October 9–12, 2014–Tobey’s Story! Stone Mountain State Park, Glade Valley, North Carolina

Tobey dropped me off at camp the drove back about 6 miles to the Stone Mountain State Park with Penny.

The camp was $15 a night with the senior discount, no electricity, and had nice flat sites. Most of the campers enjoyed their campfires, even in the rain, producing a smoke that laid in the hills.

On Thursday after he set up, it was sunny, so he and Penny started off on a hike. They were intending to see the Stone Mountain waterfall. Halfway through the three mile round-trip, it started to rain, so they booked it home to the RV, only to have the sun come back out when they arrived! Penny did seem to enjoy the warm-up hike. They did see the waterfall and Penny got to swim.

Friday morning the weather was nice with a forecast for rain in the afternoon, so they took off on the Stone Mountain Loop Trail. The trail is 4.5 miles, but they had to hike .7 miles each way to get to the trail, so it turned into a 5.9 mile hike. At the top of Stone Mountain they could see down into the valley.

They also visited the historical Hutchinson Homestead which is located in the park. The farm was built in the mid-19th century and restored in 1998. It is complete with a log cabin, barn, blacksmith shop, corncrib, meat house and original furnishings.

They went by the Stone Mountain Falls again and made it back to the RV before it rained! The rain started in the afternoon, so they snuggled in and watched movies and read.

Saturday morning was a repeat performance, but they did it in reverse. They also went to the Middle and Lower Falls as a side trip. Penny was getting to be a good hiker by then. Tobey asked Penny if she wanted to go back to the Falls again, and she immediately said “yes!” She got to swim again before hiking back to camp. They made it back from this 8 mile hike before the rain started again! Penny was one tuckered out dog. Tobey took a nap, too!

They did a repeat of movies and staying in until Sunday morning when they loaded up and came to get me.

I left the camera that wasn’t working with Tobey, so several of the pictures he took didn’t register on the SD card. We were both disappointed that none of the waterfall pictures or pictures of Penny swimming were there! Next year we need to plan so I can spend some time at Stone Mountain with them to see all the beautiful sights!