Ever been on a hike that was more intense than it was supposed to be? Well, that happened to us when Justin asked me to pick a trail for us to hike. What was supposed to be a short easy hike to a waterfall ended up being an extremely difficult hike that we both thought we were going to die on. As you can image, I have not been allowed to pick a hike since then. Now to my defense, Justin did not park us at the correct trailhead so we did not take the exact trail that I had picked (because LaBre did not inform him correctly -Justin).
When we arrived at what we thought was the trailhead, we parked. As soon as we exited the truck, we found it was miserably hot and humid. We started the trail and it was promising at first. Several months before our hike, a fire had broken out in the Smoky Mountains. At the beginning of the trail, we saw the charred trees and the new growth that was beginning to replace the burned forest.
The website had described the hike as so easy that small children frequented the trail. So then how was it that we barely survived it? Well as we continued the trail it began to take a rather steep decline. Thinking the waterfall had to be just ahead, we continued on. Little did we know the trail was going to go on for another mile and a half. Which meant that we had to climb that much back up the mountain on that hot and humid day. Now, I don’t do very well in the heat. I also am not as in shape as I would like to be.
What should have taken a maximum of two hours, ended up taking what felt like four hours just on the way back. I had to stop every step feet for a break due to the heat and exhaustion from having to do lunges for 2 miles straight. In the end, it was laughable how hard the hike was on us. I mean, on the hike back I was sure I was going to be sick. I thought Justin was going to have to finish the hike, get more refreshments and come back for me. It was that rough on me. Thankfully though by the time I hit that point we could see the ground was evening out and that meant we had to be close to the truck.
We really hope you enjoyed this post and if you do please give it a share. Also be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter to always be up to date on our adventures. Thank you and God bless.
