After a fun-filled wedding in Michigan, we took to the road again and after another 13 or so hours in the car, we made our way to visit our daughter, Meghan and her husband, Carson, on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC. This is situated near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Time to take our Splorin’ to the next level! While Wisconsin state parks have lots of elevation changes and may even include the word “mountain” in their name, they are not real mountains. We realize that many from out west would argue that the Blue Ridge Mountains aren’t “real” mountains either, but to us — they are mountains and we climbed them!!!
We had a guest ‘Splorer with us today — our daughter Meghan!! Staying in their apartment with them was a blast!! We never knew dorms could have apartments that nice within them. We started off, as any good day of Splorin’ does, at a little family restaurant. This time it was Mama Zoe’s in Winston-Salem. We didn’t really see our typical coffee klatches, but there were lots of locals. Mike was happy — he was able to order the “Low Carb Lover’s” breakfast — which was just eggs and meat (yeah, that’s kind of his thing whether wrapped up in an omelette or with over easy eggs). Tammy had the Kielbasa Omelette (yeah, that’s her thing — Polish if at all possible). Meghan had a Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. They also had really good coffee!! Woo hoo — perfect way to start a day of Splorin’.
We then took off for Hanging Rock State Park in Danbury, NC. Driving up to the State Park was a trip — lots of very narrow and winding roads. As we got closer you could see the mountains and sheer rock cliffs — Mike’s stomach started doing a little dance when he saw these (yes, more foreshadowing). We hit the entrance and started going up, up and up the long entrance road. Our first hike was going to be from the visitor’s center parking lot, so that’s what we were looking for. On the way up Meghan saw a deer and pointed it out — it was on Mike’s side of the car so he saw it — Tam didn’t get a chance (although she would shortly). We pulled into the visitor’s center and did the mandatory bathroom visiting. Mike got a map and quick overview from the 12 year old ranger working behind the desk (no, not really 12 years old, but as we get older they get younger 😉 ). Mike had already basically had a plan — to hike up to the park’s namesake, Hanging Rock, and then to do a little bit longer hike to the summit of Moore’s Wall on the loop trail.
Full of vim and vigor we started down the hanging rock trail only to immediately have a deer run, at three times full speed (or so it seemed), less than 10 yards in front of us. It was literally just a flash and it was gone, but it still got added to the deer count for the day. The trail at the beginning was paved and an easy downhill walk…what? Downhill? Yeah, we would pay for it later, and we did see an interesting sign.
OK, so this just got serious. Well, I guess at least we were warned. Mike’s stomach did a couple more back flips again. Nonetheless we took off down the trail. Soon enough the trail started to rise and rise. We also moved from a paved trail to a crushed gravel surface. But no matter what, we still kept going up. Mike and Tammy were pretty accustomed to hiking uphill – Meghan, not so much. We had to take frequent breaks for Meghan to stretch her calves (and truth be told, Mike and Tammy were glad for the breaks too). We met lots of people heading back down the trail and passed some people on the way up as well so we knew our pace was ok.
Soon the trail got more narrow and had a lot of steps — rocks steps, wooden steps and steps made with railroad tie-type materials. Regardless of the medium we kept going up. We came to one cross hill section where there were deep fissures in the rocks above us where we saw what we thought were rock climbers. Well, they were climbing rocks –and they somehow thought the trail was meant to go up where they were climbing.
As we passed below them, we could hear them saying “wait, does the trail keep going along the bottom of these rocks?” Yes, yes it does and they came back down and got back on the right trail. We kept going up — many rock steps and twists and turns. We met many people coming back down and passed a couple more on the way up. We were soon at the summit and it was gorgeous!! What a view.
We have to explain the picture above. Notice how far way Mike is from Meghan and Tammy? Well, Mike has this little problem of not liking sheer drop offs!! It’s not really a fear of heights, because it isn’t the heights, it’s when you cannot see ground immediately below you. So, while Tammy and Meghan were crawling all over the edge of the rocks (risking life and limb) Mike stayed well back from the edge. When he did venture even close to the edge, it was only if there was a very sturdy tree close by that he could hang on to. Tammy? According to Mike, she’s a daredevil and reckless 😉
Yes, Mike took this picture, but what you cannot see is the huge tree immediately behind him that he had a death grip on in order to take this picture. There were a couple of families there, some with very small children that were bouncing around all over the place. Mike about had a nervous breakdown just watching those kids, but he, and the kids, survived. After Meghan and Tammy got done with their death defying activities right on the edge of the mountain, we headed back down. While the hike back down was much easier, it seems to take longer because you have to be very sure of your footing in many more places than you did on the way up.
We finally arrived back down at the visitor’s center. The hike ended up being 2.8 miles and a total of 682 feet of elevation gain. When you consider that 682 feet is actually over 1.4 miles, that is pretty impressive (at least for us people from Wisconsin)!!
The plan was to now move on to Moore’s Wall Loop Trail, but Meghan decided that she had had enough for the day. Mike and Tammy were a little disappointed that we would not get to do the other trail, but also a little bit relieved after having driven 700 miles the day before. It was decided we would head off and do something else and that Mike and Tammy would come back the next day to tackle the other trail.
On the drive down the mountain and back towards Winston-Salem it was decided that we would take off for Childress Vineyards in Lexington, NC. While we all had our Splorin’ clothes on, we thought we’d be able to stop, do a tasting maybe buy some wine an then be back on our way. Little did we know that when we arrived there would be HUNDREDS of cars there!!! And many, many people milling around in very close to formal wear. We definitely were on the lower end of the “casual clothes” spectrum. Mike was finally able to convince Tammy that we were appropriately dressed for the winery when we saw several other people dressed in very similar fashion to us.
It turns out there was some kind of corporate event at the winery and that is why we saw so many people all dressed up. After a very poor attempt at up-selling us on a $30 per person wine tasting, we chose the normal tasting. We were very impressed with the wines. It most definitely was not the typical sweet wines that you find in Wisconsin — there was a nice complement of dry red wines for us to enjoy. We also had a very nice tour where we got to see barrels of wine that were barreled on our anniversary!!
We then made our way back to Winston-Salem for a quick dinner at Foothills Brewpub. It was a very nice restaurant with very good food and beer (you’ll have to take Meghan’s word for it about the beer though).
Early the next morning we (minus Meghan who opted to sleep in) were off to tackle Moore’s Wall Loop Trail back at Hanging Rock State Park, but first we stopped in King, NC at King Kitchen Family Restaurant. We arrived well before dawn and were not disappointed when we walked in and saw a table of …. wait for it …. a group of 6 or 7 seven (somewhat) elderly men. It was just like what we have seen numerous times in Wisconsin (except with Southern accents). They were talking about farming, farm machinery and just in general shooting the breeze. On an interesting note, they were talking about the similarities between tobacco and strawberry farms. Towards the end of our breakfast, an elderly couple came in — the gentleman immediately went to the table of men and started talking to them, while his wife continued on to a table. Without any prompting, the waitress brought coffee and oatmeal out to their table. The lady then took raisins (or something resembling them) from her purse and put them on her oatmeal. The gentleman continued to make the rounds of the rest of the tables in the restaurant, although he didn’t stop at ours. He was finally making it to his wife’s table by the time we were ready to leave for the Park. We got to the park at 7:30 – just a few minutes after sunrise and ready to take on another mountain!!
We were the first car in the parking lot — YAY!!! We stopped at the bathroom, of course and then we took off down the trail knowing we had another 600 – 700 foot vertical climb in front of us. We couldn’t wait. (well, Tammy wasn’t as enthusiastic as Mike — by now fair readers, you know how she feels about hills)
The first part of the hike was along the lake and through some oddly “swampy” type areas. We heard what sounded like deer running and sure enough we saw somewhere between 6 and 8 deer running towards us. They saw us and stopped, changed direction and took off running again — except for one. She started running directly at us — full speed. Obviously she did not see why the others changed direction, but when she did finally see us she abruptly followed the others as well. We also saw some kind of small mammal that we could not identify in the brush — could have been a raccoon or Mike joked it was a bobcat. About 5 minutes later we heard this really strange noise coming from back where we saw that animal. We still have no idea what it was, but having listened to bobcat calls on youtube, Mike has changed his initial assessment.
Shortly after that we began the steady uphill climb. We never stopped, we just kept going. There were times that we would hit a more flat section of the trail and we would take our time enjoying the little rest, but we just kept going. Mike commented on how it would be nice to hit the summit and be the only ones there. After all no one was in the parking lot when we got there and no one had passed us, so logic would say that we were the only ones.
As is typical, shortly after Mike made such a proclamation we heard voices coming towards us. It was a group of 3 college aged guys with a dog. Their dog immediately started barking because we must have surprised it. We passed each other — they obviously had already been to the summit. Everything Mike had read about this trail said it should be done in the direction that we were going as the other way was a much steeper climb. Oh well, these guys must have been gluttons for punishment. More importantly it threw into question if we would be alone at the top. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long to find out — in about ten minutes we saw the sign pointing to the “lookout”.
We got there and found the 20 foot tower to be completely empty — we would not have to share this with anyone. Mike’s fear was comforted a little when we discovered that it was a stone structure and not just a wooden tower. It also had a very sturdy railing. Mike led the way to the top of the tower. He found a little notch in the railing and stayed put there where he was surrounded by railing on three sides — he was happy just to look out from there. To say the view was amazing is a complete understatement. From the top you have a wide open 360 degree view for miles and miles. After enjoying the view it was time to start back down.
What Mike had read was very true — the other direction was definitely much steeper. It also consisted of most stone steps that were place to aide the climb. The problem with many of the steps is that they were between 18 and 24 inch steps!! Obviously when they were place they were not intended to be that big, but what happened is that they were washed out from underneath from water runoff. So, the climb down was a knee jarring adventure. We saw several more deer on the way back down. We passed the campgrounds where those three young guns must have come from and passed a couple women on their way up. I don’t know if they knew the steps situation or not, but I hope they made it. ;-). We made it back to the car. The hike was 4.75 miles, took 2 hours and 40 minutes, and the elevation gain was 1030 feet. A lot more than what Mike had thought he determined. From the bottom, the top looks so far away.
That would seem enough for one day — right? Nope!! We now headed back to Winston-Salem to pick up Meghan so that we could take of for the North Carolina Zoo!!! Having been there many, many times in the past with very small children, we knew it was large. It is in fact the world’s largest natural habitat zoo. We walked the whole thing, from Africa to North America and back to Africa. Mike tried to come up with an optimal route, he came close, but he thinks he can do better. We saw all the animals there were to see — most importantly the giraffes (those are Tammy’s favorites). And it was interesting to note one of the chimps was named Tammy. (yes a bit of teasing ensued) At the end of the day, the zoo “hike” ended up being 5.78 miles with an elevation gain of 417 feet!!! Wow, what a day of moving!! It felt awesome!
Of course we were all hungry and thirsty — so we took the opportunity to address the thirsty part fist. We made our way to Lumina Wine and Beer — a very lovely little wine and beer bar in Asheboro. They had lots of wines and even more beers. Meghan got the chance to try a couple of beers she hadn’t had before and Mike and Tammy just had a couple glasses of dry red wine. We enjoyed these out on the patio.
It was an very relaxing time. We then left for a barbecue place (that shall remain nameless) that Tammy thought had Eastern North Carolina barbecue. Turns out no, they did not. We got the barbecue to go so we could take it back to Meghan and Carson’s apartment — unfortunately it wasn’t very good. :-(.
Even though the day ended on a not so tasty note, overall the day was a HUGE success and a BLAST!!!
Splorin' Saturday 