Original caption:
On August 17, 2018, I drove away from a promo shoot in Nashville, TN in a rented Jeep Wrangler headed for The Great Smoky Mountains. I was about to set off on my 1st completely solo backpacking trip 2,225 miles away from my home of Pasadena, CA. As I left my rental sitting at the Mount Sterling Trailhead, I couldn't help but keep focused on the thought of bears. This was because my previous trail plan had been cancelled because of aggressive bear activity at campsite #37. Once I was able to overcome the fear of the great black bear, I settled in to what was to become one of the most memorable backpacking trips of my life.
ROUTE DETAILS:
PARKING: Just off of a dirt road at the Mount Sterling Trailhead.
DAY 1: Mount Sterling Trail to Long Bunk Trail to Little Cataloochee Trail to Pretty Hollow Gap Trail ending at Campsite #39
DAY 2: Pretty Hollow Gap Trail to Mount Sterling Ridge Trail to Campsite #38 at Mount Sterling Fire Tower
DAY 3: Mount Sterling Ridge Trail to Mount Sterling Trail ending back at the Trailhead.
TOTAL: 24.34 Miles - 6001 ft. Elevation Gain
CREDITS:
DIRECTOR / EDITOR / GRAPHICS / COLOR / SOUND Christopher R. Abbey crabbey.com
CAMERA Sony a6500 GoPro Hero6 Black
LENS Sigma 16mm f/1.4 Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro
GIMBAL Zhiyun Crane 2
SOFTWARE Edited in Adobe Premiere Graded in Adobe Premiere Lumetri Graphics in After Effects
MUSIC "Singular Unusual" by Muted (Blindly) - Licensed via Artlist.io