Backpacking 200 Years!

Besides the excitement of finding Ellicott Rock our weekend trip included some other adventures that I wanted to share with you.

It all started by checking the map posted at the parking lot to know where to start.  We were hiking the Fork Mountain Trail.

Notice the distance we had to travel to the trail head.  Just a mere 200 years.

We had awesome weather to be hiking on Saturday and we took our time enjoying our surroundings.  I was amazed that we saw no people until the very end of the day.

We set up camp along the river and had a few hours of sunlight to enjoy it before sitting around the fire.

Our camp featured a few rock chairs with this large one being the "throne" of the camp.  Jamie quickly claimed this as his.

For a few minutes I thought about challenging him for this position but then a small mouse ran out from under one of the rocks and I decided he could keep the seat.

After dinner we decided to do the right thing and hang our food in a tree to discourage animals from raiding camp during the night.

Step one:  choose a branch that is high enough and far enough from the trunk.
Step two: tie one end of your rope around a rock and throw it over the branch.

Step three:  Oh!  We made a cool mobile!  The bear cubs would love this.

Step four: hoist your food high into the air and hope the branch doesn't break.  (look for the blue bag on the right of the next photo).

Sunday morning I woke up early (sleeping on the ground will do that for you) and started to pack up.  We had two waterfalls and a few miles to cover.   As breakfast finished it started to rain.  It was about fifty degrees and a bit cold.  My son decided to cook some oatmeal before leaving and we noticed him taking small sample bites as he cooked it.  This earned him his nickname:  Goldilocks.  "This one is too cold.  This one is too hot.  This one is JUST RIGHT."

We decided to get moving toward Spoonauger Falls in the rain but by the time we reached the falls it had stopped raining.

We were doing great at checking off the goals of our trip and decided to head to the next goal.  Kings Creek Falls.

These falls are around 70 feet tall and required a hike of about half a mile to reach.
Check.

By the time we got back to the car we were beat.  The entire trip was roughly 10-11 miles and it was the first hike of the year so we weren't really in the best shape. But we survived (first goal), saw some really beautiful scenes, and had a great time outdoors together.

 It's time to start planning the next trip.