A Great Time With A Friend

My nephew was home on leave, from air force, last week and we went camping. 1st time I've been since last spring. We stayed at a lake near Bristol Tn in the Cherokee National Forest, and the Appalachian trail. We took canoe and his kayak for playing on the lake, and hiking stuff for the AT. First night I had my hammock strung up to a couple of pine trees and my nephew was sleeping near the lake in his. The weather was a bit warm with clear skies. I was asleep in my hammock about 10pm when I was awaken from the sound of claws scratching on wood. I opened my eyes just in time to see a couple of racoons climbing the tree I was strapped to. It was a weird thing seeing the silhouette of their bodies hugging the tree as they ascended. I was up in a flash. My nephew shined his light over toward me wondering what the noise was. He laughed when he seen the eyes of racoons in my tree. Why my tree? Or maybe it was their tree?

Just to let you know, the chicken in the picture was precooked. I did make some skillet biscuits that turned out pretty good once we scraped the burned part off. Oh I broke the front deck plate off my canoe, unn.

 

Next morning we drove over the mountain and into Damascus Virginia. We caught a shuttle back to the mountain we crossed that morning, to where the AT crosses known as Low Gap. It would be a 14 mile hike on the trail back to Damascus where we left the vehicle. We enjoyed the trail and each other's company. There were numerous places along the trail to camp. The trees were still green with plenty of leaves, so the mountain views were limited. We stopped at a shelter and met a thru hiker that was from New Hampshire. He left his pack and headed down another trail where there was marked a water source. We left him a packaged cookie on his pack, and left.

 

...really enjoyed the photos and script. It's fabulous stuff.

 

Pardon me for this comment. My good friend in California is coming in December and we had plans of a real camping although not an overnight trip. It was just to reminisce our scouting days. We were classmates in grade school. I already had 2 prospects for a campsite where we will cook our lunch boy scout style. Yesterday I received news that he died of a heart attack.

 

Heavy stuff - life isn't always fair it seems. I had an experience a couple of years ago when a colleague died. I went camping anyway and while I was away I painted a memorial on a rock. I think I posted it somewhere on Camping Babble. Thank you for feeling that you could share this sad news with this community.

 

That is sad Alexandoy, sorry to hear.