Fri, Jun 24 2011 - Mulberry Gap Hike - Bike - Paddle - Swim - Hot Tub - Eat - Multi-Night (View Original Event Details)
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Pedals, paddles, puddles, and pillows. Although I conjured a spell to prevent rain, we were not immune from mother nature's desires. But, we survived with a few rounds of ping pong and trivia. All-in-all, it was a great weekend with a fun time had by all. The trip developed the way I had desired in that we had many different people with different interests and expertise to indulge themselves with hiking, paddling, mountain biking, or just readin’ a good book. In short, everybody got to do the things they love and then come back together in the evening for some fun social time around the table and campfire.
About 10 of us met Friday morn and drove on up and set up camp. Then we set out on an afternoon hike up the Emery Creek Trial to a really nice water fall. We hung out, climbed, swam, and then hiked back. The trail head, like most activities around Mulberry Gap, was about 15 or 20 minutes from camp. Very nice arrangement. Friday night we met in the barn for dinner at 7. Some brought up many nice dishes to share for a pot luck and some ate the Mulberry dinner of fresh [I mean picked that day!] vegetables and London Broil. After dinner we entertained ourselves with some Trivial Pursuit and ping pong. Jasmine is pretty good, holds her paddle forehand style.
The next morning we indulged in one of the best parts of the Mulberry experience - breakfast! We all sat down around 8 for a great spread of fresh fruit, coffee, tea, eggs, sausage, Belgian waffles and fresh blueberry pancakes. All prepared as we ate. Really good!
Saturday, a group headed down the Cartecay on their own in kayaks, some mountain biked the well know Pinhoti Trail, and my group headed down the D5 Tearbritches Trial. I want to note that our website doesn’t really allow me to list the difficulty for all events, so for the record, these individuals rocked the D5 in short order: Lemmy, Kristi, Mary, Marc, Jerry, Niki, Connie, and Pete. We hiked fast over a 6.8 mile out and back that involved descending and ascending Bald mountain from 3600 up to 4000 down to 2200 and back again! Good job guys!
Saturday night we reconvened at the barn for a great pulled pork dinner with awesome baked beans, fresh cole slaw, tomatoes, and fresh peach cobbler. Food is a nice bonus at Mulberry. Even our sack lunches were ample and tasty. They make relaxing and enjoying nature and easy and affordable outing. After dinner, Marc M. And Dr. Barb worked on the campfire, no easy task with all the wetness, but they got it going for some hot tubbing and guitar time. But, unfortunately a 70 miler biker asked us to quiet it down a bit early. We’ll know next time to set up farther away.
The next day, many headed back after another awesome gathering for yummy breakfast. But, Charles W. Lead us for a trip down Pinhoti Section 2. It was very nice because many of the group had not done such steep and proper mountain biking. Like the D5 the day before, many of the activities gave individuals the chance to build their skills and confidence. Thanks Charles for working so well to teach the group the details on riding real mountain bike trials. This is an awesome trial because you can drive your car to the top and then head down a mostly down hill section over about a 3 miles stretch. We got up to high speed many time flying by the trees. But, none of us were any match for the Cheetah herself, Ms. Kate S.! She was so freaking fast down those trails! She was fun to watch as her blur trailed away from me after every restart! She used to race a lot in college and it showed. Good job Cheetah!
Thanks to all for a great relaxing and fun time. Nice to meet all of you! Hope we can do it again soon.
Grant
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