hi Labor Day Weekend

We went camping when we finally found a place that had some empty sights!  We ended up in Spruce Pines north of Marion and near Boone, NC.  The weather was very pretty;  a little warmer than we thought it would be.  But we had a great time after we worked out some of the kinks of setting up.  It seems like every time we go, we forget one little thing or the order of setting up the camper.  We have said we MUST put together a checklist.  Have we done this yet?  Nope.  Oh well!  At the campground, they gave us a map with the hiking trails.  So I picked one of the shorter trails for us to hike together.  It was around 2,500 feet - 1/2 mile so I thought that was perfect and we would arrive at a waterfall.  Well, the part where the hiking trail was not classified as easy, moderate or difficult did not turn out in our favor.  We left our site around 12:00pm.  We thought we would be back for lunch before 1pm.  That was wishful thinking on our part.  About 15 minutes in and walking uphill at a steady incline of about 30 degrees, we had to stop and catch our breath.  We then proceeded along with our ONE water bottle and trusty map which Scott was cursing for not telling us that this was a DIFFICULT hike.  We were stepping and climbing over some fallen down trees, roots and rocks.  At some point, I think we stopped and considered turning around.  We didn't have our phones either so we had no idea what time it was.  We were the "unprepared" hikers.  We would have asked the time from another hiker but couldn't BECAUSE there was none!  We didn't get the memo on this trail!  

So after huffing and puffing and about passing out twice as we watch Erica and Jack whistling with their hiking sticks, we finally made it half way.  Spencer stayed with Scott and I.  I think he was praying for us and that we wouldn't die on the trail.  But as we made our turn to the waterfall, the trail went down.  When I say down, I mean straight down.  It resembled a staircase but there weren't stairs.  There were only rocks, roots and trees to navigate on and hold onto.  Scott was mumbling under his breath because as we headed down, we realized we had to come back up!  I think he was silently bitter with me which I didn't blame him one bit.  I was bitter with the map as I took very small sips from my water bottle which we had all been sharing.  Right about as we are half way, it was then that Scott's feet went out from underneath him and he landed flat on his back on the muddy slope.  He laid there for a second and I just stopped and waited.  He got up and kind of glanced back at me with the "die" look.  He took two more steps and slipped and fell flat on his back again!  At this point, Spencer and I are now covering our mouths with eyes wide.  And then after Scott slung the water bottle into the woods (the ONLY bottle we had) along with the map and yelled out a few choice words, Spencer and I started laughing to which Scott then burst out laughing as well.  It was hysterical!  Erica and Jack missed it because they were cruising through the trail whistling with not a care in the world.  You have to understand something.  Jack does not hike or I should say, he has never hiked without complaining.  He does not like to sweat.  So for him to hike along with Erica at what we felt was a pretty rapid pace was shocking for him!   But we did arrive at the waterfall.  It wasn't so much a waterfall as much as a "trickle" fall.  It was, well, lame.  And we were exhausted!  So we rested for about 20 minutes while the kids played in the 6" wide stream and turned to go back.  We took 20 steps and stopped for 15 seconds until we reached the top of the stupid mountain and got to actually walk downhill.  Erica and Jack must have ran the whole way back because we lost them but found them at the campsite in the reclining camp chairs.  Let me remind you of something.  We left around 12pm.  We arrived back at 3:10pm.  I think Scott and I both died in the chairs and slept for over an hour outside.  And then we decided that Bear Den Campground needs to alter their maps for people like us!!!