Great Weekend!

As usual, fall in Tennessee does not disappoint. Especially when you're spending your evenings wrapped like a mummy in your sleeping bag and your days enjoying the sunshine and climbing up the more mountainous regions of the state.

With a halfway point in mind, Friday night we snagged one of the last two campsites at Cumberland Mountain State Park, located just outside of Crossville, TN. That night we enjoyed a headlamp-lit dinner of chili, and then roasted marshmallows and made s'mores well into the night. We woke up, grabbed a fueling breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and headed off for our main destination, Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

I had done some research on the campgrounds and decided we should go with the "hidden gem" that is Abrams Creek Campground. There are only sixteens sites at this campground and most of them line the creek itself, named for the old Cherokee chief of the town Chilhowee just down the road. With several main trails in the western portion of the park leading out from this campground, it seemed a good fit. We ended up (praise, Jesus) getting the last available site at Abrams Creek just across the way. We explored for awhile (about 4 miles worth) of a connector trail called Cane Creek before heading off to Knoxville for the UT game.

And BOY what a game that was! I am still hoarse from all of my yelling. I have yet to go to a losing game at Neyland and Tennessee (or at least their defense) did not disappoint. Kim and Jamie seemed to enjoy their first college football game, for sure!

After the game we drove the hour back to the campground and called it a night. Good thing we did, because we had a nice 10.5 mile hike to Abrams Falls the next day. After our hike, which was nice and tiring (but beautiful!) to say the least, we took a windy drive out to Fontana Dam to see the sites and let Kim and Jamie get their first taste of the AT.

All in all, a great weekend!