Camping Adventure

We decided on Wednesday, that we wanted to take the dogs to the mountains for some hiking and camping. So the first thing I did was call Julian Price park to see if they had ANY tent sites available. They said it was first come first serve only, but to contact www.recreation.gov to see if they had any availability and I could reserve directly with them. Wow, they were so easy to use and the best part, I got a great site on the lake waterfront! If you have dogs that swim, you know how important it is to get a site right on the lake. They were in heaven.
We loaded up the car with the dogs, kielbasa, enough water to fill the lake with, and our Tajmah-Tent (called that b/c it's big enough to stand in and so much roomier than our lighter, smaller 2-person backpacking tent.) We finally hit the road at 8:30am and we are cruising along up into the mountains. Check in was smooth. We pick up our permit, trail map, and parking pass and find our way our "home". We are so excited to just be there, that as soon as we parked the car, we threw on our hiking boots, and took off on the trail without even setting up camp! The dogs were full of energy and were tugging me up the trail. It was a perfect day for the 5.5 mile hike on the Boones Fork Trail. It started out with a gradual ascent into an open meadow where tons and tons of blackberry bushes were dripping with fruit. We saw some people a distance away picking berries. The trail then gradually sloped back into the rhododendron forest that still had a few left over blooms still hanging on. I bet it looked amazing in June, when the rhododendron are in full bloom. Then the trail became rocky and really rooty, but it was shaded and had several creeks we had to rock hop or forge thru. The dogs loved the creeks and stopped at each one to camel up and lay in the cool water. After a couple of rock scrambles down hill we get to a six foot ladder that we had to climb DOWN! I had no idea how the dogs were going to do it. My boo suggested he go first then I can pass the dogs down to him. Does he realize that "thing one" weighs 95 lbs?!?! As soon as he went down the ladder, "thing 1", whom we think has a slight separation anxiety issue, hops down the ladder, rung by rung like he climbs down ladders for a living! My jaw drops at what I just witnessed, then to my amazement, my little dog follows suit like there's no problem. Wow, my dogs amaze me constantly. Just when I think they are these little helpless creatures that need me to keep them safe, well fed, and unharmed, they surprise me. In retrospect, I wish I would of taken a picture of that, but there was no way I was subjecting my nerves to that again. After another mile, we take a break along side the creek to boulder hop and let dogs swim for a while. The next mile was along the creek and in an open grassy area. The last 2 miles were PUDS back into the rhododendron forest and back to our tent site along the lake. We had all intentions of setting up camp, having a quick lunch, then hiking the 3 mile loop trail around the lake. But after setting up the tent it started to thunder. We tied up the tarp and climbed inside our tent to wait out the storm and just crashed for a good 3 hours. By the time we woke up, the storm had passed, and the sun was about to set and I remembered we didn't have a flashlight. Boo got the camp fire started and we grilled up the kielbasa for dinner and called it a night. Very enjoyable day.