What started as a spontaneous urge, turned into one of the most remarkable, quickly planned trips of my lifetime. Growing up and living most of my life in the midwest, we rarely get to see hills let alone mountains. In the gap time between Christmas and New Years, I decided it was time to make some memories, and packed up to drive down to Tennesee.

Backing up slightly prior to the spontaneous booking, I was feeling a sense of wanderlust. Not only itching to travel, but I had this overwhelming feeling that I was not living my life to its fullest throughout the winter season. I met a few friends in the November/early December timeframe who had either done incredible travels, or were planning to within the next year. I strictly remember coming home one night and thinking, “Why can’t I do that?” “Whats stopping me from driving and making these memories?” “Why Not?”

That two word phrase quickly became my mantra. It made me think of all the barriers that stop me from doing things. Some reasonable, like money, safety, and impact to those around me, but for the most part, becuase it was uncomfortable was the main driver of why I didn’t do things. I didn’t think it was realistic. “Driving 12 hours for two days? That sounds stupid,” interally I would say. That day, I decided I would not let comfortablilty affect my decisions. Growth comes in uncomfortability, and it is time to grow. I called up a friend of mine, and down to Tennessee we went.

Erik is a college friend of mine. We met the day we moved into college together, being two of the early dorm move-ins as we were both auditioning for the University of Wisconsin Marching Band together. Erik and I quickly hit it off, as both of us are rather high energy, goofy people. What resulted was a friendship, that turned into a roomate for three more years, and a lifelong friend. After college we drifted apart for a bit, as do many, because we were each finding out our places in life. Post-College life seems to do the such as its another new animal, and some would say its someone entering the “Real World.” Alas, when I first planned the trip, the intention was to go down solo, but I figured, let’s see if Erik wants to take a spontaneous adventure. Three days before the trip, I called Erik, and the rest is history.

The Drive Down

Road trips are my favorite. When you drive with someone in a car, it forces you to essentially have conversation with the person. If you dont know the person well, you start to build a relationship and get to know one another. As that progresses, vulnerability comes in and quality bonds are established. If you do know the person, you may find out new quirks about them, or may become super emotional and vulnerable with them about new occurances or even old thoughts you didn’t know. I’m someone who enjoys vulnerable, deeper conversation that gets to know people more. Often times this starts with my goofy list of questions. If you’re vulnerable with someone, it adds a level of trust. But we’ll get to more later on when we make new friends.

7:00am. Chicagoland, Illinois. Departure Time.

Thirty minutes go by. We zip through Illinois. Erik starts #Smokylog on his snapchat and we start to document our drive. We get to the border of our conjoined least favorite state…..Indiana. Why don’t we like Indiana? Well, our sports teams go to die there. I’ve gone to Indianapolis 5 times with the Wisconsin band, 4 for football in the B1G Championship, and once for Men’s Basketball. Guess what, Wisconsin lost every. single. game. From then on we thought Indianapolis was cursed. We queue up our Nickleback for because it’s what Indiana deserves, and down through the state we go. Memes aside, there are two people in this world, those who like Nickleback, and liars. Don’t lie. Nickelback low key slaps.

11:30pm

We’re through Indiana and quickly approaching Louisville. Now Lousiville is known for brown gold, American Bourbon Whiskey! I love whiskey. I turn to Erik and go, how about we just go check out a distillery? Why Not? Erik and I decide to take our lunch break at one of my favorites, the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort. Buffalo Trace is the oldest continuously operating distillery in America. They have incedible products such as Buffalo Trace, obviously, Eagle Rare, Blantons, Weller, and the illusive Pappy Van Winkle. Erik and I went and wanted to see if there was a tour available. Sadly they were booked up, but there were tastings available, so we signed up to do a tasting and walked arount the building. The building is super scenic, and the distillery named their famous bourbons over the great distillers that made remarks on the company. Some of the images hung in the building are shown below.

9:00pm

After an REI stop to grab a rain jacket and some Jimmy John’s (Shoutout #16 add avocado. You were my whole college life) We drive through Pigeon Forge and arrive in Gatlinburg.

Holy. Hell

Pigeon Forge i swear is a six year olds pipe dream. Every radom building you can think of is in Pigeon Forge. You have Mini golf, next to go-carts, next to a titanic museum, next to a gift store with live sharks, across the street from another gift store with live alligators. If I would ask my elementary-grade cousin what he would want in a town, the closest town in America to his creation would probably be Pigeon Forge. We were staying at Gatlinburg, though. We weren’t able to get a camp site Monday night in Cades Cove or the Smokeys in general due to how booked up everything was (turned out to be untrue, because the site was empty) but we decided to book a hotel on the drive down and stay in downtown Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg is a pretty touristy town that I would compare to a Wisconsin Dells. Kinda like a cheap vacation spot that could be fun if you had the right crowd. Erik and I decided that it’s Tennessee and moonshine needed to be involved. We first went to Ole Smoky’s Moonshine, the famous one. When you do a tasting here, you pay $5 to sample six of their moonshines. After the tastings you get a $5 coupon if you spend $25 or more in the store. One bottle of moonshine is $25, so it was an easy decision to walk away with a bottle. The moonshine was alright, just a little too sweet for me. Would result in an absolute deathly hangover in my opinion.

Right next to Ole Smoky’s is a second distillery for Moonshine, Sugarlands. Sugarland’s deal was similar to Ole Smoky’s, with the exception that there was no price minimum to use the $5, and that you got to try 12 different moonshines compared to only six at Ole Smokys. In my opinion the flavors were better, the atmosphere was more personal, and I just overall had a much better time at Sugarlands. It felt like an actual distillery tour opposed to a souvenier shop, like Ole Smoky’s did.

After the Moonshine, we headed back to the hotel to have a glass of Whiskey and prepare for our route the next day. Tuesday morning, bright and early, we would summit Mt. Le Conte.

Tuesday, December 28th

Mt. Le Conte via Alum Cave Route

During my journey down, I posted on my Instagram asking for trail recommendations, and I recieved an overwhelming number of replies for the Alum Cave trail and Mt Le Conte. So Alum Cave trail it was! Mt. Le Conte is the third highest peak within the Great Smoky mountains. The entrance to the trail is roughly 20 minutes from the Gatlinburg entrace to the park, making it the most hiked trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mt Le Conte summits at 6,593 feet. In order to reach this summit, youll climb 2,853 feet during the 5.5 mile journey. This is no small task, and you will sweat…a lot. At the summit there are a few lookout points that you can continue to venture towards to see some incredible views.

About a mile into the hike, you come across a gorgeous little rock archway with stairs carved into the rock. Its amazing how nature just builds those stairs for you (Hah!). As we progressed we reached Alum cave itself. The large open cave offers a beautiful lookout into the park and also serves as a natural ampitheater. Erik and I enjoyed just casually whispering and being able to hear each other as clear as day.

When you get near the summit, you reach Le Conte Lodge. During season, you are actually able to lodge here and book a room. There are small Smoky mountain tourism shops here and based around my readings, they offer lunch to campers here for about $12. Kinda cool if you ask me. Everything was closed when we walked through because we were off season, but could be cool to see if we return during season. You have the option to stop here or progress to one of the lookout points, Erik and I absolutely decided to go to the lookout points, so onto Myrtle Point we go.

Near the top trying to find Myrtle Point, we started hiking with this couple from Knoxville, TN. They’ve come to the Smoky’s before and decided to make another trip because they really enjoyed Myrtle Point. We started walking together and shared stories from our hometown, and it turns out that her brother works for the company I work for. Small world! Together, we reached Myrtle Point.

Myrtle Point was stunning. On one side of the lookout we had sunshine: Gatlinburg peering clear as day smiling at us as it was bathed by the sunshine. On the other, we had foggy gloomy clouds that were racing towards us. The dichotomy was incredible, like heaven and hell were battling for the top of this mountain. As we were destroying an everything bagel, clouds starting rushing in. We were swallowed by the fog at the top and became one with the clouds. It was amazing to see clearness for a bit and watch how fast the mountain trails can change climate. With our view being swallowed, we decided to hike back down, grab some firewood and head for our campsite at Cades Cove.

Cades Cove

Cades Cove is the only camp site that is open during non-season times. Its located roughly an hour into the park eastward from Gatlinburg. As we arrived the sunlight was starting to fade. We quickly set up my REI Half Dome tent. Side note, REI this tent is absolutely incredible. I cant recommend this enough. I’m not sponsored by REI, but this tent went through two intense thunderstorms without a drop of water on us. Small shoutout to the folks over there.

After setup, Erik and began to make a small fire and start to cook dinner. Our idea was to have a warm meal every day for dinner, because we would likely be either cold or wet after a long days hike. We After boiling up some water, spilling it on my hand, adding it to our freeze dried meals, we were ready to chow down.

As we shared laughs and filled our bellies, we were approached by two fellow hikers curious on available trails in the area. I shared with them my list of potential routes, and we began to chat. This small moment marked a point in the trip where it went from great to unforgettable. Amy and Ashlyn are two bartenders from Florida. They decided to take this time to go explore the Smoky’s together becuase it was a family members favorite place, and why not go check it out. After sharing routes and some small talk, Erik and I asked if they wanted to hang out, have a few drinks and enjoy each other’s company. We took some time all getting to know each other. What’s amazing about travel is you learn so much about different parts not only the world, but your home country. Them growing up in Florida, and myself in the midwest there are so many things that are normal to one party, but not to another. The coolest part about talking to people from different regions, is learning what the other person thinks is casual and doesnt need to be explained. I’ll give you an example, Amy enjoys spear fishing. I have never once thought about spear fishing being from llinois. The terms and lingo she used were so foreign to me that I had to ask about almost every term, but thats where the joy comes in. In those moments, storytellers get to relive the joy of the moments, while the listeners get to enjoy the journey and learn new things. We went back and forth telling stories of our college lives and present day life. As the drinks flew, the stars came out and magically the clouds all opened up. Growing up near a city, we never saw many stars, but they always fascinated me. I went into college as an aerospace engineer hoping to work for NASA one day. I shared this, and Amy immediately replied prior to me finishing, “Well you should. Its incredible.” I appreciated that comment a lot. It’s always cool to see strangers wanting other strangers to be the best verison of themselves. Thanks for pushing me, kind stranger. As the firewood burned out, we decided we would hike together tomorrow. The girls left, and Erik and I decided to lay on top of my car and stargaze. We got vulnerable with each other, talking about our goals and lives to this point. We opened up about a lot of sensitive subjects, and was an incredible moment for Erik and I. Something I’ll never forget talking about. The clouds eventually rolled in, and we called it a night. 7:30am the next morning, we would wake up, eat breakfast with our new friends, and roll to Abrams falls.

Enter thunderstorm #1. Erik and I were completely safe, but I was uncomfortable. It was my first time sleeping in a thunderstorm. Growth comes from being uncomfortable and this is what I needed.

Wednesday, December 29th

That morning, 7:30am, we wake up, completely dry. Erik and I start eating a bagel and walk over to our new friends. To our surprise, they were wringing out their blankets and pillows, all completely drenched. Their rain fly failed and had a nice time sleep swimming. We ate quickly and decided to make our way over to Abrams Falls in the Cades Code loop. In order to get there, you are forced to drive through this absolutely stunning scenic area. Oh darn, gorgeous views. What a shame. We pulled up to the parking lot of the trailhead after admiring some deer, and began our chase to the waterfall. Sorry TLC.

We started our trail at the purple star on the map. Our friends graciously pulled our four red bulls, and we got our wings and flew onto the trail. The Abrams Falls trail was much less strenuous than the Alum cave route, but beautiful in its own way. It was interesting because you start at a location much higher than the falls, and make your way by mostly descending until you get to the waterfall. What makes the trail so lovely is the winding creek you following throughout the entire route. The trail follows the creek with opportunites to walk out onto rocks in the stream if you wanted. At the end of roughly 3 mile walk, you get the opportunity to absorb this absolutely stunning waterfall.

The waterfall was the largest one I’ve ever seen. With the thunderstorm the night before, the waters were absoluely roaring, which lead to this beautiful sight. We took many gram pics all while enjoying a great snack/lunch of a luna bar and some water. We then decided, hey this is supposed to be a loop, why don’t we keep walking and follow the Hannah Mountain, or as we called it the Hannah Montana trail. So we promply started belting whatever Hannah Montana songs we knew as we continued forward

About a half mile into the Hannah Montana trail, will be probably the moment I remember forever when I look back on this trip. As we were walking and looking around, we came back to our lovely creek friend except this time, he blocked our trail. We didn’t realize it, but the route we were following involved crossing rivers without bridges, and like I mentioned before, we had a storm the night before. There would be no way to cross this without being very wet. We all looked at each other, pondering whether or not to take the plunge across the river. I looked upon the group, feeling my wanderlust mantra and said outloud, “Why Not?” Everyone looked up, smiled, and decided fuck yeah, let’s do this. We took off our shoes and socks, and got ready to get soaked in the river. I brought a pole, so I lead the pack. The rocks in the river were SLICK. We needed to really keep balance or we would have fallen completely in. I found a route and we went through in a line. Now I’m a rather tall guy, roughly 6’3″, and I got nearly waist deep here. As soon as I made it across I was able to help the others by passing the pole and helping people out of the water. From this point forward, the resulting train and our bond with Ashlyn and Amy was changed. We were now friends, not acquaintences with our fellow campers. From then on out the dynamic was more goofy, silly, and in my opinion, just more fun! We all kept repeating, “Why Not?” to anything we could think of. I started asking my goofy questions like, “What three objects would you want to be summoned by?” and we continued forward enjoying the time.

The rest of the trail was neat becuase it allowed us to see the microbiomes of the mountain. Every mile or so it seemed like we were on a new trail becuase of how the scenery around us changed. We’d have dense forest inclines, followed by rocky descents in the middle of a small stream. It ended up raining pretty hard for about 30 minutes near the end of the trail, but that was no match for our spirits and a good rain jacket. To round it all out, we had to cross a large stream one final time right before getting to our cars. We gladly tackled this head on, and away we went. 11.1 Miles, complete.

We got back to our cars, had dinner together, and then went our separate ways. Them staying the night in town due to the tent failure, and Erik and myself ready to tackle another thunderstorm in my tent.

A Note to Ashlyn and Amy

Ashlyn and Amy, I wanted to take this time to thank you both for walking over to our campsite that Tuesday night. Throughout my travels, I’ve come to realize that its always the people who make the trip, be it ones you bring with or the ones you meet along the way. It’s one of those things where you don’t necessary expect to see them ever again, but if you happen to cross paths, it’s always a lovely treat. I’m happy to call you both friends, thank you for making this Smoky Mountain trip as incredible as it was.

I’m eager to take this mantra of, “Why Not?” into 2022. Every time I say it, memories of that river will always pop into my mind

A Note to Erik

Erik, Erik, Erik. Man, I could write three pages here strictly about you. I just wanted to say thank you for coming on this journey. We were always incredibly close in college, and slightly drifted apart after that. I’m so happy we were able to go on this journey again to rekindle our friendship. Your snapchat logs always bring a smile to my face, and know that I’m lucky to call you my friend. I’ll never forget what we said that night on top of the car. I will always have your back, and I will always be there for you, bruthuh. I hope we can keep going on spontaneous adventures together and see what more madness can come from it. You share my chaotic energy and I’m so lucky it was you who decided to come with me for this trip. We manifested our destiny. From getting wet wood to light to scoring a bottle of Blantons on the way home (YES WE GOT BLANTONS. AHH.) we kept the energy high and the vibes incredible. Thanks for being my friend.

Final Thoughts

Life is what we make of it. Who knows what would have happened if I decided not to be spontaneous and go on this trip? Realistically, I probably would’ve been at home, not doing much and moseying around. What’s stopping me from having adventues like these more frequently? Why not decide to drive to new places and do things like this more often? Life is full of things that make a person uncomfortable. Looking back on my experiences, its the times that you decide to do those things that make both the memories and who you are. 2022, its time to take you head on with one simple phrase:

“Why Not?”

-Jon Barker