We arrived on a Sunday leaving right after church. Ate at Arby's on our way up, and arrived about 2 PM. We had an excellent campsite all to our self, and had plenty of time to explore around the campsite. We found a cave area directly beneath our camping area. And directly behind my tent was about a 20 foot drop...which was a fun place to pee off for the boys...I am scared of heights, and that is not the way I want to go. You can see that I brought the 10 man tent just for me, and the boys slept in their hammocks. The 10 man tent was great because we had plenty of room for storage, and was the backup plan in case of rain. But there was no rain on this perfect few days other than right as we were setting up. That evening we played KanJam taking turns for one person to be on both teams. I hit two instant ringers and sam hit one. We ate chicken fettuccini using Sam's Jet Boil, which contributed to some nasty gas for the rest of the night. We played some Progressive Spades, and found out that we should have packed some paper and pen, as an iPhone is hard to keep up with scores.
The next morning, we were up at 6, and after another Jet Boil meal of biscuits and gravy, we were on the trail by 7:15. Sam had been on this trip 3 years prior (we checked the blogs while there), but he was a good tour guide and showed us a couple of caves near the trail. We were able to see one stalactite in one of the caves. We had some heavy packs with water, lunch, and a change of clothes, but all of us were glad we didn't have tents we were also dragging down. We made it all the way to "Devil's bathtub" where there is typically a LARGE waterfall into a tub area. But we were told that spring that feeds the tub is usually dried up by April. Sam had seen it and I have seen pictures, but at least we have a good reason to go back now.
After visiting the bathtub, we came back down to a large pool area with several "natural" water slides where we played around for about 2 hours. It was wonderful, we had the whole place to ourselves, and the view is amazing between the walls of rock on both sides. Our packed lunch sandwiches were amazing, as all food tastes after over 2 hours of hiking. And that water was FREEZING! Probably won't happen much more, but they let dear old dad stroll out to the waterfall first and made sure I didn't die under the waterfall, before they both went into it as well. Davis found one rock that he stood on then took one wrong step and went completely under...haha, but he loved it...once he got his breath.
After drying off and a change of clothes, we decided to take the creek back instead of the trail for about 1/2 mile. And there were portions near the first of this decision that made that amazing, feeling the icey cold water on our feet, enjoying the shade...but then the creekbed became a series of rocks to climb over without falling into knee deep pools of water. Haha, still a fun time, but I started wishing for the trail, and Davis with his flip flops was probably also thinking the same thing. At one point I slipped and fell almost over...my hiking boot came out of my pack, over my head and landed perfectly on a rock...just inches from going into a large pool of water. Sam called out about how lucky I was...yep, I did not want to start the hike back up with wet boots.
Then finally we were back on the trail (after drying our feet off and getting our boots back on). And this is where we saw that Sam's recent work on his personal fitness merit badge put him in a different class of uphill climber than me and Davis. He did good and stopped at places we needed a rest, then we found a "shortcut", which basically was almost a 45 degree climb up the last mile of our journey. Me and Davis took baby steps while Sam went ahead making sure we were following the path ok, and at one time, we looked up to see Sam in the treetops...or at least it appeared that way...but finally we found the trail very near the top. And then we took our picture next to the Walls of Jericho sign at the top...and I included both pictures...the first one is Sam smiling at the camera, the next is him realizing in confusion that he had forgotten his scout hat 1 mile down the trail at one of our stops. So off he ran back down to get it...this was one of those moments I realized that only a few years back, I would have told them to wait while I went back down to get it, but glad I did not have to this time. And the next picture after those below is Sam with a busted up knee (he said he tripped running down the trail)...And his hat, he found it right where he remembered leaving it.
Afterwards I wanted a real supper, so we got in the car and drove about 10 miles down the road to RnJ Café, and had some cheeseburgers. I think Sam got their BBQ and Davis their philly cheese. Back at the campsite, we played hearts and talked about all our previous scouting adventures. I shared pictures from the blogs. They told me funny things that Cole Anderson had said "I guess I am not that Aerodynamic", and I shared with them funny things he said..."Mr. Scott, those trees are growing into the water". Fun to sit and laugh at all our camping memories. We played one last game of KanJam, and I had won the game against Davis 21 to 18, and they needed to get it into the bucket to tie and go into sudden death. Sam had the last thro on Davis' team and as I was trying to tell Davis to knock it in, and it was so dark we couldn't really even see the Frisbee, Sam thru it right into the instant winner slot...and game over. High fives all around. What a way to end it. That night we played hearts before going to bed.
The next day on our way back home, we stopped at the Space and Rocket Center and visited our first "attraction" since the COVID quarantine. We wore our masks, but were probably in the minority. Afterwards we took some "space monkeys" to Bella and Ellie, and visited with them a bit. I had never seen John's house before. After visiting with Granny for a bit, we later met Magan and the girls in Cullman for a Mexican home made popsicle. The girls had spent the night with Marcia, and I included some of them being silly below while we were camping. I hope to get back to the Walls of Jericho again sometime, but glad we decided to add this to our scouting trips. As I get older, I can see the time I have with them like this slipping towards the end...I remember leading them down many many trails, but now I must say I love to see them marching ahead of me. They know the right path ahead, they are not afraid of a challenging path uphill, they stop and wait for the older slower old man, and they don't hesitate to go back and find something that was lost. And maybe one day as they read this, they will remember...this old man was the first into the waterfall. :)
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