7-10-17  back to the Smokey's to get the kids.

We were pleasantly surprised last night when we got a text from Faith saying they had made it to the cabins.  We didn't think they'd have service there.  They didn't either.  They also said they weren't thinking they'd make it back down by the 1pm time we had agreed upon.  So Ken and I took our time getting back to the pick up spot---a different trail head from where they started from.  This trail was shorter, but steeper and the trail the llamas use to haul stuff up and down to the cabins.  Anyway---Ken and I went to Nick and J's for breakfast, then continued on to the Smokey's.
 I suggested we head to Sinks and check it out again.  So we did.

 Lots of people playing in the water there, but we didn't see any kayakers.

 After wandering around the Sinks for a bit, we continued on.  A short distance away we stopped for another view of the river.

 Also stopped for some views of the mountains---and little critters that happened to be at the viewpoints.  Don't know what this guy is, but we was rather pretty with his green and copper coloring.

 the hazy blue of the distant mountains.

 We also saw evidence of last year's bad forest fires.  Lots of dead wood areas.

 But there is still a lot of healthy forest, too.

 Another area that was burned away.

 We even went through a few tunnels.  Apparently it's a Tennessee tradition to honk your horn when you go through a tunnel.  We didn't hear many honks---I guess the out of state tourists don't know that tradition.

 We made it to the pick up point about 1:30.  To my surprise, they were already there.  Dang!  I had expected them to take longer coming down---I know I would have with all the photos I would be taking.  I had planned to head up the trail and meet them.  But they were already there waiting for us.  In fact, they said they were there about 45 minutes waiting for us.  Tim had texted about 9:30 to say they were on their way down.  So they went the 5.5 miles in just over 3 hours!

 They were hungry, so we headed into Gatlinburg for lunch.

 They found this cool Mexican restaurant a couple weeks ago and wanted to go back.

 Service and food (and Mango Margarita) were great.

 Interesting bar stools

 They even have a bucking donkey!

 Then we took the Pigeon Forge bypass and got some close up views of fire damage. 

 We did a lot of riding around in the last week or 2, but had some great weather for it.

 A viewpoint from the bypass that overlooked Gatlinburg.

 and another tunnel

Back at their house, I made them show their pictures on their tv.  They got some really great ones! Then it was another early night for the kids.  I guess hiking up and down mountains is exhausting.  But they had a great time.