Our Second stop was at Stone Mountain in North Carolina. Many families lived on the mountain before it became a national park. One of those families was the Hutchinson family. Our family legend has it that the Stone Mountain Hutchinson’s were my grandfather’s aunt and uncle. This makes sense because my grandfather, David, grew up in Elkin, the town at the bottom of Stone Mountain. I call it legend because when I mentioned this to the curator of the mountain visitor’s center, she said that many people claim family linage to the Hutchinson’s. Still, I think Grandma’s story makes geographic sense. In mountain town’s of yesteryear, EVERYONE was related somehow J We never made it up to see the cabin where the Hutchinson’s lived, but it remains on the park property.
We planned on spending a few days camping on the mountain. Upon arrival we found our spot and began to set up house. Our new neighbors were kind, and provided us with a few items we had forgotten to bring. I have never been on a campsite with so few people before. I hadn’t considered the problems a weeknight (Sunday actually) camping trip might involve. There were only three other tent camping families on the mountain that night. On my previous camping trips (many of them were with my son’s boy scout troop) there were lots of people around. There was activity and lighting nearly all night long. On this Sunday night trip, the lights went out at 10 and everyone got quiet. Our immediate neighbors had hiked over to the other side of the hill to visit their aunt who was camping in a camper. It was pitch black and quiet except for all the bugs singing their songs. When we heard rustle after rustle in the trees around us, my nerves began to sizzle. I couldn’t imagine what animals were lurking just a few feet away, but the knowledge that we were relatively alone and hanging out in black bear country made the hair on my neck stand on end. I told myself that it was probably just deer.
Unfortunately, people feed the overabundant deer population that lives on that mountain, and they are not afraid of humans. My neighbor had told me a story about the night before when a deer chewed on their tent in the middle of the night, and startled them from their sleep. I tried to remember this and believe that it really was just deer. Still, I couldn’t calm myself, and deer are wild animals not to be messed with. I didn’t want them sniffing me out for food in my sleep. We decided that the van might be a better place to sleep. Sadly, it was also a hot and muggy place to sleep. Not enough airflow and we didn’t want to open the windows wide because it would let in the mosquitoes. I decided I was too wimpy to spend the night alone on a mountain with two kids. I threw the tent in the van and headed down the hill to find a deer/bear free hotel room. To my chagrin, the mountain road was gated and locked. I apparently had to call 911 to get off the mountain if I had an emergency, or wake the mountain camp watcher. I was too embarrassed to express my fear to a sleepy ranger, and had no real emergency, so we went back to the site to put our tent back up and tough it out.
By the time we returned to our campsite, our neighbor's were back from their visit. The gentleman helped me put my tent up and assured me that he and his family camped there all the time- the deer would not get us J He also had a campfire burning and said he planned on being up till at least 3am. After much tossing, I dozed off, and so did the kids. Not an hour later, I shot up from my light slumber to the sound of a loud and close howl I hadn’t before heard, and am not looking forward to hearing again. I overheard my neighbor ask his wife if she heard that coyote cry. That was all I could stand. I tripped out of my tent, and sought refuge in company. My neighbor said, “Oh don’t worry, he’s up on the mountain,” I thought to myself, “hmm, isn’t that where we are?” It was the middle of the night, the bugs had died down, and the temperature had dropped just enough to make it bearable to sleep in the van, so we did. J It was not a good night’s sleep for anyone.
At dawns first light we were stirring again. Despite the fact that all of us were cranky, we had driven all the way up there, so we were going to hike up the hill to see what there was to see. We got to the top of the waterfall area, but decided not to take the 400 stairs to the bottom where we could get in the water. It was just too far considering we would have to get back up those stairs, and hike another mile back to the car. We just looked at the top of the fall. It’s not a fall like you may be used to seeing. It’s the running of water over a huge rock. It was fenced, so that we couldn’t actually get close. Apparently it’s slippery on the rock and people have fallen to their death.
We did a drive by and saw the stone face that gives the mountain it’s name.
We finished our visit at Stone Mountain with some time playing in the stream that flows through the whole park. Jacob trekked through, watering himself up to his knees, while Elias remained on the shore content with wet feet and stones which he repeatedly attempted to skip like big brother and dad always do. Jacob managed to skip a rock as big around as a dinner plate- it was impressive.
http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/stmo/main.php
We were done with camping. Too much excitement, and not enough sleep. Our neighbors were leaving and there would only be us on that part of the mountain the following night (excluding possible late arrivals). We headed for Roanoke.
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