Tired on Thursday

Blue Ridge Parkway

After hiking for two days I was tired and decided that today would be an easy sightseeing day and so I set out to see part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. BRP reminds me a lot of the Natchez Trace, slow speeds, beautiful tree-lined roads and no billboards. After driving for a while there was a turnoff to Waterrock Knob that advertised a couple of overlooks and a Visitor’s Center, so I pulled in and looked around. I talked to the Ranger there and she recommended and “short half-mile hike” to the top of the Knob. Ok, I usually do a half-mile in a bit less than 15-minutes when I’m hiking, but didn’t count on 10%+ grade and this half-mile took me 23-minutes and really left me rung-out so I spent some time at the top relaxing and enjoying the view.

I saw that the rock in the area I was hiking had a lot of mica in it and when I asked the Ranger about it she said yes the silica was in the granite and that made it desirable to many.

What causes the haze of the Smoky Mountain National Park? Searching the Internet, "Place of Blue Smoke" was the name the Cherokee Indians gave to the Appalachian highlands on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee with the smoke-like haze a natural effect of oily residues and water vapor from the Smokey Mountain forest; today they say that haze is also from city pollution moving in. Still pretty but long range shots with a camera usually don’t do well.

I broke out my Hibachi again and did some more burgers, they tasted so good I had a second. And while I was out grilling a produce truck drove through the park and I bought a super good tomato and that was my salad.