I've got another home improvement post in the works but for now here's a quick and dirty hiking post.
A friend of mine was itching for her first overnight backpacking experience. When we learned that we have a mutual admiration for the sport it only came naturally that Steven and I should tag along on her first big adventure. I'd told her about our previous expedition to Shining Rock Wilderness and how much fun it was and how great it was for a first time backpacker. Guess I sold her on it pretty well because that's where she and Blake chose to go.
Our group expanded to include Nate and his girlfriend Lori (she was reluctant to participate in pictures) and all of our respective pups.
Yay for first timers! Actually, Blake is a weathered soul from the eagle scouts and I fully expect him to show us how it was done.
The hike up to the top of Shining Rock is long and arduous but it has very pretty intermissions. For several miles (or a couple hours) you have the impressive lower reach of Shining Rock Creek encouraging you along.
I brought my smaller DLSR along this time and I'm glad I did because it allowed me to do the scenery justice.
Rhea was showing her age a bit on this trail but I think I had just overloaded her. Next time she gets the light pack and "bundle of energy" Masi get's the heavy one.
Somewhere along the way Steven and Nate got way ahead and I was a couple hundred feet behind them. It turns out that this is the perfect amount of distance for them to piss off a nest of ground wasps but then get out of the way in time for me to get stung. I managed to shoo Rhea off to Steven before she got hit but poor Percy...he stood right on the nest snapping at the bees not realizing he was aggravating the situation. I couldn't get him to come to me or run away from the bees... He must have been stung a half dozen times before he finally heard Lori call him.
Generally speaking I'll take a bee sting for Steven any day considering I don't have the threat of death from them. But that son of a bitch hurt! I'm 0 for 2 now on my recent hikes in the NC Mountains.
You know you're close to the top of Shining Rock when you get to a cumbersome steep section of roots and rocks and then you cross the stream at this somewhat flat area. This is about an hour from the top (closeness is relative).
We'd lost Lori a while back and shortly after that we lost Nate as well. I have to give Lori some serious credit for her efforts on this hike. Backpacking is not for the faint of heart to begin with. But to be strapped into a borrowed pack that didn't fit her well and climbing thousands of feet for hours on a hike she wasn't too keen on in the first place...without completely murdering her significant other...mad props. Back to the story though...so we were taking a break at this stream crossing when suddenly, Oh Hey Percy!
Percy was hilarious. He'd run up to whoever was in the front of the line then scurry back to Lori and then back again. I think he must have traversed the length of that trail twice.
I also brought along my little gorilla grippy tripod thing and had some fun with slowing my shutter speed. I know it's been done but I love the flowing water pictures.
Nate made it up to the stream crossing just in time for a group shot.
I didn't take any more pictures on our hike up or at the camp site (I was too preoccupied with getting it set up and finding dry firewood that didn't exist). We had a pretty interesting night though. We were never able to get a fire started which is always a bit disconcerting for me and then at about dusk we heard a group of coyotes howling in the hills below us. It seemed pretty close but we told ourselves that it was just echoing off the mountains...right... Then at about 9 or so Lego and Masi started growling at something in the trees beside us. And when we looked we all saw eyes glowing in our head lamps. Que initial throat gripping terror. I flipped my headlamp to the "super beam" setting and illuminated the animal enough to see its spots. It was a lost hound dog. Phew. He eventually moved off.
We watched as lightening swarmed around us and slowly got closer. In the nick of time we put the bear bag up and climbed into our respective tents. It wasn't 2 seconds after Steven had zipped up our rain fly that the first drops of rain started to fall. That was a great night. I've never slept so well in a tent. And by well I mean for 45 to an hour long segments interrupted by 20 or so minutes of blankly staring in the darkness.
The next morning we awoke in a cloud. No exaggeration.
The others were saying it felt stifling but I thought it was almost soothing. On our way out to the Old Butt Knob trail we showed the group the massive quarts outcroppings on Shining Rock.
I don't have any pictures from the descent because like before is was incredibly difficult and at every overlook you couldn't see a damn thing because we were still in a cloud. We finished the afternoon with beer and pizza at Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company, successfully restocking our body with the calories we'd burned off.
Inaugural backpacking trip complete! Time for Joyce Kilmer!
Liz
