Better Together: Mountain Momma

We took a little trip to the mountains for Fourth of July weekend. I'm super lucky that my grandma owns a cabin just a few miles down the mountain from Highlands, right on the Cullasaja River. It's a small, quaint, very 1970s little place, but it's just perfect for a getaway. Unfortunately, we really don't use it enough. We took advantage of the long weekend and made a quick trip with the dogs.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and spent a bit cleaning things up (it hadn't been used since last summer). It was pretty warm, so after we got settled, we decided to go swimming in the river. The house next to Gram's cabin has a "beach" and a good swimming hole, so we took the dogs there and swam and threw the tennis ball for them. I'm happy to report I did not see any water moccasins (we did run across one in the same swimming hole some 18 years earlier and I have not forgotten). We cooked a steak dinner that night and enjoyed sitting out on the deck, listening to the river (and some Jack Johnson), watching fireflies and a few amateur fireworks and looking at all the stars.

Happy to be in the mountains!

Matt going for a little fishing excursion in front of the cabin.

Yeah, I found these in a kitchen drawer - the date on the package was 1965. Awesome.

This is the life.

This next series of pictures is a progression of what happens when Maddie hears fireworks. Or thunder. We do not typically let her climb on us like this.

And she's gone... off to find another unsuspecting victim (aka: Daddy).

The next morning we were up early to try a little trout fishing. FAIL. I did, however, look super hot in my waders, fishing shirt and fishing sunglasses (they're polarized and I only wear them to fish because they are UGLY on me). After our unsuccessful fishing trip in which I broke my pole (oops), we headed back to the cabin to pack up for our 9.6 mile Yellow Mountain hike. Yep, you read that right. 4.8 miles in and 4.8 miles out. I wore the Camelbak, Matt had a backpack with food and water, and Maddie carried her pack with water. It was definitely strenuous, as labeled, and took us 5 hours round trip with only a quick stop at the top for lunch and a rest... lots of ups and downs and tight switchbacks. The dogs led most of the way, but by the end, we were kicking them in the butt to speed up in front of us. They were pooped, but we all made it and enjoyed it! And drank all the water.

Against my better judgment, I am posting this for all the interwebs to see. Yikes.

I think Matt is doing pretty feet.

View from the top of Yellow Mountain.

The Fire Tower

Those tongues! They were tired but they LOVED it.

Of course they find the water hole on the way out... a little cooldown. Maddie promptly laid down and began drinking. Silly girl.

Time for a little swim after that hike! They swam after the tennis ball for another 30 minutes after the 9.6 miles. They couldn't have been that tired.

That evening we took advantage of what had to have been a caloric deficit that day and had a cold beer and a delicious burger and onion rings at Flipside in Highlands then went for icecream at SweeTreats. We once again spent the evening on the deck, watching fireflies and looking at the stars. So peaceful.

The next morning we packed up and headed back to Atlanta, but not before a stop at Tallulah Gorge to see what it's all about. After our Sunday hike, we weren't too keen on the idea of thousand whatever stairs to get to the suspension bridge, so we just did the upper three overlooks. We'll definitely go back and try to get a pass to hike to the gorge floor at some point. I can only imagine how cool it must be down there!