Whew!
I'm a sun-soaked kid...
Friday I played hookey from work (with my boss's blessing, so it was ok), and wandered around for the first day this year in the warmth and sun.
Then I drove back to Bristol and got to see Sam and Garrett and most of my family, and, surprise! Kegan was able to come to bristol! Ze went to easter mass with my family (a big winning point in my parent's books), and just hang out for 2 days. Then we went to Damascus to hike for 2 days.
We picked what we thought was a 10 mile trail, 5 miles in, camp, 5 miles out.
No sirree bob.
We hiked in and didn't really find a camp site, but just stopped when we got too tired to keep walking. Luck would have it that we ended up beside this beautiful creek. We made a tidy fire, set up our stuff, and had dinner. We slept in Kegan's hammock, which, while neat and compact, is not entirely comfortable. Still, the warm weather and clear skies meant that we spent the night looking at the stars.
We filled up water bottles and made our way out the next day, but it was hot and dry, and we ran out of water about 2-3 miles from the end of the trail and any water source. We booked it out, we were both parched, tired and out of food. Plus, Kegan was supposed to head back to west virginia a few hours after we got out of the trail.
Luckily there was a spring right next to the trail head, and we got to fill ourselves with water as soon as we were out, which was nice.
We finally figured that, what we thought was a 10 mile hike was, in reality, a 16-18 mile hike.
18 miles in about 24 hours!
I got 2 blisters, and Kegan and I have been moving like 85 year olds today, but, not at all bad considering that we haven't hiked in months and it was a spur of the moment kind of trip.
Plus, bonus. Kegan's ride was delayed, so Ze got to spend the night in Boone, and and met up again today at lunch. What started out as a plan to spend 2 nights in WV to visit, turned in to a whopping 4 nights in Bristol and Boone, which is pretty damn nice.
Friday I played hookey from work (with my boss's blessing, so it was ok), and wandered around for the first day this year in the warmth and sun.
Then I drove back to Bristol and got to see Sam and Garrett and most of my family, and, surprise! Kegan was able to come to bristol! Ze went to easter mass with my family (a big winning point in my parent's books), and just hang out for 2 days. Then we went to Damascus to hike for 2 days.
We picked what we thought was a 10 mile trail, 5 miles in, camp, 5 miles out.
No sirree bob.
We hiked in and didn't really find a camp site, but just stopped when we got too tired to keep walking. Luck would have it that we ended up beside this beautiful creek. We made a tidy fire, set up our stuff, and had dinner. We slept in Kegan's hammock, which, while neat and compact, is not entirely comfortable. Still, the warm weather and clear skies meant that we spent the night looking at the stars.
We filled up water bottles and made our way out the next day, but it was hot and dry, and we ran out of water about 2-3 miles from the end of the trail and any water source. We booked it out, we were both parched, tired and out of food. Plus, Kegan was supposed to head back to west virginia a few hours after we got out of the trail.
Luckily there was a spring right next to the trail head, and we got to fill ourselves with water as soon as we were out, which was nice.
We finally figured that, what we thought was a 10 mile hike was, in reality, a 16-18 mile hike.
18 miles in about 24 hours!
I got 2 blisters, and Kegan and I have been moving like 85 year olds today, but, not at all bad considering that we haven't hiked in months and it was a spur of the moment kind of trip.
Plus, bonus. Kegan's ride was delayed, so Ze got to spend the night in Boone, and and met up again today at lunch. What started out as a plan to spend 2 nights in WV to visit, turned in to a whopping 4 nights in Bristol and Boone, which is pretty damn nice.