Yes, We Are...

CRAZY that is. Mr. Grubbs and I have been living in the wilderness for the past 2 days. The two coldest days in Georgia in a long time! Friday night we headed out with two friends to the Cohutta Wilderness in North Georgia. We arrived at the Beech Bottom trail head at around 10pm that night in about 10° F. It was FREEZING!!! But we were determined to brave the cold and make it to Jack's River and set up camp. It was a cold hike and we had to cross the river a couple times. Once we had about a 5-6 foot jump from rock to rock in order to make it across but we did it and made it to camp. Things didn't start off too good because we couldn't get a fire started but eventually we got a small one but by the time we had our tents up it was out so we went to bed. It was 1:30am and 8°F.

{ Our fire that didn't last long...}

The Saturday morning we awoke wide-eyed and ready for the day after a long night of sleeping in blistering cold in our Zero Degree sleeping bags. (mine is actually -5 degrees, Mr. Grubbs is very jealous of that)  When I crawled out of the tent the fire was a roaring thanks to the guys. We had breakfast and started hunting for more firewood. 

{Our camp site and tent}

{What kept us warm and cozy!}

{We camped right next to the river.}

{Mr. Grubbs trying to break through the ice for water for hot tea and cocoa to keep us warm.}

{MMmmm...}

For lunch we decided to have a scenic picnic, so we hiked down to the Jack's River Falls. It was about 10 minutes from our camp site. The river was beautifully adorned with ice and snow from the cold weather. We set up our lunch on the rocks of the top waterfall. We couldn't get down to see the larger fall because of ice. It was amazing. And thank goodness it was now where near as cold as the previous night, but it was still below freezing.

{ The heat to cook the soup.}

{The soup}

After lunch we headed back to camp for some down time. Most of the night was spent talking and huddling around the fire. Which was then accented with some snow and sleet later in the night. We headed to bed and eagerly awaited the morning to hike home. It rained while we were sleeping so we didn't have a fire to warm us up before the hike, so we packed up and hiked out. It was an amazing trip. The cold wasn't as bad as we had anticipated, so it was very enjoyable. To see such beautiful land and to know that I was able to jump over freezing rivers, climb a mountain, and hike about 10 miles in 2 days, makes a very fulfilling weekend. We will definitely be doing it again soon.

© The Simple Wife