Roan Mountain

Camping at Roan Mountain this weekend was wonderful. Simply the best way to spend Mother's Day.

We hiked... a lot. If this says anything, I lost a pound. And, trust me, that shouldn't have happened considering all the s'mores I ate. It was the hiking that saved me from myself.

We had a few mini-adventures. After we got set up Friday night, we sat around the campfire, roasting marshmallows until we heard the clatter of the metal lid from the trash can behind the camper. Where we had thrown away our McDonald's leftovers.

My first thought was... bear. Mostly because I recently read in the paper about the woman who lost her daughter last year after a bear mauling in Cherokee Forest. It was heartbreaking.

So I hopped up as fast as lightning and told the kids, "Get in the camper. Now!" They must have picked up on the note of hysteria, because all three of them ran to the camper, sticky little marshmallow fingers and all.

And Bruce went to be the man. While the rest of us scaredy cats hid. It struck me that he could really scar us all for life if he came back around the corner, screaming his head off, as a joke. But he knows me well, and how much I do not like to be scared, and he didn't. Even though he admitted he thought about it.

Our noisy beast was a raccoon. Realizing imminent danger was not at hand, we took the flashlight around the corner and watched him munch on our leftover french fries. We covered the trash can back up, but within 30 minutes, it clattered again. Henry was back. (Yep, we named him.)

After awhile, he rambled back into the woods. The next morning, Allison took it upon herself to solve the problem.



We never heard from Henry again.

Saturday, we went hiking around Elk River Falls. With Bruce's GPS in hand because he wanted to search for geocache treasure. I do not enjoy this past time... because we never find anything. We hiked one way for over an hour, watched Bruce tromp around in the woods for another 20 minutes and then dejectedly walked for another hour back down the hill.

And then we came across the snake. Spencer and Allison were leading the way when I noticed Allison stumble and fall down. She picked herself back up with no crying and continued. But a second later, Bruce saw a snake very near where she had fallen, unknowingly. But Bruce, Clay and I were knowingly watching that thing... very closely. Until he slithered away and we scurried away in the opposite direction.

At the end of our hike, Spencer fell down and scraped open a wound on the palm of his hand. I went to the truck looking for bandaids, while Bruce took the kids to some other supposed geocache site. And they actually found it! Which very nicely took Spencer's mind off of his ow-wee.

Until we got back to the camper and Drs. Mom and Dad had to hold him down and scrub that wound free of dirt and grime. Wore us all out.

After a late lunch, we got back on the trail here.



It was gorgeous!

We hiked until dinner time and called it an early night after eating hotdogs and s'mores.

Here's just one more picture of Clay being a cheeseball.



And now we're back home, back to the daily grind. But school is over so soon and we are looking forward to more camping adventures.