Hiking to Long Creek Falls!

This past weekend we took a nice little quick trip up the forestry road a few miles from our cabin for a nice hike up to Long Creek Falls.

It was a beautiful day, and was late afternoon when we got up to the trail head.

We started out walking the trail up the mountain to the Falls. Most all of the trail runs along Long Creek which is really peaceful - you can always hear the water running the entire hike.

We didn't see a single soul going up to the Falls. See? No one on the trail!

Wait! I think I hear something up the ridge! Ahhhh...just a squirrel, no bears this time.

About 1.5 miles in we came up to the sign directing us to the Falls, nice sign!

And here they are! Really nice little falls, maybe 20-30 feet.

Of course Mum had to pose me on some rocks in front of the falls and (hopefully) get a nice pic. Yep, that works Mum, like it!

We met up with some very nice folks at the falls. Some thru hikers and two young men who were hiking and camping the AT for a few days before heading back to their senior year of college.

They were dirty, smelly and we like them :) One was majoring in physics, the other in environmental engineering. Brainy dudes, they were! One of them asked if Mum was a dog trainer (we get that a lot :). She always says, "well, I train my dogs," BOL!

We hung out for a while, talked and all had a really nice discussion about work, school, dog training, my competitions, their studies and other fun stuff.

After a while we started back on the trail. Here's a take of the falls further down. We had fun wading here, but the rocks were super slippery.

Near where the falls are there are some very large rocks, about 30 times my size...some perspective for you...little dog, big rocks!

On the way back we walked more along the creek, finding lots and lots of different types of mushrooms. White with white bumps...

Greeny, yellowy, little dudes...

And really nice contrasting tan ones mixed in with the moss at the base of a tree.

Down a little further we came up on the creek again with a rise on the bank of about three feet. What did Gracie do? She jumped right in, almost pulling me and Mum in with her, BOL!

This is just a bit unusual for the Grace-ster. She doesn't follow me in the creeks very often for a good wade, just hangs out with a couple of feet in and a couple of feet out and takes a little sip.

But this time she was raring to go! Jumped in the creek, got all wild on us, then jumped out and took both me and Mum for a nice run down the creek bed. Mum called them creek zoomies!

Mum got a shot of her after the little zoomie session. See? She's all wide eyed and wild looking, looks a little like Super Woman, silly girl!

Was a really fun little afternoon. We tried to pose for a final shot on the rocks, but Gracie had other things on her mind, BOL!

Hope you had a fun weekend!