Abrams Falls

October 2012

We hiked to Abrams Falls on Monday.

Mom is not a hiker, nor does she enjoy the great outdoors with the same level of over-the-top, let's thru-hike the Appalachian Trail-enthusiasm that Dad, Nikki, and I tend to possess. However, I told Mom that the guidebook stated the five-mile roundtrip hike to Abrams Falls was classfied as "Easy to moderately strenuous". She agreed to accompany us.

Within seconds of beginning the hike, Nikki and I lost sight of Mom and Dad. I ran back up to the trailhead sign to find them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Nikki and I continued down the trail, fully expecting them to catch up within a few minutes.

Creek crossing

~Communing with nature~

I will use this picture to sing the praises of the hiking pole. It serves as a staff of balance when ascending and descending rocky slopes, it can be used to push leaves and sticks out of the way to look for venomous snakes hiding along the trail, and it can be employed to spear wild game for food if a hiker is ever lost in the wilderness. It is a splendid piece of equipment, really, and no hiker should be without one.

I love the underwater shadows of leaves!

Nikki and I reached Abrams Falls still without any sighting of Mom and Dad since the trailhead.



The sunbeams are how I imagine God's smile looks; peaceful, warm, and shedding the perfect amount of light on those around Him.



Nikki and I rested on a rock beside the falls. We hadn't brought any food with us because we had been warned that black bears in the Smokies had become so accustomed to being fed by tourists, they would walk up to people on trails and take their backpacks! We never saw a single bear the entire time we hiked in the park. And I really, really wanted a granola bar.

Just as Nikki and I were preparing for the return hike to look for Mom and Dad along the trail, they arrived. We asked what had happened to take them so long. The first words out of Mom's mouth were, "Your father thinks he is a homing pigeon! He read the trailhead sign wrong and went in the opposite direction. I told him that I didn't think we were going the right way, but he refused to listen until we had hiked 1/2 a mile on the wrong trail!". By that time, we were cracking up because only my parents could manage to get lost literally within seconds of reading the trail marker. :)

The 2 1/2 mile return hike was uneventful aside from Mom's comment that we should smack her upside the head if she ever even thought about hiking again. I kept telling her the trailhead was just around the next corner or just up the next hill to keep her spirits up. She eventually told me that if the trailhead and parking lot were not at the top of a particularly steep hill we were ascending, somebody was going to die, me or her. ;) Needless to say, I doubt she will be joining me when I thru-hike the Appalachian Trail someday.