Wednesday

Looking at the weather maps, we knew there was a chance for a thunderstorm every single day during our stay. But, we figured a little rain wouldn't hurt us so we set out for our first hike on Wednesday.  We started down the Blue Ridge Parkway looking for a not too busy, good looking hike.  We ended up at the Art Loeb Trail, which had this sign of warning:

In case you can't read it, that black diamond, in hiking and skiing, says difficult.  Now, maybe it wasn't the best idea to head up a "difficult" trail with a thunderstorm approaching.  Little did we know that this part of the Art Loeb trail is in fact, the Black Balsam Knob, the trail's highest peak at 6214 ft in elevation.  And it is called a bald due to logging and fires that have left the peak wide open with no tall trees, i.e. no shelter from the rain.  But, we didn't know any of this and had lots of fun climbing this and two other peaks.

The dogs head up the trail, Benny in front, Vixen following.  That's usually the way it goes.











The dogs love their freedom and will race up and down the trail if we let them.  Although with stories of bears, coyotes, and other wildlife, they don't get to go very far away from us at all.








View on the way up:

This was a narrow trail, so there was a lot of single file hiking.

The top of the bald had perfect grass for rolling around and enjoying the views.

While the dogs rolled in the grass, the rain rolled in as well.

So, we call in the pups and decide to keep going; maybe we'll outrun the storm?  Or make it down from the bald into some trees to wait it out?

Oh, and if you have been wondering what crazy things are on the dogs' feet, well those are "Pawz."  They are a rubber bootie to protect the pups' feet; lots of people thought the dogs had on rain boots, but they would wear them rain or shine.  Benny especially needs them, because he is so confident and such a maniac that he will run until the pads of his feet literally fall off.  But the Pawz completely protected them, and stayed on the entire time.  On long hikes like these they do suffer some holes, but they are "disposable" and inexpensive and we usually get a couple hikes out of each.  And that's way better than hurt feet to mend!

The sky is showing some potential problems  . . .

While we stop to put on our raincoats (well, I packed a rain coat and JP made a poncho from a garbage bag,) Benny stopped to check out a bee on the pretty rhododendron (maybe.)  It had a bee on it trying hard not to get blown away, but not being very successful as it was getting pretty windy.

He also decided that this would be a good time to roll on the ground, and where better for a wet dog to roll than on the dirt trail?

Not long after this, as we are headed down the other side of the mountain, we hear what we think might be a coyote, and the storm continues to get worse.  So we have two options; head down towards some trees on the other side of the mountain, further from our car and closer to that noise, or head back up the bald to the crest of the mountain, but towards our car.  We decided to go back up the bald and head towards the car.  

As we head up the peak of the over 6000 ft mountain, we start to get stung by what we quickly discover is hail.  A hailstorm on a midsummer's day.  The temperature is dropping and the hail is being flung by some heavy winds.  If you look close you can see JP is covering the right side of his face as that is where the hail is coming from, with no trees to stand in its way.  The dogs however, didn't seem to even notice.

When we made it off of the bald and down the trail, we found many trees had fallen during the storm (which was still going on.)

We hurried down the trail into the woods quickly.  Then we came across this calm spot, but it was eerie because we didn't remember passing anything that looked like this on the way up.  Had we come down the mountain too hurriedly and taken the wrong trail?  The woods were still and calm, unlike the rest of our trip, but that made me nervous that we wouldn't be the only ones seeking refuge here.  I tried to take a family picture, but Benny was too occupied looking for what else he was sure was in these woods.

So, we let the cold, stormy weather and the fixation of our shepherd/hound into the woods, get us a little bit scared.  These woods were just so different from anything we had seen on our hike we convinced ourselves that we had taken the wrong trail.  So in the cold, freezing rain/hail, we turn around and head back up the mountain.  

After passing some vistas that seemed familiar, and one view that we could see the road from, we decide to head back down the mountain.  We could see a bathhouse, so we figure it must be where we parked, but if not, at least there's some shelter.  Fortunately, it was the way back to our car.  We all toweled off a little bit standing under the trail map board's overhang and put these soaking wet dogs into our really new car (thank goodness for seat covers.)

One last view, before hitting the road:

Then we got in the car, put the heat on full blast, threw our boots in the very back and hit the Blue Ridge Parkway.  But not before noticing this:

 And this was at the bottom of the summit, not the top!  By the time we got back to our cabin, the temps were back in the 70s!  

Although the hike wasn't as long as we had hoped for, it was enough to tucker out the pooches.  

Vixen lays down and get comfy, but no matter how tired he is, Benny doesn't want to miss a thing.  He's stubborn and just falls asleep sitting up!

Oh to be back at the cabin, dry (or in the hot tub,) eating some yummy treats (or drinking some fine NC wine) and chewing on a raw bone (or eating some charcoal grilled fillet mignon!)