Saturday, April 8, 2017

Babymoon, Part II

   Day 2: On Sunday, April 2nd we went to Vogel State Park which was just about a mile down the road from where we were staying. When I saw the sign and it sounded familiar, I texted my dad (when we had reception) if that was where we had gone about 18 years ago with Bear Hair Trail. He said yes, so I suggested to Michael that we go there first. All I remember about that story was hiking with my parents and Zach and I kept asking "Are we almost there?" and our dad would keep responding, "Just around this turn." The sign said it was only a 3 mile loop after the approach trail, but Michael and I probably only went 1 mile- to wherever the wooden bridge is.
  We walked a total of 3.5 miles at Vogel State Park, between part of Bear Hair Trail, and the easier trail that went around the lake. Michael was a super gentleman/ such a sweet and kind husband/ future dad on the whole vacation, even more than he normally is. He always waited for me or slowed down if he saw I wasn't walking as fast due to wanting to take it slow while being pregnant. He kept asking how I was doing, or ask if I wanted to turn around. He'd help me down or pull me up over a steep area, checking that I was drinking enough water, and would sit on a big rock with me whenever I needed a break. On the way back Michael yelped as he pointed at a snake. It's always a tiny brown patterned one and I didn't even see it at first, but he has told me that baby snakes are often more dangerous because they have more venom in their teeth. I'm sure he hates every time I say, "Aw, he's so cute!"But they are so cute. I guess that one was an Amish snake, because once I pulled my phone out to take a picture he quickly slithered away. We went into the gift shop between the two trails and Michael bought a cool mug that had a water color painting of a fox on it. 
   After Vogel State Park we drove to Neel Gap outfitters which was also close by, but in the other direction. Michael had shown me a lot of pictures from there before. It's one of the first "stores" along the Appalachian Trail where people can restock on clothes and shoes. The main picture shown from Neels Gap is a bunch of boots tied together and thrown over the branches of the trees. This is because they usually don't get good enough shoes and after the first few days of hiking from Amicalola Falls or Springer Mountain, the shoes are already worn out and they need new ones. While we were there I bought a pretty blue shirt that says "Appalachian Soul". I told Michael to let me know which day he wanted to hike part of the AT so I could wear my shirt that day.
  Michael also said that sometimes people use Neel Gap as an ending point (especially if they are coming all the way from Mount Katahdin in Maine!), so they sign and date the shoes, then fling them into the tree. We went back home after that, had lunch, and took a nap. Then we drove to Dollar General to buy cleaning products since Sasha had gotten sick in the bed that morning. While the sheets were being washed, we walked towards the waterfall in neighborhood again since it was only supposed to be another 1.5 miles from our road, but after that distance we still weren't there so we turned around since it was starting to get dark and I felt winded. Michael gave me an "energy kiss" which turned me all giggly as I walked back up the rest of the hill behind him and Sasha.  I kept track of how far we walked each day (according to the Health app) and adding in Vogel State Park, we reached 6.2 miles that day which was 16,640 steps for me. A great goal!

1 comment:

  1. An interesting, and full day. Lots of good facts in this post. -D

    ReplyDelete