Great hiking weather!

[castufari]

Woke up, caught up on paperwork then decided this weather was too nice to pass up on. Toss the kid in the car and drove to South Mountain State Park, which is outside of Morganton, NC.

This park as a rough history. When Hurrican Ivan rolled through NC this place flooded bad. The bridge in washed away and many of the trails were destroyed. After years of rebuilding it's back in action with a new bridge and visitor's center.

We arrived and found a spot. Decided we were in the mood for views so we hiked Chestnut Knob. It's a tad steep. 2 miles to the overlook but the first 1/2 mile has a 900' rise (and that's rolling in areas). Ok, it is steep, keeps the bikes out though. My daughter and I quickly scaled it. Ok, we didn't really but after a few breaks we made it to the ridge. After a detour for another overlook we made easy work of the 1.5 mile hike to the end of the trail. (The kid ran most of the way, I told her the first one there got to pick dinner).

Made it to the end and saw a few people sharing the outcrop. Snacks were being passed around, water shared with those who brought their dogs. A great crowd enjoying a kicka** view.

After a couple of hours we left to return home.

"First one to the top picks out dinner!" (no contest, Adele's in Morganton is great home cooking, esp the pot roast. the coconut cream pie is worth a cheat meal)


View from the overlook:



View from the overlook with Gabi's head in the way: (to the left of the picture is Carpenter's Knob. To the left just off the picture you could see Charlotte, NC...it was so clear today.


Proof that God is a Tarheel:

[ODB]

Looks like a great day! Thanks for getting the kid outside. I'm not seeing enough of that these days.

[James Newman]

This post totally made me want to get out and hike. I don't know how, but next weekend, I am going to go hiking somewhere. Yes, this is the time of year when it is awesome. I typically hike in the summer all over NE New Mexico but winter hiking is teriffic. Thanks for the moment of daydreaming...

Newman

[castufari]

Originally Posted by ODB

Looks like a great day! Thanks for getting the kid outside. I'm not seeing enough of that these days.

We hit a point in our lives this fall and had to make a decision - do we raise an outsdoorsy kid, or do we raise a bookworm? Outdoorsy won hands down. The first step was getting her into some outdoor activities. She loves hiking but she needed something for her. Bike riding she's not good at. Skateboarding? Not really. Horses? That was the ticket.

Everything comes with a cost. When the oak out front finally grew in the way of the dish I decided to cancel it. I told the mrs, she was fine with it since we have been relying more on netflix for entertainment. The child didn't want to lose her TV time but when I got her into horses she easily accepted. TV is a heck of a lot cheaper but there is a physical cost.

She loves being outside if the weather is appealing. I do too as does the mrs. I don't want her to end up one of the statistics, like the kids down the street who are HUGE (junk food and endless TV will do that).

Over dinner last night (we'll stop at some local diner on the way home if it's near dinner time) she said that she wanted to hike as many different parks as she can. Said "dad, if it's warm next weekend can we go to that mountain we saw?"

[ODB]

Sweet! Our little one collects hiking medallions from all the parks we visit (a little easier for me since I work in the state park system) but she can't get one until she has hiked a trail. We recently started geocaching (link to our latest trip) and she really enjoys that. My boy (almost 17) is a physically fit person and we went out for a game of disc golf yesterday. It was a blast. Any reason to go outside is a good reason!

[emartin10]

Dude, great call on the outdoorsy child. It looks like a beautiful hike too!

E