4 May 2016, Wednesday

Here we sit in the pleasantly cool evening, the sky clouding a bit,
waiting for our rice to cook for our dinner of Punjab Choley, as we
sip our wine and munch some crackers. We woke this morning about
7:15 am. It was cool and cloudy. We have muffins, yogurt, grapes and coffee
for breakfast as we decide which trail to hike. We settle on the
Caldwell Fork-Rough Fork loop, a 9.4 mile loop with about 774
accumulated meters in altitude. Not a bad first hike considering how
little exercise we have gotten over the past week.

We leave camp and drive further up the Cataloochee Road, past the meadows
where elk graze in the evening.  We see no elk, but we do see many
wild turkeys. We are finally on the trail by 11:40 am. As we hike up the trail we can look out over ridge after ridge cloaked in every
shade of spring green. We photograph wildflowers as we go, hoping
to be able to identify the unknowns later. We pass trillium, white
and purple violets, asters, lilies preparing to bloom, and
mayapples. We cross foot-logs, a half log over a mountain stream
with a log handrail on one side. We pass houses left behind when
this land became a national park. We pass “herds” of green and
black grasshoppers skittering along sunny banks of dry leaves as we
walk by. We hear a symphony of birdsong, including our favorite,
the wood thrush. We finally return to Jazz around 5:10 pm and drive
back to camp for dinner.

We’ve finished eating and there is a little sprinkle of rain on the tarp. O
will heat some water for the dishes. It makes washing much more
pleasant although all we have to wash is a pot, 2 spoons, a wine cup
and a water cup.  It is getting dark and beginning to rain. We have
been warned by our campground host that there is a chance of snow
tonight. How’s that for a change in the weather?!