Below, a few shots of the grassy meadows along the Sterling Ridge trail.

It looks like we'll be having (at least the bears will be having...) a good crop of blackberries in the high country this year.

They're not kidding - that can be a beast of a crossing when it's running high.

Appropriately named Pretty Hollow Gap, one of my favorite spots in all of the Smoky Mountains. I wonder how many breaks I've taken here over the past 40 years of hiking in the Great Smokies...

From the Gap, I dropped down the Pretty Hollow Gap trail towards Cataloochee Valley as the first drops of rain began to spatter the trail. As a rule, I don't particularly enjoy the Pretty Hollow Gap trail, but today was different. It was cool with a nice breeze and the heavy rain that soon started pouring down made it even better. Lots of bear sign on the trail too. The Pretty Hollow Gap trail is heavily wooded, unlike the grassy Sterling Ridge pathway. It used to be a dark tunnel through the tall stands of hemlocks, but now they're gone and the canopy has really opened up. If not for the rain, the walk would have been a lot hotter experience.