Our family loves to hike or at least everyone except our son Phillip. He loves hiking once he’s out on the trail but we have to do a lot of convincing before heading out.

A couple of weeks ago, we left the house for a short hike (that’s what Alex said) in North Carolina right outside of a little town called Saluda. We was told that this trail ran right beside the river so when we arrived with both kids and both dogs, we took the trail that lead right beside the trail. As we walked down, we quickly found out that it was not the correct trail and had to turn around.

After a few minutes, we finally figured out where the correct trail was and headed down. Charlie, our very trusted German Shepard has always been used to leading our “pack” down a hiking trail. Well that did not go over very well with our Buddy (the wild puppy Beagle). Buddy pulled and dragged me trying to catch up with Charlie in order to get in front of us all. He also did not do it quietly! He “howled and bowed” all the way down the trail. Very loudly!!!

This simple, short hike was tougher than we anticipated. There were fallen trees that we had to climb over and huge boulders to walk across. But the view at the end of the hike was worth it!! Little Bradley Falls was absolutely beautiful and the kids had a blast swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls.

Of course, when you hike in then you must hike back out! Reality check: this did not go very well. We were all very tired, our feet were wet and muddy from crossing rivers, and we were slightly hungry. When we arrived at the end of the trail, we all were so excited to see the car!

Well, it’s always an adventure with us Hymans!!!