Zaleski

It was one of the hottest weekends of the summer.

Heat index well over 100 degrees.

We had planned to go backpacking with some good friends

of ours.  None of us had been backpacking before and so we had all been working hard getting all the gear we needed and

stocking up on all our supplies. We had planned out for months trying to get a weekend that worked for both of us.

 We decided to just go for it.

Thankfully Zaleski is known for backpacking and had 

water sources available so we had that in our favor.

The night before John and I went and bought some

cooling rags and hoped for the best.
 
 After enjoying a good lunch at Subway we got to the trailhead
pretty early.  Here we are nervous and excited and ready! 

 
 About 4 miles in we sat and cooled off and Brad checked his blister situation which was not good, but yet he somehow 
stayed optimist and positive! 
We decided from then on he was Brad the Beast.
 
 Our first water stop, we already needed a good top off.
I still don't know what we would have done if there
hadn't been water.  All the streams and every source of water seemed to be dried up, except for this pond.
 

It was so worth it. 

Every blister, every drop of sweat, every silly deliriously tired comments, all the good, bad and ugly. We can't wait to go again.

Trying to cool down and enjoy some supper

but we didn't make a fire because it was way to hot!  

The next morning when we would find our clothes still wet

we would wish we had made a fire.

All smiles at the campground

Getting a fairly early start and enjoying some

of God's beautiful nature.

Cooling down in a cave like rock for a bit.

On the road again!

We saw lots of cool mushrooms!

And sassafras was our friend for sure this weekend!

The smell energized us and kept us going;)

Trying to be excited to eat lunch.  It was so hot it was hard to be excited about eating but we knew we had to. We thought this log

seemed to be a great lunch stop.

After hiking the rest of the day we were ready for another

night of rest.  Our campsite was really nice and open.  

Day 3 is here and we are motivated to get to the truck

and get on fresh clothes and cold water and some fresh food!

I think most of the day that is all we talked about was what 

we were going to order to eat! HA!

Motivated Men

Still enjoying some beautiful sites.

This was Brad's chance to take a short cut but 

nope, he stuck it out with us, blisters and all.

Brad the Beast.

At this point we were all starting to smell amazing!

Another awesome place to rest.

We made it back to the road and then we lost Brad.  

He was walking so fast, the end was in view and he was almost

there.  I think he made it back to the truck a good 10 minutes before the rest of us!💪😊 He was focused on AIR CONDITIONING!

 

We made it!!  While sure, it could have been a little cooler

it was an amazing experience and I just can't WAIT to do it again. 

Get ready Brad and Amber, the Appalachian is waiting for us. 👊