Some pictures from our hiking adventure last week -

The Foothills Trail Conference website - in case anyone is interested - http://www.foothillstrail.org/

The kids and I started out by dropping R. off at Table Rock State park for him to start out the hike. The kids had already done Table Rock to Sassafras Mt. before, so he figured it would be best to have them start out the day with no packs and for the three of us to meet him at the top of Sassafras. The kids and I left Table rock and went to park at a spot a couple miles away from our planned camp spot. So I carried a pack with some water and sandwiches and up we went. We got to the top in a good amount of time and waited around for R. Apparently we missed each other because we went down to an overlook, and R. was waiting at the summit. But we then found each other and set off back down the mountain and towards the car. Once we got to the parking spot, the kids grabbed their packs, and we headed the 3 miles to our site where we made camp.





I think the kid’s packs with the Crocs attached are so cute. It felt so good to take off the hiking shoes and put them on at the end of a day.



A family selfie. I love these boys with every fiber of my being. Goofy and serious, and everything in between.



Our first camp spot. We had an awesome fire going and ate some mac and cheese. At around 5 am, it started raining. And then the lightning lit up the sky followed by the loud boom of thunder. I’m certain we were all awake, but nobody said anything. It was weirdly nice. A little tiny scary, as I felt some of the lightning must not have been too far away. When we got up the next morning, we packed up our stuff and the boys headed one way and I went back to the car. I felt bad about leaving our dog with the in-laws, so I wanted to make sure I spent some time with her, plus I was super worried that I would slow the family down as I’m not in great shape. I didn’t want to have to worry about not whining if things were tough to set a good example, plus I wasn’t sure how I felt about so many nights sleeping in a tent, and not getting good sleep. So I did decide to meet up with on Wednesday at Upper Whitewater Falls. They are supposedly some of the highest falls east of the Mississippi or something. So on Wednesday morning, I made some dinner for us for that night and some cookies. I went to my mother in law’s to drop off Sam and she and my father in law followed me to Oconee State Park, the end of the trail, where I left our car. I then hopped in their car and we drove up to the falls. Again, we missed the kids and R. as they had gotten to the falls and then did a little part of the trail that they had missed. So I enjoyed the falls for a little bit and then talked to a couple people asking if they had seen my family. One of the daughters had said they were talking to a guy and a couple kids and one of the kids was talking about a wizard. I just thought that had to have been them, so I ran up towards the parking lot, and there they were! We were all happy to see each other, and so we had a picnic in the parking lot, said bye to the in laws, and headed towards our camp site for the night.

Upper Whitewater Falls - so pretty. I LOVE the sound of moving water.



We took a spur trail off of the main trail to where we knew a few camp sites were. The first two were taken so we kept going a bit, and finally got this one. We had another fire going, and because we had a late/big lunch, we just ate a cookie, played some cards and then went to sleep.





The next day found us following the Cheohee river for a while. It misted all day, and we were caught in a quick rain shower. We decided to stop at a spot that was a little elevated, overlooking the river. We set up camp as quick as we could in case it decided to rain some more, but fortunately, it didn’t Everything was so wet though, so R.’s attempts to make a camp fire were futile. We ate a dinner of instant potatoes and pepperoni. Sounds weird, but was good. Good to have a warm meal, as we were kind of chilly. The next morning, we got up in good moods, knowing that we would be at the end of our journey by dinner.



A pit stop - it started out a little damp, but was warm enough for shorts, and continued to get warmer.

The above two pictures show one of my favorite parts of the trail - getting towards Oconee, you get to an area of forest that was subjected to a forest fire 40 years ago, so you see a lot of charred parts. But you also see so much new growth. You see black, but you also see green. You see these huge trees, charred, but still alive, growing, thriving.

We continued on, taking short breaks as we wanted to make good time and just finish up. And we did - we got to Oconee at around 3:30 pm.





The happy and proud boys! 76.2 miles for them. Amazing. The things they are capable of doing completely amaze me, all of the time! I’m a very proud wife and mother! I can’t wait to see where the next adventure takes us.