Side Trip

My friends, Woody and Amanda, invited me their wedding in the Smoky Mountains last weekend. They had a big cabin rented for friends and family and since I had no shoots over the weekend I decided I could pull it off. On Thursday morning I photographed the Leiberth Award Breakfast, came home and edited the photos, packed up my things and decided to skip town early. I rented an Air BnB in Lexington on Thursday night, explored Knoxville on Friday, and hiked in the Smokys on Saturday afternoon before joining the crew at the cabin on Saturday evening. These are some of the photos from my side trips on the way down.

After checking into my Lexington AirBnB(which was a very cool early 1800s house) I walked to West Sixth Brewing which had fantastic beer.

As you can see from the menu they had quite the array of styles.

I picked up a crowler of their NIPA to bring home - it was an awesome beer.

I took a walk through this campus working my way back to the AirBnB.

I stopped at another brewery not far from home - Blue Stallion.

The beers here were very good too.

The place was jumping - and they had a very cool brewing system.

After breakfast I drove to Knoxville. I parked on a hill overlooking the city which was once a Civil War Fort.

I sent the drone up over the trees to get a view of the city.

I then rode my bike into and around town - landing at a few breweries(of course).

The first stop was Schulz which had a German theme - almost like a mini-Hofbräuhaus. Chatting with the bartender I learned that the brewery owner also had a stake and brewed at Blue Stallion from the night before.

Next I rode over to Crafty Bastard which was in an old building with an industrial feel. The beer I had was really good and I would have liked to have tried more but I had to get some food in my belly.



Gay Street - the main street in downtown - was a very cool area with plenty of shops and restaurants.

Woodruffs was my dinner destination but the brewery was so packed I couldn't even get a seat at the bar.

Instead I found Chivo - kind of like a Nuevo in Akron.

It turned out to be a good choice - the mescal flight and burrito were really, really tasty.

The next morning I drove to Smoky Mountain National Park. The first trail I hiked was Rainbow Falls. It was a beautiful but taxing climb.


The Smokys are a quite crowded park even in November - while I wasn't slowed down on my hike there were plenty of people at the Falls.


The first hike wasn't far outside Gatlinburg which had some pretty bad fires last year. I expected more of the woods to be charred but on this trail it was just a few trees here and there.


My second hike was at Laurel Falls. This was a much more laid back hike with a paved trail.

....so of course even more people.

Still worth it though!

If you want to lose the crowds all you have to do is continue on the trail after the main attraction.

There was still a lot of color left in the trees.

After the hike I went and met everyone at the cabin. It was a beautiful place in the mountains outside Pigeon Forge - photos of that soon.