Backpacking Lite in MS

We planned a 2 night trip to Sipsey, but (tornadic) storms Wednesday cut right through that idea.
So, we went west of the weather to Tombigbee National Forest for a shakedown trip

This kid,  Born backpacker, I can't wait until she's old enough to take a serious distance.

We talked to a ranger, who had apparently never been down more than one trail in the whole system and that one was 'flat'.  So, armed with a map and his suggestions, we parked and headed down a closed road to a creek crossing.
Then after looking around for a decent spot to camp that was not boggy or covered in poison oak, we hiked back out to the cars.

Then we checked out several 'hunting' camps before ending up at the trailhead campsite on Sheep Ranch Road.  It was just a few feet from the cars, but we still got to try out all the gear, recipes and there was plenty of hiking right from the site.

D got a fire going with a knife and magnesium!

Sammy played for us a while.

I tented with Ben the first night, he bailed for the van the second night (really strong winds and low temps) so I had to make do with my hammock chair for lounging instead of the full hammock!

Picnic tables make everything SO much easier.

We were camped right next to a cemetery, on the way to check it out we saw a snake!

Leap year baby!

We walked about 10 miles the whole trip, it was very laid back.  We mostly hung out at camp.

Thursday was SO windy and chilly!  We did not want to go straight home, so we veered over to the Natchez Trace and drove on that for about an hour, until we hit Tupelo.  Then we took 78 back across to Alabama.

hop clover

daisy fleabane

sorrel

buckeye

road trip weather!

Back home, Nia had nearly died of neglect

And after a long search for Batman, I found him.  Face down in the gravel after falling out of my window!  I was horrified!  He has a scuff now.  His besties, purple Catwoman and Peter Parker have tried to cheer him up, but it was a bad fall. 

Nashville and Natchez Trace

Went to REI last week with Amanda to check out tents for her and to pick up a few things I decided I needed for the AT trip coming up.  I got some gear, but more importantly, I found dark chocolate cheesecake from Backpackers Pantry.  I have not tried it yet, but I am already bummed I only bought one.  What was I thinking?  At least it's a 2 serving pack.

While at the store, Gina popped out of the kayaks looking stoned.  I had not invited her because she had just gotten in from driving to freaking Canada something like 5 hours earlier.  But there she was, haunting the REI 2 hours away. Crazy!

She left to (literally) crawl into some shade and nap and Amanda and I headed to Farm Burger for lunch, which was the right call because their veggie burger is made with black eyed peas.

After, we went for a hike at Werner then I got the bright idea to take the Natchez Trace back to Florence, except it's closed at Columbia, so we had to re-detour back to 65.

larkspur

This is Sir GoodKnight.  He has stood in Ben's window since the day we moved in.  :)
He was part of a 'knight light' but the boys broke him off nearly instantly. The light got put in the hall bathroom and Sir GK moved to the windowsill.  We moved him to the higher pane in hopes that he will keep that crazy bird from flying into the window!

I'll do my best!

Heading Home

We left the park after it started raining again, harder.  I took a quick poll and the kids wanted to go down the Natchez Trace to Florence and head home that way.  So, being on the west side of town, we scooted on over to the Trace and hopped on. 

It became quickly apparent that we were going to be exhausted by the time we actually reached home, going 2 hours south and still having 2 hours to head east from there, so we got off the Trace at the Merriwether Lewis site and wound our way through Amish country to Lawrenceburg where we stopped for pizza and took it to a little park just down the road.

We saw about 10 buggies with Amish people, one had several children in it.  I called them 'Amlets' and it struck us all as a perfect term. 

As we waited for Matt to come out with the pizza-Little Caesar's has yet to have cheese pizza in the hot n ready capacity-Chan told us the unfortunate tale of The Smurfs being made into a 3-D movie with live action and that... Neil Patrick Harris was playing a human in it.  Nooooooo!

Jake said, "If I grew a foot for every pizza I have ever eaten, I would be able to take over the world!"  Chan said, "Or...just be covered in feet."  That was SO funny, we all rolled and I drew a foot on my hand to remind myself to write that down as soon as I could. 

Awkward wording!  I saw several messages that looked to be left for dead people under the bridge.  A check revealed that 18 people have killed themselves on or near the Birdsong Hollow Bridge on the Trace since 2000.  So many, in fact, that there are anti-suicide signs up in the area now.

 

We got back home around 10:30.  Small Dog had been in the yard all day with Big Dogs and she seemed to have done just fine.  The whole day cost us gas money, 2 meals and $2.50 in parking fees.  Not bad considering all we did!  : )