After the long drive, we stopped at Cumberland Falls And saw the. Awesome sight of the water falling down and creating a misty rainbow. We got back on the road after and went to the laundromat to dry out are damp sleeping pads and sleeping bags. My car stoped at a fast food place to grab chicken. I'm at, almost 9 o'clock. We cooked hot dogs and burgers. Everyone went to bed relatively early that day. The next morning we cooked breakfast burritos and had oj. After we ate and cleaned up, we packed our lunch and went to cars to tour the smokies. We drove for over an hour to get to the start of our 7 mile hike. The first mile Was along the river and we found some plants and took pictures of them for forestry merit badge. After the mile, we were hiking uphill for 5 miles. In total we walked up 5000 feet. At the top of the mountain, you could see most of the national Park and a lot of trees with branches covered in moss I had never seen before. Fortunately, the last one and a half miles were down hill. by the time we made it to the end, we were exhausted. We got in cars and drove back to the camp then ate hobo pies, and had a Ranger talk to us about backpacking. The next morning, we got up early, packed up our tents, and our backpacks. My crew drove around cades cove loop to get to our hike. On the way, we found our first bear jam. It took us 20 minuets to get past it. After we got to the trail head, we got someone to take our picture in front of the woods. We hiked for about 2 miles to get to Abrams falls where we ate salami and velvita cheese. We got back on the road 20 minuets after we stoped. The later part of the hike had much smaller paths and steeper inclines. Once we arrived at a river a mile from our campsite, we stoped and played in it because we had extra time (and to see the best way to cross it tomorrow) we kept hiking up to our campsite where it suddenly started raining. Everyone stoped and put on the rain covers for our backpacks. As soon as we put them on, it stoped raining. A little while later, my dad slipped on a piece of slate and almost fell. Once we arrived, we set up our tents away from the campfires and found the bear cables. Josh got out the water filter and we soon went down to the river (right next to our campsite.) We had oriental, shrimp, and, various chicken flavored ramen noodles for dinner. One of our crew member didn't have a fork, so he had to eat his ramen with a pocket knife. We played euchre until bedtime. Next morning me and my dad woke up early and took down the bear bags. It was seven by the time everyone else was awake and our tent was down. Those of us who woke up early started the oatmeal early too. There where two flavors: apple cinnamon, and brown sugar and maple syrup. We where on the road early again and we hiked to the river we played in yesterday to cross it. I thought the path we walked in before wasn't well traveled, but this one was covered with prickers, varying plants, And ticks. One member of our crew even created a scoring system for ticks. If he caught one before it bit, he got a point. If It bit him before he noticed, the ticks got a point. By the end of the day he was 5 to 2. About 2 miles in, we saw a fresh bear footprint on the path. Sure enough, about a half mile later, the leading members of our crew stopped, and slowly walked backwards. I knew they seen a bear. We weren't loud like the ranger told us to because we where so surprised. Luckily, one of the adults told us to be loud, and we where. We continued down the trail singing "99 bottles of Beer on the wall" until we got to 70. Then we occasionally whistled to keep the bears from our path. There where no more bear encounters on that leg of the trip. After we walked 2 more miles, we came to the second river crossing. We thought this one had the potential to be waist deep, but it was the other river. This one was only calf deep at he highest and most of it was ankle deep. Once we got to camp, we set up and ate tortillas with peanut butter and Nutella. It was the best meal ever. After we ate, many of us took a short nap but me, Justin, My dad, and ms. Masters went down to the river. Once we got down to the river, we noticed a "spoon" made out of rocks made by one of the earlier campers. Me and jack where inspired by the spoon and we started building a wall across the river. Once the wall was done, it stretched across he whole river. And the height difference of the water was almost one foot. We built 2 little paths leading out of the wall and placed rocks around the edges of the river. We also added carns (zen towers) on rocks and bridges. It took over 3 hours to build. Once we were done building the wall and carns, we ate beef stroganoff. The packages where very small, but luckily there where some candy bars. We went back down to the river after dinner and built a bridge and a rock outline the rest of the river. Later that night, we played euchre in Christians and jacks tent. We were expecting It to thunderstorm, but the worst it got was a drizzle. I went back to my tent at 9 and I fell asleep almost instantly. I was told it was exceptionally dark that night. We woke up at six thirty and had oatmeal. We went to check on the river wall from yesterday, and we found that it was intact except the water had risen and flowed over the wall.
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