Buffalo Mountain

We went in search of a park today, and found a hike instead. It started out innocently enough, Jalen and Sierra wanting to get outside, and ended up with us trying to get back to the van before dark!!
Winding our way up the side of a hill, following "Buffalo mountain park" signs, landed us out in the woods where we spotted a little turn out and trail heads. After parking the van, we headed up the damp, leaf-covered trail, finding a lovely outlook after walking only a short distance. Johnson City was spread out before us, hills all around, a fabulous view. Jalen kept saying "this is awesome!"

Well, we thought a loop around would be better than just going straight back down, but that little loop turned into a hike up over the top of the mountain, where two hours later we were beginning to think we'd never get back to where we started! yikes.

I was starting to figure out where we'd sleep if I had to make a small lean-to. Not fun.
Just about the time Jalen had said "I HATE hiking" for the hundredth time, we got back to the trail head and saw our van. Phew. Overnight spontaneous camp out aborted!

They were tired, but proud that they'd climbed up over that hill we'd driven past so many times. It was a beautiful hike, next time we'll start earlier in the day. I was pretty annoyed with myself, acting like some yahoo from Florida, rather than the saavy NW hiker I used to be. Sheesh.

After arriving home, we got a phone call from Mary letting us know that she was bringing John back for the weekend (from his Dads house) and could they stop by. Of COURSE! The boys were excited that one of their favorite people in the world was coming over. He's spending the night and they're off in Jared's room discussing game strategy and all sorts of things over my head. They keep hoping he'll be back here permanently, so they can hang out with him as often as we did in Pensacola.

Time to go rest some tired legs...and maybe look up some new trails to explore.