With my first hike under my belt, and the second of three knee injections, I was off to my next hiking adventure. This time we went to North Carolina to a fabulous place called Stone Mountain.
http://www.ncparks.gov/stone-mountain-state-park
This hike was quite difficult compared to my first one, mainly because you are walking up a very steep incline and you think you will never see the end. We passed several people on the way up who had to stop and catch their breaths. What a great sense of accomplishment once we finally reached the top.
And the view. . .
You really felt like you were on top of the world.
Coming down was interesting, my husband told me we could go down a different way than we came up but there would be steps going down. Since I have no trouble taking steps down, I eagerly agreed. We saw some amazing things on the other side:
It seemed like we went down much deeper than what we climbed up, but I didn’t think much about it until we were at the bottom, exhausted, and I just wanted to get to the car. I asked a woman coming from the opposite direction if we were close to the parking lot, and she said “Oh honey, I have some bad news for you – you’ve got about 350 steps to go up before reaching the parking lot. My heart sank, I looked accusingly at my husband (who had done this hike earlier with our daughter) – What??? He said he had forgotten that part. Sure.
We actually counted the steps as we made our way (mostly in silence) back to the car. She was exactly right. But we also saw some amazing things along the way and that’s what I choose to remember.
All was forgiven as I discovered the injections had worked and I had no knee pain. My hiking adventures had just begun and I could not wait for the next one!
The Unassuming Hiker 
Funny thing about hiking … all the discomfort we experience tends to take a back seat when the hike is all done. We seem to focus on all the amazing things we saw – especially when we can relive it with our photos!!
My favourite one is that waterfall. Nice!!
… but steps?!! Ugh. I hate steps 😉
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That’s not the only North Carolina hike I’ve been on that had way too many steps. But if that is the only way to experience the beauty – you just have to buck up and go for it.
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I’m glad the injections worked. That’s good news. I’m waiting for my foot to fully heal after foot surgery in November so I can get back to hiking myself.
The views are spectacular.
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Good luck with your recovery!
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Thank you!
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I’m pleased the knees managed it
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Thanks Derrick, me too.
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Whew, that was a big one. Are there any cougars up there? We’ve hiked in the Canadian Rockies with some friends who live up there part time. You have to hike with Bear Bells and sprays. We didn’t cross paths but saw three on the way down, happily from the truck. The scat was still steaming so we knew they were pretty close. My old neighbour jokes with his wife that he doesn’t have to outrun the bear, he only has to outrun her….gah! x B
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Have not seen any wildlife, if they are around they stay well hidden.
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Me again, You might think of having your ‘Follow’ button near the top Karen. I had a tricky time finding it down here 😀 Just an idea x B
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Now I just have to figure out how to do that. LB helped me set this up and I’m still learning. I picked the simplest format, but thanks for that I will check into it.
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Here’s what I do Karen, but I know Laurie will want to help you, cause she’s awesome 😀
– point to ‘My Site’. It’s in the header bar on the top left hand side of your blog.
– When the tab opens, look down the list and click on ‘Menus’ It’s under the heading ‘Personalize’
– Then click on ‘Widgets’
– in the screen that opens, over on the right side of the page, you’ll see you’re ‘Follow Blog’ tab.
– If you point at it, it becomes a box. Click and drag the box to the top of that menu (or anywhere within the sidebar you might prefer it)
Have fun along the way 😀 I like your template!
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Thanks for the advice, I’m still playing around with it and learning as I go. I just added a widget for following the blog, hopefully that will make it easier. I appreciate you taking time to read my blog and help this novice.
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Morning Karen, Love the post and would love to hike the Virginia Stone Mountain sometime (Andrew and I hiked the Georgia Stone Mountain 20 years ago).
Remind to teach you how to include a hyperlink (so someone can just click on your words Stone Mountain and it goes straight to the link). It’s easy! Oh wait, here’s a link with instructions
https://en.support.wordpress.com/links/
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This was actually North Carolina – I included the link, thanks for the tip. It is definitely worth the trip – so beautiful!
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Yeah, I meant to say NC (duh!). And the hyperlink is a way to add the link in a highlighter word. Check out the first paragraph of this post. There are two hyperlinks.
http://lifeonthebikeandotherfabthings.cm/2016/02/04/go-red-for-women/
Now, I’ll stop offering suggestions and head to work 🙂
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