Blue Ridge Hike
Today's hike choice was another advanced one - trailhead was fairly close to the hotel, about a 5min drive away, and firstly went along the flat, through the woods and past some old logging cabins. There were only 3 of us on the hike today (we got a round of applause from all the other hikers this morning when we stepped forward to leave!) which was led by the lovely Chuckles and Drew. After our usual stretch (my calves were soooo tight!), we started our slow and steady climb uphill. I didnt bring the camera kit with me today, as i didnt want the extra weight to carry in case the climb was really strenuous, but in the end, it was actually fine and I really didnt find it horribly tough. After about half an hour, we passed by this lovely waterfall (but just had to content myself with looking at it rather than taking a piccie!) where we stopped to take a breather, before continuing up and actually reaching the top in an hour, way faster than usual!! (yey, us!) The view was OK but a bit limited vista, really, so it was more of a good hike for the exercise, rather than the scenic view from the top. We stopped just long enough for our fruit break before starting our descent again fairly quickly - it had rained for about 20mins on the way up and was threatening to do so again, so we wanted to make it back down before it started pissing it down. The rain we'd had, whilst very pleasant cos it cooled us off on the way up, made it a little slippy underfoot on the way back down, so I had to concentrate extra hard not to lose my footing!! I made it, though, with only one or two minor slippages - a distinct improvement from Patagonia!!!