May 19th, 1997: Eleven intrepid explorers leave the cold environs of the Great Lakes Basin and sally forth on a journey to expand their horizons, to test their hearts and minds, and to put to good use camping equipment which they bought over the winter and for which they paid way too much casheesh.

Eleven visionaries, driven by reasons personal and irrational to push themselves to the limit of their ability and dive deep into the wilds of North Carolina.

Eleven idealists, whose greatest assets were a willingness to sacrifice their flesh to enrich their minds.

Eleven zealots, who had seven pairs of underwear between them and enough stove fuel to burn the state of Ohio down to a pile of cinder and ash.

Who were these proud dreamers? These radical thinkers? These inebriated romantics? These swimmers against the currents of fate? These cretinous pin-heads? And what the hell were they thinking?

This is their story in pictures. A document of their ill fated journey. Six days and seven nights of living hell along the back trails and barely navigable passes of the Great Smoky Mountains.

One would lose his leg to infection. Another would be taken by vicious bears while taking a crap near a trail head. Two, led by foul lust, would engage in an ill-fated romance that would tear their lives apart. Another two would reaffirm a love that had fallen into disrepair. Two others would lose their minds and never be the same again. One would eventually starve to death and the last two, well they ate him.

Nevertheless, the survivors would forever hence look back on those miserable days and say to anyone that cared to listen,

“Wow, that was one cool trip, man.”