Getting There Is Half the Fun. Or Is It?

WED July 7

Today I wanted to go hiking again and the RV park I am staying in is at the eastern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and there is the close-by Cataloochee area that has several hiking trails marked on maps and is also a Park historic village area and an area that they have reintroduced Elk into. And it is very convenient, only about 17 miles from the RV park, … but … 5 miles on the road to the Cataloochee the asphalt stops and I am on a dirt road and after another 4 miles the 2-lane dirt road with some 5-MPH hairpin turns becomes a 1-lane dirt road for 2 miles before the asphalt comes back for the last 6 miles.

I finally decided on a trail-head and started off on the Boggerman Trial that roughly followed Cataloochee Creek. This was a lowland trail and hike and the trail had a moderate grade with 3 or 4 steep spots that thankfully were less than a half mile each. Butterflies, Dogwoods and the normal insects, thankfully I had bug-spray so I wasn’t bothered by biting bugs. The trail was beautiful with log bridges crossing the creek; about bridges had hand-rails, the Interstate Highway of log bridges, 3 or 4 didn’t have a hand-rail and in 5 places I had to do the old dance across the creek on stones.