjoyed it and only regretted that we didn't have time to actually hike to the top of Table Rock Mountain, which we were told is a splendid hike.

On our way to Georgia we saw signs pointing toward the "World of Energy" so we decided to stop by. Turns out that there is a nuclear power plant in northwest South Carolina with a cool museum documenting the various modern methods for energy generation and highlighting the benefits of nuclear power. I'm such a nerd that I enjoyed it immensely.


They have some dams near the power plant that are capable of pumping water both directions. When energy demand is high they lower the level of the lake to produce extra energy but when demand is low they use the turbines to pump water back the other way and raise the level of the lakes. There are three of them, connected in a row so they can pump water at will between the top two. It's a pretty nifty system.



The museum included models of their reactors and a description of how everything works.


Here's a view of the reactors. They are inside of the cylindrical buildings.


I know this isn't a political blog, but personally I think the US needs a lot more nuclear power plants to ease our energy woes. Way to go South Carolina!

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Having descended from the top of Tennessee we headed to the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We stopped briefly at an old mill which has been running for over a hundred years. They still use it to make flour which they sell to support the park.

After leaving the park we headed off toward what turned out to be the low point of our trip. We had read online that Asheville, NC was a neat city, so we headed there with plans to visit and find a place for dinner. Lani learned before we left that the only thing in the entire town that is free is a Catholic Basilica finished in 1909. The church was full of paintings and statuettes, just like most Catholic churches.


Unfortunately, the rest of the town wasn't as neat. We really tried to like it, but it's just hard to like a place that really tries hard to copy your home town, but fails pretty miserably. Everywhere we went there were "Keep Asheville Weird" shirts (an obvious knockoff of the very popular and original  "Keep Austin Weird" shirts), vegan restaurants, and other hipster establishments. The major problem was that it didn't work. The town had kind of a "forced" feel to it, like they were trying too hard to make their town into something it isn't (a hipster town) instead of keeping it like it was (a nice southern town). The other major bummer was that most restaurants on the main streets closed at 5. I'm no tourism expert, but that seems a little early. We ended up going to a restaurant that proposed to serve us good southern cooking, but was actually just overpriced and not very tasty. I'm sure Asheville has some redeeming qualities, but we missed them.

After our Asheville debacle we headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway toward the Black Mountain Campground. We had intended to pitch our tent for the night, but by the time we got there it was pouring rain and pitch black. We were so tired we ended up just sleeping in the car. Needless to say, it wasn't very comfortable.

The next morning we had scheduled an attempt at Mt Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi. We had planned to make it a 10 mile round trip hike. With all the rain the night before we opted for the 5 mile round trip version instead. That version was just as muddy, super steep, and tons of fun.


We ended up bushwhacking a fair way up the mountain because of a wrong turn. Super fun.


We were rewarded with a nifty tower on top of the mountain. You can see Lani thanks to her bright orange shirt:


The view wasn't much because of the clouds, but it was spectacular nevertheless.


On top of the tower is a map of North Carolina with the USGS marker inset into the map at the actual location of Mt Mitchell within the state.



It may not be very high at 6684 feet above sea level, but it felt like an achievement nonetheless, especially after all the mud (did I mention that it was muddy?).


Lots of the yellow circle trail markers had witty comments written in them. This one had us worried:


Fortunately, we didn't see any raptors. That may have ended poorly for us. What would have ended well was a zip-line down these wires:


Lani found some more mushrooms to be excited about:


I convinced her not to eat any, but in exchange we stopped at the restaurant on the way down and had a very tasty sandwich. I guess I should explain why there was a restaurant on the mountain. The whole mountain is part of Mt Mitchell State Park. As part of the park there is a road all the way up to nearly the top of the mountain. We saw a lot of people there who had driven all the way up and who kept giving us really funny looks since we were super muddy. They were obviously having a hard time figuring out how we had gotten so messy just walking up from the parking lot. It was pretty funny. Anyway, about halfway up (or down, in our case) the mountain the trail crossed by the road right next to a restaurant with a beautiful view of the mountain, so we stopped there to grab a bite.

After our BBQ sandwiches we bid adieu to North Carolina and headed out toward the other, more southerly, Carolina.

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After our brief stop in Kentucky we continued on towards one of the most anticipated destinations on our trip: Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The drive was nice, but nothing compared to the scenery that awaited us in the park. We had previously chosen to backpack in to a campsite. Since it was getting late in the afternoon we opted for a two mile hike back into the woods. The drive to the trail head was amazing as we followed a small creek through the woods. From the trail head we hiked up over one hill and then back down into the river bottom to camp near a different stream:

Cool bridge, huh?

I set up camp while Lani set about preparing dinner. In other words, she tried to boil water to add to a dehydrated backpacking meal. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to clean the stove before we left so it was having none of it. We went to bed quite hungry, but at least we were in a pretty spot. On her way to bed, Lani saw a huge snake, so she was a bit on edge. I, on the other hand, was only worried about bears since biologists estimate that there are about 1500 black bears in the park, which comes out to two per square mile. As it turns out, our concerns were not realized.


The spot was so nice we thought we'd include some more pictures of it:




In the morning we headed back out. Thankfully we had energy bars to eat because the stove was still not cooperating.



When we were almost back to the car we saw the largest millipede we'd ever seen in our lives. Here you can see it compared to my hand.


We stopped by the visitor's center on the way out and looked around the museum, which mostly contains taxidermied specimens of the many wildlife species that roam the park.


Our next stop was perhaps a highlight of the trip. Somehow we had discovered that in Gatlinburg, TN, just outside the entrance to the park, was the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers. We decided to give it a try since enjoying the odder side of Americana was one of the ideas behind this trip anyway.


The museum is owned and run by an elderly European woman who told us that she loves the shakers because of how much creativity their creators had put into what is normally a benign household object. The museum contains over 20,000 pairs of shakers. They came in shapes ranging from vegetables, all sorts of animals, spaceships, and anything else your imagination can come up with. We tried to pick just our favorites to show here but that was too hard, so we gave up and put in quite a few pictures. Click on them to make them larger so you can see everything that's going on.


It's not everyday you see the building that you were married in replicated in salt shaker form. Notice that the Salt Lake Tabernacle is the other piece of the set:


Lani really liked the sushi plate:


Here's a hodgepodge of other shakers for your viewing pleasure. Just notice the shear volume.















After we declined to buy a $50 set of souvenir shakers in the gift shop (we didn't really have to think about that one too hard) we set off for Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee. It is found right in the middle of the National Park straddling the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. It is also the highest point on the Appalachian Trail. After our backpacking trip and the hike in Virginia just two days earlier we opted for an easier route that involved driving up to within a half mile of the top and then walking the paved trail the last little bit up to the UFO-shaped viewing tower:


The view was fantastic. We could see for miles. Thanks to the handy mountain identification guides on top (to my right in the below picture) we were able to discern our next target, Mt Mitchell, even though it is 70 miles away as the crow flies!


We were unable to find the actual USGS marker on top, so we settled for this gift shop picture instead:


We really enjoyed our time in Tennessee and especially in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Near the top of Clingman's Dome was a quote from John Muir, the environmentalist best known for his work in establishing several national parks in California. We feel like it summed up our entire trip pretty well:

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Following our wonderful hike and a night well spent in Virginia we headed out to sample the far eastern extent of Kentucky. The highpoint of Kentucky is so close to the border that the road to access it turns off of the main road between the two signs that proclaim "Welcome to Kentucky" and "Welcome to Virginia". The mountain top is owned by a coal company and is full of large telecommunications towers. Not the most picturesque view, but diversity is what makes these highpointing trips so entertaining.

A few years back the summit tower was deemed unsafe, but instead of taking it down they just removed the bottom few flights of stairs:

The above picture was taken very carefully so as to avoid the large array of antennae just out of the picture to the right.

The USGS marker:


Finally, after leaving the highpoint, called Black Mountain, by the way, we drove past the official "Welcome to Kentucky" sign. Lani, as a horse fanatic, had waited her entire life to make it to the land of horses. This trip didn't exactly include the Kentucky Derby, but, for those who don't already know, one of the stipulations of her accepting my marriage proposal was that I had to take her to the Kentucky Derby one day. Kentucky has not seen the last of us.


We really didn't have many pictures of Kentucky, so I just threw this up here. I'm just super glad that they didn't try this on a real bear. That may not have gone over so well.


On our way out of Kentucky we stopped by the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we drove up to the top of the lookout point and admired the view. In the picture you can see the gap itself as it starts near the left, just above the railing and continues to the right. Basically, the Cumberland Gap opened up settlement of America's heartland to early settlers, thanks to the work of Daniel Boone who put in the Wilderness Road with his crew of workers.



They have a fine museum there that starts with the Native Americans and goes on through early settlers (circa 1800) and then up to the establishment of National Parks and so on. Here, I'm trying (and failing miserably) to be a bear.


We enjoyed Lani's first trip to Kentucky, but something tells me the next one will be even more exciting.

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Our short stay in Virginia didn't really do justice to all that there is to see in that state, but we're planning on going back one day to see all of the historical sites. This time we went due south from Charleston, WV to the skinniest part of western Virginia where we found the Mt Rogers National Recreation Area and the adjacent Grayson Highlands State Park. We gave ourselves an afternoon for the longest hike of our trip at about 9 miles round trip. The hike passed over a varied landscape: some huge boulders, some flat ground, and some forests.

The hike started in the state park but soon left it and met up with the Appalachian Trail. We saw of a lot of people on the trail who looked like they had been on it for months. There were actually some neat shelters where some of them were staying.



The highlight, especially for Lani, were the wild horses roaming the area. They're loosely managed, but roam free around the National Recreational Area much to the enjoyment of hikers. We saw 9 on our hike.


I now turn the time over to Lani for some guest correspondence on the horses:

krrrshhhwe......krrsh....Can you hear me?  It is pretty patchy.....patchy out here in the wilds of Virginia.  Sorry for the touch-and-go journalism.  Hopefully we can get through the whole report without losing the connection. Yes, this is Leilani Williams, coming to you from the Appalachian Trail.  I'll tell you, it's totally crazy out here.  The rocks are murderous.  You can't quite tell from the pictures, but the first mile of the hike was like horizontal rock climbing.  And I was not wearing a harness.

After a nasty, ankle-twisting tumble by yours truly, I was ready to throw in the towel, pick up my trusty green water bottle, and call it a night.  However, Chad willed us to continue, because he had called in a favor for me.

Yup, he specifically planned the route to include, wait for it, WILD HORSES!  I know, right?! Just as we came around a bend in the trail, we spotted them!  They were extremely skittish, and even the sight of other animals, especially humans, could send them galloping away in a flurry of hooves (untrimmed, albeit). Needless to say, we had to use the cover of boulders even to see the horses.  It was tricky to remain downwind of these half-ton beasts, because if they smelt the human-ness of us, their flight-or-fight response would send their adrenal glands into overdrive. As we slowly approached, the horses started to look smaller, much smaller, and less ferocious, and less angry.  In fact, by the time we were close to them, they looked like small, amicable ponies, with little adrenal gland action.

I subsequently spent the next 20 minutes squealing like a little girl.  It was so exhilirating to see these beautiful animals, wild, untamed, briars in their hair, nursing their young, totally unperturbed by our presence. The indomitable Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” I hope that he would let me substitute horse for dog. We found out that the nine ponies that we saw belong to a feral herd of about 150 ponies that permanently lives in and serves the state park by grazing on the undergrowth and brush, helping prevent forest fires.

The following excerpt is from an interview with a prominent member of the Wilburn Ridge Pony Association: "See, the ponies will go down into the lower wetlands and survive good in the wintertime. That helps to clean the wetlands out and protect the older forests from summer fires. Then in the warmer months they stay up in the higher elevations, where it’s better picking. That helps manage the threat of fire on the mountains’ grassy bald faces."

After seeing the small horse family, featured below, with the mom getting ready to nurse her tiny baby, we hiked a little further and saw another small group.  This second group had two pinto ponies in it, as well as a pony that looked like a mini Sadie Mae (my gorgeous bay). Needless to say, I was Sadie-homesick.

I'm so grateful Chad did his homework and planned the pony route.  After our pony adventures, Mt. Rogers is hands-down my favorite high point.  Thanks for listening to the report.....skwwwwwehk ........ report......schreeeeew.  Signing out, Lei....la..shcreee... William.....s.

Looks like we lost her. Thanks for the reporting, Lani.


The very top was heavily wooded and looked like a recent storm had taken down a lot of trees.


We slogged through some mud but made it and enjoyed a little break.



The obligatory USGS marker picture:


On the way down I scampered up to the top of a nearby rock outcropping for some epic shots:


There are these passages installed to stop the horses from making it onto the actual Appalachian Trail part of the hike.


Did I mention that there were some really cool rocks?

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