Camping in cold weather

We went up to the mountains for a weekend of winter camping. And boy was it cold. We took our two dogs for the adventure as well.

We started out at North Mills River in Pisgah National Forest and stayed for $4.50 a night (winter rates).

Even after a pretty cold night in North Mills we decided to head up to higher elevation. First we went to the Folk Art Museum outside of Asheville. Then we headed up to Linville Falls. Unfortunately the campground was closed for the winter, but we weren’t deterred enough to not camp so we hiked down from the road closed sign to the campground to setup camp for the night. We had a fire and made grilled chicken and enjoyed the caramel porter we had lugged down. The next morning it was so cold the water froze in dog’s bowl ten minutes after I had put it out for them and the water in the pump line for our water filter had turned to ice as soon as I was done filling up the bottles. Thank god for the whisperlite!

On Sunday we hiked to the plunge basin of the falls for a nice lunch.

 

More pictures from the adventure.

Happy endings

Our temporary four-legged visitor from Sunday was safely returned to his family tonight so everyone gets a happy Thanksgiving. His real name is Cooper and he is definitely a sweet pup. He finally recovered some after being so completely pooped on Sunday that we took some walks around the yard on Monday and Tuesday. (He got to sleep on the couch too).

Hiking surprises

Went for a hike today with our dogs and our friend Amy’s dog (who was also taking care of Eric’s dog). 4 dogs, 3 people. Wow! Weather was great, a little gray skies, but warmish.

Saw this old graveyard about halfway out on the hike.

So we get about 2 miles in, and across the river we see something white in the bushes. Looks like a tiny snout from afar from some sort of furry being. We thought it was a small dog, turns out to be a lost greyhound (so a LARGE dog). He appears to be hurt on one paw, running through the brush? He can’t walk he is so exhausted or famished. We have only one choice, to carry him back to the car as it is getting dark and cold. We end up carrying him on our shoulders, all 60 75 lbs (updated after meeting the owners), back to the car, probably a mile or so. Crazy day.

He sleeps at our house, we make a little baracade in the kitchen hallway in case he has any illness he shouldn’t share with our two canines. He is extremely timid and just sleeps, has no energy to do much on the first night. Starts to perk up on the second day enough to escape from his little pen to sleep on the couch overnight. I hope we can find his parents!

Camping at Jordan lake

We took both Molly and Sadie camping at Jordan lake. It thundered and rained on Friday night so we had panting (they freak out when it thunders when we’re in the house, much less in a tent) and whining for about half the night. Here are the beasts on Saturday, sleeping off the bad night.

molly

sadie