Still a day late in posting so this is Thursdays report. We took out early again to not miss any daylight. Heading south to hike waterfalls at 3 different state parks. First was Burgess falls with 3 separate falls, it was a nice hike about 2 miles out and back but we made it a partial loop at the end. There was a good bit of elevation gains and stairs but Amanda crushed them. She is getting tired but so am I on some spots. I’ve been telling her she’s so use to feeling bad she doesn’t know how it feels to be normal tired and out of breath.
From there on to Rock Island state park. There was a trail that meandered along the river beside some amazing falls. The trail was called twin falls but water must have been high because it was just one huge falls. This was just down river from a hydro damn but the waterfalls weren’t from the main river but off from the side flowing from another river, it was pretty grand! We hiked down some very narrow trails with drops offs right at the edge of the trail. I’m telling you I’m so proud of Amanda she was out of her comfort zone but she’s having a blast. It was an out and back trial but looped at the end, half way around the loop we found out way down to the river. There was a nice rock out cropping that made the perfect picnic bench for lunch.
No soggy sandwiches here I packed in all the fixings in and assembled on the trail. It was ELTs (fried eggplant, lettuce and heirloom tomatoes) we had some hummus and babagonush as spreads and a little tahini sauce as well. The eggplant was leftover from the other night, using a little restaurant experience and dovetailing our menu! Top it off with Tennessee pickled jalapeños, sweeter than our south Texas version, on toasted Cheesecake Factory loaf bread. We snacked on a heart cookie leftover from the party. It was an amazing spot for lunch with not a soul in sight.
We started to pack up and get a few pictures with “her” and the rain came in. It had said 70% chance but was pretty clear up until then. A drizzle started and Amanda was ready to go! If you know me you know I over plan everything so we had rain ponchos in our packs, well more like a dress for Amanda! She immediately put one on but we’d forgot to take pictures with her so we grabbed a few poncho and all. It’s ridiculous Amanda even looks cute in a rain poncho but I may be bias! I braved it without one, by the time we got going the rain was dripping good from the trees so I went ahead and put mine on as well. The ponchos were cheap Amazon but turned out great. They had elastic on the wrist though so it didn’t take long before it got swampy in there! The rain died down and we got a few pics at the falls on the way out and shed the ponchos before making the hike back up a long flight of stairs to the parking lot.
After the rain and a long hike Amanda was ready for a break, we’d put over 4 miles in with lots of elevation gain. We were tired but pumped at the same time the only other experience we could compare it to is youth camp. We call that experience being sleep drunk, so yes we were drunk on vacation! Scrapping the last park we headed back to the house, on the way I was telling Amanda how awesome it was that we were getting these spots all to ourselves, she said the good lord was shining on our trip! She also said I looked like a rolled in hummus, I did, so it was time to wash clothes once we got back. I really like having the condo instead of a hotel with the kitchen and laundry. Although it didn’t keep us from bringing a ton of clothes anyway!
We’d planned on doing nothing but a spa day on Friday, couples massage already booked and Amanda wanted a pedicure and I’d get a manicure while we were at it. The more we talked about Cades Cove in the national park and the possibility of a bear sighting the more Amanda wanted to go. We overheard a rancher saying it was the best spot to see them and when to go. So we decided to get up early and be there at day break but this required a 4 am wake up. I joked to Amanda and said that Jesus is the only one she gets up early for, apparently bears will do the trick too! I fixed tacos for dinner and off to bed early it was.