Our First Spring Fling

The original plan for the first weekend in spring was to tour the hospital where Gabriel is to be born. We also needed to attend some birthing classes and maybe some good ol' breastfeeding seminars too. Don't get me wrong, I want to do everything I can to make sure Gabriel's transition from womb to world is as smooth as possible, but that doesn't mean I couldn't get a little excited when we found out the hospital tour and classes were full this weekend. The weekend had officially become plan free!

Our last time out it became official: No more camping for Laura until the baby comes. With this in mind, I started making hotel arrangements. The great thing about the mountains is that you get away from all the commercial and industrial garb of the city. The bad thing is, if you don't plan on camping, good luck finding a hotel. We called up Dennis to see if he wanted to go too, and hey, maybe we could crash at his parents in Greenville again! (See previous post for details.) Well, he was working, but he said we could crash there without him, no big deal. I was sure it wouldn't be a big deal, but I hate feeling like I might be inconveniencing people, even though in this case I knew Dennis' parents would enjoy the company. Sure enough, when we arrived in Greenville, Mrs. Dennis was excited to see us. We had an absolutely great time. I never thought I would go to Greenville and enjoy the company more than I enjoyed the trails, but that was certainly the case this weekend. We spent the first night enjoying her stories about her kids. Saturday night they listened to our account of the day on the trails and on Sunday we went to church together and enjoyed a great meal at Chipotle... our FAVE! And I'm not sure, but I think Gabriel may have gained new grandmother along the way. Anyhow, anyone reading this is probably here for the pictures and/or the account of the trails, so here you go.


(Laura, me and Austin chilling at the base of Bridal Veil Falls)


We started off late Saturday morning. We headed up the winding road that leads into the Middle Saluda River watershed of western North Carolina. First, we had to go through Caesar's Head State Park. Right before the entrance, after gaining a couple thousand feet by road, we stopped at a roadside granite monolith with a low enough angle you could walk out onto it. The bad part of it was that being so close to the road, it was covered with graffiti. The good part was the view was pretty unbeatable. I'll wait for the part when sunset comes to put up the pictures. From there, with a short stop at the Caesar's Head Visitor's Center, we went on to the Bridal Veil Falls trailhead. The trail was an anti-climactic hike down gated gravel roads to the falls. The mountain bikers were out in full force on this first weekend of spring. The waterfall was pretty busy, but with so many viewing areas the crowds weren't a problem at all.

This waterfall is hard to describe and even harder to photograph. About 120 feet above where the trail meets the base of the falls, Bridal Veil makes its first sheer drop of about 10 feet over a granite ledge. After that tumble, the water spreads wide and thin on a huge granite mountain face. It's too wide and too tall to get into a picture, especially on a sunny day when the thin water reflects the sun's rays straight into your lens en masse.


The big granite slope of the falls.

The water reaches the bottom of the granite in many separate sections but eventually meets back up, forming a shallow, sandy river bed and disappearing into the woods of DuPont State Forest. It was such a perfect day. Maybe a slight chill when the wind blew, but any hiker will tell you that beats hot and sweaty. We flopped down on a big bolder, had a snack, and just soaked up the sun.


Me at the top of Bridal Veil Falls where it makes its initial drop.

After hanging out and trying to get a good picture of the waterfall, I scrambled up to the top of the falls. It really wasn't a scramble at all. The easy slope and smooth granite made for a stroll easy enough for even the feeblest of hikers. I could hardly suppress the urge to slide down the big rock face, but the water crashing violently into the rocks at the base convinced me not to.

From there, we headed back to the car and after stopping to check out a huge flock of Eastern Turkey hens being chased through a pasture by some excited jakes, we continued up the road to Hooker Falls.



Hooker Falls was a little disappointing. The parking area looked like a Wal-Mart parking lot the day after Thanksgiving. The trail, excuse me, dirt road, that led to the base of the falls was populated by people in jeans, mini-skirts, dresses, high heels, and those over-sized skate-boarding shoes. There was even a family of four on bikes (which is crazy because the road is at best a quarter mile to the base of the falls) where the mom, bringing up the rear, was holding the leash attached to a mini-poodle. I never thought I would say this, but the natural beauty of the falls, in my opinion was completely sapped by all the man-made garbage they put around it, making it accessible for everyone. I never thought I would say anything like that. Don't get me wrong, waterfalls can still be great with maintained trails and observation decks nearby, but something about this one just didn't seem to balance well.


Hooker Falls from the side.

From there we walked back to the parking lot. Laura decided to chill in the car while I crossed the bridge and headed upstream to get a glimpse of Triple Falls. It was a very nice change of pace from the over-crowded Hooker Falls. The sun had started retreating, so all those in mini-skirts had to get back to their warm cars. This waterfall was really quite a treat. Three absolute beauties, one right after another. They had carved out plenty of room at their base for you to safely roam around near the falls without being in real danger. If I posted all the pictures I took of these three falls, I might overload the website. I'll leave you with this one. Although I spent most my time right underneath each falls, I was able to get this from a gap in the trees that allows you to see all three falls at once, a real treat.



After a few more shots of the tumbling creek below the falls, I headed back to the car. There was just enough time for us to make it back to the aforementioned rock overlook to catch the sunset.



You can't see it well, but the mountain you see in the right portion of the picture is Table Rock, a South Carolina icon. This was the visual highlight of the trip. It didn't show up on film, but from here you could also catch a small glimpse of the Greenville skyline. Before it went completely dark we headed up the road to get a few shots of a roadside waterfall we sped past on the way in.


lower portion


upper portion

Compared to last weekend, it didn't seem like we got as much hiking in as we should have, but the slow pace this weekend was a nice change. We woke up late, we lounged on rocks, and we enjoyed some great company. With the reality sinking in that Augusta may be my home for another 4 years or so, it was a welcome relief knowing that weekend getaways like this one, at the Dennis house in Greenville, are just up the road.

The Golden Corner Never Disappoints

Man! Did it ever feel good to get back out on the trails. It seems like it's been forever. The last post had me thinking surely I wouldn't get to head back out for another 2, probably 3 months. I bumped into Dennis at work and he was chomping at the bit, ready to go. I, of course, had to oblige him. We made plans for a night hike into Burrell's Ford campground. It's a super short walk into a semi developed primitive camp site along the South Carolina side of the Chattooga River. Laura decided to give this one last go. The hike to the campsite was a short one and the next day she would spend most of the time acting as our taxi, rather than hiking with us. We'll call her the Prego Trail Warrior. Things went off pretty much without a hitch. Dennis brought along his brother, Robert. They decided to drive up separately and meet us at the trailhead. We walked down with headlamps blazing and got to the campsite without a hiccup. The weather was a little chillier than anticipated, but other than that all was well. We set up and got ready for bed. That night the trip appeared to be taking a turn for the worst. We already knew that Laura was pretty much done with the hiking part of our weekend adventures, but the sleepless night in the cold and on a very thin ground pad proved to be the end of her camping part of our weekend adventures as well. (That is, of course, until after our bundle of joy arrives.)



The next morning I was up bright and early and wanted to get at least a little fire going so Laura could get some sort of warmth when she rolled out of her bag. Dennis joined me shortly there after, and along with his brother we decided to make the short hike over to King Creek Falls (above). This was one I visited back in the fall of '07 and it certainly made an impression then. The trail from Burrell's Ford is only about a half mile, but is very pleasant. The rhododendron makes a tight canopy overhead for the first portion of the trail. Then you meet a junction with the Foothills Trail, cross a short bridge over King Creek, then follow the tumbling creek up to the falls. We hung out there for about a half hour. I got busy snapping photos. Notice that the north (left) side of the falls has icicles clinging to the granite. Geez... last night was colder than we thought!



I snapped a few more pictures of the remnants of the winter storm that had blown through only about 48 hours earlier. We then headed back to camp to be sure Laura hadn't been eaten by any bears. To our surprise she was up and at 'em, and doing a better job of gathering fire wood than I had. At that point we decided to head on over to another short hike, this one to Spoonauger Falls. On my trip to the area in the winter of '07 this waterfall eluded me. At the time I had no GPS. Without a GPS, you have to be a little more careful on searching for unknown trails. After a short search, I called the search off, only to find out after looking at a map I had turned around about a quarter mile short. SO! Off we headed, GPS in hand, to find Spoonauger Falls.



I tried climbing the battered south (left) side of the creek bank to get a better angle on the falls. The angle from down low makes this one seem much shorter than what it is. Compared to the above picture of King Creek Falls, you would think Spoonauger was much short, but actually it measures about 5 feet higher. Some waterfalls are more photogenic than others. The creek valley formed by this unnamed stream appears to be pretty hard hit by downed trees and erosion. The hike over to the falls parallels the unpaved Burrell's Ford road. At this point the trail overlaps the Chattooga River Trail (a multi-day trail on my short list). After the trail crosses the road it's only a short distance, and a hop over a small stream, where the Spoonauger Falls trail climbs slightly up and to the right. An interesting piece I read about this waterfall, the name of the falls comes from a family that used to live at the top of the waterfall. That came as a shock to us who saw the relief of the mountains in that area. We're still not sure where they would have put a house. We played around a little, then headed back to the campsite to pack up and head out.



Our original plan to do an 8 mile point-to-point hike was quickly thwarted when we saw that the forest service was doing a controlled burn on one of the mountains we were planning to hike on. So we headed in to town and decided to make new plans over Arby's. First up, we were going to hike down the Winding Stairs Trail. This trail is named for its short series of steep switchbacks. The little secret it holds is in the form of the Miuka Falls Series. It really isn't a secret. The secret is actually getting down to a place where you can view the waterfalls, rather than just hear them.



It wasn't easy getting this shot. The well hidden side trail comes in from the north (left). The interesting thing about this creek is that there is no creek bed. Because of there being an abundance of granite in these mountains, sometimes the water can't cut into the rock to form a bed. That's part of the reason you see so many granite faces behind the waterfalls in my pictures. Well, where this water is trying to escape the mountain happens to be a long running vein of granite. So instead of the stream flowing down the mountain in a creek bed, its sliding down the mountain almost like water would flow down your windshield. Getting across to the other side of that slippery slope was a scary prospect. If you slip, the angle isn't dangerous, but who knows when you would actually find a stopping point.


(This is a shot of Austin trying to manueuver the aforementioned slippery granite.)

From here we made our way back up to the trail and headed on down. Lower Miuka Falls was a little of a let down, especially after the off-trail bushwhacking we had to do to get to it. The walk down from there was nice and relaxing. It was a pretty steep descent. Lucky for us we had a ride waiting on the bottom, relieving us of the duty of climbing it back to the top. At the bottom we stumbled upon some huge wads of course black animal hair about 2 inches long. Don't worry, no bear encounter. We met back up with Laura (who was trying to recoup some of her lost sleeping time from the night before) waiting in the Jeep. At that point we decided to head on up another trail for a short half mile romp to another waterfall.



Crane Creek Falls isn't overly impressive. Its unusual shape and flow are really what sets this one apart. The hike over is a really short walk up Crane Creek from the parking area. About half way between the falls and the camping area there is a nice clearing in a bend in the creek perfect for setting up camp. We didn't spend too much time here. The sun was heading down and we really wanted to get in one last trail.

We can undoubtedly say we saved the best for this trip, and that's saying a lot. The guide book warned us, "Lee Falls is the Upstate's best kept secret." The trail is apparently very lightly used by locals, and almost unheard of to most people who come to the area as tourists. (The only way I found out about it was by getting a hold of a cheaply made SC waterfall book.) We got to the trailhead knowing time was going to be a crunch. Laura decided to hang back on this one since we would be double-timing it in and out to beat the sunset. Just in case, we stuffed our headlamps into our pockets and pushed off. The trail started by leading us through, of all things, three pastures. I can see why many avid hikers would avoid this trail. You start by walking nearly a mile through a tractor-maintained pasture. Shortly after you join up with Tamasee Creek. The guide book talks about an old gold operation that used to be in the area. On the way back we found the old gold smelter. Neat. Because of its light use, the trail was hard to follow. But after about a mile and a half we were not disappointed.



Lee Falls drops softly in three sections about 100 feet before coming in contact with the base of the cliff. It continues to fall sharply in smaller sections for another 50 feet before leveling out. I could have spent an entire evening shooting this waterfall. Unfortunately time was not on our side. I tried to scamper up the steep banks quickly to get a good shot. Again, it was pretty cool seeing portions of the cliff face frozen from the winter storm. We didn't get to spend much time here, but the time we were here was spent looking up and gawking. Dennis quickly tagged it as the most impressive he had ever seen. It certainly falls into my top five (not exactly sure where). I still leave Virgin Falls, Tennessee, at my number one (see my first blog entry for details). We all but ran back to the parking area, getting back just before the last rays of daylight slipped behind the Blue Ridge.

WHAT A DAY! We had planned to camp that night as well, but with Laura having such a rough go the night before, I didn't wanna put her through that again. Luckily, Dennis' parents live in Greenville. We headed over and got a fresh shower and a nice meal. It was a prefect ending to a great day on the trail. As usual, leaving this area for Augusta made me wish I could spend every day in the Upstate. We'll be back first chance we get!!!!

Reality Check

I have looked forward to this for such a long time. Probably an abnormally long time. Usually it's the woman in the relationship, but in our relationship it's me. May can't get here fast enough. We've made it out a couple times since Laura has been pregnant, but I knew the time would eventually come when she would have to forgo the trail. We had planned a trip for this weekend. It seemed like my first in such a long time, but in reality it hasn't really been long at all. Well, last minute Laura decided to cancel, and made the tough call of saying she was probably done hiking until Gabriel arrives. Of course, once he gets here it'll be a good while after that before she is able to make it back out. If I go without her, does that make me a bad husband/father? I'm sure she would tell me to go ahead and go but I think I would feel guilty. But man, without that, we're talking probably a year without sleeping in a tent.... yikes!

Not Our Usual "Weekend Adventure"

Wow. It really was just as amazing as I thought it would be. We kinda last minute decided to drive up for the week. My wife's family lives near D.C. and her sister and brother were both visiting from far off lands, so we decided to make it a "two birds with one stone" trip. Once we decided we were going to go, I really started to get excited about the whole thing. The media coverage was unprecedented. The crowd estimates, if they held, were to be larger than anything else that had ever taken place in D.C. And that's quite a history of events. I couldn't wait to be a part of history.

We showed up the weekend before and the weather had been brutal. Wind chills were below zero. Snow was falling. It was cold. VERY cold. I hoped that it would warm up, and it did. It got into the thirties for the first time all week on Inauguration Day. Boy, didn't I feel lucky. We had to wake up at about 2:30 that morning. The plan was to be at the Metro station by 3:30. We would hopefully unload near the Mall around 5:00 a.m. and be in place before 6:00. Everything went pretty smooth. The crowds at the Metro station were brutal and so were the masses moving from the Metro to the Capitol. Luckily, once we actually got out onto the Mall (after security detoured us all the way around the Capitol) things weren't as bad as I expected. We moved to a decent spot with a nice view of the Capitol. Considering it was still well before 6 in the morning, some might have hoped for a closer seat, but it was better than I expected.

Here we were, at 5 something in the morning and the wind chills were in the single digits. There was nothing to do to warm up, yet people from all over the world were moving in tight for, at best, a lousy view of the event. Already I was struck with amazement. Everything to this point had given all these people every reason in the world to be ticked. No sleep. Terrible weather. Huge crowds. A crappy view. But everyone I saw had a smile on there face, and wouldn't have rather been anywhere in the world.



So there we were perched comfortably (relatively) between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. The Capitol was glowing in the night. It was kinda surreal (a theme for this whole experience). The monument stood behind us, and already the crowds stretched past it, on to the reflecting pool.



Finally, after 2+ hours of standing in the dark cold with nothing to do but take in the surroundings, the jumbo-trons came to life. They started playing clips from the concert that was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial two days before. The music was, to me, the greatest part of the day. I wished so bad we had came down for it. There were some of the biggest names in music, traveling across the country and singing (usually just one song) for little to nothing, except for the chance to say that they were there. Garth Brooks absolutely brought the house down. He sang Don McLean's "American Pie". Nearly the whole crowd was singing and dancing along. Then he went to exit the stage, because up to this point all the artists only sang one song. He paused right at the edge of stage and belted, "waaaaiaaaiaaat a miiiiinute...you know you make me wanna SHOUT!" The crowd absolutely came unglued. People everywhere were jumping and singing along. There I was, a guy you will never catch dead dancing in public, throwing my hands in the air singing and hopping around like a high school cheerleader. He had almost everyone there singing and dancing together. It, again, was surreal. The song ended and everyone clapped and laughed with each other, even people they obviously didn't know. From then on the cold weather was only an afterthought. I was witnessing history.

You can imagine what the rest of the event was like. The crowd was on edge waiting for Obama to show up. Every time the live cameras shot him moving through the building the crowd would go crazy, even though were introducing some Congressman no one had ever heard of. When he got his final introduction, the screams went to a higher, louder level. Then finally, for what was a lifetime of waiting for some of the wheelchair-bound people near me, Obama was officially sworn in. When they finally said "Congratulations, Mr. President," I think every foot on the Mall left the ground. He then gave a speech that had 2 million people begging for more. After the fact, I was looking through my pictures and realized that I had snapped a photo of everything that happened that day, but during the swearing in and Obama's speech, I was so caught up in everything I didn't get a single picture of him. I mean really, it was that surreal. I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

*for an interesting international perspective on the event, you can click the title of this blog and it will take you to a website by the BBC with some interesting comments.

Panther Creek Falls

Dennis sent me a text message about two weeks ago. It read, "Man, I wanna go backpacking!" He hadn't been out since back in the fall when I took him to the Golden Corner of South Carolina for his first backpacking trip. (See the "Another Lifer" entry for more details). I had just finished reading Backpacker Magazine's entry on what was voted the best hike in Georgia, Panther Creek Falls (click on the title of this blog for a link to their website's trail description). So we set it up, and Monday after some early morning appointments we both had, we headed off.

We got to the trailhead a little later than I planned. The last thing I wanted to do was finish the hike and set up in the dark. It's just annoying. So, we had 3.6 miles of trail ahead of us and a little less than 2 hours of daylight left. With that in mind, we left the sight-seeing for tomorrow's return hike and kept a steady pace till the falls. We got there in almost exactly an hour. Pretty darn good trail time. We set up and still had a decent amount of sunlight left to soak in the scenery.



Here we all are in front of the tent. Austin is the tan one on the left, then me in the blue, then Star sitting in the middle, then Dennis. The waterfall was so much taller than we expected. The pictures we had seen before didn't make the waterfall appear more than maybe 30 feet high. In actuality the waterfall was all total about 120 feet tall. Even in this picture you can't see the water as it tumbles from around the rock outcrops on the left. At the base of the falls was a really nice sandy area that made for the perfect place to set up camp. The base of the waterfall is a huge breath-taking pool perfect for swimming. No, we didn't swim. It was in the 20's when we got there and got even colder as the night progressed. The creek past the waterfall was littered with car sized boulders. All in all it really was a great spot to set up a tent.


Now, the hike in... well it could have been better. To start, the trailhead was on a busy two-lane road, with room for only three vehicles. When we got there, all three spots were taken. It presented quite the danger opening the hatch of the Jeep and letting the dogs out so close to a busy road (yeah, I forgot their leashes). Right off the bat you have to walk under an overpass while on the trail. Shortly after that you come to a clearing for high rise powerlines, where a huge cable also passes over the creek, protruding from the high creek bank, then disappearing into the other side. There is tons of construction debris from the overpass and trash from passing vehicles. Luckily, you quickly disappear into the thick woods of the Chattahoochee National Forest. The next slight disappointment is that, although the creek rumbled loudly below, you are so far above it and the foliage is so thick, you can't see anything going on in the creek. Finally, after about a mile, you reach the creek's side. By this time the water has calmed down quite a bit. This is when the trail really became enjoyable. There were an alarming number of fallen large timbers, but other than that it was a very scenic trail. There were flat areas for camping all along the bank. A few times the trail rises above the creek, mainly at the numerous sharp bends. During the last mile, the creek begins to give you some hint of what lies ahead. Then finally you start hearing the rumble of Panther Creek Falls. The trail takes you along a rock outcrop that hangs at the very edge above the huge waterfall, where you get a nice view of the camping area below.


Your options once at the campsite are to either continue on the banks of Panther Creek to the eastern terminus at Yonah Camp/Yonah Dam. That is supposed to be another 2 miles or so (I can't verify that because we didn't hike it). Or, of course, backtrack to the main trailhead at the Panther Creek Recreation area. Be prepared for a bit of a climb. 750 feet in all, with most of it coming in that last mile.

3..2..1.. BUNGEEEEE!

The first bungee trip was yet another last minute idea of Greg's. The original plan was to head north from Monterey, CA, to Crater Lake, Oregon. Plans had to change when almost everyone from our group backed out. As usual, we came up with a last minute back up plan, because sitting in the barracks all weekend wasn't a sound option. Bungee America! It was a place in Los Angeles where you first had to hike 5 miles through the Angeles National Forest to "The Bridge To Nowhere". Then you got a class on bungee safety. Then you jumped!


The Bridge To Nowhere is quite the site in itself. The history behind it is back in the 1940s when an attack from Japan on our western shore was a possibility, the government decided they needed an emergency evacuation route for Los Angeles residents. Their answer was a road through this valley through the Angeles National Forest leading further inland. Well, while construction was still going the valley flooded and washed the road out completely. By that time, with the war coming to an end, they decided to abandon the project. The only thing left was this bridge (lucky for us!).

The hike out to the bridge is an adventure in itself. There are something like 5 or 10 river crossings and a few short wooden bridges that seem very questionable. And some spots where a small mis-step could take you 80 feet down to the river bed with likely terrible results. It is extremely scenic. For me, kinda surreal. I mean, 15 minutes before we were parked in some shady grocery store parking lot right outside of the urban sprawl of L.A. Now we seem to be a world away from civilization. And if the awesome hike isn't enough, you get to jump off a bridge at the end!



My first time jumping was back in Fall of 2005. I think October. I remember when we got to the bridge and sat down for the safety course, the first thing they told us was, "You guys don't need to worry, you just survived the most dangerous part of your trip today: the hike!" If I was supposed to feel relieved, I didn't. You see, this whole time I had myself pumped up and ready to jump off the bridge. I had come to terms with it and was really starting to get excited. That all changed instantly when we arrived at the bridge and I took my first look over the rail. We sat around waiting for the rest of the group to show up (some people were really slow hikers). As our safety class went on, I started feeling better and better about jumping. I could do this.


We decided we were going to be in the last group to jump, so we spent the day climbing on rocks and playing in the creek, and watching grown men come almost to tears trying to throw themselves from the bridge. We laughed and had a great time. Then it was our turn. I again felt like I had psyched myself up enough to jump. But then... BAM! As if staring over the railing for the first time wasn't a smack in the face, actually strapping the cord on and trying to step over the railing is a like taking a right hook from Tyson. But standing on the little platform on the other side of the rail, I knew I couldn't let myself freeze up like some of the other guys did. Even though my muscles were giving out and my mind was screaming, "DON'T DO IT!" I refused to be the guy who couldn't jump. "3..2..1..BUNGEE!" Holy Cow! If I tried to describe what it felt like jumping off that bridge, we would be here all day and it still wouldn't do it justice. I'll say it's feeling like you know for sure you are about to die, but you don't. Scary. And the feeling you get when you are finally standing back on the bridge is euphoric.

If you are ever in L.A. and are looking for something to do, look these guys up. You can click on my blog title and it will take you to their website.

So this past October I got another one of those calls from Greg. "Hey man, if you get a plane ticket, bungee and everything else is on me." Since that first trip to "The Bridge To Nowhere", I had been back twice. This trip was going to make it three returns (four total trips). Greg got lucky enough to be stationed in San Diego and he had been back so many times that he was not only on a first name basis with all the guys who worked there, but he was getting to do a lot of special jumps. So our group made it out to the bridge and we had an excellent day of jumping. A lot of the guys had never been before, so it was hilarious watching them freak out trying to jump off the bridge. When it came my turn, they said since I had jumped so many times I could try some of the harder jumps. I got to do a back flip... which is nuts, and, scariest of all, a running start jump. On that one, instead of jumping flat-footed from the platform on the other side of the railing, they let you run from the middle of the bridge and jump the railing as if you were jumping a fence. It was wild.



The above picture is Dani. It was absolutly hysterical watching him jump. If it hadn't been for a 12 year old boy jumping earlier in the day, Dani never would have jumped. But he admitted that since the little boy jumped, he couldn't back out. Once Dani moved over the rail to the jumping platform, it was 4 loooooong minutes before he finally jumped. When he did, we got to see a man who was truly scared out of his misery has he fell to the bottom of the valley. We weren't completely sure that he wasn't going to die of a heart attack on the way down.

We jumped late in the evening and camped right there beside the bridge with one of the bungee employees. It was an awesome night. As the sun went down we got to see a handful of big-horn sheep moving along the ridges high above the bridge. The next morning we packed up and headed out, passing the next day's group of bungee jumpers as they were on their way in. Yeah, we were all jealous.

The Wheels Are In Motion...

I just finished talking to Greg, and it's official. Plans are being made for another week-long excursion. I asked Laura for her blessing on one last week-long hoora before our baby boy arrives. She said yes, so I phoned Greg. As I knew he would, he said,"Let's do it." So, the plan is to get together some time during his spring break and head into the Carolina mountains.

Our adventures like this never, ever disappoint. Let me highlight a few for you. If you check out the side bar, you'll see pictures of things like Death Valley, the Western Continental Divide, the largest tree in the world, Crystal Caves, Badwater Basin, Mt. Whitney, etc. These were ALL accomplished in one amazing three-day weekend. It was the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and I got a call from Greg. "Hey man, you doing anything this weekend?" I said, "No..." He replies, "Good, because I bought you a plane ticket to Cali for the weekend." This is how Greg operates. He is all go. We can think about it and make plans on the way. I never was like that before, but after a few amazing weekends in Northern California, I just made the decision that when Greg asks, just go with it. It's what has made us great friends. It's also made for memories that I will never forget, experiences I wish everyone I knew could have experienced.

Now, he was responsible for making that one happen. This one is on me. I feel a little pressure, but very excited at the stories I am going to come back with. The Carolinas don't quite have the same wow-factor that California does, but I'm sure when we get back we'll have some great stories to share.