We went on a weekend camping trip. We were delayed by a day because of predicted severe weather. We got out on Friday morning and started our adventure.
We went to feed hummingbirds at the Lake Hope Nature Center. I was the only one who got any action. Hubs tried. K had the magic behind the camera.
The longest campsite we can find there. Our favorite site!
My people fished and I was taking pictures-- surprise, surprise.
I added a year. My girlie made me a banana bread birthday cake. They even remembered the candles!
The two tents and the tarps.
The sleeping quarters. Now, it says it is a 5 man tent. As you can see, one queen sized air mattress and one cot fills it.
We started our hiking at Ash Cave.
We moved on to Cedar Falls. Unfortunately, a number of trails and the main trailhead were closed permanently because of three deaths this spring. People die in Hocking Hills every year. Three people died at Cedar Falls because they tried to get too close and fell 100 feet. If you follow the trails and stay on them, it isn't an issue. Every single death was from people leaving the trail. I might add, Ohio State Parks has a lot of signage and always has.
We previously hiked this trail. :(
Out of focus, but you can see that the trails aren't always very wide and the steps are covered in sand. Sometimes the steps are steep. Keep in mind that most people we saw were hiking in flip flops. I don't know how they did it.
On the quest for Old Man's Cave . . .
I just read that this bridge is slated for replacement this month. Um, she was a bit bouncy and the deck definitely needs some love.
Dinosaur Scale, if memory serves. At least that's what Hubs called it.
Old Man's Cave.
Drat it all. Humans. I was selfish and didn't want to share the view. I wanted the joint to myself. Is that too much to ask?
The cable and post system that they have in some places is new. It is because of the spring deaths.
Watch your head, Hubs!
At Conkle's Hollow Nature Preserve, they had a field full of native wildflowers. K got the butterfly net out.
'
She caught herself a monarch.
A trail that those with disabilities can enjoy.
The American Ninja Warrior challenge. :) She did end up with a wet foot after one of the passes.
The ferns growing on the rock I thought was very interesting.
Rock House. This is where we took our Christmas picture.
A summer azure.
Hubs was on the hunt.
Got an azure.
The sunset.
I swear that they hose the wood down before they sell it to us. Hubs was struggling to get the fire going. He was using a tote lid as billows.
Dinner to the left, bathing water to the right. I ended up throwing the corn on the cob into the fire. It was wonderful! We also had green beans in there and potatoes. I picked them up from a farm market stand at a gas station.
A young bull frog.
My birthday prize. It's a little guy that holds about 1000 songs and PJ took up 624 of those. (Hubs preloaded it for me.) I've since taken all of the 2000 PJ bootlegs out but one (Las Vegas), took the singles out and added Jack White, The Dead Weather, Raconteurs, The Afghan Whigs, The Misfits, CAKE, Fugazi, Talking Heads, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, Temple of the Dog and The Pixies. :) I needed me some more music than just PJ. Love PJ, but needed variety.
Playing cards after dark.
I won!
The net that held my many phone parts. Phone parts you ask? Why yes, Hubs ended up gutting my phone down as far as he could because my phone dropped out and into the bathing kettle of hot water. He stripped it down (thank you Leatherman!) and left it to dry overnight. It did work after the dunk. We had dried it out the best we could. About an hour later, the keyboard locked up. The next morning, Hubs put it back together and it now works as good as ever. Hooray! :) Hubs is my hero.
The morning view out of the foot window. That would be our tent light hanging there.
The blind photo camera picture out of the window above my head.
My friend, Aimee, teases me about all of the bug spray and sunscreen in the back door. Okay, we have four mostly used sunscreen containers, but we have 5 different versions of mosquito spray. Different deet. No deet. Outside, deep woods, sportsman. We have it all. After all of the teasing, Aimee admitted a need while attending a picnic. I reminded her of all of the teasing.
Yes. Yes, we are. My lil iPod came to me loaded with all of my PJ CDs. We even listened to the Mansfield, MA 2003 boot all the way home.
We had a great time. We even stopped by Sonic for the first time. Never mind that I shut three of my child's ten digits in the door. (She's okay.) We all got slushies and got on our way. Yumola! :)
4 comments:
I definitely need to spend more time visiting this post, but need to hop in the shower. So much to comment upon and not enough time to do so right now. :oS
Yup. It's a rather long post. Sorry about that. Just so much!
Ahhhhhh...just finished. LOVED it all!
What is it with people and hiking in non-appropriate footwear? We see it all. the. time. And, going off trail. Seriously? Who DOES that? ARGH!!!
The scenery was stunning. Thank you for taking the time to bring the hikes to us! :o)
Loved your camping set-up. As you saw, we did two tents, but alas, it was two small tents, so no bathing/dressing tent. One for the girlies and one for us. It worked. It was only for two nights.
What a fantabulous birthday! Banana bread cake and a beautiful little iPod pre-loaded with lots of goodies. :o) I like your substitutions, btw. ;o)
Lordy mercy! K has grown and grown and grown! It happens so slowly and subtly, and then one day you look and BAM!
As for the pocket o'protection, I'm with you there. We have low-DEET versus the Deep Woods we smothered ourselves in while in the woods. And loads of sunscreen. You can never have too much sunscream. :oP
Yeah. Sorry it was a little lengthy. I thought it was necessary. I could see y'all enjoying the Hocking Hills area. ;)
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