D E S I G N /// ck

Alice, the dogs, and I went hiking on part of the Fiery Gizzard Trail near Monteagle, TN on Saturday. We didn't see any gizzards, but we saw some lovely waterfalls. You can see a gallery of pics here.

Bonus Question: Can anyone else see the creepy face in the rocks above?

Tomorrow I'll be heading up to Snowshoe for a few days of snowboarding. Looking at the cold Knoxville rain right now, snow sounds good. Hopefully there'll be good powder falling in West Virginia. I love the feel of gliding across fresh new snow. It feels almost like gliding through air.

However right now I feel so busy that I don't feel like I should take a few days off just to slide down mountains. I know I'll relax and enjoy it once I get there- but it's gotten hard to enjoy vacations lately 'cause there always seems to be too much to get done at home. The past few years have always presented some kind of huge project that hands over my head. This year needs to be the year I relearn how to slow down and have fun.

At the request of Will, who was visiting Knoxville this past weekend, we went up and camped at Max Patch, the 4629 foot bald on the TN/NC border that seems to draw us back yearly:


I love the way the blue ridges fade into the blue of the sky.


Good times were had with guitars, roman candles (that woke up a three year old camping nearby, according to her sleepy dad), a galaxy of stars, and the largest steak kabob I've ever tried to roast over an open fire. Here's looking forward to next year!

I had a good adventure this weekend. I went on an "expedition" of sorts: me and three other guys climbed Mt. Le Conte (the third highest and most remote of the Appalachians) in the dead of winter. Most of the year this is only a strenuous day hike on the ol' Alum Bluffs Trail, about 6 miles each way. What made this more of an adventure was that the rangers had shut down the Cherokee Road because of the snowy weather, making it impossible to get to the trailhead. Feeling gung-ho, we decided to go ahead and tackle it all the way from Sugarland. For those of you who don't know the Smokies, Sugarland is the visitor center at the entrance to the Park, also one of its lowest points. Le Conte was ten miles away and 5000 feet higher. And it was going to get dark in four hours. And it was starting to snow. What else was there to do? We went for it.
I'll post some pictures and give a more extended description this week, but long-story-short: we made it back, clocking 20 miles in 24 hours, 5000 feet of elevation gain, and 6 hours of very cold semi-sleeping. I loved it.

Alice, Greg and I went hiking up at Frozen Head State Park yesterday. We went up a trail called the "Chimney Tops Trail" but failed to find any chimney-like rock formations. We had already crossed one mountain and it looked like we'd have to go up another one, and the sun was going down fast. The days are getting short! We'll have to make another attempt to find the chimneys some other time. The trees were beautiful, though, and the weather was great for being outside.
Today we rested up and watched some football. The Steelers pulled it off and that's put me in a good mood this evening. Alice's Titans weren't so lucky. We're going up to Redeemer here in a while for the evening worship. In some ways I like it better than the morning service- there's less people and it's more intimate. Who says you have to worship in the morning?! Plus, it gives us an option when we're out of town for the weekend. We can get back and still be able to go to church at home, something we weren't able to a lot this year visiting both families.
Smee+Busby had a three year celebration on Thursday- so I'd like to say congratulations here. It's been an up-and-down ride, and I've learned so much from the ups and downs. It's shown me how truly hard it is to start a company and keep it going. I pray for their long term success, no matter whether that includes me or not. They're good guys and deserve it. I hope and can help in my won way.
Alice's semester is heating up and so is her stress. It's a pretty ridiculous program. They basically have to hold down a full time internship and maintain graduate level courses in the evenings. I know she'll do well but she's not feeling so sure right now. I'll be glad when the semester wraps and we can relax for the holidays.
It's been a good weekend. This is a no-frills post, just letting you guys know see a little of the normal life we live.

Alice and I went hiking up at House Mountain on Sunday afternoon. It was beautiful day to be outside. I love this time of year! I feel like I'm really awake for the first time in months.
Mr. P made it all the way to the top on his own. We had some tired dogs when we got home.
Click on "photos" to the left to see all the pictures.