March 22-23: Millington, TN to Layfayette, GA

Imagine our surprise to realize we were running one day behind for our meet-up in Georgia with our friend, Terry! Totallly my fault. Unfortunately (though I'm glad we did), we had taken the morning and early afternoon of the 22nd to spend more time hiking in Meeman-Shelby Forest, so it was mid-afternoon when we realized we had a problem on our hands. We knew we'd have to drive much, much farther than planned that day in order to be able to drive a couple more hours in the morning to get there at the appointed time.

The only image we have of Rock Island State Park is this flowering dogwood near the bathroom in the night.

I cancelled our reservations for the night and, after some searching, we found a state park that would put us about 2 1/2 hours away from our morning meet-up, if we drove until well after dark that evening. We arrived at Rock Island State Park in pitch black, pulling into a cramped little site surrounded by trap rock. I could make out some beech trees in the dark woods. We opted to set up the tent on the tar parking area, rather than risking puncturing the bottom of the tent from the sharp rock mulch. We fell into the tent and were asleep around 10:30 pm, having no real idea where we were or what our surroundings were like, though we could hear rushing water down below us.

Our alarm went off at 6 am, not allowing us our customary 10 or so hours of sleep we've been getting on this trip! :) We both showered and packed up the car quickly, eating and drinking morning beverages on the way. We would make it just in time.....or so we thought. That was until the clock on the dash suddenly skipped forward an hour. Drat! We did not figure in a time zone change. Terry was very gracious when we let him know we would be an HOUR late.

Glen snapped a couple shots down into the valley while I gripped the steering wheel driving the mountain road.

It was a perfect weather day for visiting and hiking at Crockford-Pigeon Mountain.

We arrived at Crockford-Pigeon Mountain and began the drive up the switch-back-aplenty road to the top. There were Terry and Lori waiting for us, having even scouted out a nice place for us to pictch our tent. Sadly, given our delays, Lori was not able to stay with us for the day, but it was great to finally meet her and chat with her a bit. She gave Twyla a little massage treatment, which I believe Twyla would now like on a daily basis.

There were cool rock formations on Rock Town Trail which we enjoyed looking and and talking about how they may have formed.

Terry showed us around some of his favorite spots, pointing out many of the areas where he and Lori hunt mushrooms - it's an abundant area for fungi. We chatted as we hiked and found ourselves wishing for more time together.

There were not yet a lot of wildflowers blooming, but we did notice the striking maple tree samaras, a few little crested iris and high bush blueberries in bloom.

After we bid our friend goodbye, we found a stream and treated some water with the Steripen for drinking and cooking. I made a big supper and we ate too much. In the dusk of the evening, we set out on a walk to find the source of the peepers we were hearing. There was quite a cacophony of tree frogs and American toads in a pond about a quarter mile up the dirt road.

Our home for the night was quite peaceful.

As we settled into the tent, we were serenaded by a couple of tree frogs. Life is good.