We drove up Friday after I finished up work for the day, and boy oh boy, was the road windy! I got car sick even driving :D We set up our campsite and immediately began to explore one of the trails close by. We were able to take a deep breath of fresh air and enjoy the sights and smells of nature. And a million bug bites as well :D
After exploring the short trail, we made sandwiches for dinner and then played board games, threw a football around, and just enjoyed chilling. When it got dark, we piled into the tent and watched Terrace House (I can't get enough lol) and Lady Bird (the movie was so great, until the ending) and started hearing these chirping (not really a chirping, but not sure how best to describe it) noises coming from right outside of our tent. We could also hear an animal moving around not to far away from where we were. We tried to shine a light out through the tent to see what it was, but whenever we shined the light out, it would go away. We did discover the next day that it was a wild turkey, as I saw some in the field and they were making the same noises!
It is always a rough experiencing sleeping in a tent, and I woke up multiple times throughout the night, swearing that someone was going to come murder us and hearing the turkey walking around. Also, at 6:00 a.m., my hip was so pained and bruised from laying on the cold, hard ground. I put a pillow under me and I was able to fall back asleep until around 8:20. Once I woke up, Nick and I got changed, packed up the tent and campsite, and prepared to head out on what we thought would be an hour, two hour 1.6 mile hike.
This "hike" turned into a trek! No one has walked that trail (certainly not cleared it) since last season. The trail was often hard to find in places, and we were crawling under branches and fallen trees, walking through plants that we prayed weren't poison ivy or poison oak, and were walking straight down and straight back up the whole time. It was a beast of a walk. I am so incredibly grateful for Nick who is great at reading maps!
When we finally made it to the end, the waterfall waiting for us was so beautiful and so worth it. It was small, but gorgeous and so much cooler down by the water. We also saw a poisonous newt, which was cool!
After our 20 minutes down at the waterfall, it was time to try and make our way back up. Boy, was that overwhelming! We stopped and took frequent breaks to catch our breath and then we got to the split in the trail. We didn't want to take the first half of the trail back again b/c that's where we were walking through so many questionable plants, so Nick mentioned that we should boulder up this hill (with no trail) to make it to the other side of the campground where we needed to be. I trusted and followed, and was scaling this hill, climbing over branches, stumbling through leaves, and found a trusty walking stick I affectionately named Rudy. When we got up the hill, we walked to the right and lost the trail. I started to feel the panic and anxiety coming on, b/c I HATE being lost! Once we had turned around, Nick, the beast map reader, got us back on the trail, and within 10 minutes, we were back at our campsite. I don't think I've ever been happier to see our car haha
We ate lunch and enjoyed the last moments of nature, as well as getting eaten alive by bugs, before getting in our car, cranking up the AC, and heading home. We traversed back down the winding and twisting road with one carsick Kaylyn in the passenger seat. When we got home, we were DEAD for the rest of the day (and honestly most of the next day haha)
While camping was tiring, bug filled, and our hike didn't go as planned, we are SO grateful for the beauty of the earth, for the change of scenery that we were able to enjoy, and for the fun that we were able to have! Cheers to camping (while safely socially distanced) during COVID-19!
This "hike" turned into a trek! No one has walked that trail (certainly not cleared it) since last season. The trail was often hard to find in places, and we were crawling under branches and fallen trees, walking through plants that we prayed weren't poison ivy or poison oak, and were walking straight down and straight back up the whole time. It was a beast of a walk. I am so incredibly grateful for Nick who is great at reading maps!
When we finally made it to the end, the waterfall waiting for us was so beautiful and so worth it. It was small, but gorgeous and so much cooler down by the water. We also saw a poisonous newt, which was cool!
After our 20 minutes down at the waterfall, it was time to try and make our way back up. Boy, was that overwhelming! We stopped and took frequent breaks to catch our breath and then we got to the split in the trail. We didn't want to take the first half of the trail back again b/c that's where we were walking through so many questionable plants, so Nick mentioned that we should boulder up this hill (with no trail) to make it to the other side of the campground where we needed to be. I trusted and followed, and was scaling this hill, climbing over branches, stumbling through leaves, and found a trusty walking stick I affectionately named Rudy. When we got up the hill, we walked to the right and lost the trail. I started to feel the panic and anxiety coming on, b/c I HATE being lost! Once we had turned around, Nick, the beast map reader, got us back on the trail, and within 10 minutes, we were back at our campsite. I don't think I've ever been happier to see our car haha
We ate lunch and enjoyed the last moments of nature, as well as getting eaten alive by bugs, before getting in our car, cranking up the AC, and heading home. We traversed back down the winding and twisting road with one carsick Kaylyn in the passenger seat. When we got home, we were DEAD for the rest of the day (and honestly most of the next day haha)
While camping was tiring, bug filled, and our hike didn't go as planned, we are SO grateful for the beauty of the earth, for the change of scenery that we were able to enjoy, and for the fun that we were able to have! Cheers to camping (while safely socially distanced) during COVID-19!
No comments:
Post a Comment