Calm Before Florence..Hiking Saturday At Panther Creek S.P.

Tuesday was the first day in two that saw clear skies after the remnants of Hurricane Florence passed through. Well, the previous clear was Saturday, before Florence arrived in East Tennesse and Western North Carolina. On this good weather day I decided to hike at a favorite place of mine Panther Creek State Park and here are some pictures...enjoy!

Buddy & Bax Highlight Weekend At The Cabin

This weekend I headed up to the Cabin near Fort Blackmore in Virginia. So, let's start with another bear sighting. Saturday evening Dad & I were eating when he spotted "Buddy" at the top of the road that leads to the hollow. I got a decent look before taking Bax inside and getting my camera. But by that point, he had moved into the woods. Later I heard him and maybe got a picture of him, but fortunately, the trail camera did, so I got some pictures of Buddy and plenty of deer and a couple of a turkey. 

Bear watching wasn't the only thing I did. There were the usual things like mowing grilling, fire pit sitting and a little hiking. On my hike Saturday morning I had company (besides Pete) as Bax came along. We only ended up doing about 2.5 miles as his tongue was dragging at the top of Gillenwater Ridge.

We then pulled down a grape arbor and cut down a dead spruce tree. However, sometime in the, I damaged my phone (cracked the screen) hopefully it holds up.  But it was a good way to enjoy the start of autumn (metrological) at the Cabin. While I have done blogs this summer on my adventures with bears I haven't had any on how I felt red away the rest of the time, but I will soon.

Happy Hiking On The Roundtop Trail In The Smokies

On Thursday I went on another hike with a new group I belong to the Happy Hikers and we did a 7.5-mile hike on the Round Top Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Starting above Metcalf Bottoms the hike was a shuttle ending at the Townsend Wye. As the sign says there is no bridge so we had to ford the Little River, but it was down today and felt good after a long hot hike.