Awana boys to Bent Tree

We left the church at 6pm for the drive up, and got there before dark. The woods behind the house were beautiful in the late afternoon.

Connor Smith and Logan Todd were anxious to get out in the woods and immediately headed up the hill.

Johnny's red truck stood out against the lush green of the late afternoon woods.

Brenda had fixed a wonderful pot of chili with hotdogs, which we enjoyed against the background of the sunset.

The sunset faded to beautiful shades of pink and purple.

As soon as it got dark, we took the boys out and walked up Chestnut Cove to the junction with Thunderstruck to see the stars. We got a great view of the big dipper. Connor and Logan were reluctant to leave their video games, but once out on the dark road, they seemed to have a great time.

On the way back, Connor really started to appreciate how spectacular the big dipper was and made several comments about it.

Brenda fixed a nice breakfast for us with biscuits, eggs, sausage gravy and bacon. Here Logan, Connor and Ray contemplate breakfast, but Connor still has his video game.

The morning was very different from last night since a cloud had descended on the top of the mountain. It was damp but pleasant, so we decided to set out for a hike.

The boys enjoyed romping in the woods, and found the sort of things that boys find - a terrapin, several millipedes, and all kinds of interesting plants. They weren't so much interested in the wildflowers, but we tried to emphasized to them the beauty of God's creation. The umbrella-like mandrake plants carpeting the forest floor were interesting to them - they spent a lot of time whacking them down with sticks.

On the ridge leading to the top of Big Stump Mt. we found this spectacular lone yellow orchid. As you can see below, this orchid had captured a yellowjacket.

We continued on up the ridge on the foggy mountainside with the boys poking into every crevice and looking at everything. We found this one mandrake or mayapple plant with its white bloom. There were a number of violets like t he one above and a number of white violets, but the flowers were rather sparse. With the canopy filled out, it appears that we were a week or two past the peak. But also, we are hearing that the deer population is so high that they are eating all the wildflowers.

The mountain is always new - we had never made the climb in this kind of cloud.

This was our usual place to get a view of the lake far below, but we weren't going to get any lake view today.

It was like an enchanted forest in the cloud as we headed down the wooded mountain and started down the steep slope behind the house.

This slope is a lot steeper than it looks and it is hard to get down it without landing on your backside at least once.

Ray, John and Logan make progress down the steep and slippery slope.

John, Connor and Logan make their way down into the deep woods behind the house.

The boys were pleased to get to the stream on the spillway end of the lake.

Connor and Logan had great fun wading in the shallow stream.

The noticed a lot of tadpoles in the stream, so they got cups to catch some.

Looking over the lake toward our house on the mountain, you could see the cloud that we had come out of. This lake feeds the stream, and now we move down to the waterfall to the exit stream from the lake.

Johnny and Ray contemplate the waterfall while the boys look for further adventures in the stream below the falls.

Finally it is time to say goodbye to Bent Tree with our traditional picture on the dam. The view of this young doe on the way out is a final blessing of another interesting trip. Praise the Lord!