This weekend John and I went camping at Cunningham Falls State Park. This place is only about an hour and a half for us, so it's super convenient (though it took us about 2 hours to get there since we hit some rush hour traffic).
We left Friday and got there around 6:30. We promptly set up our tent since we were expecting rain. We actually had time to gather some wood and have a small fire before we decided to call it an early night. And it didn't start raining until after we had gone to bed. Good timing on our part. As we lay in bed listening to the rain, we contemplated whether there was enough room in this tiny tent for a dog. It was determined on Saturday night, when we somehow scooted ourselves all the way to the edge of the tent, that there is indeed room for a dog.
It ended up being freezing that night, despite it being July. So we had to use our padding as blankets, making the night rough. But it was survivable.
Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn. We ate some yogurt and cliff bars and headed to the trail. First we walked down to the lake. It was so early that no one was there. Except the "water ninjas" who were actually military, we believe, but sounded like ninjas at first. Anyways, they were doing their exercises in the lake. So funny.
We wandered around down there for awhile, since it wasn't crowded yet. We went off the regular trail and just followed the edge of the lake for awhile. We found some fishing line, but no fish. We also found some odd berries, which we did not eat.
We then went back to our original trail, but went the other way towards the falls. This was supposedly the easy route, but there were some steep parts. The falls weren't too impressive, probably because it's been so dry, but it was still nice. we climbed around on the rocks some and just relaxed before heading back up the mountain. A lot of steep areas! We figure the campsite to the lake, to the falls, and back to the campsite was about 2 miles, but it wasn't all marked so we weren't sure.
When we got back to the campsite it was only 10:30, but we went ahead and ate lunch! It was a strenuous morning and we were starving. So we had sandwiches, potato salad, and chips and lots of Eating Right water. Then we took a lovely nap.
After our nap, we took the trail back to the lake, thinking there was another trail down there. There wasn't. We wandered around the other side of the lake and didn't find anything, so we headed back up the mountain. Since we were not going to the falls, we went the same way we came, which was steeper so by the time we were finished, we were tired. But my legs and butt are in great shape now!
We took another nap (yay naps!) and then took a stroll to explore the other campgrounds. Then we started gathering wood for the evening. We had a nice big pile, which was good because we had a fire going for a good number of hours.
We cooked our chicken over the grill and had dinner. Then there were smores, plain toasted marshmallows, and John even melted some chocolate and made chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite!).
We stayed up later that night (probably because of all the naps) but still not too late. But we had a large pile of ash by the night's end. Hey, it was really cold, I had to stay warm.
We got up this morning and packed up. We wanted to find another trail and do that before leaving, but the park was uncooperative. Apparently they only tell you were the falls/lake trails are. All the rest you have to buy a trail guide for. We could have found some ourselves but it was a pain, and some trails were across the highway at another park, so we gave up and just came home.
But, the weather was cool, the food was great, hikes were tiresome but we both loved it, we had nice campfires and some good quiet time. Just don't ask John to comment on our neighbors and their annoying kids :)
