Spring 2006 Mountain Adventure Day 3

Had yummy donuts for breakfast at the cabin, then picked up picnic supplies at Food City. We headed to Porter's Creek Trail for our hike; on the way, we had to stop at a parking area where there were literally thousands of butterflies—flying, basking, drinking from wet areas on the ground. I've never seen anything like it; it was like a paradise of butterflies.

Then onward to the trail. This is the same trail where we found pink lady's slipper last year. I found a trail going uphill off the main trail that we followed, because many times it will lead to something interesting, such as a patch of rare wildflowers. This trail led to a tiny graveyard on high ground, with very old graves that appeared to be mostly of children, one of them named Rosie. It was sad to think of people so many years ago carrying their babies up that hill to put them to rest in the earth, but I suppose that would be the perfect place to bury a loved one, in the middle of a forest surrounded by birds, flowers and trees. That was our first stop along this flower bordered trail.

A short time later, we were at the lady's slipper area. We met several other people at the site who knew how to make their way to the shrine of the Lady's Slipper, which is off trail but marked by a well-worn foot path. A lady there put me onto another area where we can find more of this my favorite wildflower.

We decided to follow the trail to Fern Falls and it was a bit of a hike but worth it for all the flowers we saw. We found an excellent clump of Painted Trillium. We also met a very sweet elderly couple that we chatted with a bit. Wish we had gotten their names.

The falls were beautiful, but I left ahead of Steve and Rosie as I needed a bit of a break from someone's incessant chatter. That Steve just never knows when to shut up ; )

On my way down, I overcame my fear of heights for the second time and walked the narrow bridge with a handrail on only one side, across a rushing stream. A couple coming toward me then advised that a large rattlesnake was a few yards ahead, lying across the trail. This is not exactly what I wanted to hear, but of course I was curious, so I tagged along with another couple in search of the beast. He had drawn a crowd of gawkers by the time I arrived. He was a big fellow, much darker than I thought he'd be, with quite a nice set of rattles, and he appeared to be in a pretty good mood. I called Steve and Rosie on the walkie-talkie telling them to hurry for this photo op.

The crowd dispersed and there I was, alone with the rattler, who paid me no mind. Then the troops arrived and Steve got some good photos.

On down the trail back to the car, Steve went off to the creek to take photos and fell in (only one leg) but Rosie and I had gone ahead so we didn't get to see this. He realized once he was back to the car that he had left his tripod case all the way back at the falls. Bummer.

We ate at Applewood Restaurant, then took a late evening drive through Cade's Cove. We saw tons of deer, turkey, and two highlights—Steve's first photo of an Eastern Bluebird, and a very handsome coyote. Then, back to the cabin for a good night's sleep.