It was uphill both ways



So this is the second year that we've gone on this hike with our elementary school's PE club, but this time I only had one of my kids.  Jacob and Matt came last year.  Jacob loves a physical challenge and to be outdoors and Matthew just loves anything physical.  We had to walk fairly fast to keep up with him last year, so I thought since he wasn't coming this year that I would have it easier.  Not so.  Esther decided this year to not whine but to skip and run.  I still found myself walking at a pretty good clip.  It's all good.  I wore my heart rate monitor this time to be able to quantify my efforts. 770 calories! Not bad. 


(from the bottom looking up) Esther's friend Abbey walked with us too.

 The weather was beautiful.  a little cloudy at first then the sun came out, but great temps for hiking.   The toughest part of the day had to be the hundreds of stairs.  We went down hundreds to get to the waterfall, so of course we had to climb hundreds to get to the top.  As kids were going past us in the opposite direction they would be either counting the stairs or letting us know how many we had left to go.  Thanks bunches! Whew!! heave...blow....gasp....
Last year I  thought my heart was going to explode, so happy to say that this year my heart stayed put and my knees didn't do so bad either.  I only stopped one or two times too.  I was pretty proud of my improvements.  Zumba's working!

From the top looking down

What you don't see in any of the pics is the 2 bus loads of kids and the families that drove up to crawl all over the mountain.  We were in good company.

Isn't North Carolina beautiful!!!  Loved the drive up too!

Esther has issues with picture taking.  
Look at that smile. :)