Cade's Cove and Hiking

(My first blog with pictures and a video!! :P )

After breakfast, we went up into the Great Smokie Moutain National Park. We got the maps of auto tours and waterfalls, and headed to Cade's Cove. When we got to the Cove, we picked up a little pamphlet about the Cove and the first settlers.

When we started our drive the first thing we saw was deer eating in the fields.

We saw deer everywhere. They weren't even worried about us. I guess they knew we couldn't shoot them.

We also got to see one cute little cabin. It was one of the first settler's cabin, John Oliver.

We got back in the truck and continued on the path. I noticed the sign for Abram's Falls and decided that I would really like to see the waterfall. The map showed a 2.5 mile hike and the diagram of it (on the map) was fairly straight. We were thinking that it wouldn't be that bad, and decided to go for it.

We came up to a little bridge and saw a deer on the other side of the creek and were so intrigued that we failed to notice the information sign about the hike.

We started off feeling good and excited. We took a few pictures and were having a good time. Then we kept going over steep inclines and around lots of bends and over little bridges and it was getting very tiring.

I kept asking how many miles we had gone and my husband was telling me that we had just gone one mile (but it felt like 5). We would meet up with people along the way and ask how much farther. One said "half a mile", another said "one mile" and the next said "oh about 2.5 miles". We were really confused about all that but my husband asked if I still wanted to keep going. Keep in mind that we brought no water and I had on ballerina flats (not exactly the best things for hiking).

Finally, after the most strenuous journey I have ever taken in my whole entire life, we get there. My husband thinks that it wasn't worth it, and I was wondering if we could somehow get a helicopter out there to rescue me so I wouldn't have to walk back.

On the way back, we would see people and we were asking them how much farther til the beginning and they were asking us how much til the falls. We were sooo ready to get out of there. We took quite a few breaks. My feet were blistered and Ivan's legs hurt. We were both dieing of thirst (the river water was good, Y'all, and yes, we did drink it). We got in the truck and decided that we didn't want to walk... ever again (or atleast for the day). We decided to stop at Pizza Hut and then we went looking for candy apples which made us walk atleast another mile. We were tired. We came back to the room and relaxed for the rest of the day.

I don't think hiking is my "thing".