So..I was saying..: Rocking in the Smokies !

I am not an exercise-person. Nor am I a trek/hike person. Then what am I ? I am just a very lazy person, who loves to hang around at home reading or watching movies or just chatting.
But the July 4th weekend seemed, even to me, too long a time to spend in above mentioned cerebral activities. After several unsuccessful attempts with various friends and relatives to get an invitation to visit them, my cousin - Niranjan, his wife - Anu and I decided to go on a trek to the Smoky mountains, which was about 7 hours drive from where I live.
I have often mentioned my keen interest in food, so even before we could plan out other details for the trip, Anu and I were excited about what we would eat on the way ! Idli-molagai podi was a good idea, and so were puliyodarai and curd rice. Preparations for food started on Thursday afternoon. The whole workplace was empty post lunch on July 3rd - Thursday, especially after the client manager sent an email asking us to feel free to leave by 3 pm.
I went home stopping midway at the grocery store and picked up some bread and my mouth started watering at the thought of the amazing hummus that I was planning to make. Anyway, with all the preparation done, I set the alarm for 5:30 in the morning, since Anu and Niranjan were supposed to pick me up from home by 6. I knew I had to sleep, but an idea for a blog post was gnawing my mind and I simply could not sleep till I posted it. So I spent some time on typing out the post, reviewing it and publishing it.
I woke up as planned, packed everything and waited. I had a cup of coffee and waited. I then checked for comments to be moderated for my post, approved all of them and waited. Still no sign of cousin dearies. Went through some other blogs and waited. Finally the call came. It was Niranjan and he was going to start in 15 min !! Grrrrr… I should have known and should have slept for a longer period.
In any case, expecting a nice mid-size car, I went out to see a small Ford Focus waiting for me. Our usual trick of requesting a compact car, only to get a free upgrade to a mid-size car, backfired miserably and we actually got a compact car!! Bloody Enterprise !! The guys were so unpredictable !!
Anyway, it was almost 7:30 when we started. We started the trip with a good samaritan act, by helping a veterinarian jumpstart her car, with ours, since there was no one else around to help her start the car. With the mandatory Carnatic Music CD playing in the start, we commenced our journey to the Smokies. We had not even crossed the state when we were pulled over by a cop for speeding. So much for a good start !! Niranjan got a ticket and we continued on our journey, cursing the cop all the way.
We stopped at a rest area for breakfast at about 10:30 am. While Anu and I were waiting for Niranjan, we were approached by a guy who claimed to represent a local channel and wanted to ask us some questions for a feature he was making on rising gas prices. I was the more talkative one, so I chose to answer the questions. I gave the American audience some gyan on renewable sources of energy like Solar energy, wind energy etc, that I had studied about in 8th standard. Presumably, the syllabus is different for the Americans, for the guy seemed stunned at my ideas!
Anyway, we reached Smokies without any further incident (excluding the last 8 miles, which we covered in 3 hours, thanks to the snail-paced traffic).
It was already 5:30 pm and we decided to take a small trail that day to warm us up for the next day. What was I thinking !! Why did I ever stop exercising !! I was out of breath very soon. The road was extremely steep and we were heading towards the highest point on the Smokies, called the Clingman’s Dome. The view from this point, on a clear day was supposedly spectacular. However the day was not clear, but the view was still beautiful.
On the way back, we took a trail instead of the road and it was way better than the road (probably because we were climbing down). That night we checked into a cheap motel. I had unknowingly chosen a smoking room and the stench was unbearable. Anyway, we got used to the smell after some time and crashed. Thanks to the very late lunch of puliyodarai and curd rice and the subsequent hike, I was sick to the core and had a splitting headache and went to bed without dinner.
The next day was the big day and in spite of our best laid plans, we managed to start the trek only by 11:30 am. The complete hike was about 8.8 miles to a point called Charlie’s Bunion. The Appalachian trail is known for the Bears that prowl around the place. There was a mild rain and I was expecting snakes to be around too. I was terrified of the very thought, but we had decided to hike and I decided to play along.
The first 1.5 miles were terrible. The trail was rocky and extremely steep. I was usually last in the line and had absolutely no breath remaining in me to utter a single word. Thanks to the experience from the previous day, we carried a couple of trail mix bars, a bottle of Gatorade and a can of tomato juice (for the sodium). I threatened a couple of times to turn back, but some stubbornness kept me going. We kept our target simple and always aimed for the next nearest point. In the end, we managed the complete 4.4 miles trek and Whew !! What a relief !!
The difficult part of the trek is that it can get monotonous after a point. Green trees, green bushes, green grass- beautiful, great, wonderful, but after 2 miles, enough !! Still Nature tried her best to offer variety in terms of lighting. While it was raining mildly in the beginning, after some time, it became extremely sunny, and sunlight seemed like poetry when it fell in between the leaves of the trees around us. At some places, the trees were so dark that it seemed like it was night.
Overall, at the end of the trek, we were physically exhausted, but experienced a mental high like never before. A feeling of achievement and as a consequence satisfaction, helped in forgetting about physical fatigue and muscle pains and the worse thought of going back to normal life the next day !
I am no photographer and my camera has the uncanny ability to die out before any momentous occasion and works only when I look like a beggar at home. Here are some pics taken on my cousin’s camera. Obviously, the good ones either have me in them or were taken by me (Humility has never been one of my virtues. Also, my cousin does not care for credits!! )

Day 1- Return by the Trail. ">