Musings from an Anchored Traveler: Mountain Weekends Full of Color

Me, Bethany, Vanessa at sunset in Jonas Ridge.

I went to the mountains for the last two weekends and it was glorious! The weekend of Oct. 7-9 I went with some of my life group girls for a little bonding retreat. Bethany, Vanessa and I arrived first and took tons of pictures with the sunset which was breathtaking. By the time Whitney and Lisa made it, we had tacos ready for dinner and we all sat around chowing down and having a good long catch-up session. With everyone's busy schedules lately, it's been difficult to really know what we've all been up to. Lisa is up to her eyeballs with her new position as a teacher at Matthews Elementary, Bethany has been working hard to raise the $22,000 for her 11-month mission trip, Whitney just got back from Costa Rica on a business trip, and Vanessa recently took on a new position at the bank. On Saturday we went to Upper and Lower Falls (my favorite place to hike). Bethany almost immediately fell in and got soaked, but luckily Vanessa had an extra shirt. Then, as we hiked up the gorge toward Upper Falls, I decided to take a timed group shot w/my camera. I set it up and then, realizing I only had 10 sec to get where they were sitting, tried to jump over the water. It didn't work and I got drenched from waist down. Whitney and Vanessa both got their shoes wet. Pretty much the only one to stay dry was Lisa (also the most cautious).

Vanessa and me in Jonas Ridge.

After we rested a bit at the house, we got back in the car and drove to an apple orchard called Alta Pass off the parkway. We tried to pick apples, but it was a little past the time and they were mostly picked out. We filled the rest of our bags from the barrels in the shop and then stopped by Wal-Mart to get ingredients to make apple crisp that evening. It was amazing by the way.

The next day the girls headed out fairly early and then I worked on writing for my grad school apps until Mom, Dad and Grandma Bailey arrived from Boone. They had been staying with Uncle David at his mountain house Saturday and Sunday morning (Grandma drove up from Tallahassee on Friday). We all played a new game called Qwirkle and then I drove home with Mom since she had to work the next day. Grandma and Dad didn't drive back until Monday.

Me, Bethany, Vanessa watching sunset in Jonas.

The next weekend, I was scheduled to go camping with 25 people from Charlotte ONE in Linville Falls. Mom, Dad, Grandma B., Grandma and Grandpa all went up to the mountain house together. Camping was amazing - it was so beautiful up there. It really was the perfect weekend for the colors. I brought my two 4-man tents which were utilized and we had s'mores and hot cocoa and it was really nice. On Saturday we hiked around Linville Falls and Chastity, Ben and I ended up behind everyone else as we marveled at the trees. At the last overlook, Ben got me and some other random girl from Duke to follow him off-trail and we explored and saw some really cool views and found a neat rock to climb - but by the time we got back, everyone else was gone. As Ben and I walked back toward the parking lot, we ran into my family who were there seeing the views which was nice.

This was the picture I was trying to get when I fell in. I'm soaked here.

Upon reaching the parking lot, Ben and I realized there was no one else from our group there so we jogged/walked the mile back to the campground. We also found two woolly worms on our way! After we got back, everyone else was already ready to go hiking again, so we scarfed down some lunch and I led the way to Upper/Lower Falls. While no one fell into the water (that I knew of), Ben, Josh and Jenni all slid down the waterfall at Lower Falls. It was so cold - I can't imagine getting in willingly, but they did and I got some cool photos. Afterward, they were cold, but they did what they could to warm up and enjoyed their new-found fame. ;) By the time we finished hiking Upper and Lower Falls, only about 15 of us were left - the rest had gone back to the campground early. I convinced my group (who wanted to watch the sunset) to come with me to Grandma and Grandpa's mountain house in Jonas Ridge where they have an amazing view. When we all got there, it was starting to get quite chilly and they were glad to warm up. Everyone introduced themselves to Grandma C. and she taught us a game called "Spirits Landed" or something like that. We all got a kick out of it and it led to other people in the group showing us other games like "Black Magic." All were games that involved something that seemed "magical" but really involved some sort of trick between the two game operators which the crowd had to figure out.

Whitney, Vanessa, Lisa, Bethany, Me - Uppper Falls.

Unfortunately, the sun was not going to set as soon as we thought it would, so we had to leave before it did to start making dinner back at the campground. Ben showed everyone how to wrap up pieces of chicken in tin foil and he cooked them over the fire. The potatoes were wrapped up and thrown down into the embers. While it took a while, it was a pretty decent meal for camping. I totally would've just gone with hot dogs. lol

Hiking in Linville Falls

The next morning we had bagels and cream cheese and peanut butter and jelly and packed up everything pretty quickly. My family came to pick me up and we went back to Alta Pass apple orchard because Grandma Bailey wanted to get some apples like the ones I had gotten the weekend before. Afterward, we stopped at Chestoa Overlook where you can see the Jonas Ridge house quite clearly atop the mountain.

Overall, two weekend in a row in the NC mountains was lovely - the perfect time of year and beautiful weather for both trips. I've been entirely blessed with weather lately - and good friends. :)