Backpacking Fork Mountain to Oconee S.P.

First things first... pink blog? Seriously? This Kate is going to be serious trouble. We're switching to straight black for awhile to make up for all of the pinkness. Watch it Kate... you'll want the keys to the car sooner than you think and I have a good memory.

Dad & I took a group hike in the Upstate this weekend with the group from the parks program. The original plan was to start on the Fork Mountain spur of the FHT and hike to Oconee State Park over three days and two nights. This is a 30 mile hike that was planned to split evenly over the three days.



Here's dad at the beginning of the hike.



The mountain laurels were in full bloom this weekend.



A view down the Fork Mountain spur of the FHT.



Taking a break by the Chatooga River.



This poor guy was carrying 50 or 60 pounds of gear down the trail. I didn't think he'd make it past the first day but he did manage to (slowly) cover the entire hike.



The pines in our first camp were huge. I don't think this one ends...



Some flowers from the edge of camp.



My self portrait on a 60ft log bridge.



Looks comfortable!



Beautiful canopy along the way. I wasn't able to take many photos the next day due to rain (doesn't mix well with digital cameras). We ended up hiking 20 miles out to end the trip in 2 days instead of the planned 3. We were both tired and had sore feet but we were able to avoid the storms (see the radar below). That radar image was taken while we were driving home. Camp was approximately where the 'X' is... lots of storms were on the way. We definitely made the right call.