Monday, May 12, 2008

Day #02 - Panther Creek, or Running Downhill

So here's my new thing for today:

Panther Creek State Park in Morristown, TN
Sam played hooky from school today and he and I went on a little adventure. We packed lunches - turkey sandwiches, string cheese, sardines (for me), chips, and bottles of water - and we set off for the great unknown. Well, not that unknown, since I went to the website and picked a trail, plus I Google Mapped directions. Be prepared, right?

We took the Point Overlook Trail, described in the pamphlet thusly, "1.9 Mile Loop, Moderately Difficult. Along this trail, hikers are rewarded with a breath-taking view overlooking Lake Cherokee."

Sam taking the sign a bit too literally.

The hike up to the overlook wasn't too bad. We saw a wild turkey, yay! And Sam wanted to play Harry Potter the whole time, so he was too distracted to notice that he was getting winded. At the top, the view was great - not exactly "breath-taking," but impressive none the less.

Sam at the overlook, casting, I believe, Avada Kadavra.

On the way back down the hill, I noticed what separates me from Sam. We were going down some fairly steep grades and I was being careful. Sam, on the other hand, was running downhill like some kind of cheetah on an African savannah. He had no fear at all, no concern whatsoever that he could go butt-over-teakettle at any time. Meanwhile I was thinking about what I was going to say about it in my blog. Oh, to be eight again.

Sam took this one.

The walk back to the car took longer than we planned, and we took an unexpected detour at an intersection with no trail marker, but all in all it was a wildly successful hike. Sam was a trooper. The woods were beautiful. We defeated Voldemort. I did something new. All is well with the world.

Victory! The mountain has been conquered!

Hail the conquering heroes!

3 comments:

Rachel said...

Yea! I actually saw that trail online, I think, and was wondering if I could hike it with a busted knee. What do you think? I'm glad you guys had great father/son time. And that your son pretends to be Harry Potter. That makes me happy. :-)

Anonymous said...

"butt-over-teakettle", eh?

i like it. it has a nice arsey-idiom ring to it.

you know, they got walking trails in the republic. real flat, but walking trails nonetheless.

Nathaniel said...

That looks like a lot of fun!