Today we woke up rather late but, hey, we're on vacation! It rained last night and everything got wet but that made for a nice, cool morning. By the way, that creek behind our campsite is so awesome, better than cartoons or video games! Yepper, the girls played in there again.
We headed to Cades Cove for bike riding fun. it's the only place in the park besides campgrounds people are allowed to ride bikes but we sure saw several bike riders on the mountain roads. I wouldn't do it, motorists don't get along well with bicyclists and more importantly, tourist drivers are dangerous. The guy at the bike rental place had trouble fixing up Arainna's training wheels. We were there in the shop for quite a while and he never got it quite right. He said Ari and Feni were too young for the bike loop and we'd have to stay in the Cades Cove campground to ride bikes. He was right too! One time around the loop was more than enough for us, thank you. The 2 little ones had trouble getting up the hills, even though they were fairly small. Arianna is just too small to push uphill but I blame Athena's bike. As she'd push uphill, it'd skid under her. David and I barely had time to ride our bikes due to pushing those little ladies around. Aurora, on the other hand, zipped around all of us, impatiently waiting for her pokey family to catch up.
Then it happened. Arianna had an accident. She was so cautious going downhill. Just as she'd get to a decent downhill pace, she'd brake. This happened every 2-4 feet. I tried to show her how to slowly coast by putting on the brakes slightly. It didn't work. She began accelerating towards a tree and freaked. She took her feet off the pedals, coasted quickly off the road and crashed. Luckily, the injuries were minor but there was a brief moment that I felt completely helpless, watching my child and unable to help her from where I was standing. That is truly the worst feeling for a parent. After that, we were all ready to be done. Ice cream and souvenirs helped gloss over Ari's accident.
David wanted to get gas but we had to leave the park to do it. He decided to make a detour onto Cades Cove Scenic Loop. Little did we know, this scenic loop is 9 miles long, one way and full of rubbernecking people. In fact, some people even stopped in the middle of the road, with a line of cars behind them to get out, look at the scenery and take pictures. It is a scenic drive and many beautiful images of meadows with bear and deer set against a mountain background and pioneer homes, churches and a grist mill. Aurora was in absolute pioneer heaven when we parked and toured an old log cabin farm. The wood planks were so roughly cut as if someone had hand-sawed them and made me really appreciate how convenient everything in the modern home is now. No wonder homes were so small back then, each step was so painstaking. These mountain folk had one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen out their front door, I tell ya. After returning to the car, we got caught up in a stand-still traffic jam for what seemed like ages. I got out to see what was going on to find some people decided not to use a designated pull-off but were STOPPED in the middle of the road, no one behind them could pass. I walked up to their car and asked them to move. They were nice enough about it and quick to move but seemed oblivious they were holding up traffic. After forever, we made it out of the loop. It was beautiful and I am glad we did it, it was just loooong!
When we finally made it to the gas station, a lady thanked me for asking the "parkers" to move it. She said her family thought they were gonna run out of gas right there in the Cades Cove Loop. When we returned to the campsite, David dropped me off to prepare dinner and get things ready to leave for tomorrow while they went to swim in Little River. I welcomed the time to myself and they had a blast. Upon returnning, we ate dinner and s'mores and my favorite, burnt marshmallows.
At bedtime, Arianna was sad because she wanted to sleep with her new skunk that Athena helped her buy. The problem is that when you bring stuffed animals to the creek, they get wet. It's not comfortable for your sisters when you want to sleep with a wet skunk. Rory and Feni worked to make her soaked skunk a comfortable outdoor bed while David sang her a song. Everyone fell asleep happy.
Things I Learned: When the Great Smoky Mountains became a national park, there were approximately 5,000 people living here. There's a Cherokee Nation southeast of the park. They made some sort of pact with the white settlers that they'd move as long as they had their own corner of space where white people woouldn't bother them. The Cherokee Nation is still very much alive today in the same location. Due to this, the Cherokees and the white settlers lived peacefully alongside each other. The Cherokees did not march in the Trail of Tears either; in fact, they challenged the decision in the Supreme Court. I am pretty sure they lost but they didn't have to leave North Carolina. Our campsite, Elkmont, used to be a logging site. When the park was established, Elkmont was barren. It took a lot of effort from individuals, groups, school children, the Tennessee and North Carolina government to raise enough money to purchase all the land that now makes up the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Although much of the park was destroyed due to commercial logging, over 35% of the forests in the park remain virgin. Some of the oldest, undisturbed forests along the east coast lie within the park. There was some sort of sticky timeshare resort within the park that took the national government over 50 years to fully own. The ever important tree, Hemlock, is dying due to disease. The death of this tree has spurred an unfortunate chain of events that will be irreversible if something isn't done to stop this disease from spreading. For one thing, some low growing flora that rely on the heating and cooling temperatures the Hemlocks provide are unable to survive without "protection" from the Hemlocks. Also, the ecosystem of the rivers or streams near which the Hemlock grows may be changing. It turns out the nitrate levels change when trees are wiped out, as does the acidity of the water. This goes to show how everything in the ecosystem is connected and one simple incident can cause a domino effect, completely altering an ecosystem forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment