Fall Break
So, since I'm lame, I thought I'd provide some visuals to keep ya'll entertained.
Just got back from a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Forest (on the Tennessee-North Carolina border) as part of the week of fall break that separates semesters here at Oberlin.
See the
Started off well enough. I've never seen mountains so colorful. The fall colors were in full array. God, I love the woods here.
This is from the first mile or so into the National Forest.
We hiked a rather short 5-mile first day, arriving at camp with enough time to "sunbathe" in the below-50 degree weather and watch the river flow by.
And then we filled our water bottles and stuff.
And played harmonica (that would be Conrad on the rock).
Next day, we started our 6-mile hike uphill with some beautiful views.
We're getting higher...and what's that white stuff covering the foliage along the trail?
We reach the Appalachian Trail, which we will continue on for a little time (continually gaining elevation), and, funny, but it seems like it's actually snowing up here. We chuckle, pose, and continue up, thinking that it's awfully cute and quaint that the upper echelons of the Smokies are dusted with a light bit of snow. But it IS a little cold, too cold to stop for lunch just yet. Maybe when we get to a place where the snow has melted off a bit...
Lineup: Me, Hannah, Ryann, Christy, Conrad
Wait, what the fuck is this shit?
This isn't what we bargained for at all. That's just not cool. Shivering, we eat lunch and make the decision: we're planning on camping at 4500 feet this night, 1000 feet above the snow line. We could travel the two or so miles to camp and then freeze our asses off overnight, or we could take a 6-mile trail back to the base camp we started from. Hmmm, well, seeing as hypothermia is a bad thing...
And we make it down, feet aching.
And the rest, well, is history. It ended up raining heavily the next day, so we drove from Southern Tennessee to Virginia, where our trip leader lives, to dry out our gear and take some day hikes. Turned out pretty well, even if we didn't really follow the plan at all.
Here's the view from McAfee's Knob, which is also on the Appalachian Trail. Ran into three guys in kilts who had been hiking from Maine, beginning July 10 (no picture of them, tho :()
Note: it's funny how certain things matter (such as survival) when you're out in the woods and others don't really have any degree of importance at all. And then how your mind will dwell on those things that logically should be farthest from your mind and haven't had the chance to plague you much in all the rush of the first chunk of school. And how hard it is to live in the moment when, indeed, what you have in the now is everything you need.
And so it goes...
Back at Oberlin, time to work and all that again.
Just got back from a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Forest (on the Tennessee-North Carolina border) as part of the week of fall break that separates semesters here at Oberlin.
See the
Started off well enough. I've never seen mountains so colorful. The fall colors were in full array. God, I love the woods here.
This is from the first mile or so into the National Forest.
We hiked a rather short 5-mile first day, arriving at camp with enough time to "sunbathe" in the below-50 degree weather and watch the river flow by.
And then we filled our water bottles and stuff.
And played harmonica (that would be Conrad on the rock).
Next day, we started our 6-mile hike uphill with some beautiful views.
We're getting higher...and what's that white stuff covering the foliage along the trail?
We reach the Appalachian Trail, which we will continue on for a little time (continually gaining elevation), and, funny, but it seems like it's actually snowing up here. We chuckle, pose, and continue up, thinking that it's awfully cute and quaint that the upper echelons of the Smokies are dusted with a light bit of snow. But it IS a little cold, too cold to stop for lunch just yet. Maybe when we get to a place where the snow has melted off a bit...
Lineup: Me, Hannah, Ryann, Christy, Conrad
Wait, what the fuck is this shit?
This isn't what we bargained for at all. That's just not cool. Shivering, we eat lunch and make the decision: we're planning on camping at 4500 feet this night, 1000 feet above the snow line. We could travel the two or so miles to camp and then freeze our asses off overnight, or we could take a 6-mile trail back to the base camp we started from. Hmmm, well, seeing as hypothermia is a bad thing...
And we make it down, feet aching.
And the rest, well, is history. It ended up raining heavily the next day, so we drove from Southern Tennessee to Virginia, where our trip leader lives, to dry out our gear and take some day hikes. Turned out pretty well, even if we didn't really follow the plan at all.
Here's the view from McAfee's Knob, which is also on the Appalachian Trail. Ran into three guys in kilts who had been hiking from Maine, beginning July 10 (no picture of them, tho :()
Note: it's funny how certain things matter (such as survival) when you're out in the woods and others don't really have any degree of importance at all. And then how your mind will dwell on those things that logically should be farthest from your mind and haven't had the chance to plague you much in all the rush of the first chunk of school. And how hard it is to live in the moment when, indeed, what you have in the now is everything you need.
And so it goes...
Back at Oberlin, time to work and all that again.