A Camp Out and the Shut Ins

October 10, 2015 - We went on a camping trip with friends over the weekend, and after a great evening spent talking and singing around the campfire, we woke up the next morning.  

Well, actually I'm not sure if I ever woke up, but that's beside the point.

Wow, look at these three happy people!  Looks like they slept well.

After some breakfast and talk around the campfire we headed to Johnson Shut Ins:

So, what is a "shut in?" 

I'm so glad that you asked.

shut-in

The term "shut-in" refers to a place where the river's breadth is limited by hard rock that is resistant to erosion. In these shut-ins, the river cascades in many rivulets over and around igneous rocks worn smooth over time.

Thanks, wikipedia.

I always want to make sure that you learn something from these blog posts. 

From the meaning of "spurious" to why people would want to wear a kilt to the difference between inertia and centrifugal force, you're mental horizons will always be challenged to broaden here at GTC. ;)

Okay, you know what a shut-in is, and I'll shut-↑ and we'll continue...

Where's Waldo?

(it may be easier to find him in the full size image)

Those days went you get stuck between a rock and a hard place

Those are some pretty epic surroundings

Ah, so Matthew's pointing again

These little guys were quite the climbers - you really don't want to know how high up this rock was!

Trudging back to the car sopping wet

Shh...I totally stole this group photo from the Niednagels

Hiking in NC (2/3)

October 30, 2013 – (Continued from Part 1) We’re in North Carolina for the NCFIC “Worship of God” Conference and today we’re hiking with church friends at some of the waterfalls of NC.

Driving to the next state park

Arm wrestling was a common occurrence throughout this trip!

We start off on one of the trails. 

(Take note that the fork initially forks into two directions…this became important later in the day when we lost track of one of our hikers and had to do form a mini-search party.)

Pictures taken along the trail:

Take a look at all of those rock layers…

….laid down by water…all over the earth.

[Cue “Billions of Dead Things” by Buddy Davis]

The texture of the rock was so amazing…

We got off of the trail and ended up climbing into a gorge.

The rocks were very slippery and wet, which made it very difficult to climb out of the ravine.

Check out Part III!

Noah’s Trial Smelter

   After seeing how one of our friends smelted iron in his own clay furnace, Noah tried making a similar one just to see how it worked.  The air piped into the furnace from the pump keeps the fire very, very hot.