Tsali, NC

TJ and I took a trip to the Tsali Trails in the Smoky Mountains, NC. Our plan was to be there Tuesday, Wednesday, and return home Thursday. There are 4 trails at Tsali. We wanted to bike one on Tuesday when we arrived, two on Wednesday, and the last on Thursday before the ride home.

We arrived a later than we planned. TJ got the tent st up.
Pretty nice camping area. All four trails are right outside the Tsali Campground. Nice setup. Ride right out of camp.
TJ is all set to go. Even got a smile out of him for this picture..
The first trail, Branch Loop, is about 8 miles. Not too much effort overall. Some tricky climbs and steep, narrow, and wet/slippery down hills - it rained before we arrived. We left the main trail and took a side track called Overlook Loop. Took us a few extra miles but worth the effort when we took in the view.
We found out that the first overlook we hit was not the trail namesake. The view overlooks Fontana Lake - a dammed lake on the Nantahala River.

When we arrived back on the Branch Loop Trail, we ended back tracked about 1.5 miles. TJ was very happy to find out we had to ride an uphill part of the trail twice.
We arrived back in camp after 2 hours of riding. The last 2 miles were all single track in the forest in the lower elevations. Very wet and slippery. We each took a few spills and got pretty dirty.
Back at the camp we had a shower and ate a kings meal of Dinty Moore Beef Stew, Beans, and Scrambled Eggs.

A little relaxing by the fire and then we hit the sack.

Unfortunately for us, we got some serious rain all night. It kept us awake all night. It really rained heavy most of the night.

Wednesday morning it was still raining - hard at times. We ate some breakfast and waited around the fire to see if the rain would stop. No luck. It just got worse. We checked the weather and the forecast called for rain all day and more on Thursday. We left for home at 11:00am.
We rode Blankets Creek Trail on the way home. It is a about 30 minutes from home. At least we got tow rides in two days. We are going back to Tsali to finish the other three trails.