Long Valley Branch

We allowed ourselves a lie in after a long day yesterday. Jackie got out of bed at 9.30am & sat on the balcony, whilst I read my book in bed. At 10.00am I forced myself out of bed & joined Jackie on the balcony.

I looked over the balcony & blow me, about 40 yards up the road saw a Black Bear just stood in the road. A man in the street below us, raced to his car. After a minute or two the bear ambled over to the next door chalet entrance & started rummaging in the bin outside the front door. Jackie grabbed my camera & I started taking photos only to later realise the SD card wasn’t in it....doh!

I grabbed my phone & got some video footage. The bear eventually got a bag of rubbish & took it back across the road & ripped it apart. The bear then went back for more & returned with a carrier bag full of rubbish. Someone came out of the chalet shouting at him & he dropped the bag & jumped back into the foliage on the mountain opposite.

Minutes later we was out again devouring the contents of the carrier bag, then we went back towards the chalet for more. He was walking between the cars & every so often he would rear up on his hind legs, with his front paws either on a vehicle, a tree or on the top of the bin. I prayed “Please don’t climb all over Doodle!!”

Word was obviously getting round, because every so often someone would appear & try to shoo him away. A group of bikini clad girls who had been at our pool, appeared in the road. One stupid woman approached the bear to take a photo with a baby in her arms & a small child beside her.

It was about 40 minutes later, after some great entertainment, that a plucky cleaner armed with a broom got within 10 feet of the bear to scare it away. This only temporarily worked & another cleaner took several attempts to scare it away by driving his car towards it & beeping his horn. There was then a mass exodus of guests from the chalet.

Although it was a great experience to see a bear so close up, it should be said that our chalet had brought the problem on themselves by having non bear-proof bins outside the front door of each building. If they don’t resolve it soon, either someone will get hurt or worse still the bear will be killed!

With all the excitement, I had taken my eye off the time & had just 15 minutes to shower, pack & check out. For us it is now quite a well rehearsed drill & we were out just minutes late.

As I was packing the boot the irresponsible mother with baby was packing up her own car, saw my box of beers & said “Can I have a beer?” The bare faced cheek of it. Quite taken a back, I said “If you’re that desperate to beg for a beer, you’d better have one” I gave a can of beer & she said “Thank you” without an ounce of shame.

Jackie & I drove south on 441 into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our 1st stop was the Sugarlands Visitor Center, where I picked up the my standard gloss National Park brochure. We then continued back on 441 & followed a procession of vehicles meandering through the Smokies at varying speeds, all below 35mph.

The vegetation in the Smoky Mountains give off a vapour that creates a blue mist, giving it it’s name, but the vapour does also actually smell smoky. Not that pleasant for a non-smoker!

Our intended destination was Clingman’s Dome just inside the State of North Carolina, which at 6,643ft, was at the ‘Top of the Smokies’. As we approached, we joined the back of a traffic jam, but luckily for us a woman called over & said that there were no spaces ahead & to park where we were on the other side of the road. It turned out to be a great bit of advice.

A momentous event occurred, because I got out wearing just my flip-flops (on my feet) & we walked the half a mile + route & with an ascent of 100 metres to Clingman’s Dome. It was tough going in the sweltering heat & oxygen deprivation, but I left Jackie for dead. The down side to my athleticism was, that I was a hot sweaty mess at the summit. The Observation Tower at the top provides fantastic 360 degree views (on a good day) of The Smokies. After a few statutory selfies, we commenced the descent. I was better going up in flip-flops than down. My descent reduced me to my customary Max Wall impersonation, apparently!

Another little highlight on this trek was that we actually crossed the Appalachian Trail at it’s highest point. The Appalachian Trail is over 2,180 miles long & is the longest hiking-only trail in the world. It extends from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine in the Eastern United States.

Back at the car we continued south in a procession to the town of Cherokee, which to our surprise was an American Indian enclave. If you wanted to buy some Red Indian old tat or have your photo taken with a Red Indian or Buffalo, this was the place for you.

We just filled up with petrol & drove back north a couple of miles & entered on to the Blue Ridge Parkway at it’s farthest south-western end. It was gloriously devoid of any crowds & we scooted along at 45mph to Waterrock Knob Visitor Center. Again I picked up a National Parks glossy brochure, but this time for the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Now, Blue Ridge Parkway is 469 miles long through North Carolina & Virginia. Our plan is to drive to Asheville, just 79 miles along it, then complete the remainder of the Blue Ridge Parkway over the next two days. It is a lovely scenic drive, through what can only be described as green fluffy mountains, that look like massive florets of broccoli 🥦!! On the down side, we have been attacked by ticks that cause all sorts of illness including Lyme Disease. Every time we get out of the car we have about 10 each crawling all over us.

A couple of hours later with our roof going up & down like a whores drawers & passing literally hundreds of lookouts with fantastic & stupid names, we arrived in Asheville, North Carolina. Jackie had chosen ‘the Beaucatcher Motel’ & around 5.00pm we pulled up outside. It passed the test & we settled into our room with balcony. I sat on the balcony chair, but with a loud crack I jumped back up again. The chair had snapped in two places. I got one of our underused camping chairs out as a replacement.

It had no bearing on our decision to stay at the Beaucatcher, but next door was our favourite, Panda Express. We hadn’t seen one for a couple of weeks, so we treated ourselves & had an early night. I might add that Asheville seemed a delightful little town still at 3,000 ft altitude. Hopefully we may find time to explore further.

Song of the Day - The Bare Necessities by Phil Harris & Bruce Reitherman (The Jungle Book Original Soundtrack).Read more