Pisgah

For the last month, we have been looking forward to a backpacking trip together. Josh was excited since he has wanted to do this forever. I was excited because I knew it would be fun and I would get the entire weekend with my hubby. We drove to North Carolina and went into Pisgah National Forest (it is just south of the Smoky Mountains and was over an hour closer for us to drive).We got a late start, but it worked out just fine. The weather was beautiful! We were hiking in short sleeve shirts and enjoyed hiking along the creek. Oh I wish this picture looked as good as the "real" picture. The picture really doesn't do it justice. We had to cross the creek here. Not a big deal because there were plenty of rocks to step across. I could have sat here for hours and just listened to the water. This tree was growing out of this boulder. Crazy! The original plan was to hike a 15ish mile loop and camp for 2 nights. Unfortunately, we had to change the plan after Josh's knee started hurting. What a bummer! We took our time and just before dark we stopped to set up our camp. We weren't all the way to the top, but our camp was beautiful, out of the wind, and we thought it was great. Here are the best shots we got of the sunset. It was pretty, but hard to see through all the trees.
No campfires are allowed in this area. We took a little backpacking stove and it worked great. Handsome guy! Getting ready for bed...we had to get food, toothpaste, etc out of our tent. We decided to hang it from a tree out of reach of bears and other animals. Our last camping trip was in Ohio and the racoons were out of control. We didn't have trusty Mr. Bigz with us this time to scare them away. :) We woke up the next morning and it was cold, windy, and overcast. (Okay, we have been in Georgia for too long and anything below 60 degrees is cold now.) Josh was glad that he had his down coat, and his sleeping bag from Bulgaria kept me very warm during the night. Here is Josh lowering the colors. :) Hooray, our food survived the night and so did we! Pictures of our campsite in the daylight. The fall colors were gorgeous. Fall is my favorite time of year. Who would have thought that green leaves could turn bright red and orange? Getting ready to go back down. We decide the wise thing to do would be to go home the way we came. Sad but the smart thing to do. Going down the trail... More cool trees Water was running out of this log. "You owe me an acorn." We came to an area and several of the trees looked like this. How do they grow like this? I tried to get Josh to go put his head through the gap, but he wouldn't. Party pooper :) We had such a great time, even if it was cut short. About 30 minutes away from home, we passed this cotton field. I have never seen one before. I was very excited. I reminded myself of Maggie when she would get excited to see a huge wheat field or hay field. How funny. A closer look... We had a great weekend and can't wait to try it again. Somebody realizes he needs to do the exercises and stretches he was told to do to strengthen the knee...otherwise I will have to have fun without him. But wait, who would carry my tent? Hmmmmm. I guess I'll wait for him. :)