hiking and camping

last weekend, we had our first adventure doing a hike in.  below is a link to one hiker's experience with the trail.  the one tag where this hiker decided to put no answer was "hike difficulty." the answer HARD! would have been more fitting. benton mackaye/duncan ridge trail to toccoa river suspension bridge

the difficulty of the hike may have derived from the 80 pound pack i had strapped to my back. you should never carry more than half of your body weight and attempt to hike over a mountain in 90 degree weather. if you do attempt it, all of your bones will be sore, not to mention the muscles you have forgotten about or never even knew you had. despite this, we had loads of fun! seriously.

our campsite was private and beautiful, right at the edge of the toccoa river. quite timingly, mark bittman, the minimalist, of the new york times recently did a story on 101 picnic food ideas (i love lists as you may have been able to tell) so, we had a delicious dinner of cold peanut noodle salad with cucumbers and a lovely edamame salad with mint that david discovered.

we read books (i started a new one- eat, love, pray- since a confederacy of dunces is too big to carry), frolicked in the refreshing water of the toccoa, admired the suspension bridge we could see from out campsite, and slept soundly in our very cool tent (thanks mom and dad). our bug spray did a most excellent job at keeping the mosquitos at bay, but all 3 of us had ticks! such is life outdoors in the georgia summer months.

we have already started planning our next outing for mid-october when both of our football teams have the weekend off. instead of a hike in, this outing may consist of a hike followed by camping nearer to our car...not sure if i can handle another weekend of having a BMI of 36 (with pack weight)!