This was an interesting one. From the pictures it doesn't look too bad, but there was some light falling snow and visibility for any kind of distance was basically zero. Smoky Mtn was fine, I have been up that one once before, but this time I decided to drop down to the north instead of just going back down the way I came and go up a smaller hill beside Smoky. That all went well until I started dropping down off of there to get back onto a trail that headed back to the car. I actually thought I had dropped off the right side of the hill, but I actually dropped off the left side, and since there was no visibility of the rest of the City of Rocks park, I actually thought I was heading the direction I thought I was. I did have my GPS, but didn't actually look at it until I was all the way down that steeper side of the hill and figured out I had started walking along the trail the wrong direction. This is probably the first time I have gotten totally turned around and thought I was walking a different direction that I actually was. I can certainly understand how people in real white out scenarios without something like a GPS can get totally turned around and lost.
Smoky Mountain and Neighbors
