It's a brutal adjustment to return to Nashville after such an incredible six days floating the beautiful Middle Fork. What can I say, a part of me never really comes back from these western mountain adventures, I just keep leaving pieces of myself there hoping one day I'll collect them once again. Idaho could claim anyone's heart, it's just a downright beautiful place. The Middle Fork meanders through the beautiful Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, the largest designated wilderness area in the contiguous United States. It's incredible that our nation has managed to preserve these pristine places, and that makes me very happy.
There is something about the sound of the river - others have described it better I'm sure - but to me it is what joy sounds like.
We used OARS outfitters for this trip and will happily boat with them again. The guides really made the trip special. We loved boating with Ned, Amber, Wyatt, Jeffe, Corey, Mike, Barry and the rest of the crew that made the trip so memorable! The late night hot springs dip on our second night is something I will never forget, as well as sitting by a fire on the last two nights, catching brief glimpses of stars and watching sparks jump and listening to the crackling of the embers. So much good wine. So many effortless laughs. Such a great time.
As the temperatures have warmed up Aaron and I are getting out on the lake quite a bit. We recently camped at Ragged Bottoms Campground up on Center Hill Lake for the weekend and had a great time trying out Aaron's new cooking apparatus, the Grizzly Spit. Here you see footage of us grilling a pork shoulder using the handy spit. I thought the music aptly captured the mood. Unfortunately we were so hungry I completely forgot about filming the end when we tore into it.
And here you see recent footage from a hike in Virgin Falls Natural Area near Sparta, TN filmed from our new drone. Hoping to have a lot more cool footage come summer time.
Once Christmas was over, and we reluctantly reentered the grind again, I had only one thing to look forward to and that was our end of January trip to Vail, CO to celebrate my birthday. As someone who grew up skiing in Beaver Creek on annual trips, I have a particular love of Colorado and skiing out west. You simply can't get the same experience on the east coast. I promised this to Aaron, and perhaps over hyped it a bit.
We arrived in Vail on a Wednesday and within the first hours of being in Colorado had seen our first bighorn sheep. Not grazing the high peaks mind you, but gathered in a little sheep posse right outside the gas station where our Colorado Mountain Express shuttle had stopped to let the girl who puked in the back seat clean herself up. There they were, like big horn sheep drug dealers just hanging out at the gas station. Bizarre to say the least.
We were equipped this trip with some excellent camera gear, thanks once again to Aaron's folks. I am excited as well to announce that I received a drone for my birthday that is compatible with a Go Pro, so I hope to include much more interesting footage in blogs to come.
Highlight of the trip had to be snowmobiling with Sage Outdoor Adventures. The footage from that is included in the pics and video below...
So after two failed attempts at the measly Mount Mitchell summit, Cortney and I decided to get serious and drop the rest of the crew. The men could stay at home while we scaled the beast. I had been training for a marathon, and she has always been in great shape, and it was time to finally put this one under our belts. After all, we have our sights set on Colorado fourteeners and Mount Ranier, so how could we possibly proceed without putting the 6,683 foot peak of the east on our list.
I had a blast. Not much of a struggle on the way up at all. The weather was absolutely perfect for the entire trip. We set up camp at Black Mountain Campground on Wednesday night and set out Thursday morning for Higgins Bald where we determined to spend night one.
Note to self: if you are two women leaving a campground, you might let the camp host know you don't intend to return for a day or so. More on that later.
We found a site early in the afternoon among the pines at Higgins Bald and played cards, experimented with camp recipes and kept the dog entertained. Rook proved to be the most entertaining card game though Cortney beat me at just about everything we played that afternoon. We got to bed at a reasonable hour and decided to set an alarm for five am so we could get an early start and catch some of the hike before the sun rose. Ideally, we would have made it to the summit by sunrise, but that would have required us to wake up at 3am, and let's face it - we completely underestimated how long it would take us to get there.
Could not have picked a better day to reach the top. We had it nearly to ourselves at eight in the morning, and enjoyed the opportunity to snap photos and relax for a little while. The blue ridge around us was completely lit up with fall colors. On the way down we passed a number of bear hunters and bear hunting dogs. No sightings on this trip however.
When we finally finished our hike at the base of the mountain, we walked back to our base camp site at the campground to a crowd of worried onlookers. "Are you Holly?" one of them asked to which I responded, "yes." "Oh we have been SO worried. The Sheriff was JUST here." Turns out the couple camping next to us saw us depart the prior day expecting us to return that evening. When we didn't show by noon the following day, they alerted the camp host who alerted the cops. Thank goodness we didn't stay for a second night or we would have had the entire family scared to death. So, no, it's not necessarily enough to let your loved ones know of your plans (which we had). We ended the trip with a delicious bowl of chili and our sore feet propped up by the fire. Great trip. Colorado here we come.
I love camping with my husband, but there is something special when a large group can get together to backpack into the woods and share a weekend together. For Cortney's thirtieth birthday in August, that is exactly what we did. Cortney and I are perfect backpacking partners and have already done several trips in the North Carolina mountains this past year - one to Joyce Kilmer, and one to the top of Mount Mitchell. Apparently the boys don't like the uphill hikes (though that never stopped us!)
The location was Wilson's Creek, a hop skip and a jump from Aaron's folks' place in Lenoir, North Carolina. Wilson's Creek is well travelled, often crowded and has tons of camping spots. We had been there once before, but this time we were with about twelve people and we hammock camped. I swear I always sleep better in a hammock than on a little inflatable air pad. Perhaps I need a new pad...GEAR TIME! Ok, here's the video version of the trip:
