We had an AMAZING weekend. While things did not go according to plan, we still got a great backpacking adventure into the weekend. The campsite we were originally going to be staying at ended up being closed. It happens sometimes. We get there and the bar is down, blocking the entrance.
We had originally planned on staying at Holly Flats campground off of a dirt road. When we arrived, it was closed. We headed on down the road to the next campsite and it turned out to be an amazing spot. Luckily, none of my special bee plates were broken in the adventure. We had forgotten about how rough the dirt roads were in this area of Cherokee National Forest. <laughter> I am not sure if anyone reading remembers the bee dishes. A local artist makes pottery with North Carolina clay and glaze from the United States. She has such a cute bee design, too! I had purchased two bowls at the Honeybee Festival and reached out to her to see if she could make two matching plates. These became our camping dishes or what I call them: “My Happy Place Dishes”.
We found a really nice site at Birch Branch Campsite. These sites are all primitive sites with no electric or water. We didn’t get to camp until after sunset– around 7pm. The sky was so beautiful. It reminded me of why we like to get out of the city and away from the lights. Friday night was clear, but Saturday it was too cloudy to see any stars. We boondocked all weekend and din’t even fire up the generator. Since we got to camp so late, we just skipped dinner. We ate our freeze dried eggs for breakfast and compared them to a leftover bag of Adventure Well freeze dried eggs. We determined that we do not like freeze dried eggs and will not be moving forward with freeze drying them! Our plan in Maine will be to rehydrate the keto cereal by cold soaking it. We will breakdown camp, get a few miles in before getting breakfast on the trail.
It rained Friday night through the morning, but the high on Saturday was 62º and just perfect for backpacking. It started off a little cold, but quickly warmed to the perfect temperature. Originally we were going to hike the entire 11 miles of the trail. This would require shuttling. However, having to switch campsites made this option a no go. We opted to start at Bald River Falls and hiked an out and back for a total of 7 miles. The Bald River Falls Trail is a somewhat moderate hike requiring a bit of rock scrambling. There are several water crossings on this trail, but none were so technical that we could not ford the water. Ghost did an amazing job of navigating the water without pulling Marty down.
This trail has many, many waterfalls along the trail. Even in the middle of winter, this trail was green because of the many rhododendrons in the area. Bald River Gorge is such a gorgeous area of Cherokee National Forest! If you have never been, I encourage you to get out there to see this beautiful area. The road to the falls was closed for over 2 years while they reconstructed a new bridge. The road has been repaved and the new bridge is magnificent.
We stopped at 1pm to eat our lunch. The meals we freeze-dried turned out perfectly. We ate the green beans without rehydrating them and they were delish. I had vegetable beef soup and Marty had keto Chicken Alfredo. These were both meals we prepared from leftovers! #winning Going forward, we will not add protein pasta to any leftover Alfredo! They did not freeze dry well, despite cooking them prior to the freeze drying process.
We drank chocolate LMNT with some sugar free cocoa so that we could be sure to get electrolytes. Dessert was the freeze-dried Granny Smith apples we made. When we got off the trail, we ate the freeze dried blueberries and blackberries we had fixed at some point before the trip. We realized that we need to keep the berries in the freeze dryer a bit longer as there was still some moisture in them. We planned on testing everything out before we hit the trail in Maine for 10 days. We are learning great things!
Saturday night at camp, we rehydrated taco soup and Buc-ee’s brisket for supper. Both were delicious! When I travel for work, I save my leftovers in an ice chest (I hate to waste food). I had saved brisket from two different work trips in the freeze and this was able to be freeze-dried into a camping meal. The texture was EXACTLY like you would expect brisket to be. We ate another bag of apples for dessert. We will definitely make up the money spent on the freeze dryer! Other than the eggs, everything has tasted great.
Saturday evening the wind picked up and by morning it was a windy and very cold 29º! We poured water in Ghost’s bowl when we woke up and made our coffee. It started freezing within 15 minutes because of the wind. The water Marty spilled on the picnic table while filling the kettle froze rapidly, as well. Luckily, we keep a puffy jacket, gloves and knit cap with us at all times. (and rain coats!)
We broke down camp early and made the trek home. We stopped at a picnic area for lunch and ate the food we had left. Freeze dried okra, green beans and chicken Alfredo. It was a fabulous weekend. Ghost wants everyone to know that he gets half of the camper, Marty gets one quarter and I get one quarter. He says this is how it should be and he is living the dream!
Here’s a video of Ghost and Marty crossing one of the water crossings. I am still learning how to video with the Oakley Meta glasses.
I also did a video of myself crossing one of the water crossings. A POV of me crossing:
My Little Red Bike 