Stumpin'

What a great weekend! I left Raleigh around 1:00 on Friday afternoon and headed west to Hanging Rock State Park for a wonderful weekend in the woods. I arrived between 3 and 4 and staked out a campsite and set up my new tent (which I really like) and then relaxed and drove around the park to get my bearings. For dinner I grilled a great t-bone steak over the fire that no doubt was much better than the hotdogs and hamburgers being cooked in the adjacent campsites. The Chalmers were scheduled to arrive around 8 and were going to call me to pick them up at the gate since it was locked at 7. Unfortunately, their phones didn't have reception and they were stuck outside until 9:30 or so when Katie finally bummed a ride with somebody else picking up their friends and was nice enough to drive her campsite to campsite to look for me. After picking Joel and their gear up we set up their tent and hit the hay in anticipation of the next day's service project.

Saturday morning we woke up to a cloudless sky and low 40s temperatures; a great day for working outdoors. We headed to Camp Sertoma a few minutes west of the park to join in the Bankers' Association Camp Challenge workday with about 200 bankers from around the state. Our crew consisted of the three of us and three other guys from work plus some other bankers and we were charged with stump removal. The Chalmers and I set off on our own to tackle the biggest stump and immediately realized we were in for a lot of digging. After about an hour or so the other teams, finished with their stumps, joined us and started hacking away. Quickly they realized it was going to be no easy task and through attrition it the group was reduced to the original three and the guys from my company plus the tractor driver and his son. Finally about 11:30 we freed the stump after about three hours of work. We filled in the hole, spread grass seed, and covered it was straw and headed to the catered lunch. It was good to get out and do some manual labor which I miss sometimes since I don't have a yard of my own. It was also a good teambuilding experience for our company, I just wish more people would have participated.

I was also surprised to see some younger people at the workday. As I've been out and about at conferences and meetings the vast majority of the crowd is probably in their forties or older which is kind of weird given that I'm 26. I guess I'm lucky that I have the opportunity to learn early on and interact wth more experienced people. I didn't meet many new folks since were so busy working but I should have had the nerve to talk to some of the cute girls that were there, oh well, regrets get you no where.

After lunch we headed back to the park and changed into hiking clothes for our summit bid of Hanging Rock. The trail to the top of the rock is only 1.2 miles but consists of a lot of stairs, during my stairmaster hike I realized I'd just rather walk up a very steep hill instead of giant stairs. The trail was packed as to be expected with the beautiful weather which was still cloudfree. Upon reaching the summit we paused for while for picture taking and litter pick up from the dirty hikers leaving gum wrappers and water bottles behind (ARGH). I had another realization while atop the rock, I'm going to be an overprotective parent. There were little kids running around the top on some treacherous rocks without guard rails and it was making me nervous to hearing their feet scurrying around. Maybe I'll get over that eventually so I'm not psycho-parent.

For dinner I went a little crazy at the grocery store and purchased a couple of options. I first thought about silver turtles but then I jumped to shishkabobs so I ended up getting ingredients for both. We ended going with the shishkabs which had red and green bell peppers, onions, and marinated steak. I also bought some chicken but that didn't work as well. As a side dish, we had roasted red potatoes with butter and parsley cooked in an aluminum pouch on the fire and canned biscuits cooked in a pie tin in a dutch oven. We also had smores for dessert. Overall it was a good filling dinner and good first attempt at shiskabobs.

This morning we woke up and I made the executive decision not to make the planned oatmeal and we hit up Bojangles instead. I had a great time and I think Joel and Katie did as well thanks to good friendship, hard work, and perfect weather.

To see photos of the trip go here: Hanging Rock Trip Gallery

Here are a few selections:

The view from the bottom of Hanging Rock


The view from the top of Hanging Rock


Me at on Hanging Rock