I mean, I expected a mountain, but not one this big! And actually, Mt. Longonot is a volcano. Its been dormant since the 1860s and rises over 9,100 feet above sea level. There's a trail that goes up to the crater rim and then the trail continues up to the highest peak and all around. Getting up to the crater rim was difficult enough, but we decided that we might as well do the whole thing. Wow! It's about 5km up to the rim and another 10km around the crater. So that's over 12 miles round trip... and I felt every step of it in my calves, hamstrings, and everywhere else! My poor knee on the way back down was hating me. But we had a great time and what great exercise! We even saw some game along the way... some kind of antelope too far away to distinguish and several giraffes. We did get rained on a bit and it was quite chilly if you stopped. The "Just Keep Swimming" song from Finding Nemo went through my head more than once--substituting swimming for stepping of course.

As difficult as the hike was it does make me really excited to get back home to my mountains. Ok, well, they aren't my mountains, but the Smoky Mountains are the most special mountains in the world to me. Coming home is coming back to them and all the rest of the wonderful things home brings. Thanks, Mt. Longonot for the great warm-up! Maybe one day we can do it again...