The AC kicked in nicely again last
night and we were both out cold pretty quickly. I expected to be a
bit sore after yesterday's hike and I was. However in addition to
the usual leg stiffness, I could also feel yesterday's hike in my
arms – that was a new experience.
We began our day by heading to the
Skyland area of the park for some horseback riding. The last time we
did horseback riding in a park was at Yellowstone when we were in a
group of about 40 people. Here, it ended up being just us and out
guide, Dalton. We rode for about an hour on Tonto (Amy's horse) and
Whiskey (my horse). It was a slow, meandering ride through the
forest, but very nice still. Again, with the forest being so think
you don't really have any views beyond the trail, but we still both
had a great time.
After our ride we grabbed a quick lunch
of onion rings and sierra mist – so healthy. It started raining a
bit so we just pulled off into an overlook and took a little rest
until it passed. Our next stop was the White Oak Canyon trail, which
is a 5.2 mile out-and-back trail that leads to an 86 foot waterfall.
Most of the trail ran parallel to a little mountain stream that
eventually became the waterfall. While this hike was nowhere near as
difficult as yesterday's, I still think it was a bit tougher than the
“easy/moderate” grade given by the NPS. But all-in-all it was a
very nice trail and the waterfall at the end was quite beautiful. On
the way back up we stopped and had a little break at a small set of
pools. The water was freezing cold, but it felt good to take our
shoes off and relax our feet in the water a bit.
Tonight, we just came back to our
campsite and made some dinner – BLT's. Amy had here first S'mores
of the trip and now we're just relaxing by the fire. Tomorrow we are
going to do the full Skyline Drive tour – the 100+ mile road that
runs the length of the park and is the beginning stretch of the Blue
Ridge Parkway. We also have two shorter hikes to do along the way,
so we'll see if we get it all in.
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