Honeycomb!

Met up with Katy, Amanda, and Sarah and walked at Wheeler Saturday for 1.1 miles of sheer chat.  hahaha!  

Matt and I attempt a smoochy pic with limited success.
He's all round head and I am that shaggy, shorter bit.

Also saw some basking snakes

The Tennessee River is a pollen bog

Sunday, we wanted a good long hike, so we met up with Sarah at the Honeycomb Trail and the teen boys all went, too.

My favorite section, I call it Fern Gully.  Because I lack imagination.

It's a small valley filled with ferns!

This was my 5th thru of the trail and I still have hill amnesia.

Alex, Beckett, Matt, Sarah, Elan, and Ben is that khaki leg just behind E

This is, I believe, Devil's cup

We found the remainder of the car in the pic above.
Sarah is backseat driving.

New stuff blooming!

Fire pink and wood sorrel (oxalis)

The hike, along the exact route I always take, was only 7.9 miles today.

I have decided I am going to hike it 10 times and take an average because every time varies by as much as a mile, same phone and app! 

Hurricane Creek Up and Down and Up and Down

On Friday, Ben has 2.5 hours at band so I went to walk at the park and it was too busy.  Sometimes I am okay with other people, sometimes I am not.  It's been an issue for my whole adult life.  Today was just not a good 'other people' day.

So I decided to go get my oil changed and maintenance stuff done on the van, but when I called Beth they could not get me in until afternoon.  So, I drove out to Hurricane Creek Park and there was only one car in the lot!  I dressed like a serial killer (black hoodie is the Universal 'stay back' upper clothingwear) anyway and put in my earbuds and head wrap, grabbed my poles and camera, and headed down the trail.

I went in via the stairs, down and crossed the creek, went down to the bottom on the high trail and climbed back out, walked back to the office and turned and went down the Grandfather trail, followed the creek, and climbed back up the stairs.  I did not stop on the climbs, though I was pretty sure I was going to keel over coming up the stairs.

It sounds impressive/long, but it was just over a mile.

my foot is awkwardly in frame to orient the photo for me to try to draw later.

This was a fern and some violets growing between 2 mangled pieces of chicken house roofing that had been washed down the creek at some point.

 There are around 50 of these steps, all various heights, covering a 180 foot vertical gain.  There is, luckily, a stretch of trail between sets of stairs so it's not a solid climb.  I was sweating so hard it was dripping off my fingers coming out of there.

I'm ready to keep pushing, to keep feeling stronger, those endorphins are no joke.  I better about myself than I have in a long time.

Grassy Ridge to Carver Gap

The hike back to the car Sunday

Just follow the blazes!
This is the route for next time.

the road where we parked is in this shot

Grassy Ridge is still covered in clouds