I took this when I was feeling energetic and optimistic…

Neither of those things lasted long.

How did I keep going?

Willpower.

I will conquer!

And when that ran out I had no choice but to keep going.

There was no short cut.

 

We took the Woody Ridge Trail to the Mountain Crest Trail north of Ashville, SC.

We camped at Deep Gap for one night then went back.

The Woody Ridge Trail starts out at around 3000ft elevation and ends at over 6000ft.

It does this in around 3miles.

Yes, that hurts.

We were puffing and hiking along when a woman passes us.

These are the words she says, “it gets REALLY steep in a little bit but it does not last long”.

Things going through my head:

“this is not steep?”

and later

“we have very different definitions of does not last long!”

The “really steep” part last for a mile.

We did finally make it to the top.

Then we proceeded to go down and up a couple of peaks on the Mountain Crest Trail for 2.7 miles.

That is what the topo map said at least. Our GPS kept giving different distance then the map.

Anyone else have that problem?

Up 1000ft.

Down 1000ft.

Up.

Down.

You see the trail, right?

It is straight down.

I was cheering/laughing as he made his way though this one.

I enjoyed the break at least.

“Come on baby you can do it! Take your time though…”

A nice flat trail really.

You could have brought your children in a stroller.

The Deep Gap campsite(just a flat place to put a tent) is right before the peak with two humps.

I am glad I did not know that on the way there.

I might have turned back.

I was really trying to be optimistic still.

It was survival instincts no doubt.

We did finally make it and one of the first things we had to do was find water.

I had read about this trip on backpacker.com so I knew that we would need something to treat water because there was only a spring.

The other hikers are awesome, as soon as they saw us come into “camp” they asked if we knew where to find the water and directed us.

It is a spring that is marked with red flags about 1/2 mile south of camp.

If you camp farther south(the camping area is spread out), there is a road that leads down to it as well.

We bought the Chlorine tablets so we filled up the bottles and had to wait 4hrs before drinking.

We hung out at camp looking at clouds and sometimes talking (talking takes a lot of energy).

At least my kind does.

We were also eating this.

This is what we ate for 7 meals.

May I never see another slim jim.

We (I) bought a cheap scout tent since it was so light and did I mention CHEAP?

It was a really tight fit though!

We could not even stretch all the way out but it worked and it was…cheap.

I was not sure when or if we would do another overnight hike so investing hundreds of dollars in gear was not going to happen.

Sunset in the mts. does not get much better.

“And everything was still. Absolutely still.”

Okay, I may have been reading a little too much Magic Tree House to my kids.

 

We got up early the next morning to head back to our car.

The original plan was to try to hike to the top of Mount Mitchell but it was still several peaks and miles away.

I wrecked my knees on the first hike and spent most of the night in pain so we did not want to risk it.

Sunrise in the mountains makes it a lot easier to get out of bed.

And this just makes it all worth it.

What better way to celebrate 7yrs together then to push yourselves to your breaking point and then keep on going.