Eagle Cliffs
I guess I wanted to blog while I was away. Hikers, particularly “through hikers” (also called “end to enders”), journal their experiences and keep in contact with other hikers by writing in spiral bound notebooks left in each shelter, most usually in a ziplock bag. I went backpacking 3 days and 2 nights in the Smoky Mountains National Park with 3 of my children and 2 of their friends. I had so much on my mind that my children commented on my exceptional quietness. A small amount of it came out at lunch time on the second day. My daughter laughed at the thought of me wanting to (as an afterthought) and being able to digitally copy it. You can read my thoughts by clicking on smokys-08-trail-journal-entry
Pecks Corner Shelter
I decided not take tents which meant we had to stay in shelters. This of course saved weight for us all and gave the young people the new experience of staying in a shelter. The first one, Laurel Gap Shelter still had the old design, dark with a chain link fence over the open side to keep out bears.
The Year of the Fir Cone
But Peck’s has the skylight and expanded front with picnic table and vulnerability to wildlife. Life is a balancing act.
I was once told that Balsam Firs only cone once every 7 years. I do see them rarely. I have a picture of me picking a cone from the top of a tree 14 years ago. The cones have a certain mystery to them since they come infrequently and the cones disentegrate (You’ve picked up pine, hemlock, and perhaps spruce cones but not whole fir cones unless it was a thrown green one.) My daughter commented that since she would be 21 years old this year she was born in the year of the fir cone. Time is marked in assundry ways.
CreatorWorship 