well this is my 2nd time writing this due to me closing it :(
Me and a buddy hit this the last weekend in Jan. I finally got the pictures loaded up this morning. I didn't take as many pictures as i wanted to due to the wind.
When the sun broke out we noticed the clouds and this crazy pattern
This was driving into cades cove
This is my buddy gavin on the first bridge on anthony creek trail. This was his first hiking experience.
We were on russell field trail here. no snow yet
Alot of my pictures came out looking very "busy". Alot of the trees had died and fallen over. Kinda depressing
Yours truly. i had worn rain pants because i thought the mud would be bad. It was but the leaves covered most of it up. side note* walking uphill is bad on a fat boy
this is the 1st bridge on russell field trail. Again looking very trashy.
This seems to be where you really start climbing. We're about 2 miles from RF shelter and i was hating life right then.
soon after that last picture we ran into fog. It was so thick that you could feel it going down your throat with every breath.
"Light at the end of the tunnel" this was just before the shelter and finally on the ridge.
This is the remodeled shelter. A great improvement in my opinion. Once we got to the top the wind was blowing so bad you couldn't stand it. we tried to gather some firewood but soon gave up to take a nap.
gavins kelty eagle 7850 makes my kelty redwing look like a kids backpack. He had ordered a kelty coyote and they sent him that.
they added some benches to the front for eating.
This was were we cooked at and it was a life saver. the wall blocked the wind which never died down. Even with cooking out there we still had a mouse show up but left after getting a cracker. That or hes rolled up in my sleeping bag still.
early morning after some bacon and pineapples.
this was just before spence field. Made for a great place to lay down and have a snack! We were supossed to stay at spence but due to the wind and my buddy not wanting to hike up to thunderhead we decided to just walk on out.