Baskins Creek

This is where hubby and I went to play this morning. We hike more then the average person would find enjoyable, and not enough for our liking. This morning didn't exactly start how we intended. First of all, we MEANT to go to Alum Cave.............. again! The trail head is so far away from where we live now that we just know we'd be late for work. See we try to get these hikes in before the store opens at 10 due to the fact that we NEVER have a day off... (One of the few negatives to what we do, working 7 days a week) On the way to the cave we ran into traffic, had to stop for gas, hung out for turkeys to do their thing.... in short, delayed enough, even having left at 4:30am, that we couldn't make the trek and actually enjoy what we were goin to see. So on the way there we swapped to Baskins Creek. 

CATCH: The side note in our trail guide 

"This trail is mostly uncut (hard to follow in spots) due to the trail head being hard to find. Not many people take this trail as opposed to it's neighboring falls which are visited by hundreds, sometimes thousands of people daily." 

We read this and thought, 'well sweet!' But after wasting a couple hours and hiking a couple miles before finding where it begins, I was thinkin 'Not so much.' The bonus to our misguided *cough Chad cough* detour was we got to see a bear!!! One of my favorite things EVER! Dude was HUGE!! He was up on the hillside above our heads. We heard him and stopped and pulled out the camera. As I zoomed in I was well aware he was staring me in the face (frightening) I snapped a quick shot then he lifted his front paws about a foot off the ground then stomped down making this grunting noise. Sooooooo we left....... quickly :o/ After about another half mile of nothin, we turned around to head back. At that time these people were driving down the motor nature trail and stopped us to say, "Hey there's this HUGE bear down there. Just crossed the road and will be on your left, be careful." lol

So we found the trail much later then I had hoped, but it was a shorty so we figured we could still make it. (Arrived at the shop at 10:05..... ya buddy) Usually on a destination trail, (start and stop at the same spot, as opposed to a through trail which requires two vehicles or some sweetie to pick ya up) you can count on your trip out being almost exactly half the time it takes to get in. Due to A) having already seen the scenery and B) MOST of the time you start up the mountain and leave down. This trail is not that way! Most the entire way in the grade was so steep our feet were pointed to hell and our toes sliding and crashing into to front of our shoes. We randomly stopped a few times, looked way up behind us and said, "This is gonna suck." Well........... we weren't too far from accurate on that account. The way out wasn't so much fun. But, I've done worse (Chimney Tops *UGH!!*) So I just kept telling myself that and rather then doubling on our time out, we rocked it in time and a half  :)

Then we get to the store and two Peacock are chillin out back. I ran in and got some bird seed (on a whim, who the hell knows what a Peacock eats?) I tossed it to them and they actually seemed to dig it. So they hung out with us for awhile.... So far, a pretty stellar day if I do say so myself.