Autumn backpack on the Appalachian Trail

This past weekend Mat, Maddy and I were dropped off at Sam's Gap right off of an interstate. We threw on our backpacks, climbed through a gate and down to another highway, walked along the highway for a minute and then we hit our trail. It was an awesome time of year with the leaves changing.

Here is our trail dog...

 

Maddy finally taking a break...

 

After hiking for some hours, we arrived at the top of Big Bald Mountain, which had a great 360 degree view of all the mountains. We were hanging out enjoying the view, when a family with little kids came hiking up the trail to enjoy the view. I was thinking hey, that's cool, they are out for a pretty good walk. Then Mat pointed out that they parked right down below. Maddy and I are on top of Big Bald.

After being on top of Big Bald we hiked up the next hill and we noticed a bunch of nets were set up for catching birds. A few feet more down the trail we ran into one of the volunteers catching the birds and he told us what they were doing. AND that they had caught a sharp shinned hawk (a smaller forest raptor) which they were going to put a band on and take some measurements shortly. Were we interested in watching? Mat and I were like, uh, of course. Turns out that Maddy and I got to walk up and down along the trail while Mat watched them take the measurements and put the band on. They came back out from their research spot behind a rock with the hawk and let Mat release it. I got to see it it up close. It was pretty cool.

Then we continued hiking for another hour or so, set up camp and then the next day we hiked most of the rest of the way, so that we only had a few miles to bust out in the morning to meet Sara by 10 a.m.. It all worked out perfectly. We woke up and hiked for about 15 minutes or so in the dark and then it was a beautiful sunrise to watch while walking out. We ended up arriving at the Nolichucky River trailhead about 1.5 hours early! But it was fine, we hung out at the hostel right near the trailhead and checked out the Nolichucky River.

Independent Thoughts

Food dehydrator

This morning we woke up to the gentle sound of rain falling on our roof. Can you see the rain hitting the road? At this point it is at the peak of the rain storm.

We also awoke to the smell of pineapple. Yesterday at Goodwill, we made an impulse purchase and bought a $12 food dehydrator (as seen on TV). Our only hope was to get home and actually have it turn on. Which it did. So we cut up some kiwi, pineapple and bananas to try out this new toy. By mid-day today they were at a nice chewy texture, so we took them off and we are going to take them out backpacking with us. I also cut up some apples and we'll see how they do. The manual told us to dip the apples in a lemon juice solution before putting on the dehydrator, so we may be eating dried apples with a hint of lemon. :)

Here is Madera with her cone on, I put it on her this morning, so that I have record of how ridiculous the cone is.

And some photos of our yard...

 

I was so excited for this purchase for our house.

 

Planting grass...again

Today Mat and I planted some more grass where we had dug a 3-foot trench from the road to the house in order for Mat to lay pex to bring city water to our house. We planted grass earlier this spring, but either Maddy ate all the seed or it just didn't rain enough to start it growing like crazy. This time we pretty much followed the directions exactly.  Although we didn't have any straw to throw over top of the newly sowed seed, we improvised by putting some leaves over top...we'll see if it works.Last night in the forecast it was predicted that we would experience 50 mph winds and have a 60% chance of rain. We are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of this so called precipitation. (I really thought I'd left the arid western states!) I think it is possible that is has rained more out in Colorado and Utah this summer than in this supposed semi-tropical southern state.This weekend Mat, Maddy and I are going to backpack another section of the Appalachian Trail. Our trail head is just off of Interstate 26 about 20 minutes from our house then we'll hike on over to Erwin, TN.  Sara is being a willing driver for us by dropping us off on the side of the interstate and then a few days later coming to pick us up when we get done.  What will take us a couple days will take Sara about an hour to drive between...I really don't think we are paralleling the interstate we head over some hills and mountains and then veer back to the interstate for the pickup.

Joys of Gardening...

Currently, this area that we live in is experiencing a drought (along with many others across the country). Our grass is pretty brown and hurts to walk across barefoot. We had been hosing our garden down but recently we purchased a couple of soaker hoses.

Wow! What a difference it makes. Our garden seems to be getting bigger every time we check on it. Our bell peppers are growing like crazy. I saw a mini bell pepper (the size of a thumb nail) and then next day when I checked, it was the size of a child's fist...now I am looking forward to the day they turn red! We have so many tomatoes that if they all survive until they are ripe, we are going to be hoping that all of our neighbors love tomatoes as much as we do!

Yesterday, in our perusal of the garden to see what new has popped up...we found that a zuchini was growing. It is tiny right now, but I am really looking forward to having zuchini (from our garden) for our stir-frys and for zuchini bread. We have four plants, do you think we'll have enough zuchini?

At the moment, our biggest fear is that we are going to wake up one morning or come home from work to find our garden trampled. There is a cow next to us that has figured out how to get out of her electric fence. It is pretty interesting to watch her (a cow) slide one of her front hooves between the wire of the fence, then slip her head under, then the next front paw and then the two back legs!

We have been enjoying our garden, if you couldn't tell. As all people know who have grown anything, it is pretty satisfying to plant something and then eat it later!

Shindig on the Green

We went down to the Martin Luther King Jr park in Asheville to listen to some local bluegrass music. It was sweet...they allowed us to bring our dog and a picnic if we wanted plus it was free! What a great date night. It was a pretty nice setup...off to the front were actual bands playing and then you could walk around the perimeter of the park there were groups of 3 to 7 people jamming together underneath tents. Some of the guys looked like they might have been the originators of the bluegrass movement...but they probably just picked it up from their parents.

 

At the Shindig on the Green, Maddy was a friend maker, lots of little kids and even adults wanted to come and pet her. It was awesome that everyone was so friendly and that they even allowed dogs to come hang out. This vet was enjoying the show. If you can, check out his pack on the back of his rig.

Our walk this week consisted of going up the Parkway to Craggy Gardens and then walking down to Douglas Falls. It was a wonderful hike, if a bit on the humid side, but we hardly saw anyone. We were able to eat our lunch at the falls in solitude. Along the way we saw lots of mushrooms and a different type of rhododendron in bloom.

 

Madera had a grand old time, she was much better behaved than last weekend, when we attempted to go for a bike ride, but she jumped on the first person she saw. We are trying to nix that bad trait of hers, so we turned around and went back to the truck. On this hike she was more distracted by the stuff around, so she didn't jump on the backpackers and hikers we saw until the very end. We keep hearing that 3 is the magic age when dogs settle down...only 17 months to go...if the vet who guessed Maddy's age is correct.

Walk in the Rhododendron - Roan Mountain, TN

Mat had heard from a co-worker that the rhododendron was suppose to be a big thing out at Roan Mountain in Tennessee. So we decided to go check it out. After a couple hours of driving in the car, we arrived. There was hardly any parking at the trailhead, it was so popular, but we got a spot as someone pulled out. It was a beautiful sunny day to be out for a ridge walk. We definitely hit the catawba rhododendron at peak blooming time and the orange of the flaming azalea was cool to see all mixed into the view.

Not only was this hike very beautiful, but Maddy was a perfect trail dog, even with all the people. She didn't jump on anyone and she listened to us when we called her. One of our better hiking days with our dog!

This flower is Gray's Lily which would be listed as Threatened/Endangered if the Fish & Wildlife Service were allowed to add any more species to the Threatened/Endangered list. Roan Mtn is one of the few places to catch a glimpse of this flower.

Look how tall the rhododendron is?  As you can tell I am having a ball!

grocery shopping in the south

I needed a few things at the grocery store, so on my way home I stopped at the large local grocery store near my work. I went around the store picking up the necessary items and went to check out at the self-checkout aisle. After realizing that I had too many produce items which annoy the checker, because the machine pauses and I have to stare at the checker until they realize they need to do something, I went to a regular checkout.

Just as it was my turn to get my groceries rang up, the security beeper goes off. (You know the one that goes off and it usually is someone's cell phone making it go off.) Well, one of the managers went out to see what it was and as my checker is starting to scan my groceries I happen to glance out the window and see the manager yelling at someone and he is throwing his juice bottle at the customer/s. The customer didn't do what the manager asked, instead they hopped in their car and started reversing out to drive away. Meanwhile, in the store my checker mentions to another manager who happened to be walking by the checkstands, but hadn't looked out the window, that he might want to check on this guy. So as he's running out the front of the store as backup, the first manager has pulled out a KNIFE...yes, a knife and has punctured not just one but two of the tires as the car is trying to leave. Well, as the second manager is running out to help he pulls out his knife and before the car can get away, a third tire is punctured. This doesn't seem to affect the car, because it drives off out of the parking lot. And that is that. (I can't imagine that there is anything worth stealing from a grocery store that is worth more money than the three tires that they are going to have to replace!)

My checker resumed checking my groceries and after paying her, I left the store. I have learned a very good lesson here, they don't call the police on shoplifters...and store managers carry knives out here..so I won't ever want to get into a disagreement with one of them on how the price really was 99 cents not $2.99.