At the visitor center they said that close encounters with bears on the trail is relatively rare… but apparently the parking lot of the Motel 6 is another story. Ran into this guy getting ice for the cooler. Rainbow Falls I got to the Trailhead about 7:30 AM. The parking lot was already full but...
I arrived in Gatlinberg early enough in the day to see the visitor center and talk to the rangers before hiking. I remember asking them about bears and if I need bear spray. (She basically said no.) It was too late to do a full on hike but there a couple of short trails behind...
I hadn’t been on a river in years… decades probably. My friend Casey had been encouraging me to join her on a river float with some of her friends. She borrowed old Pungo 120 called “Yellow Fever” from a friend for me to use and we did the “Palisades Run” on the Meramec River. It’s...