PA Grand Canyon Trip

Last year we started a yearly tradition for our family and youth group at church.  The teens are given a passage of Scripture to memorize and if they do that and their devotions regularly, they're rewarded with a over night camping trip.  Our younger boys get to stay with a family from church.  Our boys don't do sleep overs so this is a huge thing for them.  The family they stay with has 5 girls and one boy Silas' age.  The younger boys look  forward to this and the older boys love the time together camping.

This year the teens worked on John 15.  Our 3 boys and 3 girls learned it and one of the girl's father came too.  So this year we had 9 of us. 

Monday, we met at church in the early afternoon.  We loaded our camping gear and our bikes. In the gorge of the canyon is a nice biking path.  It was a railroad track years ago.    First thing we did was set up our tents and get set up.  Then we rode our bikes over to the top of the gorge.  Our camp ground is right at the top of the mountain.  We love it!  We can hop on our bikes, ride to the top, park our bikes and hike down in.  It was a rather cool day for summer.  The week before would of been terrible--high heat with much humidity!  Yuck!  So it was perfect.  

When we got to the bottom, I couldn't resist getting into the little river at the bottom.  I just love the water!

Then we hiked back up (what a work out!!!)  Mark and I started chatting with a couple along the path.  They hike it together every day!  WOW!  They told us of another hiking path with great water falls.  It was our goal to find it the next day at the end of our bike hike in the gorge.

Once we all got back to our site, we loaded up into the van and went to Wellsboro.  It's a cute little town.  We made eating at a diner there another tradition.  The guys all had breakfast for supper.  I had a burger,, it was super yummy! :)    Then we went to a mini-golf course.  Brendan won that! 

Back at the site, we played games by lantern light.  Mark took the challenge of getting the fire going with wet wood.  He did a good job!  He and Mr Dense (the father who came along) sat by the fire and talked while we played Uno Spin. 

The girls giggled and giggled all night.  When they finally quieted down, I had to go to the bathroom.  So I snuck out.  I was going past a big camper and heard a growling sound.  I assumed, the camper must of had a dog in it!  It scared me though.   I rushed back to our tent and tried to get some sleep.  It was SO cold so I was struggling to stay warm.  Hard to believe in July!

Them men made us yummy French toast and sausage for breakfast and then we headed down to the gorge with our bikes.  We started our 7.5 mile ride.  At the end, we found the path the couple had told us about.  We parked our bikes hiked along a little stream that ran into the river.  We found two water falls.  Mark and Brendan swam in the pool in the bottom.  The comment was how COLD it was! 

We hiked back to the biking trail and our bikes and pedaled the 7.5 miles back.  We stopped half way and waded into the river.  (The same spot I had the night before which is also the bottom of the path we had hiked the night before.)  Jordan, Brendan, and two of the girls got in with me.  The girls ended up being washed down a bit and Jordan and Brendan laid in the river with the water pulling them down.  It was SUPER fun!  I just sat in the water on a rock!  What FUN memories!!

We finished our ride and loaded back up and went to our site.  We quickly ate lunch and took down our tents.  On our ride back, Mark stopped for ice cream.  That was the last hurrah for our trip!  What fun it was!

We met back at church, dropped off the teens and went to get our younger boys.  Titus cried and cried about leaving them!  And to think I was "nervous" about leaving him! 

Added note: In the morning,  I asked the man in the camper if he had a dog.  He said he didn't and it must of been a bear or coyote making that noise!  Yikes,, glad I didn't see it!!!