Linville Gorge Trip-Scouts

We went to Linville Gorge Nov. 7-9 for a 3 day hiking/backpack trip. You always worry about Linville this time of year because the weather can be unpredictable at best. We hiked in the East side on Friday night to Shortoff mountain. We had some minor rain after we got in the tents but woke to cool temps and clear skies on Saturday. We hiked up to Table Rock and had lunch on the summit in bright Sunshine and a cool breeze. Lots of other folks were up there too. That's the trouble with the drive up areas, its a lot of visitors. But after lunch we descended into the Gorge and away from the constant day hikers. We crossed the bridge that was constructed across the Linville River a few years back. We stopped for a while and the entertainment for the day were 2 college age kids jumping into a swimming hole with icy water. Brrrrr. We hiked up the Linville Gorge Trail which parallels the River. As we neared where we had wanted to camp, we noticed a lot of campsites were taken. But we finally got to our site below the Pinch in Trail just before dark. We figured between 16-20 miles. Quite a day in the Gorge. Sunday was supposed to be an easy hike out with a river crossing. We ran into 2 fellows who we thought to be expert trailsmen in the Gorge. Apprently they were not true experts because they pretty well had us lost on a "new" trail. Once we figured out this new trail we got a little "misplaced" on what we thought was the Mountains to Sea Trail. We ended up on private land that borders the Southern end of the Gorge. (The theme of Deliverance is playing in the background). But after an almost vertical climb down a "trail" and a walk out on a road, we were very grateful that one of the guys had his truck nearby. He took two adults with him and picked up our cars. It was a great weekend. Just like they all are in the woods.

20 Mile Hike with Scouts

On Labor Day Weekend, I and 4 other adults went on a 20 mile hike with Scouts who were attempting to earn their hiking merit badge. We picked an area we thought would be "easy" for a hike. We stayed at Mt. Rogers area on Friday night then hiked towards Damascus on Saturday for 20+ miles. Easy is relative as we thought we were going to be downhill all day. But we realized we had to go up before we went down. AND: down wasnt down all day. It was "rolling". All in all the boys had a great day and we got them all back to the camp area (after a little mis-communication on where to pick us up) tired, safe, but satisfied. We had great food that night but most of us were asleep by 9.

Grand Canyon Trip

Wow I need to update this thing more often. Since I last reported, I have been to the Flagstaff area twice. As a family we spent a week in Flagstaff with a sidetrip (twice) to the Grand Canyon. Once we were there with my parents and did the tourist thing. Then we went back as a foursome: Laura, Hannah, Kyle and me. We hiked a little over halfway to Indian Gardens on the Bright Angel Trail. Since it was June it was brutally hot. We decided that a mile and a half up hill in 90+ heat would be tough enough. There was no reason to add to that. We were very glad we did that. On Friday before we came back, Kyle and I hiked to the top of Mt. Humphries. It is a 5 mile almost straight up ascent of a ~13,000 ft peak. It was definitely one of the highlights of my life. Then in late October I had to go back to Phoenix for business. I went out early and did a hike to the river on the Bright Angel. I also did Mt. Humphries again just because it was so cool the first time.  The picture above is Kyle at Mt. Humphries.  It appears to be a lunar scene but that kind of what Humphries looks like.  My 2 trips there were almost identical weather wise.  Funny considering one was in June and the other was almost November.