North Carolina Part 3: A Forest, A Stream, and Mittens

I forgot to tell you in yesterday's post about what happened on the hike back from the waterfalls. We hiked back up to the top of Turtleback Falls, which you pass when going on the trail. Joel wanted to go down again, so my dad took him. When they got back up to the top, it started to rain pretty hard. We were under a small tree with some other people, waiting to see if it would let up a little bit. But then, it started to hail! And the tree we were under wasn't very big or very thick, so it hurt! We decided to run for it. So much for my mom, aunt, and grandma staying dry! On the way back up the trail, it stopped hailing, but it was still raining and the trail was a giant mudslide! I got a bunch of little rocks in my shoes, so I just took my shoes off and walked barefoot. Eventually it stopped raining, but we were all soaked! Obviously, everyone had nice hot showers when we got back :-).

Anyhoo, one day my uncle showed us a really cool forest. It was filled with pine trees and it was amazing! I love forests, so I had a great time. Hobbes was with us, too.

Here's me in one of the pine trees. They are really easy to climb because they have so many branches!

The floor of the forest was just a bunch of pine needles that have piled up over time. My Uncle Mike stuck a stick through them really easily. (That's him off to the left.)

Isn't it nice?

Another day we met my uncle at a stream. He had to find a bunch of bugs there for school. He taught us how to find them. The water was pretty cold, though!

We had to pick up rocks and see if there were any bugs under them. Some of them were really big!

We visited this stream last time we were in NC, and we met a nice German shepherd that lived there. We named her "Mittens" because she wasn't very tough. She would grab big rocks in her mouth, lie down and lick them, and then bury them. Oh yeah, she was fierce.

We threw rocks into the stream for her, and she stuck her head in the water to get them.

We had a lot of fun. Well, that's all for today! Tomorrow: The Devil's Courthouse (Don't worry, it's not what you think :-).)