We got to the park about 10:30 am and parked at the entrance to the primitive campground. We took the Yellow/White connector up the side of the very steep mountain to the White trail. We hung a left on the White trail and went to Shackleford Point. From there we went on down the White trail until we hit the Yellow trail.
We took a left on the Yellow trail and made it to the BMX track where I filled our hydration bladder back up with water. We had run out. We then got back on the Yellow trail and came on to the road to the primitive campground, hung a right and got back to the Jeep around 3:00 pm. It was a lot longer hike than I had originally planned.
The above two paragraphs is what Mitchel wrote... apparantly he wasn't as affected by the day as the kids and I were. We started off and very soon we came to a mountain that went up... and up... and up. I was soon informed that, no, in fact, it was NOT a mountain, only a hill... the mountain would be later. I was dying and we hadn't been hiking for 30 minutes. We made it to the top of the hill and it got better until we reached the bottom of the mountain and started up again. Thankfully the trail up the mountain was a switch back trail which made it a little easier going up. We made it to the top and it was beautiful.
Tall grasses lined either side of the narrow trail and made our legs itch. Huge rocks rose out of the mountain top on either side. We used these as resting areas. We began our descent and hit some very steep areas. My shoes made the ends of my toes hurt due to the gravity pulling my feet down. Perhaps I need better shoes. But, on the bright side, at least we weren't going UP those steep areas. We finally made it to the bottom of the mountain and soon came to one of the lakes. This was a welcome sight. We watched turtles, fish and frogs play. We had been seeing frogs frequently throughout our trip. Once we neared the lake they increased in number and got smaller in size. As we were passing a spillway over a dam into the lake Mitchel paused and looked down. There sitting in the shallows was a very small turtle. Needless to say we now have Max and Emmy. We did just have Max.
We ran out of water and came to a picnic area with a bathroom. Mitchel filled up the bladder in his camelbak back pack. It wasn't long before we ran out again. It was odd that we ran out quicker after the fill up than before. I guess we thought we had a lot of water since it had just been filled up. Usually we come over prepared with food and water but, like Mitchel said earlier, we didn't expect the hike to be this long. We finished the hike about four hours ago and my feet STILL hurt.
It was a long, warm, tiring day. But the day was spent with my family. The kids had fun... there were a few complaints from them, but not near as many from them as from their mother. They were real troupers and did excellent! They must take after their Daddy. We were together... building memories... and that's what's important.
