Elk Knob Hike

 A collage of the hike we did yesterday after I had already posted my blip for the day.  I just had to share this hike.  

The guys worked on the tractor a little more and still did not get it working.  It is a 1949 Ford 8N so it is not like anything that either of them have worked on even though it is a much more simpler kind of machine.  I made up some spaghetti sauce for our meal while they were doing this.  When they came in at 11am, Jerry said to get ready to go to the park for a hike as he needed to think about the things on the tractor, Tate needed to work some on his real job to get caught up and I had been doing nothing but cooking and cleaning the whole week.   I had taken walks around the farm but they were not long hikes.

Anyway, the state park is only seven miles from the house so it just took about ten minutes to get there.  We decided to walk the Summit Trail as it went to the top of the "knob" with views of the mountains to the north and the south.   It was also a straight up hike with an elevation gain of right at 1000 feet from the parking lot to the summit at 5520 feet.   There were many rock steps, switchbacks but also some flatter areas.  The switchbacks helped to keep the trail from being vertical!!   Everything was so very lush and green as you can see from the photos in the collage.  

The first photo on the left is the north view which overlooks the valley where Tate lives.  Peak Mountain is the "peak" in the middle of the photo and his place is down the left hand side about two rolling hills into the distance.  The mountains that can be seen beyond that are in Tennessee and Virginia..about 65 or 70 miles away by the road.  Tate actually lives only 10 miles from Tennessee and about 25 miles from Virginia but it takes a while to drive it over the curves and hills.  

The other mountain view photo is looking south at the ski mountains that are near Boone.  The building that you can see is the Sugar Top Condos with Sugar Mountain ski area to the right.  To the left of that a little further back is Grandfather Mountain which is a longer mountain top.    

It was a really good hike and with all the hardwoods I hope to get back to hike it in the fall when the leaves are full of fall color.

In the ongoing saga of things that go wrong, today in the pouring rain on the way home, only an hour into the drive, pulling the camper, something broke loose. We were lucky to be close to a place that was had the part and were able to repair it. They were super nice to us with this repair. In two and a half hours we were back on the road for the remaining three hour drive.

When we got home, #2 son met us at the house with his home made shrimp fettuccine alfredo for our supper so that I would not have to cook.  

Some days are downpours but the rainbows always happen!