I crave fresh air, the sounds of water flowing in a nearby stream and the birds chirping in the morning all while the sunlight tries to peak in the tent. Camping. It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely for Gillian and myself. Backpacking up a mountain, setting up camp, collecting wood, filtering water, creating fire, eating the surprisingly delicious Mountain House freeze dried food, getting dirty (well, mostly- I do keep my pocket shower handy), and being outdoors in the middle of the woods is refreshing and soothing.

This time around, we spent our trip with an entire group of people I’ve been wanting to backpack with for a long time! I was a little intimidated at first because I knew they were hardcore backpackers. For example, we were suppose to do this same trip during the winter…in the freezing cold. I was almost up for it, but decided it probably wasn’t the best idea if we weren’t prepared with the right gear. They also tend to get in a lot of mileage. I’m a trooper and can probably handle it, but I also like lounging out in a hammock or wandering around trying to find a cache.

Anyhow, we went to Roan Mountain and hiked to Grassy Ridge Bald. Gillian and I parked in Carvers Gap and started our journey around sunset. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing the view was during the sunset. It was hard to keep on hiking when all I wanted to do was stop and take pictures. Keep in mind, I’m not a landscape photographer. I admire those people because it is sure difficult getting the image you see in person to come out in the image in a photograph. Seriously….hard to do.

We finally got to the top of Grassy Ridge Bald and set up camp. Later that evening, a few other of our group members joined us and the next day, we met up with the rest of the group. We hiked back to Carvers Gap in the morning and went to the Rhododendron Gardens . The flowers were expected to be in full bloom (especially since it was Rhododendron Festival weekend), but NONE of the flowers bloomed in the gardens. In fact, we saw more Rhododendron flowers while backpacking to Grassy Ridge Bald than we did in the gardens. As you can imagine, that was a quick tour. We visited a few other scenic areas and headed back to our site. If we had more time, we would have hiked to the Overmountain AT shelter, but that will be for another trip. When we got back to camp, we lounged around, ate dinner, and watched another beautiful sunset.

Overall, we had an amazing weekend. Everyone was so nice and knew how to have a good time. We laughed a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We are thankful we got invited on the trip! Oh, and before you ask, YES, those are kilts and YES, we had five dogs camping with us. lol