First day of her JUNIOR year!
Aug. 7, 2017
Sam
August 1, 2017
Vacation Day 4 – We headed back to Panther Falls and had the place to ourselves. Jumped off the rocks, swam, tried to find the cave entrance behind the waterfall, and had lunch. After lunch, a couple other groups had arrived, our cue to leave!
Crabtree Falls – Hike #26 #52hikechallenge
This was a more strenuous hike than we thought, mainly cause it is straight up. The waterfalls were pretty – something about being tallest east of something or another….
but needed more water flow
Sam adds a cairn to the 100s built along the trail.
But this Copperhead was not interested in a cairn…
July 23, 2017
One last swim before we head home. Thanks Lynn and Nan for taking her for a week!
July 15, 2017
Captain Sam heads across Lake Murray.
a quick visit with my brother at his lake house, exploring, playing on the boat, swimming and a Low Country Boil
a great day!
July 8, 2017
We slept in and decided what to do… we had several miles back to the truck and a side trail for a waterfall – Upper Falls at Graveyard Fields – so we started back.
Hike #23 of #52hikechallenge
We enjoyed a lunch and quick swim in the cold water and finished up… the threat of rain and tired legs, we decided to come back and try the Black Balsam Knob from a different trail head next time.
After dropping the packs at the truck, we did the short hike to Lower Falls – enjoyed a swim and headed home.
through 7 tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A 10 out of 10 weekend!
A Land Cruiser and clouds….
July 7, 2017
Time for a backpacking trip, we had wanted to do Black Balsam Knob area so I decided to lengthen the loop at start at Graveyard Fields off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I knew we were in trouble right away, I didn’t have a map, or mileage idea of the loop, them the trails were not blazed at all… within 2 miles we ran into a family walking the wrong direction…. I had a general description of what I wanted to do…
After leaving the Graveyard Fields trail, we started climbing on the Mountains to Sea trail, and I knew we had to descend again to cross the Yellow Prang, and we stayed on the “obvious” trail, which only completely disappeared in this mire….
again, with no blaze to follow we backtracked (only got lost once doing that) and made our way back down to find a camp site
a very peaceful night – made even easier since I brought a camp stove and Sam’s favorite freeze dried meal – only to discover I didn’t include matches…. doh!
Hike #22 of #52hikechallenge
PS it was Kodak’s first backpacking trip.
June 23, 2017
Sam and I headed to the mountains, meeting my brother and sister-in-law to work on our little place in Blowing Rock. After dinner Sam and I headed to Raven Rocks Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch the sunset, but clouds rolled in and this was all we got.
But it is still better than watching TV!
May 28, 2017
The end of the road (beach) on the South Banks.
Sam
or just the Tacomas
the tide was perfect for shell hunting
Then over to the lighthouse
We cooked dinner and watched the sunset
Shrimp boats
Then we headed back to find a place to camp for our 6:30am ferry.
Well crap, thunderstorm warning, lightning, and wind. We slept (or tried) in the truck cab till about 12:30am and gave up and set-up the Flippacs.
May 27, 2017
After the hike we camped for the night, waiting for our morning ferry to Cape Lookout – the South Core Banks. Kodak seemed happy to back at the beach.
We drove around looking for a secluded area to camp and found this fresh turtle track, she must have laid her eggs hours before.
This site is perfect, can’t see a camper down either side!
Clay fishes for bait.
Sunset
Kay wanted her picture with her fish – then it jumped (or whatever fish do)
Light painting – two Tacomas with Flippacs.
May 14, 2017
Mother’s Day – Breakfast in bed. (Uncle Wayne, do you recognize the pan?)
Deb went back to bed to celebrate her day and I went for bike ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is me trying to rescue a snake.
Then some work around the “mountain place” including yard work and finding thsi salamander.
Then it was time to hike. #19 #52hikechallenge – Gragg Prong Falls. Sam and I started last year to hike to these falls, but it was getting woods dark and we didn’t have a place to camp yet so we turned around, really glad we went back, awesome place and great swimming hole when it warms up.
The whole hike is beautiful!
There are a couple of creek crossings, in the end we gave up trying to keep the boots dry!
