Pie On Ears

Once upon a time, three great friends went on a hiking trip.

We went to Hot Springs, NC and stayed here.
If you ever, EEEEEEEEEEEVER go hiking, this is where you should go. The people there are so nice. The lady there when we first checked in even had "Michael" tattooed on her forearm.
Now, that is what I call dedicated customer service.

Hot Springs, NC is on the far left side of North Carolina right by Tennessee. I now know why no one has ever heard of it. It is a SUPER small little town, population of less than 600. Quite quaint with a small grocery, and handful of restaurants, a souvenir shop, a bank, library a post office, and maybe one police officer.
And a train that rolls through at night.
IT WAS SO COOL. Seriously- it takes about 5 minutes to walk through the whole town square.

Getting there was quite a challenge. About 5.5-6 hours of driving, and the last hour was in mountains, which was my first time driving in the mountains. So when you see signs for "8% grade" and "falling rocks" and "runaway truck ramp", you know you're not in Kansas anymore.
(er, Georgia)

The hiking was fantastic. We had perfect, and I mean PERFECT weather.

This was at the top of Lover's Leap over the French Broad River:

Kind of funny story about our hiking adventure:

So we got the directions from a local who worked at the souvenir shop. Looking back, his directions were very helpful. 

If only we had followed them.

We decided to walk to the trail from our cabin instead of drive. The trail kind of starts in this trailer-park kind of place.

(Which is appropriate: TRAILer park. Sorry. Mark's sense of humor is getting to me.)

So instead of going to the trail place to the left, we went where it says "Appalachian Trail" to the right.

And then we found this really steep place with a rope and we think that's it, i.e. where we begin our climb.

We started climbing, and all of this sudden, this camouflaged kitty appears. It seemed to be leading us the right way, but dang this was a steep hill to start out on. 

We got to this ledge over the water and took a picture with the little "mountain lion". 

And then we got to this stupid steep place that could not be done without mountain-climbing gear. So we decided that was probably not the right way to go and turned around. 

Then we followed all the other hikers (what a trailblazing idea) and eventually made it to where we would have been, had we followed the directions.

But whatever. We had fun.

This is a picture of us:

This is a more accurate picture of us:

So I was pretty much the only one going out on the rocks over the water and fully appreciating the altitude.

Ah. So that's how I got so sunburned.

I LOVE PICNICS. The picnic at the near-pinnacle was just as fantastic and satiating as I had planned on.

We saw other hikers along the way. They had hiked all the way from Georgia and were on their way to Maine. They were all hairy, even the girls.
Especially the girls.
And I think that it would be fun to hike the whole trail, if not for all of the horrible camping involved.

So we stayed in a CABIN. With walls and beds and stuff. Granted, it was small, but definitely not cramped for 3 people.

And when it got cold at night, I got wear a cool owl hat, made by Biff, and make a campfire.

Cool owl hat presentation.

We brought some campfire supplies like matches and fatlighter, but we had to search the surrounding area for small kindling and buy some logs from the convenience store.

Me: My dad would kill me if he knew I just spent money on firewood.

So we had our fire and did our roasting marshmallow thing, which turned out to be a lot messier than expected. The fire was really smokey, too. Even after two shampooings, my hair still smells like it.

*the fire starts smoking really bad*
Mark: That small stuff must be kind of wet.
Mike: Oh, is that what makes it smokes?
Me: Well, sometimes it's that, or, you know, peer pressure, or it's trying to look cool.

And then there was all the fun of all bunking/living together.

*Mark wearing a Braves shirt and golfing pajama pants to bed*
Mike: Could your outfit be any more boring?

But here's the most amazing part:
This whole trip cost $335.25, which split 3 ways is only $111.75 per person.
This included the cabin for two nights, gas for the entire trip, two hour long spa soaks in naturally-heated mineral water, campfire and miscellaneous supplies, and a big restaurant dinner.

In January, after some discussion about how "we should take a trip" and how "hiking would be fun" and how "Mark doesn't have to go to that job in Augusta", I started planning this excursion. It brought me back to the times when I would plan stuff for the beloved Summer Fun Club. Even though these things take some work and planning, they are so worth it. I'm still not used to being the leader/itinerary-maker, but with more responsibility comes more perks. Like deciding what music we get to listen to in the car.

Even though it was just my BF and our BFF, it was so. dang. fun. My philosophy has always been that it's not what you're doing, it's who you're with.

And that's a true story.

My legs hurt so bad,
TWS