We reached the starting point of our hike without further incidents. None of us was suffering from tinnitus and we were ready to tackle the ascent. The sign indicated a ridiculous short distance of 1.2 miles to the Grotto Falls, our destination for that day. "Easy enough," I thought. "I run 11-minute miles. Twenty minutes and we're done!"
One hour later we finally reached the falls and I was thankful for the break. The trudge was quite entertaining, though, since our fellow walkers introduced us to the latest mountaineer fashion with my favorite being a white skirt and sandals. Even though it took longer than expected we didn't really feel challenged by the hike. Why did we bother putting on hiking boots while others were able to reach the waterfalls in flip flops? We decided to continue past the falls and head towards the Trillium Gap, another 1.6 miles away.
Once we turned the first corner we were all by ourselves. Apparently, not many people were interested in finding out what the Trillium Gap was. Even though I thought before that there were too many people around, the complete absence of human beings other than the really nice guy started to make me nervous. I was still thinking about the bear incident and the rustling leaves made me anxious. I began to imagine bears behind every tree and unfortunately, there was no way to google "How to survive a bear attack" far away (okay, 2 miles, but still) from civilization. That was when I noticed the huge pile of manure.
Now, who else other than a whole bear family would leave something like that behind? I could almost feel the presence of Papa Bear smirking behind the next bend, happy about the German delicacies that just walked into his territory. Needless to say that we hiked the 1.6 miles in less than an hour and finally reached Trillium Gap. Being German hikers we are very spoilt. Even the lowest summit in the mountain usually provides a hut that invites you to relax from your hike while enjoying a cold Warsteiner and a Bratwurst. Trillium Gap provided us with a signpost indicating that Brushy Mountain is 0.2 miles away.
We decided to give it a shot and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the smoky Mountains.
The hike back to the car and the drive to our cabin was pleasantly uneventful. We even found a nice restaurant for dinner.
The next morning before packing and getting ready to leave I surfed the Internet to find out more about the hike while the really nice guy was looking at the photos I took. "What's that?" he asked me, pointing at the twenty-four pictures of the pumpkin decoration that I took while I was waiting outside the rental office. "You wanted me to take photos and I didn't know of what," I replied. " - "Well, I don't remember either." Luckily, I was able to find the answer to my other question that this trip had raised - Who left the manure? - on the Internet.
As it turned out, huts do not only exist in German mountains. Mount LeConte, a name we saw on several signposts, has a lodge and supplies are carried up via lama...
I should have known that it couldn't be bear manure. They use Charmin after all, right?
I'll keep you posted.
Bis bald,
SAPgirl
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