Crozet Tunnel

Even with all the organizing going on, we still managed to get in our Friday hike!  The kids had all gotten headlamps in their stockings in preparation for...  the Crozet Tunnel!  It's an old railroad tunnel that was built in the 1850s and was quite the engineering feat in its day!  Craig wanted to do this hike, too, so I scheduled it for later in the afternoon and he was able to duck out of work a bit early.  We also had Ginna and her two girls, Adam, and Olivia and Oscar, friends of Kendra and Ryder's.  So our van was full!

All these people coming also made me very nervous.  I was worried the weather would be bad.  That we wouldn't be able to find it.  That we'd park on the wrong (and longer hike) end of it.  That the parking lot would be full...  So many things that could go wrong when I had all these extra people hoping for a fun afternoon!

But we found it without any trouble, and there were two spots left in the lot.  It did start raining the SECOND we got out of the car.  But it didn't rain that hard and we managed.  And once we got to the tunnel, the rain didn't matter anyway (although the tunnel was also very drippy and wet the whole way through)!

Adam snapped a picture of the whole group before we entered the tunnel

And here we are about three-quarters of a mile away exiting out on the other side!

These rocks are NUTS

Kendra and I love moss growing on rocks, so this was fun and pretty!

Ginna got this as we arrived back at the other end again-- such a gorgeous shot!

It was a fun hike and I was so glad everything went so smoothly!  I'd prepared well, and had dinner in the crock pot all hot and ready for us when we got home, so that was a perfect ending to a great day!

Yay, hiking club!