If you happen to know me personally, you most likely know that hiking and camping aren't among my favorite activities. Much to my husband's heartache of course. I mean, they're great and all... that is if you have memories of sweet dew on the morning grass outside your tent, awakening to the scent of bacon and fluffy pancakes on the stove, relaxing and fishing the afternoons away, with a roaring campfire and endless s'mores to boot. While not all my childhood camping memories are bad, I have a hard time remembering them among ones of endless rain and daily 10-mile hikes, along with bacon grease burns, wolves, bears, and that ever-present root under the sleeping bag that always stuck to my dry toes. Yick!
So when our day at Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest ended and the rain blew through.... I was secretly (or not so secretly) relieved we were unable to complete the days' remaining activity. What was that activity? As you may have already figured out, it was hiking. The idea of hiking 3 miles at sunset to watch the fireworks on a mountaintop sounds awesome, but when put in motion is just tiring. Especially after having sweat my body weight out and having been on the dehydrated side. But I'm married to a soldier, and we suck it up and drive on in this family! So, when that rain cleared we were already on our way to the top of Sharp Top.
And I did my best to be a trooper! I was tired, but the group surged forward into the setting sun!
We reached the midway (or a little past midway I should say) point and that alone made it worth it. And it wasn't even the top! What an incredible view up there.
This photo was 100% Sam :)
Onto the top!
Fearless deer... just about ate out of our hands!
And the moment of truth.... 100% worth the work it took to get to the top!
Just amazing. Gorgeous, stunning, spectacular, breathtaking. You pick the word. I've hiked the Adirondacks, I've hiked in Maine, I've seen some pretty amazing sights... nothing beat this. 360 degrees of rolling mountains. Perfection. God's canvas.
From here, we awaited the town's firework display down below. For 2 hours we sat and watched little puffs and poofs of pretty light and celebrated our nation's birthday in rugged style!! Fireworks may be amazing overhead, but I'll tell ya, it's something else watching them down below.
All photos courtesy of Aaron A. The photographer in me kicked myself the entire way up the mountain that I chose not to bring along my camera. Amazingly enough, all images are from a simple point-and-shoot. Not too shabby, Aaron. Not too shabby.
America the Beautiful!
3 comments:
beautiful.
what's the story behind the house?? do you know?
I don't know the entire story, but I know they built it for shelter as well as a ranger station. It's mostly for people caught in bad weather and such. I heard though that they've had sunrise services in there too! It's an entirely empty, four-wall thing so it's nothing fancy! Cool looking though! :)
neato :)
Post a Comment