Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina ~ Day 4

 
We took a fun two-mile loop hike today just south of the Virginia-North Carolina boarder in the Cumberland Knob area of The Blue Ridge Parkway. The Gully Creek Hike was marked as “strenuous” and there was even a warning sign~
but we figured that the sign was to let people know that even though it’s only a couple miles, there was a lot of elevation change, thus strenuous. 


The hike started with a pretty steep descent among the trees and fallen leaves; clearly this is a less traveled hike than some of the others we’ve done on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 
 

We eventually made it to the “bottom” where we walked along the creek, then the fun began (and why this hike had the warning sign)~


we had to cross over (or through, depending on how many times one skipped) the creek about seven or eight times.  
 
 Suzanne slipped off a rock within the first crossing or so, so after that, there was a lot of freedom in just walking in the creek bed and keeping her hiking boots, socks and feet soaking wet. Brad was better at balancing on the rocks, but in all honesty, it was Zoey and her 4-feet that did the best of all of us!
 


We eventually began the ascent, which was fairly steep but not terrible. 
   
We passed some beautiful flowering mountain laurels and eventually made it to the top.
 


This was definitely a fun hike!
 
Easy and affordable - no matter where you are! 


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