Saturday 4-16 More Rain / Hiking Spring Hollow & Buck Ridge

 

Playing in the rain

Our day started out with rain that hung around until about noon. The weather site had indicated it was going to stay around all day. We were excited when it went away because we could go hiking.

The rain was ok, Larry was entertained by watching folks in the campground, kids were playing in the rain, some folks were trying to cook while others were trying to light a fire to cook, these were all tent campers who didn't have other ways of preparing their meals. Some people gave up, they packed up their wet stuff and left, others didn't show up. I was glad that we had the Minnie, it keeps us dry and with our stove/oven I can make most anything.

After lunch we went on a 3.5 mile hike. Today we finished hiking the trails in the park. Today's trails were Spring Hollow and Buck Ridge. We started at the parking lot in the campground and hiked Spring Hollow trail, which was .9 miles. Then we picked up Buffalo River trail. We hiked this about a mile to Buck Ridge trail, which was .8 mile. Buck Ridge took us back to the parking lot. The trails were very nice and went through the trees, across a creek a couple of times and up and down the hills. When they went up the hill it was very gradual so you really didn't feel you climbed that much, however, your heart still beat a little faster. With all the rain we had it was amazing the trails weren't muddy,  I guess because of all the rock. As we hiked we met a couple with two dogs. We saw butterflies, a red-headed woodpecker and a snail going across the trail. In the last couple of weeks we have seen the trees' leaves coming back and the forest is really looking beautiful. We had a great hike.

The snail

 

Tyler bend amphitheater

Campfire circle at the amphitheater

Spring flowing by the trail

While we were hanging around the Minnie we read. For dinner I barbecued some Cajun style Andouille (smoked sausage made with pork). After dinner I finished 26,000 steps. This put me in 3rd place in my group.