Fantastic Camping Trip

We arrived home yesterday evening after 4 nights of tent sleeping and camping in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, not far from Abingdon, VA. We had a really great time and the kiddos really rose to the occasion. There was very little napping and a lot of going going going! We slept in tents, cooked on Coleman Stoves and over a campfire, rode a 34 mile bike trail, waded in a lake, and explored Damascus and Abingdon. The bike trip was broken down into two 17 mile trips, on Tuesday and Thursday. Our Tuesday trip was mostly downhill and was really a piece of cake. The Thursday trip required a little more muscle to bike uphill, but it was so scenic and gorgeous. We crossed a bunch of wooden bridges and saw terrific foliage and the kids, especially Liam, loved throwing rocks into the water that ran along the trail. I ended up trailering the kids for 10 miles of the Thursday trip. I enjoyed pulling them and hope to do it in the future.

We had great weather, sunny and not really hot during the day, cool at night. I had forgotten just how cold it can be in the mountains and was so glad we packed fleece jammies for the kids. The coldest night was in the 40's and it was COLD! We had rain on the first evening, but the rest of the week was practically made-to-order. Peyton and Liam really enjoyed spending the week with their Granna and Grandad. They seemed to like everything we did and when I asked Peyton what her favorite part was she couldn't give just one thing. She liked the showers at the campground, the bike trip, making s'mores, the lake, etc. As usual I took tons of pictures, but I'll limit my posting of them to just a few. I'll post a few more in my next posting.

Mark and I hadn't camped in 3 years and we're already thinking about going again this summer or early fall. We' just purchased a new water storage cooler and griddle for the Coleman stove today! I never imagined that I would enjoy camping so much, and I don't think I would like backpack camping, but I really enjoy the type of camping we did this week.