How to spend a weekend

Winter in Tennessee isn't as bad as winter in many other places which is nice because it lets me get out and do one of my favorite things; go backpacking. With the unexpected day off on Friday, I decided to head to a wilderness area about 2 hours from NashVegas and enjoy the peace and quiet.

I went with a friend of mine who I've hiked many thousands of miles with and who shares my love of the sport. Our wives however think we are crazy for doing this and so when we get back and tell them about the trip they just shake their heads and say, you two are idiots.

Back to the trip. We hiked about 5 miles on Sunday in bright sunshine checking out several overlooks and waterfalls in the Scott's Gulf wilderness area.

After hiking down to the Caney Fork River we decided that it was a great idea to ford the river and head further south to a better campsite. So we ate a little lunch, changed into Crocs and headed out into the river. Everything was going very well despite the bitterly cold water, the only reason it wasn't a sheet of ice was that it was flowing, until my friend shouted out, "Oh sh--! I just lost one of my Crocs." Right in the middle of the river in mid-thigh deep water he was stuck with his backpack on, no socks and just one shoe. I watched the pitiful Croc float away and then turned to try to help him the rest of the way across a fast-moving freezing river barefoot. We did get across then hiked another two miles to a beautiful campsite at the next river crossing. (Yes we were going to have to do it all over again.)

We spent the rest of the evening getting a fire going to dry out our wet clothes and get ourselves warmed up. After a hearty meal of Ramen Noodles and chicken noodle soup with a side of Fig Newtons and M&Ms we discussed the world's problems, which we of course solved, and caught up on other stuff. We headed to the tents to try to get a good night's sleep before facing the freezing river again in the morning.

Monday dawned a balmy 28, with the first flakes starting to fall. At first, we thought, no biggie it's going to stop before we get too far. Nope, it snowed all morning and was still snowing when we got to the truck to head back to NashVegas.

All in all a great trip. more pics on the way.