Tuesday, 7/30 - Mary and Vaughn and the horrible, no good, very bad afternoon!

Getting up early for the sunrise didn't pay off when a huge fog covered the valley.  So much so that we couldn't even see the nearest house just down the hill.  In the time it took the fog to clear, I found a restaurant for breakfast that had really good reviews on Tripadvisor. 

So, through our headsets, Vaughn talked me down the driveway and pot-holed road to the main road.  Did I mention that there is a mile and a half gravel road up to the cabin?   The road goes practically straight uphill with a 115 degree turn to the right near the top.   Complete with a rut running right across the middle of the turn.  Vaughn drove down the driveway first and talked me through how to get down the hill, not fall into the rut, and pull out from the gravel onto the pot-holed road.  SUCCESS!  And we were on our way into town for breakfast. 

We found the restaurant.  No problem.  It really is a tiny town.  The problem was finding parking that wasn't on a bed of gravel, but we found a parking lot across the street and walked to the restaurant.  "Closed Tuesday and Wednesday" read the sign in the window.  Bummer!  We wandered down the street and found another restaurant, but they didn't serve breakfast.  The owner did give us a recommendation for another restaurant and off we went.

Our plan for the day was to drive and hike through Blackwater Falls Park.  The roads were lush with greenery.  At one stop we followed some trails down to the river.  Vaughn found some deer tracks on the trail and determined that they were fresh.   So walking as silently as possible we were able to sneak up on the two deer as they crossed the river.  They didn’t hear us and Vaughn was able to get some pictures of them before they disappeared into the woods on the other side.

The next stop warned us that there were 214 steps down to see the falls.  No problem!!  The problem was the 214 steps going back up to the bikes!  But the trip was worth it as the falls were breath-taking!

As our legs were a bit weary, we headed back to the cabin – up and down the curvy roads to the pot-holed road to the gravel road to the cabin.  As we reached the turn at the top of the gravel road, Vaughn’s front tire caught the rut.  In his efforts to maneuver out of the rut, I watched his bike skid backwards and fall over to the right.  (Vaughn is FINE!!).  I knew I couldn’t stop there to help him, but had slowed my bike down too much.  My bike’s first gear didn’t like loose gravel and my bike went over to the left (I am FINE!).  Vaughn’s bike was on a downhill incline and it took several attempts for us to get it back up.  A truck coming down the hill stopped and a man and young boy helped me right my bike.  Shaken, we both made it back to the cabin on our bikes.

We are both fine – save some rattled nerves, a few bruises and sore muscles.  Our evening ended with five deer just outside the cabin, a brilliant sunset (that we nearly missed for watching the deer), and a nighttime sky scattered with millions of twinkling stars.