"only 2 extra miles"

Famous last words. 

I met Missy and Sharon Spezia this morning around seven to go hiking with Missy's Get on the Trails program which coincides with the Friends of the Smokies.  I expected it to be a rather easy hike with little elevation change.  I was kind of right.  I stuck with Missy's intern Andy for most of the trip. We got a little ahead of the group and hiked about 5.1 miles up to a spot to eat lunch at and eat with the rest of the group.  The hike really was not all that strenuous and there was no super significant elevation change, so I figured that it was just an easy way to get a long day of mileage in.  On the way back down, Missy decided we should go do the loop trail thinking it was only 2 extra miles.  Wrong!

Yes, it did on 2 extra miles to the entire trip, but by doing that, it meant the loop trail was actually 4 miles long!  Andy and I definitely were not expecting that.  It seemed to go straight up hill for what seemed like hours.  Finally after coming out to a road off the trail, we made it back to the trailhead.  In total we put in around 13.5 miles today which is longer than a half marathon.  Super fun time to spend my day and looking forward to another hike soon!

Cute little bridge.

Group photo.

Sharon Spezia, Myself, and Mary Bond.