Thursday night, the Sierra Club hosted a Beginning Backpackers Seminar under the leadership of Ron Shrieve and Steve Harvey. This was the club's first effort with backpack training; Ron and Steve were unsure about the response. By "showtime" 34 people had signed up and everyone who signed up, showed up!

Ron and Steve enlisted several of SC's backpacking "experts" to participate. Duane Simmons and Will Skelton were assigned food, stove and "how to #%I# in the woods." Bill Adams and Ray Payne talked about tents, pads and sleeping bags, while Steve and John Finger tackled the topic of packs and navigation. Ron and I shared the vast topics of boots, footwear, clothing and layering. Whew! It was a lot to cover and even more to absorb in 3-hours.

Participants were broken into 3 groups and rotated between speakers. I thought the level of enthusiasm shown by the participants and the "experts" was catching! Lots of questions were asked and the participants were very hands on, trying, looking and touching. I was particularly pleased that the women in the group really bonded. Lots of conversation was had about a "women only" backpack.

What a great way to spend the evening. Congratulations to Ron and Steve for a very successful presentation!


Setting up tents on the lawn behind the Fellowship Hall. From left (red shirt) Bill Adams, John Finger, Ray Payne, Duane Simmons (front-big orange shorts) and our leader, Ron Shrieve (grey shirt). At this point, we were about 30 minutes from opening presentation.

People arrived just about on time and everyone that signed up, showed up! The participants were attentive and most stayed until 9:30 pm or later.

Ron opened the seminar talking about the local hiking clubs and hiking schedules, Leave No Trace, and organizational and administrative issues when hiking with a club. Steve was standing to his left but somehow I missed getting him in my viewfinder.

Bill and Ray talked about sleeping bags, pads and tents. Ray, our most experienced backpacker and long time champion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in the yellow shirt on the left of the picture. Bill is hands on with the sleeping bags.

Will and Duane shared duties talking about stoves and food. In this photo, Will is lighting his backpacking companion, the Seva stove

Duane talking about food and sanitation. Duane is the most creative backpack chef we hike with. He is also willing to carry the weight.

Today was another hike day on the road to the West Coast Trail. We planned to hike the Noland Divide Trail but our plans changed quickly when we arrived at Sugarlands Visitors Center (Great Smoky Mountains National Park) and discovered a tree had fallen across 441. A ranger informed us that the road was closed until emergency crews could remove it, expected wait...at least an hour.

Sitting in our car in the Sugarlands parking lot, John grabbed our trail map and looked for a trail close by. A heavy rain started to fall and we briefly discussed going home (rain in the park is becoming our greatest hiking challenge). Instead we drove to the Cove Mountain trailhead, located just behind park headquarters. The rain quit as we pulled in a parking spot. We were pleased to find that the sky above us was a brilliant blue although a glance through the trees revealed that nearby mountains were socked in under heavy cloud cover.

We hiked quickly covering about 6-miles. We had the trail to ourselves except for 2 couples we passed during the last 30 minutes. As with our recent hikes, this one was uphill for the out trip and downhill for the return. We turned around at the 2 hour point. Unfortunately, as we started back to the car, the skies clouded and the rain began. It was a hard, pelting rain so we stopped to put on ponchos. Our return hike was mostly in the rain and we were pretty damp by the time we arrived at the car.

Vegetable soup and a big salad at the Brass Lantern chased away our rain chill. Another hike completed in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

As the mountain laurel begins to fade, the flame azalea comes in bloom. The azalea is one of the most spectacular sights in the Smokies.

Flame azalea from another angle.

Cataract Falls is located about .1-mile from the trail head.

Look what I found lurking in my camera when I was deleting photos...a picture of John and his brothers. The picture is from John's nephew's wedding in early April. Can you tell who the father of the groom is? Just in case the tux doesn't give it away, the f-o-g is John's older brother, Bill (center). On the left is John's younger brother David. Tres handsome guys!

Exciting news from upper East Tennessee!! John's 15 year old son, Lee, came in 3rd in the Roan Groan junior age bracket. In case you don't know, the Roan Groan is a 30-mile bicycle race originating near the covered bridge in Elizabethton, TN, elevation-1200' and finishing at Carver's Gap on Roan Mountain, elevation-5512'....a long slow climb!! Congratulations to Lee and to his very proud papa!

Yesterday we bailed on Steve's Cataloochee backpack. We were the last to do so...Bill and Jim had already canceled do to illness and other reasons. Our canceling freed Steve to participate in SMHC's 18-mile death march day hike and John and I free to play.

This morning we headed downtown to the craft and farmers market on Market Square. This is the second summer for the local market and I am disappointed. In our travels we have happened upon some wonderful downtown Saturday morning markets (most recently in Missoula, MT) with lots of locally grown food, crafts and activities. Our city has a lot of marketing to do to make the Market Square farmers market even somewhat successful. What gives Knoxville, this is another great opportunity to draw people downtown!!

After purchasing leaf lettuce, organically grown sweet peas, wild blueberries and a loaf of Gran John's Ho-made Original potato bread (baked by the daughter and granddaughter of the owners of The Wilsons restaurant in Townsend, TN- now closed), we walked across the mall to the Market Square Kitchen (formally the Soup Kitchen). We grabbed an outside table and settled into a breakfast of eggs, toast, coffee and juice. The food was very "diner" ish, the service very slow and the coffee only okay, but we had a great time sitting outside, watching the bits of tourist traffic that floated in from downtown hotels.

After breakfast, we dropped our purchases in the car and strolled on Gay Street, pressing our faces against the windows of the old S & S Cafeteria (soon to be a movie theater), the empty Kimballs' Jewelry (thumbs down to Kimballs for removing the Hope clock when they moved to Bearden), the Fowlers Furniture building and others. The interiors of the buildings are in various stages of decay, their grandeur fading with time. The city is working on "deals" to rehab or replace. We talked about how nice it would be to buy a condo in one of the many buildings under renovation and how much we would miss our yard care if we did so (just kidding about the yard :-).

A lightening bug caught my attention when I walked outside this evening. I stopped, stood very still and watched the light show in my yard. As one firefly lit up, dozens responded. Childhood memories of summer evenings chasing fireflies flooded my mind. My sisters and I use to race around the yard, hands cupped together to capture the flashing bugs. Sometimes I would catch one and open my cupped hands only wide enough to see the firefly light up my palms like a flashlight. Sometimes the bugs got smashed in our hands and the bug juices would stay illuminated for what seemed to be forever. Tonight I seriously considered taking my shoes off and running after the lightening bugs... maybe tomorrow night!

Incredible! Straight out of the Bayou, 8 pounds of large shrimp from a troller's nets on Sunday to me today...and "headless" too. Marie, thanks for staying up late last night to pop the heads. Must make a N'Orleans girl feel like she is home again!

Of course fresh shrimp do not come task free. After work, John and I sorted the shrimp, prepared several dozen for freezing and the rest for immediate eating! Around 9:00 pm, I called my dad to let him know I was driving over with 1.5 pounds of shrimp. To my surprise, he was standing at the window when I arrived, pot of hot water, shrimp boil and vinegar in hand. In went the shrimp for a quick 5 minute steam. We stood over the pot and watched the grey, translucent shrimp boil to a succulent pink. We could hardly contain our anticipation as we drained the pot. The cocktail sauce that Daddy had uncapped remained untouched, not needed on these sweet, tender shrimp! When I left (bag of Bing cherries in hand- an exchange for shrimp), Daddy was still shelling and eating. Not sure how many shrimp made it to his fridge for lunch tomorrow.

It is a happy June 1, 2005 for me!

Our family is riding the birthday wave! We capped off Memorial Day weekend with a combined birthday lunch celebrating Leslie's birthday (June 1) and my birthday (May 27). What fun! Go figure, as kids we use to demand individual parties.

The restaurant of choice was PF Chang's, an "upscale" Chinese restaurant. John spent a bit of time puzzled as to why, on one of the most traditional cookout weekends of the year, we were sitting in a chinese restaurant eating expensive "cuisine." I didn't have a good answer, especially when burgers, dogs and fries can be consumed guilt free today. We settled on a very good grilled salmon salad and enjoyed some of the goodies that the rest of the family ordered. Mother, Daddy, Carol, John and Mike helped us celebrate. Sorry family, the one group picture was not printable; next time we will take two.

Looking forward to doing this again soon. Father's Day is just around the corner!


John and me at PF Chang's

Sisters celebrating birthdays! Mother is trying to figure out how she had two daughters 5 days apart, 4 years apart. Leslie and I have our twin necklaces on. That's what we get for beading together.

Yum, yum...oreo cake from Marble Slab Creamery

Maybe we will share the cake, maybe we won't!

Saturday night, John and I took in an early feature of "Stars Wars, Revenge of the Sith." This is the 6th in the series of 6 Star Wars films and unfortunately I think I missed a couple. This fact did not impair my enjoyment of the film at all, but it did cause a problem when John tried to explain the progression of the films. I became totally confused! Oh well! The film was very enjoyable on it's own and I am familiar with the main characters so I will leave it at that!

This morning we were up early to get in some hiking. With just a couple of months to go to our West Coast Trail adventure, we are anxious to increase our hike intensity. John picked the Road Prong Trail, which begins as a part of the Chimney Top Trail and breaks away to the left after a mile of hiking. Although only a little under 7 miles round trip, we climbed 2,500' feet in 3+ miles and dropped the same on the return hike.

We initially thought we would have the trail to ourselves; most hikers were going to the Chimney Tops. Quickly we discovered that Road Prong had a lot of hikers too. After a bit of hiking, it became evident that a group of Chinese tourists were hiking the trail under the watchful eye of several tour guides. We can't imagine why this trail was selected (aside for it's incredible beauty), several ladies really struggled to finish.

We hiked the trail in about 2 hours with a 15 minute break. When we arrived at the top, we were greeted by 50 Chinese visitors sitting in the grass with their lunch boxes and chopsticks. The group cheered and applauded each member of their contingent as he or she completed the climb. John commented that the scene reminded him of our Inca Trail hike last summer where similar cheering occurred as hikers summited Dead Woman's Pass (without chopsticks and boxed lunches of course).

The grass looked like a great place for us to enjoy our peanut butter sandwiches and apple so we spread out just to the left of the Chinese. We thoroughly enjoyed watching as exhausted hikers that we had passed moments ago arrived on top with big smiles and excitement. But while the visitors would get in a vehicle for the drive to Clingman's Dome, we had to put on our day packs and hike back to the Chimney Tops parking lot.


The mud bottom of this side creek appeared to have a high content of iron, more so than any of the other side creeks we passed. The color brought to mind the Ochre Beds around the Paint Pots trailhead from 2004 late summer trip to the Rockwall in the Canadian Rockies.

High above the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River

Photo from a bridge across the West Prong. Lush and beautiful vegetation!

A waterfall tumbling over boulders on the West Prong.

Wildflowers along the trail.

Close-up

If you are dazzled by the pictures and think you may have missed something by not visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this weekend, think again. Traffic was bumper to bumper and parked cars lined both sides of the road at almost every trailhead. Even worse was our foray into Gatlinburg to enjoy a tureen of hot vegetable soup and "skillet" of cornbread at our favorite restaurant, The Brass Lantern. Roaming the streets of Gatlinburg were all of the people that believe that a trip to the Smokies stops in Gatlinburg. But that is a whole other story.

Tonight, John took me to the Melting Pot to celebrate my birthday :-). We feasted on swiss cheese fondue, mushroom salad, boullion fondue with meat, shrimp and veggies AND chocolate fondue. I have a lot of jogging penitence to do to rectify this sumptuous meal and it was worth every step I have to take!

The yin and yang of dessert fondue, dark chocolate and white chocolate, soon to be combined for an incredible delight.

The tray of treats for dipping in the chocolate included strawberries, bananas, pineapple, graham cracker dipped marshmellows, oreo crumb dipped marshmellows, pound cake, brownies and right in the center of the tray...cheese cake. Yep, we ate it all!

Today the sisters, Daddy, John and Mike took Mother to "Up the Creek" restaurant to celebrate her 81st birthday. It can't have been more than 10 years ago on my "cough, cough, 4+*2)(3&8 birthday when Mother looked at me and said "Honey, I don't feel old enough to have a daughter your age." Back at you Mother!! Happy Birthday!

With our adventure on Vancouver Island's West Coast Trail only a few months away, we picked the perfect day for a short practice hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park...high humidity, rain and clouds!

Our initial plan was to hike a 10+-mile loop but we got a late start and spent about 20 minutes in the car at the trailhead, trying to talk ourselves out of going home to a nice, dry environment. It poured!! Finally the rain slacked off and we donned our rain jackets and daypacks and hit the trail....a very muddy trail. We hiked Rabbit Creek Trail from Abrams Ranger Station to the Hannah Mountain Trail junction, about 5.4 miles round trip.

Clouds hung low at the beginning of the hike and water from the rain shower puddled on the trail.

I am actually having more fun that I appear but someone's hair is looking a bit shaggy...love that East Tennessee humidity!

John surveying the devastation from the pine beetle and the winter wind. A crew of 2 was working diligently on trail maintenance. For the most part, the trail was in great shape and we were very impressed.

Mountain laurel in bloom!

We have been eagerly anticipating the arrival "Monster-in-Law" after weeks of watching movie teasers on TV. In preparation for attending opening night, both of us hit the internet to read websites full of reviews. Our afternoon phone chat revealed that neither of us could find much positive about the film. Nevertheless, we put on brave movie faces in hopes of a few good laughs.

And laugh we did. Michael Vartan and Jennifer Lopez are mere props for Jane Fonda and Wanda Sykes to showcase their comedy talent. We laughed over and over at the silly slapstick comedy. And our advice to Jennifer Lopez...give up any attempts at acting ever again!

While this film is a long, long way from Academy material, we are glad we didn't pass.

Cero Cinco-Cero Cinco-Cero Cinco

Tonight John and I joined the masses celebrating the 1862 Battle of Puebla, better known as Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican defeat over the French in Puebla.

W-h-a-a-a-a-t??? Americanized, this holiday is a celebration of Mexican food, booze, music and more food! Our evening plans called for joining the city's Cinco de Mayo celebration on Market Square Mall. When rain kicked in, 30 minutes before showtime, city officials became nervous and canceled the outside celebration.

On to plan B. We opted for a 45 minute wait at El Charro for a mediocre meal without a hint of Mariachi music. Hmmmm, what kind of Mexican celebration is this?? Oh well, Happy Cinco de Mayo to all!

Poor George. Today was his scheduled visit to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He planned to use this beautiful park as a backdrop for his Earth Day message and to push his "Clear Skies" initiatives. But Mother Nature didn't approve. About the time he was scheduled to helicopter from the airport to the park, a line of severe thunder storms hit the area...lightening, high winds and torrential rains. George was forced to give an "abbreviated" speech in front of the armory near the airport. Do you think he got it?

If you weren't at Sundown in the City on Market Square Mall tonight, you were in the minority. The mall was packed with young and old moving to the music of The Hector Qirko Band and Steve Winwood. Thanks Knoxville, Mayor Bill and the many event sponsors. This was a beautiful spring evening and a really incredible show!


A fabulous opening act, The Hector Qirko Band

We would have been happy to listen to these guys all evening!

Evening falls and the crowd is totally engaged in the music.

Many of the buildings along the mall are in various stages of rehab. Through outdoor events such as this and Movies on the Square, Knoxville is effectively utilizing Market Square Mall to entice it's citizens downtown. The revitalization of the mall can only increase the excitement of being in the city.

Lots of moving people. It was, at times, hard to see much on stage. We were also on the wrong side of the stage. Steve Winwood was pretty much blocked from my view by one of the trees. For my next trip to Sundown in the City, I will bring my chair AND a chain saw.
Encore, encore!!

John and I took a quick hike to the top of House Mountain today. House Mountain, a Knox county park, is located at 9601 Hogskin (gotta love the name) off Rutledge Park. The mountain offers an opportunity for a quick challenging hike when one is too lazy or starting too late to hike just about anywhere else. That pretty much sums up our attitude this morning.



Wildflowers along the trail

Squawroot

The view from the top. Sharp's Ridge is visible i in the distance/

All week we looked forward to a Saturday "dinner date" at the Tomato Head. Somehow we managed to ignore the fact that the Knoxville Dogwood Arts Festival parade would be underway about a block from the restaurant at just about the time we planned to be eating AND Saturday was prom night for several area high schools. When we finally put the events together (Saturday morning), we decided to risk the crowds and take the plunge by heading downtown in the mist of much activity.

After cruising a few parking lots, we found an open spot and dashed to Market Square, hoping to get to Tomato Head before the crowds. Hmmmm, lots of boutique craft tents were set up and lots of people were milling about. Can you tell we don't read the Knoxville News Sentinel? We were clueless! Luckily the line at Tomato Head was short and we waited only 20 minutes for a small table outside.

Ahhhh, outside. Although our favorite restaurant downtown, the acoustics inside the Tomato Head are terrible and it is hard to carry on a conversation. We were happy to be jammed against the wall behind a party of 8. We ordered the hummus and blue chips (out of chips, too bad, delicious homemade pita wedges were substituted) and a pizza, #13 on the menu...a 9" roasted rosemary chicken, no sauce, goat cheese, kalamata olives, carmelized onions and pesto. Yum, yum!

Just as we finished dinner, the parade crowd began to stream onto the mall. To our surprise, Duane and Angela Simmons materialized from the mass of people, jokingly questioning our choice of eating dinner instead of going to the parade :->. We chatted for a bit and and they were soon off to comb the expanse of craft tents. We too, spent some time looking at crafts before drifting toward the stage to enjoy a Cajun band from Louisiana. Too few people were gathered around to listen and we wondered about the publicity.

Once again Duane and Angela appeared from between the rows of tents and we spent an enjoyable evening chatting and swaying to the music.

E-e-e-e-e-e-k! On our evening walk around the yard tonight, I opened the birdfeeder to check the seed level. As I lifted the lid, two little beady black eyes were starring back at me. The two eyes were attached to a very little, really cute field mouse. Cute I thought after I squealed, dropped the lid and refused to raise it again. John peered inside and found a very scared mouse scurrying around on top of the seed. He looked really well fed!

With leather yard glove on hand, John reached in the feeder to grab the mouse. The mouse jumped around as John lurched from side to side trying to grab his tail. Standing back, I am not exactly sure what transpired but John jerked, the mouse high jumped out of his hand and hit the ground running.

We think it is curious that the mouse got in the seed. The birdfeeder sits on a pole and is of the squirrel proof variety. The little mouse may have snuck in the garage and crawled in the seed. He could have ended up in the feeder when I dumped the last of the seed bag on Sunday. On the other hand, he may have figured out how to jump in the tray like the squirrels. So much for squirrel (and mouse) proof feeders.

John and I went hiking on the Chestnut Trail today. The trail is located across from the "Y" on the Townsend side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We hiked the trail several years ago on bitter cold, snowy day so we were thrilled to enjoy warm weather and sunny skies on this early spring Sunday!

A number of hikers with cameras and tripods were out on the lower part of the trail; a sure signal that the wildflower pilgrimage will soon begin. I don't take to wildflower identification with the religious zeal that many do but I hope you don't find a mistake in my identification below! :-)


Yep! It really is this pretty. Note the snow capped ridge in the distance!


If you know much about me, you know that my favorite flower is the violet. I usually have 6 or more brightly colored "grandma violets" (African) blooming in house but I have a fondness for the delicate lavender and purple wild violets that bloom among the blades of grass in my yard. For a real green and lavender show, you can't beat the wild violets blooming among ferns and moss in the Smokies in early spring.

Wild violets among the wild iris leaves. The iris will break out in mini blooms soon! Did you know that the wild iris is the Tennessee state flower?

Rue Anemone....I think!

Okay, another guess....Toothwart?

This is one of the solomon brothers...false solomon seal or solomon seal.
We were a little early for the trillium but found lots of buds trail side, just days from opening.


This beautiful yellow trillium was one of two we found open.

The Greenways 5K has become a rite of spring for many of us who gather each year on the 1st Saturday in April to help friend and race director Will Skelton with the race. On this blustery, grey spring day, 137 shivering runners gathered at West High School to run an out and back course on the Third Creek section of the Knoxville Greenways. The bridges were slick and the greenway a bit muddy due to recent rain but everyone seemed to have a good time.

While the runners were running, John was stationed on the course at mile marker 2 to provide splits to the runners. Barbara, Steve Dyer, Ed Soler and I were warm and dry inside preparing food and drink. Oh...did I fail to mention the rain during the race? Poor, wet John :-)

I have posted a few pictures below, a full set of pictures with runners will be available on the Knoxville Track Club website in a few days. http://www.ktc.org

Today was the 14th Annual Greenways 5K, a race to draw attention to the growing greenway system in Knoxville.

John rode his bike to mile marker 2 to shout out times as runners hurried by. Here he is waiting, something he does quite patiently.

B and B...Barbara and Beverly, once again gathered to help with race prep.

Gathered at the start of the race, runners wait for race director, Will Skelton (left on curb) to read a few announcements and sound the gun.Today was cold and windy.

While the runners run, volunteers are busy in the background preparing food. Yum, yum, bananas, oranges, cookies, donuts and bagels.

Mark Skelton, brother of race director Will finished near top! Mark seriously took up running when his son, Todd began running for school. While Todd has taken top honors for the state and has run internationally, Mark has become quite a runner in his own right, regularly setting new personal bests!||