We had a great time, despite the chilly fall weather. The days were perfect, but the nights were downright chilly, with the lows in the 40's and maybe even high 30's. We had a good, roaring camp fire every night, so we stayed next to that until it was time for bed.
We ended up camping with Betty and her family and a few of their friends. All in all, there were about 6 families and lots of kids, but all middle and high school age ones. Sarah and Nick did not mind and had a ball. Right next to our camp site was a large, very steep hill. The kids had a ton of fun climbing it last year, sliding down on their rears and in the process getting filthy. The bad part is that there are not any showers, so once they got dirty, they stayed that way. Anyway, once we got there, they pretty much headed straight for the hill.
Nick and I rode our bikes around the 11 mile, hilly, Cades Cove Loop road with some of the other campers and he made it all the way. At times, I struggled with the hills and car traffic so I know he was worn out afterwards. I will say that those 11 miles are much harder than the level 20 mile route near my parents house on the IL rails to trails route that we sometimes take while visiting them.
One afternoon, Sarah and I took a little horseback ride. I had a mean horse who walked as close to the trees as she could I think in an effort to try to knock me off. She did not succeed, but I had to continually try to get her back on the trail.
On the way out of the camp ground, we saw a mama bear and two cubs on the side of the road. They were in pretty thick woods and picture taking was difficult and my results were not good, but we can say we saw bears this year, which was a first for us on a camping trip. We also saw lots and lots of deer and a few turkey.
