Hello once again. Paul and I just got back from our four day camping/hiking/canoeing trip to western VA. We had a blast. Here are some of the highlights:
1) Our first and last hike were the hardest, straight up small steep mountain trails with me gasping for air the entire time (the lungs and heart have to work a lot harder during pregnancy). About 3/4 of the way up my legs felt like jello and Paul I'm sure was tired of hearing me whine! Once we got to the top though, we had incredible views. On a good day you can see for 50 miles (although it was cloudy when we were up there).
2) We spent five hours of one day on the James river canoeing Class I and II rapids every 1/4 mile or so. It was just enough to keep from being boring but not enough to tip us over (Thank God!). We also got the chance to see where we missed the sunscreen...little bright red spots here and there.
3) After canoeing we decided to make two last hikes to some waterfalls before setting up camp for the night (we camped at a different place each night). Some random guy at a store we had stopped at said it was going to rain and we heard a bit about it on the radio, but thought maybe it would miss us. We started down the first trail and read on a sign that there was a giant rock by the waterfall with an over hang that hikers often went under to get out from the rain. We figured that if we did get caught in the rain then we could just find this rock to stay dry. Well we walked and walked and weren't finding this waterfall and then it started to sprinkle. We walked a little faster but still weren't seeing the waterfall or the rock overhang. Then the sprinkle turned to rain which then turned to an all out mountain downpour. I have never been in rain that hard in my life. We were almost an hour from the car and had to place to go. We tried to hide under a tree, but soon the tree was soaked and therefore so were we! Paul and I looked like we had both jumped into a lake! All this wouldn't have been a big deal had we not brought the digital camera along. We had absolutely no way of keeping it dry so we decided to keep going to find this rock to hide the camera under. We ran for all of 20 seconds and there it was, this huge rock overhang that would've kept un completely dry had we gone another 100 yards! I was so mad, but couldn't help but laugh in looking at how completely drenched we were as we stood under this dry rock. At least we saved the camera! When we got back to the top of the mountain where our car was parked, I stripped down in the parking lot (I had no modesty at this point and no one else was crazy enough to be out in that kind of rain) and wrapped a towel around me. We took a picture to remember this wonderful occasion!
4) One night while sleeping in our tent, I heard some noises near our tent. We had heard some smaller animals on previous nights (we were assuming raccoons, squirrels, or skunks ) so at first I didn't think anything of it. Then the noises got much closer to us and sounded very different (bigger) than the others. Some kind of large animal (deer or bear maybe) was right next to our tent. I woke Paul up and he heard it as it was walking further away from our tent, but it was enough to put him on alert mode. He had brought a small hand axe into the tent when we went to bed after reading a sign that there are bears in the area of the campground. Nothing ended up happening, but he said he couldn't fall asleep for the next hour making sure it didn't come back. I spent the night fighting my typical pregnant woman's urge top pee because I didn't want to have to leave the tent. It was an interesting night!
5) We stopped to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the natural bridge. There were also caverns (caves) that we toured near there, and a walking trail that had a few things to see along the way. Two of those things were a cave that some people had used to make gunpowder out of bat and bird droppings (see picture of me with thumbs down), and a lost river within some rock formations that no one has been able to figure out the source of or end point of. (see picture of Paul looking baffled!)
6) At our last hiking stop someone informed us that the brand new (not fully completed) National D-Day Memorial was only 10 miles from where we were and was practically on the way home. It was pretty cool to see, however the heat and humidity there were almost unbearable. It was in the direct sun with nowhere to really find shade, so we didn't stay as long as we could have.
These are just some of the highlights of our trip. We really did have a good time and it was one of the cheapest trips we've ever taken! I even managed to gain 3 pounds while we were gone, despite all the physical activity we did (which is good because I was starting to worry about not having gained any weight yet at 15 weeks). The weather was perfect...we got just enough sun to get some color, but most of the hiking was under the shade of the trees.
1) Our first and last hike were the hardest, straight up small steep mountain trails with me gasping for air the entire time (the lungs and heart have to work a lot harder during pregnancy). About 3/4 of the way up my legs felt like jello and Paul I'm sure was tired of hearing me whine! Once we got to the top though, we had incredible views. On a good day you can see for 50 miles (although it was cloudy when we were up there).
2) We spent five hours of one day on the James river canoeing Class I and II rapids every 1/4 mile or so. It was just enough to keep from being boring but not enough to tip us over (Thank God!). We also got the chance to see where we missed the sunscreen...little bright red spots here and there.
3) After canoeing we decided to make two last hikes to some waterfalls before setting up camp for the night (we camped at a different place each night). Some random guy at a store we had stopped at said it was going to rain and we heard a bit about it on the radio, but thought maybe it would miss us. We started down the first trail and read on a sign that there was a giant rock by the waterfall with an over hang that hikers often went under to get out from the rain. We figured that if we did get caught in the rain then we could just find this rock to stay dry. Well we walked and walked and weren't finding this waterfall and then it started to sprinkle. We walked a little faster but still weren't seeing the waterfall or the rock overhang. Then the sprinkle turned to rain which then turned to an all out mountain downpour. I have never been in rain that hard in my life. We were almost an hour from the car and had to place to go. We tried to hide under a tree, but soon the tree was soaked and therefore so were we! Paul and I looked like we had both jumped into a lake! All this wouldn't have been a big deal had we not brought the digital camera along. We had absolutely no way of keeping it dry so we decided to keep going to find this rock to hide the camera under. We ran for all of 20 seconds and there it was, this huge rock overhang that would've kept un completely dry had we gone another 100 yards! I was so mad, but couldn't help but laugh in looking at how completely drenched we were as we stood under this dry rock. At least we saved the camera! When we got back to the top of the mountain where our car was parked, I stripped down in the parking lot (I had no modesty at this point and no one else was crazy enough to be out in that kind of rain) and wrapped a towel around me. We took a picture to remember this wonderful occasion!
4) One night while sleeping in our tent, I heard some noises near our tent. We had heard some smaller animals on previous nights (we were assuming raccoons, squirrels, or skunks ) so at first I didn't think anything of it. Then the noises got much closer to us and sounded very different (bigger) than the others. Some kind of large animal (deer or bear maybe) was right next to our tent. I woke Paul up and he heard it as it was walking further away from our tent, but it was enough to put him on alert mode. He had brought a small hand axe into the tent when we went to bed after reading a sign that there are bears in the area of the campground. Nothing ended up happening, but he said he couldn't fall asleep for the next hour making sure it didn't come back. I spent the night fighting my typical pregnant woman's urge top pee because I didn't want to have to leave the tent. It was an interesting night!
5) We stopped to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the natural bridge. There were also caverns (caves) that we toured near there, and a walking trail that had a few things to see along the way. Two of those things were a cave that some people had used to make gunpowder out of bat and bird droppings (see picture of me with thumbs down), and a lost river within some rock formations that no one has been able to figure out the source of or end point of. (see picture of Paul looking baffled!)
6) At our last hiking stop someone informed us that the brand new (not fully completed) National D-Day Memorial was only 10 miles from where we were and was practically on the way home. It was pretty cool to see, however the heat and humidity there were almost unbearable. It was in the direct sun with nowhere to really find shade, so we didn't stay as long as we could have.
These are just some of the highlights of our trip. We really did have a good time and it was one of the cheapest trips we've ever taken! I even managed to gain 3 pounds while we were gone, despite all the physical activity we did (which is good because I was starting to worry about not having gained any weight yet at 15 weeks). The weather was perfect...we got just enough sun to get some color, but most of the hiking was under the shade of the trees.
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