Grandfather Mountain Halloween 2015
by
, 11-02-2015 at 12:50 (2372 Views)
Amazingly, we didn't fall off the mountain!
October, 30 - Friday night my husband and I arrived at the Boone Fork parking lot at around 12:30am. Just wiped out exhausted after the 5 and a half hour drive tacked onto a full day of work. There were another couple of cars in the lot and a huge truck also unloading. The truck carried about 10 young kids looking to be around 10 to 13 years old, with coolers and sleeping bags and all manner of miscellaneous gear all being held loosely in their arms with not the first sign of a pack of any sort. This woke us up a bit, as we wanted to make sure we got our desired campsite before this crowd descended upon it. After a quick pit stop to the wood line, we hoisted our packs on (both of which were 40+ pounds) and began to walk toward the Tanawha trailhead. The kids were swarming all around us so it was a bit like Black Friday at the door to a Wal-Mart for minute, but then we all fell into a line and began the hike. Tommy and I had our headlamps on so we could see our way with no problem at all. They are Coleman headlamps we got from Dick's sporting goods and I have to say they were comfortable and worked like a charm. Luckily at the split for the Daniel Boone Trail and the Nuwati Trail, we were able to part ways with the crowd. Tommy and I registered our permits and grabbed a good map and were tickled we got to sign out the campsite we wanted. We headed down the Nuwati trail about a mile or so to the campsite and contemplated our set up. We then walked on down to the next site just to see if we liked it better, as no one else was there at all. We decided we like the first one better and went back. As we began to unload and set up I saw that my tent was gone. A tree grabbed it off my pack during the hike in, so now I am in nothing but shorts, tshirt, boots and headlamp and it's about 1am and I am running back to that second campsite to see if it dropped off there. Nothing. So now I am headed back in the direction of the parking lot. My husband is not very pleased with me at this point, but is keeping his composure rather well under the circumstances. About a quarter of a mile away I see it in the middle of the trail, luckily not in a mud puddle. By the time we got all set up and in bed, it was about 2am. He is in a hammock and I am in my Tarptent. All is well..... except we are both freezing. Its really cold. Like really. By 3am he is climbing in my tent with me Glad I got the Double Moment. We finally got a bit of a nap.