My Hiking Adventure: Sunday

This trip ended up being (quite possibly) the funnest week of my entire life! So much happened, that I have decided to break it down so it isn't so overwhelming. Here it goes...

Kristen and I ended up setting off a little later than we had planned, but ended up making good time. We also had a blast (we weren't sure how 8 hours in the car together would go). It's funny, because we both started to have second thoughts about the whole trip as we got off the highway and were only a few miles from the park. We ended up pulling up to the Mammoth Cave Hotel at 6:02 p.m. We were all supposed to meet there for dinner before heading over to Maple Springs Camp, where we would be spending the week. However, due to severe thunderstorms (and the fact that we have to take a ferry to cross the river), we ended up rushing out pretty much as soon as we got there.

Our first impressions of the group weren't so good. There was one high school boy and the rest of the people appeared to be at least as old as our parents. We did discuss that "the woman in the Vera Wang shirt looks like she might be cool."

On the drive over, we had to wait for the Green River Ferry. A bit of a history lesson: Mammoth Cave National Park was not developed by eminent domain, so as people donated their land to the government to build the park, there some how became a stipulation where the ferries had to continue (no bridges could be built). It was quaint the first one or two times we crossed, but then it started to "piss us off." It is not environmentally friendly (all the idling cars plus the ferry driving back and forth all day), plus it is slow.

Our arrival at Maple Springs added further to my anxiety. Even when I tried to envision the worst possible conditions, it ended up being dirtier and a bit more rustic. The good thing, is that through dinner, we slowly started to get to know the others and realized that they were a lot more fun than we thought.

We ended up bunking in a big room with just three other women. Mindy (the cute Vera Wang woman), Jen, and Betty. We became fast friends with Mindy and Jen! The first night was pretty quite. We were all getting settled in, and getting to know each other. I pulled out some knitting, people read, and we all tried to get our bearings. It was an early night, as we weren't sure what to expect in the week ahead. Little did Kristen and I know at the time, but we were about to begin the BEST TRIP EVER!

Our bunk mates, Mindy, on the left, and Jen, on the right. These photos are from Thursday's hike to the secret waterfall...you'll have to wait to hear more about that! I hope you enjoy reading about my full week of adventures!