Now that's what I call an adventure!!!!!

I got up early this morning to meet up with the new group for the hike today...
Only 8 people showed up..6 women and 2 men...Bruce our leader said that 18 had signed up and by 8 oclock yesterday 6 of the men had cancelled for one reason or the other...we had 4 no shows this morning...so it was a very small group that got into 3 vehicles and headed North to Walhalla SC. I rode with 2 other women, Cindy (in her 40's) who hikes with my other group (the FunHikes) and Dana (in her 20's) this was her first time hiking with any group..they were both nice. We had a nice time getting aquainted on the 2 hr drive to the trail (Dana drove)...
When we got to the trail, everyone (but me) sprayed down with bug spray and we headed out on our 4 hr hike (LOL) unaware of how much of adventure it would turn out to be...
The first part of the hike went smooth, we hiked about 2 miles to a waterfall. It was really beautiful...We took a 15-20 min break there and then we headed back up the trail to go to some rapids and another waterfall...
We had been hiking for about another hour and as will happen we had split up into 2 groups. Bruce, David, Cindy & I were about 200 feet ahead of the other 4 (Dana, Michelle, Dusty & Karen)...when all of a sudden we heard screaming...we rushed back to see what the matter was...all of the girls were screaming and beating on themselves...They had disturbed a nest of Yellow Jackets and were covered with them...we got them up the trail and all the yellow jackets off and were treating them for multiple stings ...We were discussing how we were going to have to come back that way after we got to the waterfall..so Karen decided to mark the trail so we would know where it was by putting a big rock on an old log...well, when she did this she disturbed another nest of Yellow Jackets...altho this swarm wasn't as big as the last it still swarmed over every one...we finally got everyone moved down the trail some more and all of the bees beat off from everyone and took a look at who had been stung...Every one had a least one or more stings (Michelle got it the worst) EXCEPT ME...I had not had one yellow jacket land on me the whole time altho I was in the middle and helping beat off the bees off from Karen & Michelle..Weird....
After a break to treat everyone again and to get Karen calmed down we started off again....We climbed up and had probably gone another mile or two when Michelle lost her footing and fell off the edge of the trail...she slid down the side of the hill for about 50 feet...we got her back up and she was alright except for a bruise on her knee...but she was a real trooper and after a short rest was ready to go on. We climbed up and down some pretty steep trails until we saw the rapids...we had to climb down these wet slippery rocks to get to where we were going to have lunch....I took a spill and ended up on my butt not once but twice, the last time twisting my ankle under me...We ate our lunch there. .. The guys still wanted to go to the waterfall altho Bruce (who had been there before) said it was a pretty rough climb...so all of the girls decided to wait at the rapids while the guys did went on to the waterfall... by the time they came back we were into our 4th hour on our 4 hour hike and we still had to go back thro the yellow jackets (which no one was looking forward too)....
My ankle was sore but really only hurt me when I put my foot down a certain way, which slowed me down considerably...Michelle was having alot of pain from her stings and her bruised knee (from her fall) ..so we told everyone to go ahead and we would catch up with them when they stopped to rest before the spot where the bees were...It was slow but not impossible ...finally we caught up at the meeting place...and forged forward..we got thru the spot where Karen had put the rock on the log with no site of any bees...and thought we had made it thru the second area when all of a sudden behind me Dusty Yelps loud and I see Bruce in front of me start slapping at his legs...yep they had found us again...we just kept moving as fast as we could till we got our of their range....and started beating off the bees that were still on on Michelle, Dusty and Bruce...both Michelle and Bruce had bees going UP their shorts..And ME???? Not a single bee landed on me....and again I was in the middle....after much discussion about this we came to the conclusion it had to be because I didn't spray myself with the bug spray...either that or I am a freak of nature who Yellow Jackets don't like to land on LOL....
We were walking and saying how the worst was over when it started to RAIN...HARD...It got really dark and was pouring..poor Michelle wears glasses and can't see a thing without them and couldn't see anything with them. We were all drenched but didn't want to stop and try to wait it out sooo we kept going....Then all of a sudden we hear a big dog start barking across the way....and I swear I heard a gun shot....We all look at each other and in one voice we all said "DELIVERANCE"... I swear to God this really happened....needless to say we all cracked up and started to make jokes about the whole day...by the time we limped back to the cars we had been on the trail for over 7 hrs....and we looked it..I was one big mud pile..my white shirt no longer white....luckily I took a change of clothes (we were supposed to go out and eat after the hike) which I changed in the outhouse from hell...another story for another time....
So I left the house this morning around 7:15 and got home around 9 pm tonight...needless to say the first thing I did was grab a shower...and now I'm ready for bed...I think I'll probably sleep really well tonight....