Boone, Day 2: The Hike…

Summertime vacation in the mountains means one thing for our family: a hike! We love to spend time outdoors and since its generally cooler than the Florida heat, its actually bearable to be outside, even during the middle of the day! So we told our dear friends to pack their hiking shoes! Adam and I spent hours (literally, I'm not exaggerating) looking over trails in the area trying to find the one we thought was best. We finally settled on the Boone Fork trail. We were a little concerned about the mileage, but given the fact Ava had hiked 3 miles 2 years ago in Colorado, I knew the kids could do it. Plus this trail would provide more streams to cross instead of vistas to view. We all know our three would much rather walk through water than stop and admire the mountains...



We packed our bags and jokingly told Grammy that if we weren't back by night to send someone to look for us. Little did we know...! The littles were all so excited and had their hiking sticks ready to blaze the trail! We showed them the trail sign, an orange diamond, and each time we would spot one they would get so excited, it was almost as if they were following a treasure map, just without, you know, the map and the treasure. So maybe not at all like a treasure map, but they enjoyed it..haha!



Jason found this rather large 'Staff' someone else had left at the start of the trail so we joked the rest of the time he was our Moses!





This was right up my dad's idea of fun! They enjoyed exploring and finding bugs and just being outdoors in general.



The first part of the trail was relatively easy, and the kids stayed pretty interested in the hike. There were a few tricky spots where it was a little muddy and we had to navigate the mud, but overall it was fairly straightforward and not very strenuous. We stopped about a mile into our hike and the kids had the best time playing in the water.



There isn't anything like cool, refreshing, mountain water! They took their socks and shoes off and walked all through the water. Jenny and I sat back and held our breath just waiting for one of them to fall and be completely wet!







The Boone Fork Trail is a 4.9 mile loop that begins and ends in the Julian Price picnic area. The trail starts off by walking through an ancient lake bed that is now dry and covered in a variety of plants. From there the trail follows along the Boone Fork creek and eventually a few  cascades.  The kids played at one part of the cascades before continuing on down the trail to the larger cascade.



Brody is throwing rocks and Ava is an aspiring gymnast...my only guess for this picture!



We stayed here for quite a while just letting them play, then moved on down the trail about another half mile.



At about 1.8 miles into the trail, we stopped again at the bottom of the Boone Fork cascades. This is part where it cascades about 25 feet down the mountainside. There were other (much older) boys that were climbing up the cascades among the rocks, this was also the busiest spot of the trail.



We decided to take a few pictures here, plus all the kids were still in good moods!



I just wanted to share my dad's stylish attire. Something happened to his hiking boots and in true-only-my-dad-form, he had an extra pair of shoes, but unfortunately going against all that is fashionable and trendy, he work socks with his sandals! :)





My silly husband acting like he was going to throw me over the rocks!! This picture is proof he still makes my heart skip a beat...just probably not the way he wants it to- haha!  :)





This butterfly was flying all around us and eventually landed on Ava's shoes- and it stayed right there for a while. Its the small things when you don't have time in every day life to appreciate. All the kids were oohing and ahhhing over it- like we don't have them here- I guess we just don't take the time to appreciate it.



Ava was so cute with her pig-tails and her hiking backpack. She loved having her own backpack and she even carried her own water, compass, and binoculars.



These 2 are something else- so much like brother and sister! I wish I could take this picture and open into a video to hear what they were talking about at this very moment!



After leaving the larger of the cascades, the trail turned a little trickier, add to that we also had 3 yougun's that were beginning to get tired. The trail crosses over Bee Tree Creek probably a dozen/2 dozen times and its a little hard to navigate, if you are trying to stay dry. Well at one point I was helping Ava across after getting the boys over and I lost my balance and fell. Ava and I both went tumbling down the into the water. Luckily it wasn't very deep or fast moving at the part we fell and I was able to keep Ava from getting too wet. I on the other hand was completely soaked! And on top of it I bruised my leg pretty good. Actually, even now I can put a little pressure on the spot I hurt and feel it. But it didn't hurt bad enough, apparently, since I hopped right up and kept going. The water ended up feeling good and now that my feet were wet, I didn't have to be as careful when crossing the creek.



This hike shares its pathway with both the Tanawha and Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Both trails are much longer/more difficult than this trail, but everyone can now say they hiked part of those trails!


We hiked the remaining 3 miles through mostly woods, but we did come out into  this big meadow and had we not been trying to beat a thunderstorm that was about to come down on us at any moment, we would have stopped for pictures. In hindsight we probably should have anyways since in the end it didn't really matter! Pictures can never do it justice, but it was pretty and would have been a really neat place to watch the storm roll in (had our care been a few feet away!) We had lost Dad, Jason, and Trevor at this point. Trevor was stopping a little more often and we figured 2 adults could handle 1 kid :) So we continued on. This was also the near the breaking point for Ava and Brody. They were both getting really tired, but we kept their spirit alive by promising a trip to the Candy Barrel when we made it home!



The trail continued and at one point I thought something horrific was happening based solely on Jenny's reaction. First she tried to climb on top of me, then she thought better and realized Adam was both taller and farther back so she decided to try and climb on his shoulders! Leaving Brody to fend for himself (I'm kidding- kind of...) Mom and Brody were walking ahead of us and saw something in the middle of the trail, but another person with little yorkies was walking by it and the dogs were jumping over it like it was a stick. So mom asked, 'Is that a snake?!' and the guy said, 'I think it is...' The dogs didn't pay it any attention and likewise, it didn't pay the dogs any attention, it just slithered on out of the way. I was able to snap a quick picture before it was out of sight- I mean I had to have something to make Jenny's skin crawl!

Towards the end of the trail the storm caught us. We walked the last mile-ish in the rain and then in hail. Yes, it hailed on us as we were hiking! Ava and Brody were having a fit, Jenny and I just kept telling them how we were making memories and when it was all over they would think it was so cool! They would be able to tell everyone they hiked while pieces of hail pounded us! Lucikly we had made it to the part of the trail where it was thick with rhododendron and they helped shelter us a little from the rain. I wasn't sure we would ever see the parking lot, this was also the time I was thinking, Grammy is probably really worried about us right now!



Of course, as our luck would have it, as soon as we stepped out of the trees, ready to make a run for it to the truck, the rain stopped and then it wasn't long after Dad, Jason and Trevor on Jason's back appeared, just as wet as the rest of us! We snapped a quick picture just to prove how wet we actually were! At this point, the clothes were making all of us cold! I didn't have a change of clothes for Ava so we stripped her down and wrapped a towel around her- thank goodness we didn't have to go anywhere but straight back to Grammy's! I think Jenny did the same thing with the boys! It was so fun and now they can all say they have hiked 4.9 miles (in the rain and hail!).



True to our word, we made it back to Grammy's and got everyone cleaned up and into dry clothes and then headed to Valle Crucis. This is a must do for us every time we visit. The Original Mast General store, but more specifically a visit to the Candy Barrel!



Ava picked out her candy and we grabbed a few things for Papa and Big Papa along with some cold drinks in glass bottles and we had ourselves some happy kids!