The Virginia Highlands

With a large group heading to set up camp at Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, we realized Jeff had reserved the Gazebo picnic area, not the camp sites. It would have been a great 3-days of cake, but we needed to set up about 10 tents; and it was a busy holiday weekend in the woods. We piled into a couple of small sites and tragedy was narrowly averted.
Erin and I knew it would be tough with a 7-week old. Macie enjoyed being in the woods and being around all the happy people. The first night was tough on Erin, since I was over-served and slept tight. She struggled tending to Macie with the constraints of camping.
We spent Sunday biking, hiking and made a trip to town for ice cream. After dinner we pulled a red eye back to Knoxville.
Our only regret was not being able to go with the group on the Virgina Creeper trail ride. Since Macie is still too young for a bike ride, we opted for an awesome hike on Whitetop Mountain.
We are already looking forward to a return to Damascus. The mountains are beautiful, and the town was full of bikes. Hundreds, maybe thousands of bikes filled the small town.