Don't run screaming from the bears and parents keep close watch on your children on this trail people have fallen to their DEATHS!!!! …A couple of warnings that are posted on the trails and throughout the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Also things that some people would think were common sense, but not so.
Sign coming into the park
Don and I went to Pigeon Forge for a few days this week and the first day we were there decided to visit the park and go on a hike to one of the waterfalls. We got to the park, went to the visitors' center and bought a guide to the trails and decided one hopped in the car and started making our way there. When I started off to our destination I had well over a quarter tank of gas, which I thought would be more then enough to get us there. BOY was I wrong before I knew it I had way less then a quarter of a tank and we were only half way there, but still I was sure we could make it. Then we hit the "scenic loop" which we had to go on. It's a one way loop and there is a signs as soon as you get on the loop telling you because of traffic this loop is a 2-3 hour adventure. I look down to check the gas and my gas light has come on. So I am thinking we are so fucked but as luck would have it 15 minutes on the loop and there is a escape from the loop so I take it. We find the nearest ranger station so we can find out where the closest place is to get gas. We go fill the tank up and decide to stop back by the visitors' center for a guide to the waterfalls so we can find a tall one that isn't 40 miles away.
NOW this is where things get really interesting…. We park the car and get out and start hiking up the trail of the mountain. Hiking up the trail we stop to take pictures
picture breaks going up the trail
and we see a couple a head of us and they disappear around one of the curves on the trail then all the sudden we hear the screaming and they are running towards us screaming BEAR!!!! Ok yeah this kind of scared me as I saw the Black Bear going down the mountain, but it's a park and there are bears. (Besides I had a plan if a bear did get too close I would just push someone into him and while he eats them; I would go on my merry way.)
So after that incident we start up the trail as we are going up the people coming down are assuring us that we are almost there. Which made me happy because 2 miles on flat land is not a problem but walking up an incline the whole way just sucks, we can hear the falls and know we are almost there. Then all the sudden we hear screaming and I think that the dumbasses who saw the bear earlier had seen another one, but then a woman starts screaming
"Oh GOD NOT MY BABY." (the sound of the panic and helplessness is indescribable) Don runs around the curve to see what is happening and I follow him. A woman is standing there screaming and crying; a small crowd has formed and informs us that her "baby" has fallen off the trail.
Seeing a guy with his back against the mountain holding on to some roots in a mission impossible way, Don jumps down off the trail and starts telling the guy to be still and he was going to help him. The guy then starts telling his mom how much he loves her. I just stand there not knowing what to do because if I were to even try to go down and help I knew I was going to be the one who ended up falling the 200 something feet down the side. So I start yelling at don to be careful. Another man climbs down to help out and I think that they need a rope or something so only having a camera case I took the strap off and throw it down to the guys. The woman is still screaming and crying looking so helpless. I checked my phone to see if I had service and of course I had none. I asked the group of onlookers if anyone's phone would work. OF course not. At that point I heard Don yell "oh shit" I looked down and they guy slid further down. And since no one else was going to go get help (even though there were many younger people who looked to be in way better shape who could have reached the bottom before me, Yeah I am talking about you black guy with the braids) and I knew my phone had service at the base of the mountain because I talked on it before we started walking. I started running down the trail dialing 911 hoping that I could get service. While I was running I was just praying that they got the boy back up and that I didn't fall off the trail or get eaten by a bear because I knew no one was going to go out of their way to help someone. I finally got to the bottom without having a heart attack or getting eaten and my 911 call went through. I had to go through 15 minutes of talking to the dumb ass cunt dispatcher who insisted on knowing the age of the boy. Which I didn't know. Who he was there with. Which I told her I guess his mom since she is screaming and crying hoping her baby doesn't die. And then they had to know if he was talking and since I did not stick around to have a conversation with him I did not know that either. I was starting to get a little pissed off in case you can not tell. I was having to stand with my head tilted at a weird angle in one place because when I moved I would break up and have to repeat myself. I finally lost the call and when I was attempting to reconnect I saw Don walking down the trail.
I asked if the boy was alright, and he was after the slip Don and the other guy went climb down further this time with a belt, but when the guy grabbed a hold of the belt he could not get a good grip with the belt being nylon and his hands being so sweaty. After that slip, the boy caught his self once again right before the steep incline that had trees to hold on to became a straight drop off with nothing to break the long fall but huge rocks. So someone gave up another belt this time it was cloth. They had the boy wrap it around his hand and grab on tight. First Don pulled the guy up as far as he could then the other guy climbed up behind Don and pulled him up as much as he could. They kept doing this using trees for anchors since the side was too steep to stand up on until they got the boy close enough to the trail that the observers could reach the guy and help him back on the trail.
I asked if he was hurt because I had called 911 and he was fine and was walking down the trail. So as we were about to walk back up. Because after all this I had still not seen a god dammed waterfall and I was determined to do so, we ran into the boy *who was no baby at all he was 29, over 6'2 and weighed almost 300 lbs and fall off because he was looking at FROGS* and his mother. He was bloody with cuts and scrapes I had told the lady I called 911 but had lost the call but they should be on their way and that I would call them back and tell them he was ok if she wanted me too. So she said he was ok they were going to stop at a rangers' station and get some first aid for him and get him cleaned up.
After all the excitement I finally got to see the waterfalls… and it was so worth all the walking and running of the day….
We finally made it!!!!
a savage bear attack
My black bear that does not attack people "Baby Rocky"
The rest of the trip was excitement free. Thank God. We visited the aquarium
I look good as a spaceman
I also look cute as a diver
Cuttlefish my favoritest fish EVER!!
catching some crabs at the aquarium
mr. eel
jellyfishes
mr. shark
ripley's belive it or not museum,and a whole lot of arcades
Suited up for some laser tag.
