In short, it was a great weekend, and we all learned a lot. Both from each other, and a few things the hardway. We had many different discussions on ZS, prepping, survival, and such. MaxRite had a camera, so we should have some pictures forthcoming! So onto what happened:
Thursday, NYKh, MaxRite, and I carpooled down to a local hotel and spent the night. This allowed us to get up early and hit the trail first thing in the morning. The plan was get from the parking area to Hiner's Spring the first day. Which we estimated was a 9 mile hike, on the western part of the loop. The trail was very well maintained and there were several campsites along the way. In the morning for every 45 minutes we walked, we took a break for 15 mins. This worked out well. When we stopped for lunch, we broke out some food and filtered some water from the creek the trail was running along. The trail crossed the creek a number of times too, but we were able to hop from rock to rock to get across. Lunch lasted for about an hour, and then we started on the last section of the trail up to the spring. I was leading everyone down the trail when we all heard a very distinct noise. Sure enough there was a rattlesnake about 7 feet away. I did an "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" as I started backpeddling down the trail. NYKh said, "Is that what I think it is?" Needless to say getting that close to a Rattler freaked us all out. We decided to go off the trail and flanked around it, and keep going. This section of the trail was all uphill and in the afternoon record breaking heat (90+ degrees) it really kicked our asses, but we were determined to get to the top and see the spring. Which we finally did, and made camp for the night. We were joined by a few friendly deers who were grazzing nearby.
Saturday morning, MaxRite and NYKh went up to the peak, Hardscrabble Knob, and tested NYKh's Handheld Ham radio. I stayed in camp and watched our gear. Around noon we were ready to head back down. Because we were unsure if there was any water sources on the eastern part of the loop we decided to go back the way we came. The plan was to go a little more than half way and setup camp. We pasted the place were we saw the Rattler and thankfully it wasn't there. Later on we were crossing the creek at one point, we spread out to find the trail maker on the other side, MaxRite and NYKh found it on the left of two downed trees, however I was on the right of the trees. I was about to climb over the first tree when I heard a noise that we were all familiar with from Friday. Sure enough, I found another Rattlesnake between the trees. I was a lot closer to this one, MaxRite and NYKh had already walked by it too. Needless to say I continued down in the creek until it met up with the trail again. We kept on the trail and made it to our destination, and setup camp for the night. Again we had a number of deer showed up to see what was going on as they grazed in the evening.
Sunday we packed up and headed out first thing in the morning. We got in the car and proceed to the closest IHOP and feasted for late breakfast. IHOP has become the customary location of choice after VA events.
From there we all headed home for some much needed showers and cold beverages.
