So, anywho - we went to the Hike Inn. I've linked it to the title if you want to check it out. It's a back-country Inn, near Amicalola Falls, just north of Atlanta. To get there, you have to hike in on a trail of moderate difficulty. For 5 miles. What does "moderate difficulty" mean? It means that there's a trail, and you don't have to carry a machete, but you still have to crawl over fallen branches, watch out for rocks so you don't trip, and ford a few streams. Oh, and you have to walk up and down hills. Did I mention that this was for FIVE MILES?
Now, in a reasonable world, one would only attempt this hike with three children when the weather is balmy, maybe with a slight breeze. But we're talking Lathrops here, so even when the forecast said it might rain, my valiant husband decided that we should forge ahead. I believe his words were, "How bad could it be? We won't melt."
Well.
I will give him that. We didn't melt. But we wished we could.
Here's the picture we took at the Visitor Center before heading out on the trail.
Beautiful , anticipatory smiles. They look positively excited, don't they?
Well, I'd love to show you an "after" picture, but we were too cold, too tired, too wet, and too generally distraught to even consider a photo when we finally got there.
The hike in was horrific. And when I say horrific, please take what you are imagining, and then multiply it. By a factor of 10 at least.
It started off not too bad. It was misty, it was cool, but it didn't look like the rain was going to arrive for a while, so we decided to go for it. Ryan was in a carrier on my back, so we figured we could make pretty good time, and get there with a minimum of fuss,. After 1 mile, I was starting to re-think my position. By two miles, when it actually started raining, I was seriously regretting having begun this trek, and considered turning back. In no time, we were all soaked to the bone (Note to self: buy a REAL rain jacket before hiking in the rain again. Or even better: NEVER hike in the rain again). Around mile 3, Ben lost it. Soon after, Nathan lost it. And when I say "lost it", I mean they collapsed on the trail, crying because they were so wet, and so cold, and it was so long, and "it's only been 3.5 miles! That means we still have 1.5 miles to go, Mom!" (Those are my kids - miserable, soaked and crying, but still doing math). At mile 4, Ryan started crying and wouldn't stop. (Of course he did - he hasn't been moving since he was on my back, and he was wetter than any of us and it was COLD) We checked him at 4.5 miles and his lips were turning blue, so Stephen, who was the only one of us still left with any energy) left me with the big boys, took Ryan and ran the rest of the way to the Inn to get him warm.
As I said. Horrific. Practically a death march.
With such a horrible start, it can only get better, right? RIGHT! Thankfully, this turned out to be true.
Once we got dry and warm, it was time for the general tour and we finally got the camera back out. This is the lobby area:
Notice how high the ceiling is? The inner construction engineer in me just
totally geeked out at how this place was designed. Pretty awesome. The dimensions of the rooms were created to minimize construction waste, so that in the end, the entire place was built and they only had to cart away two dumpsters of debris. TWO dumpsters! With our itty bitty remodel, we had at least 3 dumpsters full of waste, not to mention the stuff we dumped in our trash for the garbage collectors to take. Amazing.
Here's the other side:
And this is looking up at the high windows, which allow for the rooms to cool more easily in summer, and they let in tons of light.
And that's Neil, our tour guide. Ben was just eating it up. :-)
Here's Ben during the first part of the tour:
Stephen, and a still recovering Ryan:
And here we are at the end of the tour, in the composting area. Nathan thought the compost worms were awesome. Of course he did. :-)
After that, we went to the Sunrise Room to relax and play a game before dinner:
Of course, Ben found the books - like mother, like son:
After dinner it was back to bed, because man, were we tired! Here's how we slept: each room has a built in bunk bed and a closet area. That's it. We got two rooms at the end of the bunk house, and opened the door between them to create one, very long room. on one side we had Ryan and me on the bottom bunk, with Ben on top:
Then on the other side, Nathan on top, with Stephen on the bottom:
It actually worked out quite well. :-)
And a little later in the morning, outside. It was crazy cold, but beautiful.
Here's Ryan in a little cave area he kept calling "the bat cave". Or maybe it was "the Bat Cave" ? :-)
Here are the stairs Ben injured himself on.
And here are some random pics of the Hike Inn. This is the side of the bath house, where they had toilets and showers. You can see the Dining House is next (left side of pic)
And this is looking up at the high windows, which allow for the rooms to cool more easily in summer, and they let in tons of light.
And that's Neil, our tour guide. Ben was just eating it up. :-)
Here's Ben during the first part of the tour:
Stephen, and a still recovering Ryan:
And here we are at the end of the tour, in the composting area. Nathan thought the compost worms were awesome. Of course he did. :-)
After that, we went to the Sunrise Room to relax and play a game before dinner:
Of course, Ben found the books - like mother, like son:
After dinner it was back to bed, because man, were we tired! Here's how we slept: each room has a built in bunk bed and a closet area. That's it. We got two rooms at the end of the bunk house, and opened the door between them to create one, very long room. on one side we had Ryan and me on the bottom bunk, with Ben on top:
Then on the other side, Nathan on top, with Stephen on the bottom:
It actually worked out quite well. :-)
DAY 2:
Well, Ben, in his adolescent wisdom, took his weak body and decided to jump down a flight of stairs immediately upon waking up on Monday morning. Of course, upon landing he twisted his ankle badly enough that we had to stay an extra day. I must say that it was a fortunate accident, because if we had gone home on Day 2, we would never have come back. But, day 2 was so nice and restful that we'll definitely be going back to the Hike Inn.
Here we are in the Sunrise Room right after Ben twisted his ankle:
And a little later in the morning, outside. It was crazy cold, but beautiful.
Here's Ryan in a little cave area he kept calling "the bat cave". Or maybe it was "the Bat Cave" ? :-)
Here are the stairs Ben injured himself on.
And here are some random pics of the Hike Inn. This is the side of the bath house, where they had toilets and showers. You can see the Dining House is next (left side of pic)
And here's the other side of the Bath House, because Stephen is nothing if not complete in his picture taking. :-)
A small garden area
Pathways
And the beautiful views:
The Dining House, where we ate breakfast and dinner family style:
And here's a Vermont stove used to keep the hall warm. They had them in every common room. You'll have to ask Stephen about the stoves, because he was so excited about them he made me take a picture of him with one.
Here's Ben, discovering the joys of Calvin & Hobbes:
And Jen, discovering that she can't play guitar at all:
A small garden area
Pathways
And the beautiful views:The Dining House, where we ate breakfast and dinner family style:
And here's a Vermont stove used to keep the hall warm. They had them in every common room. You'll have to ask Stephen about the stoves, because he was so excited about them he made me take a picture of him with one.
Here's Ben, discovering the joys of Calvin & Hobbes:
And Jen, discovering that she can't play guitar at all:
Game time! Sorry was first up:
More family picture time!
Dinner , Monday night:
And that brings us to Monday night. While packing, guess what we discovered in Ben's backpack?
An umbrella.
DAY 3
Dinner , Monday night:
And that brings us to Monday night. While packing, guess what we discovered in Ben's backpack?
An umbrella.
Which might have been useful, you know, to keep us dry WHEN IT WAS RAINING!
We wanted to beat Ben with it, but we settled for a picture of beating him.
DAY 3
While we were sleeping, it snowed. We woke up to this beautiful site on Tuesday morning:
This hike, although still 5 miles, was MUCH more enjoyable. And the light dusting of snow just made everything that much more beautiful.
We had some gorgeous views, both high
and low
This ice formation in particular was really interesting. It's called "needle ice" and is formed when the water rising up from a groundspring freezes and is pushed out of the dirt as it freezes. Cool, huh?
And this happened as water drained out of an old tree
We even stopped for lunch - PB&J, all around!
When we finally reached the trailhead, we were still smiling, so we decided to visit Amicalola Falls. Here we are at the top:
Ah.
And then it was time to walk back.
This hike, although still 5 miles, was MUCH more enjoyable. And the light dusting of snow just made everything that much more beautiful.
We had some gorgeous views, both high
and lowThis ice formation in particular was really interesting. It's called "needle ice" and is formed when the water rising up from a groundspring freezes and is pushed out of the dirt as it freezes. Cool, huh?
And this happened as water drained out of an old treeWe even stopped for lunch - PB&J, all around!
When we finally reached the trailhead, we were still smiling, so we decided to visit Amicalola Falls. Here we are at the top:
And here is the view over the valley:
And down the falls themselves:
A great time was had by all. In fact, we will definitely go back again.
And down the falls themselves:
A great time was had by all. In fact, we will definitely go back again.
Just never again in the rain.
