Filed under: The Great Outdoors, family | Tags: cherry grove beach, vacation
I love vacation more than just about anything else. I highly value a week where I can disconnect from work and anything else that is going on in Columbia. I love to sit on the beach for hours with NOTHING to do and a great book to read.
Ashley and I, Mom and Dad, the grandparents, and my brother Matt and his wife Libby all went to Cherry Grove Beach (just north of N. Myrtle Beach) last week, and we had a blast. I feel very refreshed and ready to go again!
- I read the 1st 3 Harry Potter books and would have read the 4th if I had it with me.
- We ate. A Lot.
- My favorite meal of the week was a dinner date on Friday night at Bonefish Grill. I know they have these in Columbia, but we don’t normally go out to places this expensive, so this was a treat for us. I had the Chilean Sea Bass with the Pan Asian sauce, and Ashley had the Lily’s Chicken which is also awesome. My only regret is that I didn’t get the Bang Bang shrimp. The only reason I didn’t get it is because Ashley is allergic to shrimp.
- 2nd favorite dinner was at the Dockside restaurant in Calabash, NC. Good fried seafood and a great view of the marsh and river/inlets.
- Carraba’s was just as good as the seafood. I love the chicken marsala best. Yes, normally steak is better than chicken, but the chicken marsala is better than the steak. Trust me.
- Ashley and Libby got their noses pierced.
- Surprisingly, I didn’t fish at all.
- My brother fried up almost 100 wings one night with some awesome homemade sauces.
- Dad took us all to the Alabama Theatre. It’s a very good production, but there was some serious cheese at times.
- Played lots of XBox.
- Ashley is addicted to Boggle. She practices by herself. I can’t beat her.
Here are some pics from the week.
One of my favorites
the view and inlet from the back of the house
kayaking in the ocean
hotness
Filed under: The Great Outdoors | Tags: art loeb trail, black balsam, flat laurel creek, hiking, little sams knob, pisgah, sams knob
Yesterday, I woke up at 6:00. For some reason, I am unable to sleep past 6 on Saturdays, but I feel like I could sleep till 9 Monday through Friday. So at 7:30, I decided to get in the car and take Sandy up to the mountains. I left with absolutely no plans, and ended up having a perfect day.
Sandy got to swim in the French Broad River where my brother and mom were about to take a trip with their kayaks past the Biltmore on the river. I then headed up to the Black Balsam area and just started walking. My plan was to hike up Little Sam’s Knob. I didn’t take a watch, map, camera (ashley has it in london), GPS, cell phone or anything else. Met some nice folks along the way and Sandy just couldn’t stay out of the water.
I never made it to the top of Little Sam, and got somewhat lost, but I would love to figure out a way to make it to the top as there really isn’t a trail. Here’s a picture I found on the internet.
This is obviously a route they had to bushwhack through, because I can tell you there is no visible other way up there. In this picture I went around on the other side of the mountain, but I’m really not sure where I ended up. So, this is my plan for the next trip. Had I made it to the top. this is what I would have seen.
And here is Flat Laurel Creek where Sandy and I hung out with some nice folks from Charlotte for awhile. The water was a lot higher than this yesterday.
Who knows when I’ll be able to make it up to Pisgah again? I have no idea, but I know it won’t be soon. I wish I could go at least once a month. I think that would be ideal. This picture inspired me today, so I wanted to share it. It’s a picture taken on the Art Loeb trail. You can recognize Sam’s Knob in the background if you are familiar with the area. The picture was taken from this website.
Can’t wait to go soon, and often during the spring, summer, and fall.
For some reason, I had never heard this amazing story until today. I read about 2 guys, James Hooper and Rob Gauntlett, in the latest National Geographic Adventure Magazine. These 2 British teens, were the youngest from England to summit Mt. Everest. They did so at the age of 19.
Soon after they finished their Everest expedition, they started a 26,000 mile journey from the North Pole to the South Pole using only bikes, their own 2 legs, and sailboats. Everything was man-powered…no cars and no fancy boats. Here are just a couple of the highlights from their trip.
- they started in a blizzard behind dogsleds in Greenland just trying to find the official “north pole”
- once they found the official starting point, they dropped the dogs because that would be too easy and put on skis for the next 250 miles pulling sleds behind them
- then they climed over glaciers without good maps or the right equipment – they had planned on going over the coastal sea ice, but the ice was too thin
- after 21 days of this, they called back the dog teams
- Gauntlett fell in through the ice and spent 4 minutes in the 28* water and was unconscious for 4 hours. He was taken out by a helicopter, but they picked right back up where they left off a few days later.
- They sailed through “Iceberg Alley” to New York
- They rode bikes 11,000 miels from New York to the tip of South America
- They were broke when they hit Panama, so they gave inspirational speeches and made T-shirts to raise the money needed to finish the journey.
- Once in Chile, they needed a boat to sail 9,000 miles to the south pole off the coast of Antarctica. So they borrowed $90,000 from family and people they met along their trip who were inspired by their journey. They ended up with a 67 foot aluminum schooner.
- They battled 70 to 80 foot waves and stared death in the eye numerous times. The boat went all the way over at one point, but eventually righted itself back up.
- They sailed through the south pole into Australia 409 days after starting.
- Now they are inspirational speakers at schools around the country.
This story really just amazes me, so I had to share. They’ve got a website, but I can’t seem to get it to work on my end – probably because of the amount of traffic that they have had since this article came out. They’ve had over 10 million hits since their journey began according to the article, but see if you can check it out.
Filed under: The Great Outdoors | Tags: black balsam mountains, camping, cold mountain, flat laurel creek, north carolina mountains, outdoors, sams knob, shining rock
I had Tuesday off of work this week thanks to Veterans Day, and I got off work at 3:15 on Monday. So since Ash had Bible Study with High School girls on Monday night and work on Tuesday, I decided to take my first ever solo camping trip. I camped on the Big East Fork Trail kind of in between Brevard and Waynesville off of Hwy 276. It was cold (overnight low of 30*) but it could’ve been much colder. At least it was dry. That’s all you can ask for.
I stayed at the campsite until 2:30 in the afternoon reading “The Shack” from cover to cover. It was a very interesting book that challenges the way that believers think of “Christianity.” I know it’s been somewhat controversial, and I can see why some people could have some problems with it, but I really enjoyed reading it.
After I packed everything out, I headed up to the Black Balsam parking area and hiked up to Sam’s Knob and then looped back around on the Flat Laurel Creek Trail back to where I started from. There wasn’t a lot of sun, but I could see for miles all around, so it was an amazing experience. I hardly saw anyone the whole time except for the 30 or so bear hunters driving their trucks on the parkway and Hwy 276. They were everywhere trying to track their dogs who were trying to flush out the bears. Here are some pics from the campsite and then from the trail and Sam’s Knob/Flat Laurel Creek area.
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- 1 man tents are too small for 1 man
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- east fork of pigeon river
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- early morning sun
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- Sam’s Knob
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- Cold Mountain and Shining Rock
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- field below Sams Knob
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- flat laurel creek crossing
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- sunset off the parkway
Filed under: The Great Outdoors | Tags: art loeb trial, black balsam, cold mountain, fall, hiking, looking glass mountain, pisgah, sams knob, shining rock wilderness, tennent mountain
a beautiful day
looking glass from a distance
Here are some pics from another trip up into the Pisgah area. Most of this hike was on the Art Loeb Trail and parts of the Ivestor Gap Trail. It was a beautiful fall day with fantastic temperatures and views as far as you could see. Just click on the pics to zoom in. You can see Shining Rock in a couple of them if you know what you’re looking for.
shining rock and cold mountain in the distance
Filed under: The Great Outdoors | Tags: art loeb, camping, cold mountain, hiking, pisgah
Yes, I’m still alive! Just no time for blogging lately.
Last weekend, Chad and I traveled up to the mountains in North Carolina for a much needed retreat from everyday city life. The weather was absolutely perfect. Rarely do we take a trip to the mountains where we get rained on, but for once we had good luck with the sun shining on us. The temperature never seemed to be higher than 70*, and never lower than 50*. However, 50* at 6,000 feet elevation with a stiff wind and a shirt covered in sweat does feel somewhat chilly.
We left Thursday afternoon and arrived in Canton, NC right at 8:00. We spent Thursday night at the Riverhouse Acres Campground. It’s been years since I’ve stayed in a campground, but it was only $10/night for tent campers, and it was the closest to the Cold Mountain trail head. They even provided some nice firewood that we got some good use out of. There was a guy across the way in an RV playing Alison Krauss all night, so that was enjoyable.
Friday morning, we woke up with the sun, packed up, and headed out to find a place to eat. We ended up at the Cold Mountain Diner, or something like that. Chad had a bacon egg and cheese biscuit, and I had a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with grits. Both were amazing with loads of bacon on it. Our waitress may have had the most country accent I’ve ever heard.
We were on our way up to Cold Mountain right around 9:30-9:45. The Daniel Boone Scout Camp was our starting point. You take the Art Loeb trail up about 4 miles, and then you turn left on the Cold Mountain Trail for another 1.5-2 miles straight up to the top. For the most part, the entire trail is through the thick Forest, so you don’t have many views until you reach the top. We saw 3 people all day, so it was nice to feel like we had the trail to ourselves.
Without a doubt, this is one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever done. You gain 3,000 feet in elevation in a little less than 6 miles on the way up. You are constantly climbing from the minute you hit the trail. However, this is something that I have wanted to do now for at least 4 years, so it was a great feeling to have accomplished this. Here are some pics from along the way.
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- 1934 geological survey
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- first view from top of mountain
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- the trail ahead
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- deep gap
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- sorell’s creek
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- triple falls
Friday night, we ate at Cielito Lindo on Main St. in Brevard. The steak fajita quesadilla was out of this world. I felt bad for Chad as he ate his 4 enchiladas, but I did share some.
Saturday, we hung out at Triple Falls in Dupont State Forest and read some books while we tried to nurse our sore legs. I’ve never been so sore in my life from the waist down. Go check out this area if you ever get a chance. From Triple Falls, there are 3 waterfalls within a mile that you can hike/walk to. All are very easy, but they are some amazing waterfalls. The only trouble is that many other people thing the same, so it tends to get crowded. (While we were there, a young boy (probably about 5 or 6) decided to throw his dads crocs in to the river, which proceeded to go over the last fall of triple falls. 45 minutes later, dad had his crocs back, but the boy was still crying.)
All in all, it was an amazing trip, and I needed every minute of it! I’ll be back to do Cold Mountain again, but it’ll be awhile!
**one other funny story from the trip…friday night we dropped by the Hampton Inn so that I could confirm a reservation I made for a weekend coming up…this guy was out there with a guitar, and we struck up a conversation…he ended up playing a song for chad and I, and it was one of the strangest things I have ever been a part of in my life…words can’t describe it…the way he and his friend talked, you would have thought I had just met Bono or something…apparently, MOJO was “headlining” at the Brevard Slide Festival held down at the corn maize…his friend promoted MOJO to no end…it was rather awkward but funny…he asked me to play a song for him, but before I could say no, MOJO said, “looks like you don’t want to play one, how bout I play one for you…”
Here’s a YOUTUBE video of some good old MOJO.
Filed under: Ramblings, The Great Outdoors | Tags: art loeb trail, backpacking, brevard, hiking, mountains, north carolina, pisgah
tennet mountain
Anway, back on topic – I like to read up on finding different things to do each time I go. I want to learn the area and know my way around in the woods up there. The Art Loeb trail has always stuck out to me. I’ve read about it numerous times, but I had never hiked any portion of it until I went a couple of months ago. Since that trip, I can’t get my mind off of it. The only problem is that I don’t have the time to go enjoy it. I’m basically out of vacation time, and it’s hard to find some one who would want to spend 4 days hiking in the woods. I’ve read stories of people covering the 30 miles in 2 days, but I want to enjoy it. 4 days seems reasonable. That’s still an average of 7.5 miles per day which is a lot for someone who isn’t in the greatest shape with a 50+ lb pack on their back.
So here’s my invitation. If you have interest in something like this, let me know. It would be good if you had a better sense of direction than me, because mine isn’t very good (but I do have a handheld GPS!!).
Here are a few pics of the Art Loeb Trail from my last journey with Chester.
So, I’ll be heading to Charleston for 3 days to spend 3 days at the beach. I haven’t been in almost a year to the sand and salt water and all this talk of people getting bit by sharks in SC doesn’t scare me a bit. If only I could catch a couple fishing from the surf.
I love the beach, and this year is probably the least amount of time I’ve spent at the beach in a long time. We’ve made more trips to the mountains than normal though in the past year as well. I really can’t decide which I love best. I love to go to the beach, fish in the mornings and evenings, and sit on the beach ALL day and read 4 books during the week. However, I love packing up and heading to the mountains for some hiking and camping. So, this brings me to my question of the day.
Which do you like better? The beach or the mountains? If you have only 3 days of vacation, where are you going to spend it?
The summer before I started the 8th grade, I started running Cross Country with Spring Valley High School. How I got started running is really a crazy story, but I won’t go into those details here. Maybe another day. Running quickly turned into something that I loved and something that I was good at. It came naturally to me and I could easily see the progress that I was making. By my sophomore year I was the top runner on the varsity team in Cross Country and in the distance events for track. As a freshman I ran a mile in 4:48 and then as a sophmore I ran a 5k in 16:47. My junior year I had some knee problems and got more involved with church, and then I didn’t run at all as a Senior.
I learned a lot while running Cross Country. The most important thing that I learned is how to work hard to achieve a goal. I set goals to run long distances (the most I ever ran was 12 miles), to run faster, to run more often, and to be faster than anyone else on our team. I won a few races and finished top 20 in the state, and really achieved most of my goals that I set. What I loved about Cross Country is this: if you didn’t train, you didn’t do well. You literally only got out what you put in. You couldn’t just get by. You had to constantly and consistently run, run, run, run. If you didn’t train hard and push yourself to the point where you can’t push anymore, you wouldn’t improve. I loved to see the results from working hard. It’s great to be working hard and see immediate results. I honestly believe that I am who I am today because of the 4 years that I spent running Cross Country. I learned to set goals. I’ve learned to find ways to reach my goals. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard to see immediate results on those goals. For example, I’m saving for retirement, but I think I’m only like 1% to my goal after 2 years. But we will get there, it just takes a little more time.
On another note, I’m still trying to run, but it’s incredibly depressing. I still have knee trouble as well as problems with both of my feet going numb, but I love to run. I’m trying to take it as easy as possible so that I can get some exercise. I just clocked myself and realized that I am averaging about 9-10 minutes a mile for a 3 mile run. I can do this for 30 minutes (3 miles) and I am nowhere close to out of breath, but my feet literally give up on me. It’s extremely frustrating, but I hope to keep making progress and within the next couple of months be able to run 4 or 5 miles. I hate running so slow, but you’ve got to start somewhere, and if I don’t start now, I’ll just keep getting fatter!!
So, I encourage you to set goals. Work hard to reach them, and don’t give up in the process. There is no better feeling than setting a goal that you feel is impossible to reach and then a year or 2 later reaching that goal!
