Hiking in the mountains again

Man, it sure has been hot in Tennessee this summer. I remember few, if any, 90 degrees days last year. In fact, I don't remember using the air conditioning more than about 10 days last summer. This year has been a different story. We have been running the air conditioning for almost a month straight recently.

So again last Thursday Nancy and I decided to beat the heat by heading to the Smoky Mountains for a day of hiking. When it is 100 in Knoxville, it is only in the 80's in the higher elevations and shade of the mountains.

We went near Tremont in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Middle Prong trail. This trail parallels Lynn Camp Prong for several miles. (a "prong" is another name for creek or stream in these parts) The picture above is not a waterfall with a name, it is just the normal look of Lynn Camp Prong as it tumbles along. We saw trout in many of the pools as we hiked along.

The trail that we walked on was the bed of an old railway that was used for the lumber industry before the area became a national park. It was very wide, compared to most trails in the park, and it is also used by horses. On any trail that hikers must share with horses, the hikers must watch where they step due to the piles of horse manure on the trail.

The reason I mention all of this relates to the beautiful butterfly in the picture. You probably think of butterflies as those delicate creatures that sip nectar from flowers. Well, we saw many of these "Red-spotted Purple" (official name) butterflies and they were all sitting on the horse deposits sipping that kind of nectar. You sure would think that flowers would be tastier than horse poop.

We hiked a total of about 8 miles round trip. At the 4 mile point we followed a narrow trail through the Rhododendron and Laurel 100 yards to a great 4 tiered waterfall called Indian Flats Falls. We decided to put this hike on the Fall schedule of the hiking group.

We have another 10 mile hike scheduled for this coming Friday. However it is south of here towards Soddy Daisy Tennessee and not in the mountains . We are hoping for the weather to cool off before Friday.