I spent a fun weekend with my family in the Smokys. We had a great cabin (with a ridiculous driveway) that we hung out at.

We went into the Smoky Mountain National Park on Saturday for a pic-a-nic and to let my brother’s daughter play by the river. It was a great relaxing weekend.

I just got a new mountain bike so I was hoping to ride at Tsali near Asheville, the place where I crashed and separated my shoulder back in college. It turned out that I didn’t have a helmet and no bike shops were open on Sunday, so I went for a hike to Chimney Tops in the park instead.

Chimney Tops is a short-ish hike, but a really fun scramble at the end out onto some crests that overlook the valley. It was definitely hand over hand climbing, and careful footing was very important. This is my favorite type of “hike”, and this is therefore one of my all time favorite short hikes.

Having impeccable weather certainly didn’t hurt either.