September 8, 2009
This morning we had to drive up to the FHWA office in Sevierville, TN to get the Great Smoky's gate key. It was about an 1 & 1/2 drive. After that we were on a mission to find routes that were dry. It took some looking and some driving but we found some. It ended up being a pretty good day (14 hour work day) and we collected 22 routes / 60 miles. We did a route called Cades Cove Loop Road that took us an hour to get 10 miles and we ended up having to stop 17 times due to traffic. Each time we stop our pavement images go black but I'm sure the park service is aware of the congestion on that road so the pavement is what it is. We also were not able to go fast enough to get roughness data but the road was in such bad shape the whole road is going to get a rating of poor anyway. We did see some bears along that loop. I tried to get a few photos but it was difficult and I was not about to get out of the car and walk by the bear like other tourists just to get a good photo. Why do people think that is safe??? There are a bunch of old cabins and farms along that road and I took a quick photo of one. This one is the Carter Shields cabin. Here is info from the website link below..."George Washington "Carter" Shields (1844-1924) bought this land and cabin from John Sparks in 1910. The cabin dates to 1830-40s. Shields lived in the cove until 1921."
This morning we had to drive up to the FHWA office in Sevierville, TN to get the Great Smoky's gate key. It was about an 1 & 1/2 drive. After that we were on a mission to find routes that were dry. It took some looking and some driving but we found some. It ended up being a pretty good day (14 hour work day) and we collected 22 routes / 60 miles. We did a route called Cades Cove Loop Road that took us an hour to get 10 miles and we ended up having to stop 17 times due to traffic. Each time we stop our pavement images go black but I'm sure the park service is aware of the congestion on that road so the pavement is what it is. We also were not able to go fast enough to get roughness data but the road was in such bad shape the whole road is going to get a rating of poor anyway. We did see some bears along that loop. I tried to get a few photos but it was difficult and I was not about to get out of the car and walk by the bear like other tourists just to get a good photo. Why do people think that is safe??? There are a bunch of old cabins and farms along that road and I took a quick photo of one. This one is the Carter Shields cabin. Here is info from the website link below..."George Washington "Carter" Shields (1844-1924) bought this land and cabin from John Sparks in 1910. The cabin dates to 1830-40s. Shields lived in the cove until 1921."
1 comment:
Would sure be nice to be able to do that site-seeing too!!
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