First Multi Day Back Country Trip - Stone Mountain State Park - 4/1 to 4/3 - 19.5 miles

We've gathered some momentum in collecting our hiking gear and set out on a trial weekend excursion into the back country setting of Stone Mountain State Park, NC.  Putting in for a half day of work on Friday, we set out at 12:30 in the afternoon following a late night of packing and preparing food items, etc.  Since we haven't acquired everything yet as a family and with the pending forecast of lows in the 30's and some rain, the girls stay home, leaving us boys to set out with packs in tow.  Along with 2 friends, Nathan and Ayden, who are scouting friends who share our thirst for something a little beyond the fun of car camping, we hit the road, wolfing down some Hardee's burgers as we attempt to make good time to the park, as we are racing all others to hit the check-fin location for first come, first serve campsites in the back packer's campsites on the north west section of the park.  We are hoping to be able to land site A, as it's closest to the one way trail head, and we've come equipped with some bulky food items anticipating being able to pack more, having to travel only a couple of miles in.  Upon arrival, we find ourselves the first arrivals, thus giving us our choice of the 4 currently available sites.  One of the park rangers arrived at the trail head, just as we are pulling our gear out of the vehicle.  He advises that he's returned from a check of the sites and it was snowing up at the site D.  After a little Q&A, we learn that site A is the closest to water and just next to a waterfall.  Assuring us that there is no concern of vehicle security, we lock up, leaving most of our water behind and set out for camp.  The first 3/4 of a mile is absolutely killer uphill, then the widows creek trail becomes more tolerable, passing through a couple of small water crossings, which feed into Widows Creek on our right.



Mason on the trail.


There are wooden bridges at a couple of them, which everyone but I are inclined to take.  I, in my waterproof boots, elect to have fun crossing through the shallower section, rock hopping my way across.  Upon arrival to site A, we are impressed with the size of the camp, considering the park has a limit of 6 campers per site.  Our first order of business is to drum up some fallen timber and get a fire going, so we can establish a good bed of coals as quickly as possible.  Despite our intention of putting off setting up shelter till later, something compelled us to set up anyway.  Maybe it was the fact that both parties came with recently purchased tents and were wanting to get them set up and ensure that there were no problems.



Nemo Meta 2p




The Nemo and the REI 1/4 dome


10 minutes later, it's back to building a fire.  There was already some cut wood onsite, as indicated by the Ranger previously, as they were doing some camp maintenance by clearing out some widow makers.  However the wood was fresh cut and not likely to burn too well and definitely hard to start.  Nathan packed in some kindling and we foraged the woods for some aged branches on the ground and soon got the fire going.  After a good foundation of coals we threw on a bag of mesquite chunks I had packed in and waited for the wind to assist in getting the chunks to flame out and ready to spread out for the dinner.  Since it was Nathan's birthday, the choice of dinner was some 1-inch rib eyes cooked directly on the coals, along with foil wrapped taters... Dirty Steaks - a method dating back to the cave man days, and surprisingly, a preferred method of Dwight Eisenhower.  Though we were a little uncertain as to what to expect of the results, we were pleased with the outcome, which was not ashy and topped with some blue cheese butter that I made and froze the night before.  The two young ones couldn't eat all of theirs, so we finished theirs off too, making for a completely stuffed ending of the day and a great start to the weekend.  We finished clean up, hung our trash and I put all of our remaining food items in a 3 liter container, which also hung from a tree, then by 9pm-ish, turned in for the night.  The night consisted of 3 sessions of rain, mixed in with some high winds.  Both tents held up well.  While my single wall Nemo was wet to the touch the next morning, our gear was dry.  This is expected behavior for a single wall tent and well worth the just under 3 pound packed weight, as it does the job just fine, with room for both packs and foot gear in the vestibules for Mason and I.

First up and out of the tent on Saturday, Mason and I took a quick warm up hike up to site B, just to check out the difference, which we found it to be noticeably more sloped.  On our way back, we noticed a shiny object and upon inspection found it to be a button/pin that was face down.  I pinned it to my jacket to show off the fact that "I HEART Penguins"  When we returned to camp, we pulled out some ham and eggs and bagged them in a 1 quart ziploc and made bag omelets using the JetBoil.  Ayden and Nathan joined us for the chow down and a couple of grown up cups of Starbucks instant Vai.  Really roughing it so far....  Nathan informs me that they had a visitor over night, who munched it's way through a bag of David Sunflower seeds, leaving them with a bag of hulls.  It's fine.. we brought a good supply of home made granola and will be more than willing to share on the trail.

Speaking of the trail, after a quick clean up, we batten down the hatches in camp and set out for a day of exploration in the Stone Mountain trails.  We start out with a quick 1.5 mile hike back to our van, where we kept the cooler with roast beef and swiss to make some sandwiches for our lunch that day.  Into the van for a quick ttrip to a local general store to pick up some AA's for my kodak, which forced us to cell phone camera on Friday evening.  With AA's in hand, I realize I left the kodak back at camp...lol.  Oh, well, the cell cameras will have to do.  We set out north from the upper trail head parking lot taking the stone mountain loop up the 1.7 mile climb using a good amount of switchbacks to get to the summit.  Once we got up top, we enjoyed a break and ate our sandwiches and shared a canister of pringles.  Following lunch, we explored the rest of the summit.  Simply amazing how this mountain appears to be one solid chunck of ROCK. 



Posing at the Bonzai tree.

 Trees seemingly split through the rock somehow.  It's quite a marvel to see the tree root its way down under or into the rock.  We also had the weather turn on us while atop of Stone Mountain.  Mason and I busted out the rain jacket/windbreakers to combat the snow/sleet, which lasted about 10 minutes, followed by sun. 

Here comes the sleet

Based on our forecast provided prior to our trip, this should make way for warmer weather in the days ahead.  But for now, we still remain happy to be sporting our under armour cold gear.  We then doubled back to the trailhead, then continued south to hit the views of Stone Mountain Falls.

At the top of the falls



Mason and Ayden at the base of the Stone Mountain Falls




Two Buddies at the base of Stone Mountain Falls


From the Stone Mountaoin Falls, we proceded to hike to the Middle and Lower Falls. Along the trails to the lower Falls, we found a series of caves, the first of which has some waterfall-like trickling streams of water that tasted AWEFUL, but still made for an excellent photo opp.

In the first cave

The entrance to the first cave

Sitting in a natural throne to the left of our second cave.

Between the Middle and Lower Falls, there was some challenging water crossings, that resulted in me giving piggy backs to the boys, while Nathan shimmy'd his way across using a partially fallen tree.  About 3/4 of the way, the tree lowered to a point where Nathan had to drop and take on water in his shoes.  He went sockless for a while afterwards. 




Crossing the creek on our way to the lower falls

 The trails remained absolutely vacant of other hikers in the middle and lower trails, which was a good change of pace from the Stone Mountain loop.  At the end of the lower falls, the trail continued, despite a sign indicating the trail ends.  We couldn't resist, but found that the trail eventually connected to a horse trail.  At this time, we decided to turn back and make our way back to the parking lot and make the short drive back to the parking lot.  The trail back was entertaining thanks to the fun witted cadence calling of Nathan, who got the boys making up dozens of variations of "Sergeant, Sergeant turning Green/Brown/Red"  Most popular being turning Blue, cuz someone dropped a deuce in his shoe".  This lasted all the way to the steep steps to make your way back up the Stone Mountain Falls, where we elected to take a couple of bench breaks along the way.  At this point, we are about 8 miles into our day 9 if you count Mason and I's D-site warmup.  The final mile back to the vehicle is set up with an unannounced race by Mason to beat everyone.  Mason beat me to the van and Ayden was able to edge out his dad, making everyone content in one upping their old man.(Hey Nathan is 30 now.)  We get back to the parking area for the trail head entrance to the backpack camper area and in our rush to chase down Ayden, realize I left the Aluminum foil back at the van, which is a very important element of any hobo meal.  After Mason and I climb a steep mountainside in search for more dry, aged floor timber, he and I set back to the parking lot for the foil, continuing our bonding sessions that we've been working on through out the day.  It sure is refreshing to share time with each other without interruption of TV, DSI, PC, phone, and whatever else.  As we close in on the trail head area, we spook up 4 doe, making their way to higher ground for the night.  We stop to observe them, as they do the same.  While they aren't walking up to let us pet them, they are seemingly unconcerned for their safety as they continue to graze in our presence, as they slowly move on past.  After we get the foil, we had to mentally toughen up for that straight shot up first half of the way back to camp.  Upon our return, Nathan and Ayden have a blazing fire going and we are all bushed and quickly set up for preparing our hobos' consisting of Bubba Burgers, onions, carrots, potato slices and garlic.  10 minutes per side seemed appropriate, but the consensus was that the potatoes were still a little undercooked, but after the day's workout, we were in no mood to re-pack and cook further.  It was a race to get cleaned up and packed away, so we could turn in.  After a quick made up spooky(not) story called "It's A Coming", laughter made way to buzz saws.

The next morning, Mason and I were up again, this time intent on pushing the pace to get breakfast going early and start breaking down camp.  We lured Ayden out with a hot cup of cocoa, followed by another bag omelet for Mason, instant grits for Ayden, more instant coffee for Nathan and I, then the jetfuel ran out as we were getting the last water shy of a boil for our double dose of cool grits.  We quickly washed up, broke down camp, strapped our packs and made our way back to the vehicle. 




Ayden and Nathan navigating a water crossing.




Mason, followed by Ayden, then Nathan.

 We again made another batch of sandwiches and set out for the lower trail head parking lot.  Once there we set out on Wolf Rock trail, followed by Cedar Rock Trail in search of the Park's mountain climbing section, which we ended up finding as we ended up on the Stone Mountain loop trial, as it made it's way back to the Hutchinson Homestead area.  This gave us all a close up view of the steep terrain of stone mountain's base.  We spent another hour here, rock hopping and the boys had Nathan chasing them up the climbable bottom section of the mountain face.  I, opted for an observational view of their climb. 



Some HUGE boulders, stacked 10-20 feet tall at the base of Stone Mountain in the mountain climbing area of the park




Ayden leading the way for Mason and Nathan to follow up at the bottom of the mountain face



They made it a little ways up.  They will need some gear to climb any higher.




An odd tree in the Hutchinson Homestead area with Stone Mountain as a backdrop.



We toured the Hutchinson Homestead for a few minutes and then made our way back to the parking lot, where we claimed an end to our trip, right at the 48 hour mark of our arrival.  All in all, we put another 3.5 miles of trail behind us on the day.  This brought Mason and I to a grand total of 19.5 miles on the trip.  I'm really proud of Mason.  He may have been the caboose for most of the trip's mileage, but he did it without complaint.  Considering his personality, it comes as no surprise.  He took on a physical 48 hours in weather that was less than pleasant when it was time for relaxation.  When asked if he had a good weekend, his response was can we do it again for my birthday?  One down.... two girls to go :-)