Memorial Day in Locust Springs

Friday night was spent packing, Saturday morning was spent driving. We left the park-n-ride around 7am. Ellen remembered to take her food out of the fridge about 4 hours too late. We stopped on the way to the trail to restock on food for Ellen. Traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been, and the drive wasn't so much slow as it was long. Four and a half hours later we arrived at the trail head. Keith, Tuna, Ted & Mary, Terri, Ellen, Justin & Judy, Jada, Cadance and myself. I don't know why, but I was generally agitated for most of Saturday. The long drive, the heavy pack, the dogs getting tangled up, I think a combination of several things was putting me in a bad mood. The hike in was short and within an hour or two we were set up by the river. The rest of the group decided to do a day hike. I stayed behind and took a nap. When I awoke, I was feeling better, but still not quite chipper. We had a good time sitting around the fire joking and chatting.

On Sunday, we awoke and started hiking up Slabcamp trail. This was less a trail than a bushwhack with trailblazes. It was fun but after awhile, the slow going started to wear on me. I was carrying Jada after the first mile and a half. After a while, I was tired of searching for the trailblazes, so I stopped and waited for the rest of the group. Once we made it to the top, I decided to hike a different route than the group. We split up, and the girls and I hiked back to the cars to get more beer.

After splitting from the group, my agitation started to dissolve. I began to relax and the hike was extremely enjoyable. I think I just needed a little reflexion time on the trail without logistics and stress. This trail was more trail-like, easy to follow, a beautiful river hike. The weather was perfect the entire weekend. After hiking 3 miles back to the cars, I hiked 4 miles to our base camp. With 8 beers and a 5th of Jack Daniels. When I got back, everyone was still gone, so I decided to go swimming. The water was ice cold, but it was refreshing and it felt good to clean up and cool off. That night, sitting around the campfire, I got to hear about the other hike. Tuna gave a good imitation of Keith's reaction to a snake. Something about screaming like a little girl and jumping 4 feet in the air as Tuna watched a 6 inch water snake slither off into the water. Then he gave a hilarious imitation of Ted's reaction to a charging grouse. "IT'S ATTACKING!!" I would have loved to see Ted running down the trail with a tiny grouse flapping after him. Must have been one of those rabid grouses. That night the beer tasted good and the food even better.

Monday morning we all ate breakfast and packed up. We reflected on the weekend and decided that the weather was a huge success. We had camped in a grove of Rhododendrons and most of us thought it would be worth coming back during the blooming just to see all the color. A brisk 4 mile hike back up Laurel Run Trail back to the cars. Even though I was in a bad mood upon arrival, it only took a few hours for my spirits to improve and the weekend was a great time. Traffic on the way back wasn't as bad as it could have been. All in all, it was a good trip. Justin and Judy - hope to see you both again on more ODC trips. More pictures of this trip on Cham's page.