Rainy Day

It started raining soon after Jim and Diane drove out last night and it was still raining late this morning when we walked around the campground.  I noted how the potholes really stand out when they are full of water.  I call this spot "unavoidable".  There is no way to miss them.  They are deep too.

This one in front of the dumpster is also unavoidable, but it is not as deep.

I liked the way the headlights of this car seemed so bright on the dark and rainy campground road.

After our campground tour (four sites occupied in the pouring rain) we heard whoops in the woods across Big Creek as we walked to the bridge.  Then a family appeared.  They had finished a three-day loop hike around Big Creek.  They were all soaking wet and happy at the prospect of drying out.

We were surprised to see a ranger truck come down the drive in the afternoon.  We don't see rangers around here that often.  This time, it was Jeff Duckett who is a new ranger to us.  He came in to say hello for a few minutes.  He told us he has worked in Yellowstone and Big Bend national parks.

This may not be the most flattering picture I took of him, but I love the expression on his face.

Later, we got some company I was expecting.  Shannon Woolfolk has appeared in the Big Creek Journal for several years now.  We first me her when she was a grad student at Maryville College and bringing busloads of college kids to big creek on weekend outings.  They would white-water raft on the Pigeon River and camp here in the group site.  Now she is a resource protection park ranger at Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina.  She likes her job but misses the mountains.  She had come here for the weekend for an organized mountain bike ride.

I offered her some coffee that had been in the pot too long. I hope that does not prevent her from coming to visit us in the future. I tried to make amends by giving her one of my Costco nut bars to eat on the road.

Spence and Linda arrived while Shannon was visiting so she got to hear some Spence stories.

We had a few more sites occupied in the afternoon despite the rain. Here is a comfy camper in Site 8.

I have been looking for these guys for several days. They have camped here in Big Creek every year, the week before Memorial Day, for thirty years now.  This is the advance contingent; several more we be here later. I don't remember their names.  I took several pictures of their ribs hanging over the campfire.  The guys wondered if they were in the picture at all. We'll enjoy the lively banter with them this week.

I checked to see if the spider was still on the tree.  That's OK as long as she stays on the other side of the horse trail.

It's been a quiet rainy day here in Big Creek.  Elsewhere in the park, vehicles were running off the roads. There were two incidents overlapping this afternoon.  The first vehicle was near the road and down a deep bank.  A tow truck was called to pull the car up the bank.  The second vehicle was on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and was farther off the road.  The driver had a cut on his hand.   The in-route ranger asked dispatch to find out which rental company owned it because those companies generally come tow the vehicles themselves. A few minutes later (after she called the reporting party) she responded with "Mountain Life Adventure".  I looked that up and found that they rent UTVs and Slingshots (these things). The tow truck company retrieved the vehicle from the trees and boulders.