Despite the rain...

... I had an AWESOME weekend! I am seriously grinning from ear to ear just thinking about it! :D Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch up with Stephanie who was in town from Morocco and leaving for New England. It is terribly interesting to have such a well-traveled friend but getting face time is hard work! We are already planning through e-mail our next night of talking each other's ears off, peppered with good food and art projects. I can't wait! After class, I went to visit my friend at her job Thursday evening. Our schedules have been clashing for two weeks now - so acting silly at her job was our time to do some catching up. Christina & I. Good times. Friday morning, I scrambled to pack for another backpacking trip. After my shower, I just threw everything in my pack and ran out the door. I then tormented myself thinking of anything I may have forgotten as I drove to meet with my group. Turns out, I remembered to bring everything except camera batteries - which explains why I have NO good pics from this weekend :( Fortunately, Brian brought his camera so I'll share those pics when I get a copy. That'll turn that frown upside down! :) I've always wanted to say that! **clears throat** Moving on.... This trip was to Shenandoah National Park. The terrain is much easier to hike but there are no campfires allowed. Given we'd be accompanied by a tropical storm all weekend - the terrain was going to suck and starting a campfire wasn't happening anyway. Such is life. We hiked in Friday evening after stopping for mexican food and a box of wine. Yes, a box of wine. You can't backpack with any glass containers - inside the box is a bag which makes it easy to fit into the pack - with me now? We figured we needed something to raise our spirits out in the wet woods. And raise our spirits it did! :) Sunset blush by Franzia never tasted so good - in a Nalgene bottle nonetheless! We killed the entire bag the first night. As usual, everyone went to bed except for Brian, Neil, and I. We decided since we didn't have a campfire to shoot the shit around, we'd do some exploring. In our Franzia and So-Co (only shared by the last night crowd - hee hee) induced state, we thought we'd try to find the nearby waterfall....in the dark.....in the rain....having never been there before. Um yeah, so I'm sure you already figured out we never quite made it there. We did manage to pass by our campsite three or four times, raid the snacks, and fall asleep in the Crazy Creek chairs. Good times, good times. I blame it all on Brian's poor compass reading skills - all of it. Saturday morning we woke up. Yup, still raining. The boys slept in hammocks. The tarps that came with them turned out not to be waterproof so they all woke up drenched. I was happy to have woken up in a dry tent - stupid boys ;) I realized the night before that I had left certain personal products in the van - stupid, stupid me. Fortunately, Brian and Catie agreed to hike back to the van with me to retrieve them. Thanks to the non-stop rain, the trails looked more like a creek bed than a trail. We found a crayfish scooting along right in the middle of the trail!!! Thanks to being "packless" we managed to make the hike back to the van in less than an hour. We were exhausted and wet, so we decided to rest in the van for a while. I locked myself in the trunk - long story. After Brian rescued me, I decided I'd take care of my personal needs while they were laying down in the van. There wasn't a car in sight since we had gotten there, and with the weather as it was, I didn't expect there would be any. Wouldn't you know the second I dropped my pants, five or six cars drove by!! Yeah, well I hope they enjoyed the view b/c it wasn't like I could do anything about it! After our short respite, we hiked back to camp. Yup, still raining. When we got back to camp we found the guys under the community tarp boiling water and the girls still in the tent. May have something to do with the fact one gender was smart enough to stay dry while the other . . . ok, this goes without saying ;) I cooked up some mean blueberry pancakes and then we decided what the day's plan would be. It was decided that since the rain wasn't likely to stop anytime soon, we'd leave camp set-up and just do some day hiking. We hiked to the waterfall (the one we never found the night before). It was beautiful! The water was so powerful with all the rainfall. Unfortunately, with the battery situation, I didn't get a pic of the waterfall worth posting. We all just sat in awe of the beauty of the place for at least half an hour. Near the falls we found a bunch of cool caves too. On the hike back for lunch, the spirits of the group started to get down. We were cold, wet, and the constant rain was beginning to drive everyone crazy. There was a lot of grumbling. I think everyone wanted to go home but was afraid to just come out and say it. We debated our options over lunch. I hate rain but I would have been pissed had the decision been made to leave - I had given up a lot to be there that weekend. To my relief, the rain finally stopped and the group decided to stay. We played a ferocious game of hackey sack. Not ferocious because we were any good, let me explain.... There were three rules: don't say sorry, don't serve yourself, and don't use your hands. Anyone caught breaking a rule gets pegged in the ass. I got caught on the "sorry rule" three times! That's me up against the tree getting pegged in the ass by Joe - LOL! We were packing some serious heat on all of our pitches, but thanks to all the layers it didn't hurt much. The game was a lot of fun and spirits were high again so we decided to get in some more hiking before nightfall. The hike involved: some creative water crossings.... some bouldering.... and best of all - NO rain! Dinner was pizza bagels - yum! After much laughter, once again everyone went to bed except you-know-who. We decided to try to locate the waterfall again, this time with the help of recall. Along the way: Both Brian and Neil are rock climbers so they did their share of climbing on things.... we found some cool salamanders on the trail.... and we encountered a friendly deer. We found the waterfall at night to be absolutely amazing. My camera had only enough juice to capture a pic of Brian after he climbed the falls: Posted by Hello I wasn't able to get any other good pics - bummer. After arriving back at camp, Brian and Neil decided not to brave the hammocks again. After opening the tent door, I found the smell to be quite offensive and didn't want to sleep there either. So, the three of us cleaned up the community tarp as much as possible (bread crumbs and anything that might attract bears) and slept out there. It was great. There was a cool breeze and it felt like we were sleeping out under the stars (the community tarp is huge, so we could look out from under it to see the stars with the benefit of cover in case it rained). The sky was perfectly clear and the stars shined brightly. I can't think of a better way to fall asleep. I can't think of a worse sound to wake up to! At about 6am, I awoke with a startle after hearing a loud crack and crash resounding throughout the woods. Everyone woke up, disoriented by sleep and darkness, trying to figure out what had just happened. For a second, I thought a bear was coming for us, as we were sleeping right where all the meals were prepared. Other members of our group were panicked because they weren't sure where we were. They knew we had gone for a late night hike, but since they were sleeping when we returned, they had no idea we decided to sleep out. After everyone was reassured that everything was okay and everyone was accounted for, we decided to try to get some sleep until the sun decided to make an appearance. In the daylight, we discovered that the sound we heard was a HUGE dead tree which had fallen. Had we not decided to move under the tarp, Brian may have been killed. The tree landed right where his head would have been had he slept in the hammock. We were all shaken up and it is still unbelievable even as I type this. It would have taken us hours to get him medical attention, given where we were and it being pitch black. Everything happens for a reason, right? Poor Brian couldn't even eat breakfast after seeing how close he had come to death. Wow, I can't even imagine. These trees are called widow makers. The park has many dead trees from a fire and a terrible ice storm. When setting up camp, it is important to look up to ensure none of these trees are nearby. The boys failed to check as they set up hammocks outside of the main camp. I don't think any of us will ever make that mistake ever again! Those trees aren't called widow makers for nothing! Crazy. After packing everything up, we headed back to the van. The sun was shining and everyone was happy that we had decided to stay. Let me tell you, that hike back to the van was completely different with that pack on. "Does this hill ever end?!" Those steady inclines are a B-I-T-C-H. What really made the weekend fantastic was that I got to know Neil and Brian really well. Brian, who is extremely outgoing, I had already gotten to know. Neil is more of a quiet type. I hadn't even noticed him until the last day of our last trip, when he said his first words to me. He piqued my interest and I was hoping to get to know him better this trip. Hope became reality and he seemed just as interested in getting to know me! He's big into outdoor activities and seems like such a great guy. He invited me on a trip he's doing with friends next weekend and asked me what my week looked like for getting together for some climbing. He wanted to know every outdoor activity I was into, and told me all about his. We spent our night hikes and the entire van ride home talking about all the trips that we should take and everything else under the sun. I am so excited to meet someone into the activities I like, who seems to be interested in getting to know me and not what I have in my pants. Woot-woot!! You ever meet someone and just KNOW that you have a lifelong friend? I'm bummed I can't go on the weekend trip with him, I have to work, but I have a feeling there will be plenty of other opportunities. God, I'm so excited I could just pop! After returning from the trip, I stopped to see my brother because I hadn't seen him all week. We hung out for a while then I took out his braids and picked out his hair: There he is looking like a young Don King! We had a good laugh. The boy looked like "who-did-it-to-what", as my Dad would say. LOL! I gave him some pointers on his upcoming speech and headed home. Trek was excitied to see me and took to sniffing me and all my gear. After a looooong hot shower, Sunday night was spent bar hopping with the girls. We helped ourselves to an unattended bar upstairs at one of the bars and sat and talked. I found myself gushing over Neil like a H.S. crush. But it is not a crush. I can't explain it, so I won't try. I had the same feeling when I met Stephanie. I connected with her so well, so fast - I just knew I had a lifelong friend. It has only happened a few times in my life, each time resulting in amazing relationships. Ever have an experience like that? Smiley for the Day: