[at-l] How was your Labor Day weekend?

[Nina Rogers]

Just wondering how everyone's Labor Day weekend went. Sheltowee and I met a
couple of Sheltowee's friends and their significant others for camping at
Hot Springs (NC). Took them on a 5-mile AT hike on Saturday (one woman had
never hiked before, so this was her very first hiking experience ... I hope
we didn't scare her away. That last descent into Hot Springs (from the
north) is pretty hairy, particularly for someone who's never hiked).

The next day was supposed to be a group picnic on Max Patch, and a group hot
tub at the spa. But I had to go home that morning (woke up at 6:00 a.m.)
because I had a music commitment at church. Lucky I went home--when I got
there, I found that my cat, Bobcat Beau, had been injured. While Sheltowee
attended the romantic picnic and romantic hot-tub hour with two other
couples, I sat at the emergency animal clinic in Asheville with my poor,
suffering, and very bad-tempered (at the time) 20-pound part-bobcat son.

The little fella had an abscess and is OK now, but I didn't get back to Hot
Springs until 9:30 last night. Hung out at the Paddler's Pub with everyone
for a while before we went back to the campground for campfire and beer.
Sheltowee and I had talked about hiking some more today, but we were ready
to get home. So we came home this morning.

Camping was fun, but I couldn't help comparing it to backpacking, since it's
an outdoors-and-nature kind of thing. And I couldn't stop thinking that
backpacking is so much better than campground-camping--it's cleaner,
quieter, and better for one's health. But that's a whole 'nother story. Hope
everyone had a good weekend and was able to hit the trails for a few miles!