C is for Camping

I love Charlottesville for a thousand reasons, and one of those is proximity to mountains and outdoor recreation.  There are dozens of awesome places to go hiking, camping, kayaking, swimming, fishing, or climbing.  I grew up playing in the woods, building forts, running through corn fields, wading in creeks, and smashing together mud pies, so I have always appreciated the great outdoors.  I like a little dirt in my sleeping bag and a little char on my marshmallows.  Bring it on, mother nature!

Luckily, I married a man who also enjoys braving the wilderness.  Last week, we ventured out to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a hiking and camping trip.  We drove to one of our favorite secluded campsites.  It's located around mile marker twenty-two, near the Bald Mountain overlook.  You have to off-road for about a mile to get to a glorious open campground with mountain top views, but it's totally worth the bumpy trek.   Peter and I hiked from Bald Mountain down to the Slacks overlook and then set up our campsite and built a fire to cook dinner.  There were hundreds of wild blueberries to enjoy along our hike and some lovely views of the Blue Ridge mountains, but that hike was majorly steep.  There were frequent blueberry snack breaks and a few bear clapping adventures.  No, we didn't actually see a bear, but we tried to make a lot of noise any time we thought we heard a bear.  After all the sweating, panting, and clapping, I was happy to be back at our campsite.      

      

I don't want to brag, but I feel like I'm pretty good at campfire cooking.  Some of the credit of course goes to my friend Nicci, who taught me about the power of aluminum foil.  Foil packets have changed my life.  Our campfire dinner consisted of turkey sausages with peppers and onions, rosemary roasted potatoes, a Greek orzo salad, and gourmet s'mores.  It was awesome.  You know what else was awesome?  The stars.  I wish I could've captured a photo to share with you, but some things you just have to see for yourself.