It is spring break in Houston.  Brian has a week off and is coming to hang out with us a few days to hike and decompress.  Hooray.

Day one we are off to Blue Ridge.  Carol joins us for some nephew time before she heads back home.  Our stroll around historic downtown includes a search for a number of brightly painted trout….fishing is big around here.  Our first adventure, rail bikes.  We check in and sign the requisite waivers then the four of us fill up the lead quad rail.

We leave from down town on an 11-mile round trip.  We pedal, of course, but have electric motor assist which we particularly appreciate on the uphill return trip!  This is just season 2 and their trailside views still need a bit of work but it is a fun way to spend a few hours outdoors.

We have some daylight and energy remaining so we head off to check out the Swinging Bridge over the Toccoa River.  At 270 feet long, it is claimed to be the longest swinging bridge east of the Mississippi River.  The final three-mile drive on a bumpy forest route takes longer than the hiking portion of this excursion, ½ mile each way.  There are a couple steep sections but they have included a nice forest seat pic to rest a spell.  The bridge is impressive and it does/will really swing.  Pic It is well worth the walk.

That’ll do it for today.  We in for a quiet evening and a bit of crazy 8s.  Carol heads back to PA in the morning and the rest of us plan to just putter around home.

We are ready to venture out again for another day in the National Forest.  We twist and wind our way out the Cherohala Skyway heading for a trek up Huckelberry Bald.  Mike and Hazel made this hike with us last summer.  It is lovely today as well.  We think we have another few miles in us.  Just a few miles further out the Skyway is the trail to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.  It is one of a few remaining tracts of old-growth hardwood forest in this area.  The trail winds along a quick moving creek with rhododendrons blanketing the banks. It is beautiful today but will be spectacular is the next few weeks when it is all in bloom.  We just reach the first of the giant tulip poplars mid-way on the figure 8 hike.   Lucky the terrain is so rugged; else, these giants would have long ago been felled.  Time to head back.

Today we take in a bit of history with a visit to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum and Ft. Loudoun State Historic Park.  Much of the museum content is focused on Sequoyah and the development of the written Cheroke language and its importance to their culture.  Other exhibits depict way of live, customs, and interactions with white men and other tribes.  Amazingly, there I little mention of the trail of tears and abject mistreatment afforded the Cherokee during displacement.  This seems a place to celebrate who the Cherokee were and are not to tell of what others did to them.

We trapsed around in the reconstructed Ft. Loudoun.  The original was built in 1756 as a British fortification on what was then the western frontier in hopes of strengthening the relationship with the Overhill Cherokee.  There are numerous living history programs here throughout the summer.  Hope to return for one this year.

We close out the visit with a hike to overlook Tellico Lake.