Charlies Bunion Loop Backpacking Trip Video

August 08, 2015  •  Leave a Comment

My View Charles BunionMy View Charles Bunion Hey everyone! I just finished putting together a video of a trip to the Charlies Bunion rock outcropping on the Appalachian Trail. The trip started with a long drive Thursday night to Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We got there about 12 midnight, slept in the car, and got up to see the sun rise. We hiked the Appalachian Trail northbound until we got to the "jump off," which is about two miles in and one-half mile off of the trail, and it had great views. We then hiked the rest of the way to Charlies Bunion where we ate our lunch and enjoyed the view. After lunch we connected just past Charlies Bunion to Dry Sluice Gap Trail and took it south until meeting the Grassy Branch Trail that we took to Kephart Shelter, all in all about eight miles. The shelter housed about eight campers that night, and when we awoke there was rain and thunder. We waited for an hour for the thunder to stop before we started hiking in the rain. The temp was in the mid to low 50s, and we hiked uphill in the rain for about four miles. Along the way, we came upon three small waterfalls. We made it back to the Appalachian Trail and hiked back to the Newfound Gap parking area that was full of people.  I just put together the video of this trip, and you can go to it with this link.  Please check it out and tell me what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq44VvLWsMw


New website and Restored Blog

August 06, 2015  •  Leave a Comment

IMG_1923IMG_1923 Welcome to my blog! I'm using a new web host and am able to get a blog back in action! Please have some patience with this site. It will take me some time to get used to all of the features and how to tweak them. I'm looking forward to sharing photo tips and reports from some of my travels. For most of you that don't know me, I am a photographer/hiker and backpacker. I love to backpack and take photos that are off of the beaten path of everyday life.  I do most of my backpacking in North Carolina, my home base state, and I love the Smoky Mountains. On my bucket list of things to do is to visit all of the state parks in North Carolina and hike the Appalachian Trail that goes through North Carolina. I love waterfalls and big overlooks of the mountains. I am looking forward to taking you with me on my journeys, photographing my adventures with tips and tricks thrown in for good measure!  

 

This photograph is of me on top of Grandfather Mountain with the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in 1978. After this photo was taken, while I was hiking on the trail later in the day, I found a guy that didn't quite look like a hiker and started up a conversation with him. I came to find out that he was the son of the pilot who was flying the plane that crashed. I found out that his father had perished in the crash, so I didn't ask too many more questions. He wanted to show some of his relatives the wreckage, but had incorrectly marked the location on his map. I pointed him in the right direction, and hopefully he found his father's plane. Small world, huh?

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