Hiking back to camp

 After lunch we were well rested and were on our way back down the mountain to our campsite. Like last year we went back down the AT and down on Lower Mt. Cammerer. 

 This part of the AT even though it was going down is pretty rocky and is one of the more challenging parts of the trail. Both Eric and myself were pretty surprised how fast we made it down to the split. It seemed we were making much better time this time around and so far we both still had a good amount of energy left. 

 When we took the turn off to Lower Mt. Cammerer we were happy to be on pretty level ground for the most part. It really is a nice trail and this time because we weren't as exhausted trying to just make it back, we were able to enjoy the site more. We were not sure if we just didn't see this nice little waterfall or if it wasn't here last year. But it was a nice little site : )

 Toward the last mile or so left back to Cosby there is this outlook. Last year there was debate on whether or not we wanted to go up and see it. But I was pretty much at the end of my tank and Olivia was about done with the carrier we decided against it. This year we were still doing good and we didn't have Livvy so we went ahead and did the extra 400 yards. 

 This was the only bridge out that we came across. And this is pretty much were the campground starts, so it was at the very end of the hike. The picture doesn't make it look too bad but with the rain and just having hiked 16 miles we just wanted to get across safe so we could get back to camp and relax. 

We did find a stop that wasn't too deep and not a lot of rapids and thankfully we both may it across, and we found the bridge on the other side just lying there. Hopefully it got out back up ;) 

We got back in much better time this year and still had about 2 hours of light. We wanted something hot and filling. It had started to raining again when we were at the outlook but by the time we made it back to camp it had stopped again. But we were a little wet and pretty hungry after being out on the trail all day. We went with a one pot type of meal and did shepherds pie in the dutch oven. It was great and tasted really good!

We thought we both deserved a treat so we went with s'more panini's and hot chocolate for our evening treat. After a long day of hiking it was nice to sit back and relax and enjoy the time outdoors. Thankfully it didn't rain anymore and we had a dry and quiet night : )