Camping in the Smokies

July 16-23, 2016

This past summer, we had our first week long family camping trip, and I believe it will be a long time before we have another that tops this one. We had a really great time!! We traveled down with Ryan's brother, Eric, and his family, Becky, Thomas, Phillip, and Olivia. They were very prepared and more experience so we were very grateful to be their camping buddies.

Sat, 16th
One the first day, we drove the six hours from Evansville to the Smokey Mountains. It's a tradition of Eric and Becky's to stop at Panda Express right before getting there, so we were happy to join them for that. Along the way we had a couple clothing changes with Emmaline and Karl have diaper blow-outs and throwing up. But, we made it and were happy to be in the fresh air of the beautiful mountains! That evening we set up camp and got to taste the beginnings of what would be a week of very good food. Becky had her cast-iron dutch ovens and a camp chef, and with that she made breakfast and dinner for us all week, and it was soo good!!

Sun, 17th
The second day we had our longest hike of the trip, to Charlies Bunion. It was about 8 miles. I carried Emmaline, Ryan carried 34lb Karl, and Jared walked for the most part. Olivia also got to ride on her daddy's back. We got to see what great hikers Thomas and Sup were; I don't think they had any trouble or complaints the whole way. Jared ended up being carried by Uncle Eric a few times; eight miles is a long ways for a four-year-old boy, but I'm proud of him for how much he did walk.

Mon, 18th
For the hike on this day, we split up a little more. Ryan stayed near the parking lot with Karl while the rest of us hiked the 4 miles to Andrews Bald, which ended up being a nice meadow to eat lunch and a pretty look out. In the evening, the boys also went on a backpacking over-nighter trip and hiked a mile and a half or so from our camp ground to get to their site.

Tue, 19th
 On the fourth day, our family decided to stay in camp to recover and relax a little from the previous days hikes. I did some laundry and Ryan took us to the creek near by to do some fishing and rock throwing. The boys had a blast!

Wed, 20th
The fifth day, we went to a great fishing spot on the river. Ryan got his canoe in the river and he, Eric, Thomas, Sup, Jared, and Karl went for a fishing trip. Becky, Olivia, Emmaline, and I stayed at the dock for a while to play and relax. The boys took so long we went to town and looked around at the shops. When we got back to the docks, the boys still weren't back yet. We started to get a little worried about whether or not they were okay. It was about six hours that they had been gone by they time the got back. We were relieved that they were okay. They had caught a few fish, but kept only one, which Ryan later cooked up and seasoned. Yum!!

Thur, 21st
One morning the boys had some fun bike riding. Jared and Karl still have a lot to learn about bike riding, so Ryan and Eric helped them to ride. We took the afternoon and went into the Cherokee town to swim and play in the Oconaluftee River. It was a beautiful, warm day and there were a lot of people there. Eric and Becky had a big inner-tube raft that they all rode up and down the river. They looked like they had a ton of fun on it. I didn't bother with a swim suit that day and stayed on shore with Emmaline.


Fri, 22nd
On our last day, we got to go hiking with the Wells family who joined our camping group that morning. We hiked Cucumber gap, which was about five miles and very pretty.

Sat, 23rd
On our way out of the Smokys, to go home, we went through Pigeon Forge to see what it was like. There were definitely a lot of interesting buildings.

 

It was a great trip and I'm so glad we got to; but, by that time, I was so glad to be going home to showers and washer-dryer machines!!