Planning an End-of-Summer Adventure

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With Labor Day marking the end of summer it also marks a short break for me.  We are in the lull period between summer vacation and leaf-changing season.  This makes it the perfect time to plan an end-of-summer adventure with NoKey!  Since both of us really enjoy taking bold, active, exciting trips with short notice and we both have only a few hours a day of free time, this meant we needed to do some planning quick.   

Enter: SToK Coffee

NoKey and I discovered SToK Coffee over the summer while we were on our weekly shopping trip to our new Walmart.  We had heard a lot about cold brew coffee and with the temperatures so warm we decided to give it a shot.

SToK Coffee stood out to us for a few reasons.  We love Arabica coffee and this blend was also pure coffee with no weird ingredients.  We also loved how smooth it tasted as compared to what we normally drink hot in the mornings.  The almost fruity, Brazilian Blend flavor profile definitely went down easy.  It may have been slow-brewed, but it was definitely fast-sipped!

Of course, when I'm planning a trip I always love to eat well!  Coffee has always been a problem for us because we've often resorted to drinking an instant blend with some sort of powdered milk and sugar.  While it's great when you're in the backcountry, front country adventures need something more special.  I'm super glad that SToK Coffee is already cold and can easily be kept in a cooler, ready to drink, for those early morning starts.  It's also available at Walmart with the Iced Coffees and Teas so that makes it easy for us to stock up if we ever need to grab any more.  

Since we both have been working long hours over the summer, sometimes with me not being home for a few days at a time, we knew that planning a trip was going to be tough.  We often were doing reading and research about destinations late at night and the caffeine we were getting from SToK Coffee definitely kept us going!  Toward the end of trip planning it almost felt like our vacation ideas were only one late night away from becoming a reality.  While going through this process, I decided to share some tips with you to help you plan out your next adventure: 

Plan a Destination Based on Your Needs

Want to go trail running and kayaking?  Make sure that your destination has both of those options close by!  If you're taking the time to pack the gear you'll want to make sure all the activities you want to do are going to be either at your campground or close enough to not be a huge drive.  If you're planning on taking your dog along, make sure your park allows dogs in all the places you're going.  It's very common here in the Smokies for people to bring their dogs camping, but when they get here people are shocked when dogs are not allowed on our hiking trails!  Doing a little reading ahead can help you prepare better.  

NoKey marking some mapped routes on our map. 

Lay Out All Your Gear

While this might seem like a no-brainer for many, laying out every single piece of gear you want to bring is SO IMPORTANT!  NoKey and I have packed up and driven hours away to go camping with our dog only to show up to the campground in the dark without our tent!  Thankfully, other campers had extra gear but it was so embarrassing!  Don't let this happen to you - lay everything out just before you pack it and go over the activities you'll be doing.  Make sure everything is in order before you pack it all up!

An Epic Trip Calls for Epic Gear!

Pack Smart and Plan Ahead

If you're headed out for a front country camping adventure you've got plenty of room to bring extra items.  This doesn't mean, however, that you should cram everything into the vehicle and drive into the sunset though!  If you're going to be doing many different activities, try to keep all like items together in your vehicle and keep your coolers easily accessible.  Also, make sure where you're going has ice for your food nearby.  Having to drive an hour round-trip for a bag of ice can really put a dent in your adventure time.  You've got to keep your SToK Coffee cold to get going in the mornings, right?!

Be Flexible

While planning for your trip, make a few back-up plans.  When planning a trip this time of year, give yourself extra drive time for the early leaf-peeper tourists in the area.  When planning trail adventures, always have a back-up plan.  The thunderstorms that often come in late summer can damage or erode trails and cause trail closures.  Having a back-up hike planned will help ensure you're not spending a few hours in the early morning scrambling for a new plan.  Be prepared with a map of the surrounding area as well.  

Traffic can be tough! Always plan ahead!

These are a few of my tips to help you plan out your next trip.  What do you like to do to ensure your vacations go smoothly?  I'd love to hear about it!  

Be sure to check out SToK Coffee on their website or check them out at a Walmart near you.

Frozen Head State Park - A Tuesday Adventure

NoKey and I had a rare day off together - something that hasn't happened much lately with my marathon training schedule.  We decided that since the weather was nice and since we had a whole day we would pack up our dog and head over to Frozen Head State Park in Morgan County for a day of hiking.  Since Frozen Head is a state park, we could take our dog - which is always an issue for us when we want to hike in the Smokies.  Dogs are not allowed on trails in National Parks.  We decided to do a loop hike with the North and South Old Mac Trails, visiting a fire tower in the middle, and then afterward hiking a short out and back to a beautiful waterfall.  

When we reached the parking lot around 11:15 a.m. it was already packed. The sunny skies and nearly 70-degree temperatures brought out everyone for a day hike!  We started on the flat old road bed of the South Old Mac Trail, hiking less than a mile before running into the old CCC Dynamite Shack left from the days of this being a CCC camp.  Now our trail began the steady climb to the top!  We crossed several streams and met lots of hikers coming up and down the trail, many of them with dogs as well!  After crossing several streams and taking a few switchbacks, we came up to the old road bed at the Tub Springs Campsite.  We took a short break here for lunch, looking around the large campsite and checking out the cool spring house before taking the 0.5-mile walk up the old road to the fire tower at the top of the hill.  I stayed down with the dog while NoKey went up and took in the views!

Gracie tangling me up with her leash during our lunch break! 

On the way back down the trail we now took the Panther Gap Trail to the North Old Mac Trail to head back down to the car.  When we got to this shady side of the hills, we noticed there was still a beautiful dusting of snow on the hillside.  Despite several days of warmer temperatures, the shade kept it cool enough to keep it from melting!  We passed a ton of hikers and lots of kids and dogs heading up the hill on this section of the hike.  Since the hill was also in the shade, it was a bit muddier than the trail we took to the top.  I thought our dog would start to get tired or slow down on this section, but she was so full of energy her leash actually gave me a bruise as she drug me down the mountain side!  When we reached the bottom of the loop it was still relatively early so we decided to head back a little further into the park and head to the Emory Falls Trail.  

The spring house and a grill for cooking.  

We were lucky enough to snag the last parking spot in the lot so we knew this trail would be even busier than the last.  The gentle grade and short distance make this hike popular!  We walked only half a mile before getting the view of our first waterfall - Debord Falls.  From here, it was supposed to only be half a mile up to Emory Falls, but we found it was closer to one mile.  The trail left the old road bed and went up on a rockier, eroded climb.  When we got to the top there were probably 50 or so people playing in the stream and photographing the waterfall.  It was nice to see so many people out and enjoying the day!  We had a quick and easy hike back out to the car. 

Emory Falls with a teeny rainbow! 

Frozen Head State Park is definitely my favorite place in East Tennessee to hike with my dog.  The trails are challenging, and there are close to 50 miles of trails, and you don't usually have to deal with the traffic and crowds of heading up to the Smokies.  There are also backpacking campsites and primitive front country campsites and they're all really cheap!  If you're looking to spend some time in the mountains with your dog or if you just want to get away from the traffic and noise in the Smokies, I definitely recommend Frozen Head State Park.