Camping with the Girls

Oh, it’s good to be home again after a great week of camping with my girlfriends.  There’s really no place like home.

Enjoying Juney Whank Falls

We got our gear packed up and headed over to Bryson City, North Carolina last Monday for a week of camping at Deep Creek Campground.  This small campground is, as the name implies, located on Deep Creek just inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  There is a loop in the campground which will accommodate RVs, but we had a tent so decided to stay in the tent only loop which was right on the creek.  This is a popular campground for families because of the tubing available.  It was nice camping creekside, but we may have been happier up the hill with the RVs rather than by the creek with so many children.  Nevertheless, we had a great time.

Planning the next hike

There were six of us in our little group.  We got there about midday on Monday and set up our encampment on two adjacent sites.  I’m not going into all the details of our week because, as the saying goes, “what happened at Deep Creek stays at Deep Creek”.  In a nutshell, we spent our time talking, laughing, hiking, planning for hiking, talking, eating, laughing, tubing, and eating.  Of course, all that talking, especially in the wee hours of the night, can leave an old girl pretty exhausted and in need of a nap.

Overall, our weather was good.  It’s summer, so it was hot and humid.  But summer also means afternoon thunderstorms.  We had those and got at least a sprinkle of rain everyday.  Thursday night we got a real downpour and were grateful it didn’t happened while we were out on the trail or while we were trying to fix dinner.

I had a great time, but I’ll have to say it’s been a very long time since I’ve camped in a tent and I surely missed my RV with its bed, shower, hot water, refrigerator, and gas stove.  After crawling in and out of a tent and sleeping on the ground for a week, I was beginning to really feel my age and almost all of it was hurting.

Finally, a log for our lunch break.

Today, I have what seems like a never ending list of chores--laundry, cleaning, grocery, etc, etc.  I better get back with it or I’ll never get finished.  I just wanted you to know I survived a week in the wilds with my girlfriends.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.